Discussing Ep. 1.7
Okay, this was the weirdest episode yet!
I don't know where to begin. I guess I'll start with David and Kristen's journey to see David's father, Leon.
What I found interesting about this storyline that was reflected throughout the episode was how my expectations were thwarted each and every time! I didn't know what to expect with Leon, David's father. It was bomb after bomb after bomb of revelations with this guy. First, he introduces his first wife, Esther, to whom he got married and did not tell David. Okay, that was the first one. Then, his wife is six months pregnant. Okay, that's the second one. Then, he introduces his second wife, Cori, and they describe themselves as a "throuple."
For a moment, it felt congruent with the artistic side that Leon presented. I could see someone like him being eccentric enough to engage in such a relationship with such free-spirited people. The whole community seemed to engage in a sort of hedonistic lifestyle, coupled with a kind of New Age belief system when they mentioned communicating with their ancestors and calling on the "names of power." That phrase kind of pinged my evil meter. I was fully expecting them to call out demonic names but they never went that far.
When David asked him about the sigil that he kept using in his paintings, Leon went on about how it wasn't him who was painting but something else, or someone else. They hinted that Leon might have been possessed but they never really confirmed that either way. The sigil kep showing up everywhere, even on pottery.
Everybody kept claiming that they had no idea where the sigil came from until David ran into a woman at the party. An oddly dressed girl named Annie Commerce. I had a sense that she might be a ghost but I really didn't believe they'd go that far until they actually went that far. Her history was that she was brought on a ship in 1859 and sold as a slave to a man named John Bertens. The scars that she showed were lashes made to her when she holding on to a baby that was being snatched away from her. I have a feeling that particular detail is going to be relevant later on. In the end, it turned out that the particular sigil was, in fact, Berten's seal, the slave owner. When David confronted his father for using it, for using a symbol that represented hate and slavery, Leon explained that he took the symbol for himself and was trying to take the power of what it represented in the past and using it for his own power....using it for "grace and resilience."
I kind of found this explanation to be akin to African American's rationale for using the n-word. Because the rationale is pretty much the same: take a word that represented hate and slavery and has all kinds of negative historical connotations to it and use it in their own community, thereby taking the original power away from that word. I don't know if what Leon did was right or even logical, but David seemed to accept it. However, it doesn't at all clear whether or not Leon is being influenced by demonic entities, since he never confirmed what that "spirit" was that controlled him when he painted. Leon claimed that the duality of good and evil that David believes doesn't exist, that what is....is. I found that to be very interesting and an indication that perhaps there is a demonic influence that hides behind such a non-threatening philosophy.
Of course, Kristen's experience with the sangria and Esther and Cori would prove that perhaps there is something seriously demonic going on. Then again, they're really keeping things vague because Kristen was, after all, high as a kite!
Then all of a sudden, she hears a woman screaming. At first, I deduced that it was Esther giving birth just because it sounded like a woman giving birth. But she was about 3 months early, so it didn't make a lot of sense. I was sort of expecting perhaps Cori maybe performing a C-section on her or something like that. But that's not what happened. Esther gave birth and it was NOT what I expected!
This was seriously fucked up! What the fuck is that? What kind of weird demon baby is that? The weird thing about this is there's no proof that what happened is what ACTUALLY happened! Kristen walked away from this as though it was all a part of a delusion that she imagined because of the spiked sangria. She and David both laughed off their respective experiences as being thanks to the sangria. But again, the show leaves you wondering if that is indeed true. Because there was this one shot of the house where a figure in the window suddenly appears.
Was that Annie? Who is that? I don't know if they will come back to this story but I hope they do and I hope they answer these lingering questions.
Speaking of returning to past storylines, I was happy to see Ben return to his burgeoning relationship with his once-costar, Vanessa. Again, they went somewhere with this story that I was totally not expecting.
When they were arguing about the phone number being written down wrong on Ben's hand, I assumed that perhaps it was something related to The Sixty and the sigils and all of that. That perhaps Vanessa herself was part of The Sixty. But then she reveals something that was just completely unexpected. Apparently, her sister (twin?) died and her spirit (?) was grafted onto her right arm. So Vanessa....this hard line sceptic who believes only in what she can see....believes that her dead sister continues to live on and is grafted onto her shoulder! While I did agree with Ben's reaction, I had to admit that I liked Vanessa's comeback about how Ben's belief in quantum theory can be equally regarded as absurd seeing as how he believes in something he cannot explain. To me, that's a fair argument. I could see why Ben wouldn't believe that but I think it's because his bias colours his opinion.
Still, I couldn't help but laugh when Ben is still tempted to sleep with her (and I don't blame him....she was looking good!) but is suddenly unable to shake off the feeling that this woman is insane and he's trying to convince himself to brush it off. I laughed so hard as he was giving himself a pep talk in the bathroom mirror and then called David to further convince himself. It was funny how he changed his name on David's phone to God. David seemed unimpressed. Actually, I liked Ben's talk with Kristen at the beginning as it seemed they were becoming like brother and sister and I like the way their relationship is developing. Once again, they kind of left things hanging here because after David told Ben that "the world is weird," we don't know if Ben continued on with Vanessa or not. I kind of hope he did but now I'm worried about Vanessa's state of mind.
And lastly, we got the long awaited return (or introduction) of Kristen's mountain climbing husband, Andrew.
I gotta say, this storyline did not put Kristen in a good light. Throughout David and Kristen's adventure, I was SO anxious, so nervous, and so hoping that nothing would happen between them. Because they were so high and so flirtatious with each other, I was totally expecting them to make out if not sleep together! Even at the end, I was expecting them to kiss and Andy would see them kiss when he came to greet Kristen, and THAT would not have been good at all! Thankfully though, nothing happened between David and Kristen this night or any other night for that matter.
They tried to paint Andy as somewhat of an absentee father, with Sheryl (I'll get to her later) labelling him as "frat boy" who was always gone on some next climbing adventure. I was shocked to learn that he was gone for only three months. Sure, that's not exactly a weekend but I've heard of soldiers being on deployment for longer times than that! And perhaps we're not getting the full picture here since we just got introduced to him but having Kristen have little to no self control over her feelings and already starting the early stages of infidelity, it really makes her look bad. Andy is trying to earn a living to provide for his family, who cut his trip short so that he could spend more time with them. And here's Kristen getting high and developing romantic feelings with her coworker. I'm sure Andy is already wondering if Kristen's been unfaithful to him, since he assumes that Ben is the one she's been seeing but he doesn't know the whole story. And I have no doubt that he's going to be a wrench in the works for Kristen and her continuing relationship with David, both professionally and personally, since I have no doubt that Andy will be a non-believer. Either way though, Kristen came off looking bad here.
Well, perhaps Kristen is more like her mother than she'd like to admit. I thought it was ridiculous how Sheryl basically fucked Townsend in Kristen's office! What was the point of that? Even if Sheryl felt that Kristen was being unfair and truly believed that Kristen wanted her to be single for the rest of her life, why do that? No doubt Townsend persuaded her but it just goes to show that Sheryl is really going to be a detriment in this fight against Townsend and The Sixty.
Speaking of The Sixty, we got the return of a potential Sixty member, Rose390! I wasn't expecting this and again, I wasn't expecting the end. I thought Andy was going to mess everything up when he joined the girls in that VR game. His daughter, Lynn, was feeling really nervous as they approached Rose, with Rose morphing into a creature that reminded me of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the movie The Cabin In The Woods.
Eventually, though, Andy and Lynn were able to finish the game by hitting the 'Goodbye' button on the virtual Ouija board. I was fully expecting Rose to pop up somewhere in the real world but that didn't happen. Nothing happened. Instead, they finished the game and everything was all hunky-dory!
So it was definitely an episode of "subverted expectations," to borrow a phrase that's popular in the Star Wars community. I do hope they revisit these storylines again. I can't imagine that they are going to let what happened with that monster baby and what happened with Leon and Vanessa and Rose390 to just go away to Offscreenlandia.
They've been good in revisiting past storylines so I am hopeful.
