*A few spoilers from earlier in the season.*
It’s that time of the season again: we’ve arrived at the penultimate episode! This one has quite a bang, and while I don’t think it’s wholly successful, it has a lot of good parts to it that have me looking forward to the finale.
The school is having an open day, where Hope intends to introduce a “cleaner” school to the press. Many of the students have other ideas, and they band together to stand up for what they feel is their true school. Olla asks Otis to help Lily, who’s been struggling after Hope humiliated her in front of everyone. Elsewhere, Jakob considers the future of his relationship with Jean and former Headmaster Groff decides what sort of man he wants to be.
There’s plenty to like here. The Lily stuff is handled well, and it leads to an important development for Otis too. The students’ pushback against Hope is mostly good, although parts of it get too over-the-top (more on that in a moment.) There’s a beautiful scene between Maeve and Aimee toward the end of the episode, Ruby displays a bit of badassery, and I really enjoy a scene where Jean reassures Maureen that Adam will open up to her when he’s ready, adding, “You know, I’m not very good at letting Otis come to me. I admire your restraint.”
It turns out my Miss Trunchbull predictions for Hope weren’t too far off, and she flies off the rails to her own detriment. Like, the way she tries to handle Cal has way worse optics than Cal simply wearing a baggy uniform, proving that it’s ultimately more about power and intimidation than any honest desire to “clean up” the school’s image. And Hope isn’t the only cartoonish element here. Some parts of the student protest get too outrageous for credibility, and not in a fun way like the “I Am Spartacus” vagina moment from season 1. Honest to goodness, there’s a scene where a character crawls through a ventilation shaft—what is going on here?
Eric is back from Nigeria, and he continues to reflect on his experiences there even as he throws himself back into life at school. I absolutely love his baffled reactions as Adam and Otis quickly catch him up on everything he missed, from the “shame sign” Adam has to wear as part of Hope’s draconian punishments to Otis kissing Maeve on the school trip. Ncuti Gatwa has such a “hanging on for dear life” look in his eyes as Eric hears about all that’s been going on, and it’s fantastic.
He also jumps wholeheartedly into the students’ disruption of the open day, because 1) he’s against repression and shame and 2) the whole thing is so dramatic, how could he not? He gets up to a lot of fun here. I especially like his breathless, “You’re incredible!” after Ruby’s aforementioned badassery, as well as the way he compares their protest plans to Ocean’s 11. The latter involves him asking, affronted, “Who’s Andy Garcia?”, as well as deciding that “Jackson is Rihanna in Ocean’s 8, ‘cause of the bone structure and eyes.”
Once we got a chance to see Eric in Nigeria, it was a good storyline and I enjoyed it, but I’m also glad to see him back with the rest of the characters. Gatwa adds so much presence to the show, and he gives the group scenes an extra pop.
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