O.k. well this was basically an entire episode of things going wrong without any resolutions. It really left me hanging in every way. After a few eps in a row of some really satisfying scenes and character interactions, I guess it was time for one that provided almost nothing but frustrations.
Everyone’s Marriage is in Trouble
It turns out that Lennix’s marriage isn’t the only one suffering in 2025, as we find out in this ep that Tayo and Vivian aren’t really doing much better. Tayo seems somewhat oblivious at first, in a scene at home during dinner prep, when Tayo’s mom asks what’s going on between the two of them. Tayo thinks everything is fine, but we quickly find out that Vivian is not on the same page. Mom slinks out of the room the second things get awkward, and then shit really hits the fan.
We find out that Vivian is not feeling comfy with Tayo’s ambitious career moves, and she sees the man she fell in love with turning into someone she doesn’t recognize anymore. With the irony being that this trajectory he’s been on since the terrorist attacks in 2023 is all because he’s desperately trying to figure out how to save his family. Do they have kids by this point? It seems like maybe not, but at the very least, he’s trying to keep Vivian safe. The problem is that his solutions to all the world’s problems are pretty extreme, and quite opposed to everything Vivian (and Tayo himself) had always stood for. At the end of the scene, he asks Vivian to just trust him, and she reacts with a face that says, “ehh.” We can’t blame her one bit, as we know that this isn’t headed in a good direction.
We also see more of the evolution of the AI system in this episode, with Amos taking Tayo to his lair (control room) and explaining some of the design. In the future (2034) scenes, we see Tayo finally starting to lose faith in the system, after the minister was tased in the previous ep (he survived, at least). His mom seems to be on her deathbed in 2034, and we eventually see Tayo having a come to Jesus moment with her, where she keeps it 100: “You went and changed the world, but you lost the person you changed it for.” Tayo responds with, “I need to fix this,” and this seems to be the moment he switches sides.
As I joked in my previous review, big moves like this (starting with the minister getting tased) are how this show gets us from point A to point Z with 8 short episodes, and it feels a little too quick and easy one scene later when Tayo lets Murphy take the video evidence from the church security cameras of the drone attack on the minister.
Poet Fucks Up Everyone’s Shit
Man, Poet is an absolute savage in this episode. We start off in The Past (2009) with Tayo calling her out for purposely isolating herself from people, which is quite a true statement, as proven by every single other move she makes for the rest of the episode. The savagery kicks off in the very next scene, when Lennix acts like a dumbass during the Hogan’s Alley exercise, trying to steamroll Poet while she’s taking down a bad guy. And to be fair, this would have infuriated me in that moment just as much as it did Poet. Her reaction is justified at this point, but boy does she not lighten up in the following scenes with Lennix.
After the exercise, Hour prods at Poet a bit, trying to figure out what her plan is with poor Lennix. Poet acts like they’ve made a mutual decision to cool down the relationship because training is ending in a few weeks and they’ll surely be separated anyway, but Hour calls bullshit. It’s clear that this was all Poet’s decision, and Lennix is a lovesick puppy who will do anything she wants him to at this point. Tayo’s earlier comments are holding up quite well so far.
We then flash forward to The Present (now 2025), with Poet living and working the serial killer cases in Georgia, and Hour showing up in need of moral support. It turns out that the depiction of Hour living her best life in 2025 in ep 5 was a mirage, because in this scene she reveals that her marriage is completely falling apart (I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said that everyone’s marriage is in trouble.) Poet talks her through it over wine, flipping the 2009 script and acting as the one to gently prod Hour this time, trying to get her to the truth of why she’s leaving her husband. It seems Poet knows what the real answer is, and she’s trying to see if Hour will admit it.
Hour eventually does finally admit she’s gay, but then she goes a step further and reveals that she’s in love with Poet and has been ever since 2009. It seems like Poet didn’t know the latter part, but deep down she must have suspected it might be the case. I don’t know how she could’ve been blind to it (no pun intended). This next part is what seems like kind of a fucked up move to me – Poet leans in to kiss her, but after a little bit, it becomes clear that Poet was just kinda testing driving that shit to see what it might feel like. Shouldn’t she have warned Hour first that that’s what she was doing, so Hour wouldn’t interpret it as “I’ve always been in love with you too”??
It feels like Poet could’ve been more clear there. Like, “Hey fuck it, I don’t think I swing this way, but let’s try this out and see if I’m down to clown. Dang, I guess not.” Something to set Hour’s expectations properly! I would hate it SO much if someone I was in love with – or even just crushing on – faked me out like that. To have a moment of thinking “OMG all my dreams are coming true” only to be let down again 30 seconds later is pretty brutal. Ouch, Poet, ouch.
What sucks for Hour is that it’s been 16 (SIXTEEN) years since 2009 at this point. She has wasted 16 damn years stuck on one person because she was afraid to disappoint her parents, leading her to never get out there and date. Poet’s great and all, sure, but there’s plenty of fish in the sea, Hour! You could’ve fallen in love so many other times by now, and it would’ve prevented you from stagnating, getting too hung up on one person. Wish I could give this girl a reality check and a time machine.
And then to continue on the theme of Poet’s body count, the ep flashes back to the second training exercise scene in 2009, where the trainees have to rescue a bunch of hostages in a movie theater. Poet is a badass so she figures out the right way to approach the sitch (gently), and because of her and Tayo, everyone passes the test. You’re welcome, everyone! But then next, instead of celebrating, she decides that ripping Lennix limb from limb (again no pun intended) is the next logical move. Lennix swoops in, confesses his undying love for her, and says he has to be all in on the relationship or nothing. So she answers with, “O.k., nothing. Bye!”
Hahahah like WTF?? O.k. too be fair, I just rewatched the scene and technically it’s Lennix who tells Poet “it has to be nothing then,” but it’s paaaiiinfully obvious that he’s just trying to go too far in the wrong direction in the hopes that it’ll make her realize that’s not the way she wants to go. Instead, she calls his bluff and says “K bye!” And Tayo is proven right once again. Lennix is left dazed and confused.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely get why Poet is trying not to get too serious with Lennix given that they’ll likely be separated soon, but does she have to be so merciless about it? Yes, the answer is yes, apparently. Where the heck do Lennix and Poet go from here? In the first ep of this series, they imply that this was a major relationship in Poet’s life, but in terms of pure timing, so far this is looking a lot more like a summer fling. I think it’s obvious as the series progresses that Poet was and probably still is in love with Lennix and feels heartbreak how things turned out, but it would be kinda shocking if this quicky training camp fling was all they actually had before.
It’s interesting though, one of the main points made in Daisy Jones and the Six was that despite their explosive chemistry in the 70s, Billy and Daisy were absolutely not in a place to be good or stable for each other at the time. When they reconnect in the late 90s, there’s an implication that they’ve got a chance at finally making it work now that they are mature and settled. In the end, it turns out that it was good that Daisy and Billy never got together in the 70s, because if they had, it would’ve ruined Billy’s marriage and they would have just been bad for each other and flamed out quickly anyway.
Poet and Lennix’s trajectory seems to be similar. Had they simply stayed together in 2009, they likely would’ve gotten married and had a bunch of career conflicts, and then divorced, and that would’ve been it. But if they get together in 2034, they’ve got a far better chance of going the distance. They could be there for each other in a way they never could have in the past. I hope it goes this direction for them, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if the show decides to turn this into a tragedy and kills him instead. That would be cruel and unusual punishment for Poet. Let the woman finally pull that stick out of her ass and be happy!!
Murphy Bites the Dust
Welp. I had a feeling Murphy’s lack of character development plus the trailer clips of him in the car chase meant that things would end badly for him. But what drives me nuts about this show is that they could’ve heightened the impact of his death by getting us more attached to his character, had they added literally just another couple scenes in previous eps of him interacting with the others through the years. And given how fucking short so many of these episodes have been, there has been plenty of room for it. It seems like a real waste of a character who had potential to be someone quite likeable.
Few other random thoughts:
- Hour shooting the baby in the Hogan’s Alley scene is actually pretty funny.
- It’s a quick scene, but this ep also gives us the moment in 2025 when Hour realizes that Tayo has fucked her over behind her back. The wheels are in motion for everything to fall apart between Hour, Tayo and Poet.
- Poet and Tayo have a really interesting relationship in 2009, and it’s a bummer we don’t get much of it on the other two (err, three) points in the timeline. It’ll be interesting to see how she sides with him in 2025, but they kinda set it up in this ep with Poet being disappointed in the database results for the case she’s working, and she’s kind of a bitch to Hour about it. Yet another example of her warpath of destruction in this ep.
- Because I’m super anal retentive about continuity, I noticed that whatever contact lens type thing they use for the effect of Poet’s bad eye is a different shade in this ep (darker) than what was used in ep 5. It annoyed me in all her 2025 scenes in this ep.
- Given everything that has gone down by this point, Murphy probably should’ve seen the “car takes control” debacle coming before he tried to drive to the senator’s house.
- “Oh man, the other trainees just come in firing their machine guns and throwing flash grenades! We never get to do the love story!” This line was funny and cute.
I was happy to see that ep 7 of this show (next week) has a far more normal 48 minute runtime, but then last night the synopsis and runtime of the finale (ep 8) was revealed, and it’s only 38 fucking minutes!! I seriously will never understand why this show has limited itself so much when trying to tell an extremely complex story that spans 25 goddamn years. Do they really have nothing else to say?? GAH. They have been better than you’d think at telling the story in quick flashes, except for the Murphy storyline, but this seems so extreme.
Well, let’s see what they do with the final two. I’m definitely still expecting to be left with TV blueballs.
Fangirls Anonymous 