If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: Camille relives a recent tragedy as she struggles to piece together the murders in Wind Gap. Richard grows frustrated with Chief Vickery’s assumptions regarding potential suspects. A defiant Amma shows off her wild side to Camille, while Adora admonishes Camille for meddling in the investigation and a town in mourning. (HBO)
Writer: Alex Metcalf
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 53mins
Airs: Sundays at 9pm on HBO Canada (Canada)/HBO (United States)
If it wasn’t for Amma, this would have been a much better episode. There were still plenty of good here but her presence here was definitely a drag to say the least. While little headway was made in this episode, it saw Preaker and Richard get closer as we all knew they eventually would.
As mentioned, Amma played a major role in this episode for no other reason to be incredibly annoying. Being a rebellious teen, it seemed like she was in a competition with Preaker for who could be the most wild as we know that Preaker was the same when she was younger. Or maybe this was just a way to anger Adora? So she was being wild here, disrespecting her parents, drinking, and staying out past curfew. Amma considered she and Preaker kindred spirits and took the opportunity to get closer to her sister in the most awkward way possible after returning home drunk. Unlike her older sister, Amma still has plenty of growing up to do.
One of the few bright spots of the episode was a series of flashback scenes of Preaker admitting herself into an institution because of self-harming herself. We’ve seen the scars but now we kind of knew where they came from. The episode title also happens to match something that she cut into her own arm. Going back to Amma these scenes also featured a younger woman for whom Preaker shared a room with there who just happened to be similar to Amma. She gave her some much needed advice.
Richard and Vickery disagreed about suspects, leaving Richard a little frustrated. His out of town opinions weren’t connecting with the rest of town. Meanwhile, Preaker continued her own investigation, finally getting to speak to the brother of one of the murdered girls, a shaken John Keene (Taylor John Smith). Richard did not want to talk to her about the case. She still faced pushback by Vickery and also her mother while attempting to talk to Bob Nash again. Preaker was visibly upset with this so she took it upon herself to follow Amma to her family’s farm and finding her doing something completely innocent.
Being her irrational self, Adora warned Amma to stay from Preaker which obviously wasn’t going to happen. She continued to take Preaker’s actions incredibly personally, even blaming her for things she didn’t do. She was worried that Amma would be safe in the same house as Preaker. It was late so instead of staying home and going to sleep like she told Amma to do, Preaker went to the bar and found Richard there. He was more willing to open up to her and wanted her help. They left to drink elsewhere but of course Amma and her friends make an appearance.
Preaker decided to drive back alone. We were treated to end of the flashback scenes where her friend at the institution slit her wrists with a rose that she received as a gift from her mother. Seeing this led her to slit her own wrists. In all that confusion, Preaker stopped herself from leaving Wind Gap.
Overall, this was a decent episode with some good moments with Preaker and Richard. The acting continues to be great for the most part but this episode dragged and didn’t seem to go anywhere in terms of the case and was brought down by Amma who was simply insufferable here in every way. While there’s plenty of greatness here, the lack of progress is starting to become unsettling. Either way, this is only one episode and it isn’t quite the time to worry considering all involved. Let’s see what happens next week.
Score: 6.5/10
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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.