*A few spoilers for episode 4.*
While this episode is good, it’s not quite as strong for me as the earlier episodes of the season. Some big stuff happens, but it feels like the whole might be a bit less than the sum of its parts. I can’t precisely put my finger on why.
Maeve’s mom has died, and though Otis is trying to be supportive, her guarded façade resists any attempts to be comforted. At the same time, Otis is also dealing with having to debate O at school, and Ruby thinks she has a last-minute smoking gun to help him out. Eric approaches Abbi about using a school fundraiser to raise money for his church’s soup kitchen. Jackson is struggling with personal stuff, and when he leans on Viv for support, it starts causing problems in her new relationship. Jean resists the idea that she needs help with possible post-partum depression. (And yes, once again there are additional plots that I’m not fitting into the summary!)
Maybe my issue with this episode is that it feels a bit more scattered. There’s more separation between the many juggled plots, and so they don’t flow into each other as well. But like I said, it is still a good episode. There’s one particular development that I hope to see go further, and the last scene is really strong.
Other things I like include the following: poor Maeve trying to deal with planning her mom’s funeral while also corralling her brother, Adam opening up about what he went through before Mr. Groff turned over a new leaf, and a much-needed confrontation between Jean and Otis. There’s also an excellent conversation about reluctance to seek treatment for conditions that we think we “should” be able to manage on our own, comparing depression and perimenopause—one very effective line is, “It’s not like I’m sick, you know? Just, you know, uncomfortable.”
Not as much Eric today, but even when Ncuti Gatwa doesn’t have a lot of screentime, he still finds a way to deliver (just think: when he becomes the Doctor, he’ll be front and center for every episode!) As Eric and Abbi weigh the possibility of their queer-friendly school raising money for a church, I absolutely love that he says, “I feel like it’s giving We Are Gay Jesus.” And when Otis admits a secret that he hasn’t told Maeve yet, Gatwa’s delivery of, “Oh…gosh…” is just sublime.
This performance is one that’s kind of hard to talk about in print, because a lot of Eric’s lines are perfectly unremarkable, but the way Gatwa says them makes them sing. He never wastes an opportunity to be memorable!
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