Joel Fry-days: Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 2 – “The House of Black and White” (2015)

*Spoilers from season 4*

It didn’t stand out as much to me in the last episode, but this one really jogs my memory for how many of the season 5 plots didn’t fully pan out for me. Back when these episodes first aired, I remember being excited about a number of the storylines—for a lot of them, though, the execution wound up being more of a letdown. Let’s get into it.

Arya has arrived in Braavos, where she seeks out her old friend/assassin, Jaqen H’ghar. Brienne and Podrick have an unexpected encounter on the road. When one of the Sons of the Harpy is caught, Daenerys takes counsel on what to do with him. After the brutal death of Oberyn Martell last season, Cersei worries about her daughter’s continued safety in Dorne, and with good reason—Ellaria is out for blood. The Night’s Watch elect a new Lord Commander.

• When Arya arrives at the temple of the Faceless Men, she begs to be let in, saying, “Please! I crossed the Narrow Sea. I have nowhere else to go” – I love the Faceless Man’s simple response, “You have everywhere else to go.”
• As usual on Game of Thrones, we see that the stalwart characters are no match for the cunning characters. Brienne has the truth on her side, but it’s child’s play for Littlefinger to twist it around and make her look bad.
• It’s funny—for years, Anton Lesser was “Qyburn from Game of Thrones” to me. But when he popped up in this episode, my brain immediately went “Partagaz!” The power of Andor!
• I believe this is our first look at Doran Martell, played by the always-welcome Alexander Siddig. As Ellaria itches to avenge Oberyn, Doran demonstrates one similarity he and his late brother shared when he flatly tells her, “We do not mutilate little girls for vengeance. Not here. Not while I rule.”
• Tyrion and Varys are in the traveling portion of their storyline, so not much happening here – I do like Varys drawling, “Are we really going to spend the entire road to Volantis talking about the futility of everything?”, to which Tyrion replies, “You’re right, no point.” Ha!
• My favorite stuff at the Wall in this episode, once again, are the scenes with Shireen. This time, her reading lessons are with Gilly instead of Ser Davos, and I really like the conversation they have about greyscale.

It’s not the best episode for Daenerys. With the prisoner, her advisors variously urge execution and mercy, haste and caution, and things somehow wind up with the least desirable outcome. And I’m sure part of it is because I’m biased toward Grey Worm and against Daario, but it annoys me when Daario repeatedly lectures Grey Worm while searching for the Sons of the Harpy, belaboring how this is a job so much more suited to Second Sons rather than Unsullied. With Daario, it sometimes feels like the show is trying too hard to make fetch happen, and I definitely don’t like them doing it at Grey Worm’s expense.

This is the first episode where Joel Fry appears in two sequences instead of just one. Although that doesn’t actually amount to more screentime for Hizdahr, we get to see him in a new context, which is interesting. In his previous episodes, nearly all of his dialogue has been just with Daenerys. But sitting on Dany’s council, we see him interact with other characters—particular Mossador, a former slave. Unsurprisingly, Mossador is advocating the hardest for the prisoner to be executed, wanting to send a blunt message to the Sons of the Harpy. Hizdahr never actually says what he wants to happen to the man—again with his savviness in front of Dany—instead making tempering arguments like, “Why should [a poor freeborn man] want to bring back slavery? What did it ever do for him?”

In this way, Hizdahr is still careful about the things he chooses to say, but he’s a little less precise in how he speaks here, getting slightly heated. From Mossador’s side, the “former slave speaking to former slaveholder” dynamic is clear. While it’s not as pronounced from Hizdahr’s side, it is evident that he’s less patient with Mossador than he is with anyone else. There’s an air of entitlement that can’t help coming out a bit as they’re going back and forth. Nice work on Fry’s part, showing the contrast to how intentional and calculated Hizdahr is in his private audiences with Dany in earlier episodes.

Also, Hizdahr pulls out the “I’m the head of a Great Family” card when that is the opposite of a selling point to every other person in the room. For all his talk about how willing he is to adjust to Dany’s brave new world, old habits die hard.

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 1, Episode 6 – “La Última Frontera” (2018)

*Episode premise spoilers.*

I’d say this is an episode with great material for Diego Luna, but that happens with pretty much every episode. Regardless, I really like where the show takes Félix here as the second half of the season kicks off.

Félix has made a deal with the Colombians to start accepting shipments of cocaine, but there are issues that need to be resolved before the first plane comes in. In order to pull off this kind of operation, it’s vital that he establish a partnership with the Mexican government. However, while they vet his organization, 1) the feud with Falcón in Tijuana is escalating, and 2) the DEA has captured a downed plane that they think could hold the key to bagging Félix.

This is an episode where even the plotlines that don’t really feature Félix still revolve around him. Zuno, the friend who arranged Félix’s introduction with a government official, warns him, “Please, whatever you do, keep the noise down. People like my uncle don’t like headlines.” (Side note: in the show, the official is only ever credited as “Mr. X.”) So the last thing Félix needs right now is a turf war with Falcón. As members of both the Tijuana and Sinaloa plazas move on Falcón, no one involved is being all that discreet, and the DFS isn’t stepping in to help. As Nava puts it, “That Sinaloan dirtbag thinks he can make a deal for coke and not discuss our terms first?”

Meanwhile, the DEA has caught a lucky break with one of Félix’s planes. They use it as an in to make a move with intel they acquired illegally. The captured pilot becomes a piece in a shell game, in which they bluff with evidence they don’t really have to put pressure on someone who can get Félix where they want him. Crucially, they lean on the banker who manages Félix’s bank accounts in the U.S., promising they’ll drop (falsified) hints to the cartel that he’s being disloyal unless he convinces Félix to deal with a crisis with his accounts in person. Once Félix is on U.S. soil, they can make their move.

While all this is going on, Félix is doing everything he can to secure the government partnership he needs. As it turns out, there’s little he can do. Right from the start, he’s put on edge—the arranged introduction with Mr. X is at a fancy country club, and even though Félix has built up enough wealth to buy himself social cachet, everyone in the club knows he’s not their people. He hovers on the periphery, guardedly nursing a drink as he tries to figure out who he’s meeting.

Once his disappointingly short introduction has been made, Félix is forced into a waiting game. The government needs to decide whether or not they can get into bed with the cartel without any negative blowback on them, and even though Félix needs this partnership, like, yesterday, they have zero sense of urgency about the timeline. This leaves him twisting in the wind, because even calling Mr. X’s office goes against his need for discretion. He’s bewildered that he barely got to speak at all to Mr. X, let alone talk business, and he’s incensed that Zuno arranged the introduction to his uncle but then didn’t turn up at the meeting himself. When Zuno assures Félix that he already explained his proposal to Mr. X, Félix demands, “Then why the fuck am I here? What did you tell him?”

Félix has intelligence, confidence, and pride in spades, so it’s always interesting to see him in a situation where his fate is in someone else’s hands. Luna is so good at conveying his discomfort at the country club, the way he’s wrongfooted the whole time but trying to appear unruffled on the surface. And after exploding at Zuno, I like how Luna plays his restlessness as he waits on an answer from Mr. X—the man who compulsively attacks problems and finds solutions is stuck, unable to influence the outcome or even speed up its arrival. And I don’t want to spoil the details, but his second conversation with Mr. X is even better!

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025, R)

Like Weapons, this is a film that got a sole Oscar nomination for its acting (which, for my money, was well deserved!) It’s a very engrossing character piece about a mother at the end of her rope.

Linda has far too much on her plate. Her husband, a ship captain, is away working for weeks at a time, leaving Linda to look after the complex medical needs of their daughter. When a serious leak from the apartment above them puts a massive hole in their ceiling, Linda and her daughter have to go to an extended stay motel. As she argues with contractors, juggles patients at her therapy practice, and listens to the beep of her daughter’s feeding machine at night, she feels like she’s losing her grip.

When it comes to getting inside Linda’s head and feeling her experiences, the film does a really effective job. There is a crushing weight of responsibilities and demands dragging her down. She’s dealing with everything on her own, she’s made to feel like all of it is her fault, and her problems are as much existential as they are physical/logistical. Staring up at the hole, it seems to threaten to swallow everything. Linda knows that she has an identity beyond solely being a mother, but it feels like any her outside of her daughter is going to disappear if she stops clinging onto it. But if she insists on making space for herself, does that mean she’s a selfish, horrible mother?

Her daughter’s condition is never named, but it seems to be ARFID or something similar: she has a feeding tube because she’s severely underweight, she’s incredibly particular about what foods she’ll even consider eating, and she spends all day attending some sort of treatment program. Linda wants to have the tube removed because she thinks it’s become a crutch, while her daughter’s doctor warns that they’ll need to “reassess her level of care” if she doesn’t make her weight goal in the next week. There are some nice details here, like the fact the treatment-center-run “parents’ group” is made up entirely of moms.

Rose Byrne is up for Best Leading Actress for her gripping performance as Linda. To put it simply, Linda is a hot mess, and at this point, she’s struggling to even pretend that she’s not. She’s hanging on by a thread and desperate for someone, anyone, to offer her some guidance or give her a break. The film also features Conan O’Brien as Linda’s checked-out therapist, A$AP Rocky as a guy who’s staying at the same motel, and a small appearance from Christian Slater as her absent husband.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements (including a suicide attempt,) language, drinking/smoking/drug use, sexual references, scenes of violence, and disturbing images.