If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: Rebuffed by Ramon, Farid finds his growing obsessions disrupting his career and his marriage. After Audrey turns the tables on her husband, Greg, he makes a vivid point about life’s meaning during a lecture. Ramon and Duc turn to Carmen for clarity during difficult times. Ashley is unsettled by a boutique interloper. Kristen and Navid plot their revenge on Madison and her pals. (HBO)
Writer: Nancy Oliver
Director: Janicza Bravo
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 52mins
Airs: Sundays at 9pm on HBO Canada (Canada)/HBO (United States)
Yet again, another somewhat compelling episode to watch but the lack of progression is concerning.
The episode started with a fed up Ramon who just wanted to be left alone and left to go back to his appartment. Ashley later visited with a gift for Audrey. Shokrani saw Ramon on his bicycle while driving and decided to follow him to a store. He was taken away by a swarm of butterflies but it was all just a dream. Audrey called him to request a meeting.
Greg went through adoption records to learn more about Ramon. He called Duc to tell him that he was going to see Carmen. She got him pretty quickly, feeling the energy about him. She believed that he may have had a near-death experience and was connected to something that ran through his birth family. They discussed his dreams and their purpose. He didn’t know what the symbols he kept seeing meant. She suggested he take up meditation.
Duc was having trouble with his colitis and having to take medication for it. He called Carmen to invite her to go hiking. While they were hiking, he started to not feel well. She was very understanding of his condition and didn’t think less of him because of it. He accidentally fell down a hill and hurt his foot, sending him to the hospital.
Shokrani met with Audrey and shared that his hallucinations made hold the key to unlocking repressed trauma from his childhood or infancy. She ultimately didn’t agree with him about Ramon and did not want him to see her son anymore. Audrey’s program was also accepted into more school districts. Steven invited her to dinner which became more.
Ashley had an argument with someone who posted a Black Lives Matter poster in her store without her permission. After her self-defense class, she and her friends went to a shooting range.
Kristen and Navid put a plan in motion to get revenge on their highschool’s mean girls which brought them even closer together.
Greg showed up at Ramon’s appartment to invite him to dinner but he was busy entertaining a man he picked up at a bookstore. Ashley and Kristen were the only ones to show up for Greg’s dinner. He continued to look into Ramon’s orphanage. When Audrey returned, she told him the truth about what happened with Steve. He then made a scene while lecturing his class to prove a point, however, it just got him in trouble.
When Shokrani took his wife to dinner, he became upset when his wife was asked to take her headscarf off to protect the other restaurant patrons. Later, he volunteered to go to the store from his dream to pick up groceries for his uncle Amir. At the store, he was given a box of junk that his uncle had left behind as he and his uncle used to live upstairs. In the box was an old phone that triggered a memory of his time with his uncle. An answering machine message of his mother got him emotional.
While Ramon and Duc were laying outside and looking at the stars, they both felt the ground shake.
Overall, this was another decent episode showing each of the characters in their element but the convoluted nature and the lack of progression this far into the season is concerning. We are not that much further along from where we started and its message often gets lost. While it is still somewhat compelling to watch, it hasn’t amounted to much. It may very well do so but it’s looking less and less likely.
Score: 7.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
