An intense episode, one that hinges on the classic “in the face of supernatural mysteries and horrors, there’s no match on the evil wrought by humanity to one another” trope. Much like Gilead responds to a global fertility crisis by creating a sub-class of religiously-“justified” sex slaves and survivors of a zombie apocalypse brutalize other survivors in their clash over scarce resources, a very human crime is at the center of this episode, one largely divorced from the bigger crisis of the disappearance of 2% of the world’s population (episode premise spoilers.)
After the G.R. pulls a deeply-personal violating stunt on their neighbors, the retaliation is devastating. A G.R. member is abducted, and her body is discovered in the woods after her brutal murder. Kevin’s attempt to investigate the crime is hampered by ATF interference, and his attempt to keep the peace in town is hampered by the town’s resistance to the idea that someone attacking G.R. members is anything they should have to worry about.
For the most part, this is a pretty interesting episode, although it’s difficult to watch in places. The inciting hate crime at the start of the episode literally goes full Old-Testament in its violence, as a woman is grabbed off the street, bound to a tree, and stoned to death, oh my god. It’s also rough to see so many people’s “eh – good riddance” reaction to the murder. That said, the interpersonal dynamics it teases out between the G.R. and the rest of the town are really good, and I like to see Kevin approaching the G.R. with a little more understanding for once. He and Patti, the G.R. leader played by Ann Dowd, are actually on the same side about something, and I appreciate seeing him try to protect G.R. members from further attacks in a way that makes allowances for their beliefs, even if he doesn’t understand or agree with them.
But I have to say, Kevin is still a frustrating character for me. There are times, like we see here, where he’s a beleaguered man just trying to do his job and keep people safe the best he can, but the increasingly-unhinged behavior we’ve been getting from him over the course of the season doesn’t really land for me. Pretty much every episode, there’s a scene of him waking up to something unexpected (the house alarm is turned off, something is broken, personal items are missing, etc.), and the show has been teasing what’s going on. Is there something supernatural or otherwise explained going on? Is someone messing with him to make him think he’s losing his mind? Is he sleepwalking, or getting blackout drunk, or unraveling? It remains to be seen, but his response to these bizarre stressors is generally to lash out aggressively and do incredibly-reckless things. I mean, I do not need to see the police chief try to pull his gun on someone when he’s drunk and off-duty, or erratically threatening a dry cleaner after-hours because his good shirts have gone missing. I get that Kevin is dealing with his issues badly, but as someone who has a lot of power and authority in the town, he’s putting citizens in danger by not addressing what’s going on with him.
Some good scenes for Christopher Eccleston this week. Matt is a suspect in the murder due to previous run-ins he’s had with the G.R., and I like seeing the compassion he demonstrates, both to the murdered woman and to the community who’s lost her. Despite their less-than-pleasant history together, Matt tries to offer comfort and sympathy in whatever small way he can, and it leads to a really well-executed ending scene.
Plus, placing him in Kevin’s crosshairs during the investigation gives us an awesome moment where Matt witnesses Kevin completely unloading on someone over the phone in a fit of aggravation. After listening to Kevin and rant and swear into his phone, Matt just smiles and offers up, “I say ‘fuck’ sometimes too,” in the most wholesome way imaginable. Great delivery there by Eccleston – he’s such a treasure.
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