I have a lot of mixed feelings about this episode—in part because last one was SO good, and this one left me dissatisfied in a lot of ways. So let’s hit the stuff that made me cranky, and then we’ll circle back to the few good things that keep me hanging on.
CLAIRE. Oh my God, I wanted to slap Claire in the face repeatedly throughout this. They know Carroll’s people are coming for her, she knows his people have her son. What she SHOULD have done was get some fancy tracking device and go willing from the get-go so the FBI would have at least some sort of idea where to narrow down the location of the compound.
But NOOOOOO. Claire is on the run with Hardy, who can’t keep his head on straight when she’s around. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I dislike them as a couple because she makes him weak and stupid. He put her above all others, which isn’t a terrible thing in an actual relationship, but is kind of crappy in the middle of a situation where countless people are in danger of being sliced up or shot with spear guns or lit on fire.
When they tossed their phones and went off the grid, I actually had some hope. “This will be great. They’ll figure out a way to change the formula that they’ve fallen back on for so many episodes.”
Not so much.
I was pretty excited to see Batista from Dexter as the FBI agent in witness protection (though… How the hell did Hardy know where he was? Isn’t the whole idea of witness protection to cut all ties from your past? But… I digress). Tyson has a very calming presence, which I enjoyed during the flashbacks and while he’s chatting up Claire. And then things went down the drain. What do you mean there’s a tracking device? Shouldn’t this be something they searched for initially? SEE. Claire, making Hardy stupid again. But it doesn’t stop there.
The entire sequence of events, from when they know an attack is coming to the end of the episode, should have had me on the edge of my seat. I mean, they’re surrounded (maybe) and people with guns are coming to take Claire. Instead, I was throwing up my hands in aggravation. Instead of wandering the house, Hardy should have posted up somewhere and waited for the people to come to him.
AND CLAIRE. GOD. Ms. “I heard a gunshot so I’m going to wander downstairs in the dark and muck up everything.” What the hell was she thinking? And then, after Tyson is shot in the damn stomach, she wanders off AGAIN—Put pressure on the wound? WHO DOES THAT?(granted, I’m not a doctor, so forgive me if you aren’t supposed to put pressure on a bleeding stomach wound). And then she just flounces into the car and drives away, leaving Hardy to once again fail.
So my question? Why the hell didn’t she do that in the first place? It’s like Roderick said they have Joey, and she suddenly remembered that they do, in fact, have Joey. So basically Tyson got shot for no reason, because she’s an idiot and Hardy doesn’t have his head on straight when he’s around her. Awesome.
The whole Joey-Carroll thing leaves me feeling… I’m not really sure. I don’t hate it, but I don’t really love it either. I think Carroll genuinely cares for his son (something I wasn’t sure of before), but I’m not sure how I feel about him manipulating Joey into opening up. This is one of those wait-and-see things.
Also, if Hardy (or Tyson) had shot and killed Roderick, I would have washed my hands of this show. That’s how much I love Roderick.
Now on to the good stuff. JACOB. Who would have thought, right? But I cannot describe how delighted I was by his initially blowing off Emma and how he was hallucinating Paul. If he’d killed his best friend and then waltzed on with life, it would have rang flat. I love that he’s being tortured by it and it’s hardening him. THIS man will be someone to reckon with once he settles into his new skin—and I don’t know that he’ll be on Carroll’s side. He seems to have already lost some of his illusions when their leader is concerned.
And Emma thinking she can just hop back into bed with him and fix everything… Honestly, that bit was disappointing. Her character isn’t an idiot, and she’s better than that. But whatever. Moving right along.
When Jacob came out of the bathroom after his borderline-meltdown and then let Emma know exactly how much danger she was in? LOVED that. The look on her face was priceless! So very much hoping that they draw this out further.
One last nitpicky thing. I understand they have to promo this show. I get it. It’s good business. That said, I’d be a lot more SHOCK! and WOW! if they didn’t give away all the details in the teasers for next episodes.
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Katee Robert is the New York Times bestselling author of the Come Undone series. She is zombie-prepared.
I wanted to like this series, (Kevin Bacon) 🙂 Unfortunatly I find the writing and plots to be idiotic, annoying at best. I hate the Emma character, Claires a moron, Joey doesn’t run to the police? To Hardy!?? Nope don’t buy that one , and the fact that a house full of pychos can function as well as an Army? Don’t think so. And how was the recruiting done ? Oh yeah with prison visits, ha, like the prison wouldn’t have a serial killers visits taped and video taped. Oh well guess I’ll finish watching this drivel, I mean series 5 episoids left?
I am SO glad I wasn’t the only person absolutely incensed by Claire this episode. Granted, I’ve hated her since the flashback where she pressured Hardy to open up about his family, but when Tyson got shot, I yelled at the screen, “If you got Batista killed, I hope you die a terrible, terrible death, Claire!” We know Emma’s a psycho (and can I add that Valorie Curry’s body language is perfect throughout, even when she’s dealing with subpar dialogue) so we don’t have to root for her, but it’s nauseating to think that the show wants us to care about Claire when she’s so perfectly awful.
Speaking of Emma, I think her ego was put into a tailspin by Joe’s rejection, so she thought she could reaffirm her sexuality by using it to manipulate Jacob, since he’s always proven himself to be “more simple” than any of the other members of the cult. It made me super sad when he hallucinated stabbing Paul, btw. I’m hoping that he comes into his psychotic own and engineers a takedown of Carroll. He can be a serial killer killer (and recruit Tyson/Batista somehow? Idk.) Regardless, I loved his interactions w Joey.
Was also glad to see more Parker but sad there wasn’t more/any Weston. Can’t wait for him to recover and come back to the team!