A middling episode for me. There are season arcs and then there are ruts, and I think the show might be in a bit of a rut. Several major characters feel like they’re just in holding patterns, which isn’t as exciting to watch.
Otis’s dad is in town, taking Otis and Eric on a camping trip that leaves certain things to be desired. Maeve feels trapped when her mom asks her to come to an NA meeting, but the experience gives her the chance to see another character in a new light. Aimee struggles with her inability to ride the bus, and Jackson does Viv a solid in exchange for her help with the play.
There are actually a couple more plots going on in the episode beyond what’s in the summary—it’s not full-on Game of Thrones, “have one to two scenes to catch up with each segmented cluster of characters,” but there’s a lot going on. However, some things feel repetitive, like we aren’t gaining any new ground, and some, like Maeve’s interactions with Isaac, leave me disinclined to get invested, since it’s clear where things are ultimately going to go on that front.
Still, that’s not to say there are no points of interest. Jackson and Viv’s plot is a lot of fun. Even though the tropes that are being laid out here are obvious, the characters work so well together and are really entertaining. Maeve and Isaac have a nice conversation about dealing with addicts, discussing whether it’s worth ever hoping for change. Jean gets frazzled by Jakob’s disruptions while she’s giving a vagina workshop, which involves a great exchange where a participant oh-so-subtly asks whether a “bike” that’s been “sitting in the garden for six years” will get “rusty.” Jean, with her textbook directness asks, “Is the bike in question your vagina?”, leaving the participant to sheepishly mumble, “Yes, it is.”
Oh, and we see characters modeling affirmative consent even in a sex dream, so that’s cool.
The main camping-trip plot is decent. Again, things are fairly obvious—no surprise that Otis camps fastidiously by-the-book and his free-wheeling improvisational dad ramps up his anxiety—but the performances are nicely done. Otis’s dad, by the way, is played by James Purefoy, an actor that I consistently get confused with James D’Arcy and James Frain, seemingly just because they’re white British guys named James. (In my defense, Purefoy and D’Arcy both played Tom Bertram in different adaptations of Mansfield Park—still not sure how Frain wound up in the mix.)
It's also not surprising that Eric is entirely ill-prepared for a legitimate camping trip, but what he lacks in knowhow and appropriate shoes he makes up in avid enthusiasm. Until things inevitably go off the rails when Otis’s dad does the absolute most and overcompensates way too much, Eric is down for everything, and as usual, Ncuti Gatwa’s buoyant vibe is infectious. The only thing putting a damper on his spirits is his ongoing dilemma between Rahim and Adam. He avoids Rahim’s calls, using the trip as an excuse, and there’s a really nice acting moment where he visibly pulls himself together to save face after being ignored by Adam.
This episode also features a major conflict between Otis and Eric, which is odd, since episode 5 was when they had their blow-up in season 1. The circumstances are different, and they end this episode in a different place than they did with their season 1 fight, but it does add to the somewhat repetitive feel of the episode, which lessens the sting of the confrontation.
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