Brendan Jesus
Coming hot off the heels of Episode 5 “The Night He Came Home,” there are some big shoes to fill. If you were worried the next episode would be full of exposition and filler, you were kind of right. Episode 6 “Scars” takes a huge leap from the intense and exciting idea of A infiltrating a high school party and falls into the more stereotypical drama format; it’s kind of like the first 40 minutes of a fine slasher movie, plus we possibly get a new mask for A? On the other hand Episode 7 “Carnival of Souls” goes in an interesting direction when one of the Losers Club tries imitating A, and someone has an unfortunate run-in with Sheriff Beasley. Oh, and Imogen and Tabby find out they have way more in common with Angela than they realize.
Episode 6 “Scars”
This one starts out with Imogen and Tabby talking about the bonfire party. Tabby mentions how Chip covered the rest of her shift so she could go out. It turns out that Tyler wasn’t the one who sexually assaulted Tabby, which lends more credence to my idea that Chip is the one who did it. Tabby and Imogen also make plans to go to a random train yard to meet with Joseph ‘Crazy Jo’ England (Michael Maize) to get information on Angela and her family. Mouse and Ash decide to go on a bowling date, which, as you guessed, is super cute. Noa is also offered a spot back on the track team but respectfully declines at the moment due to wanting to help take care of her mom.
In Pittsburg we see Faran’s mom Corey at work, where she receives a gift from A. Inside is a bloody tattoo gun with a note saying, “Some scars you see, some you don’t, but they all hurt.” Flashback to ’99 where teen Corey (Kristian Mosley) talks Angela into getting a tattoo. Corey tells Angela they are all getting their initials tattooed, but bounces immediately after Angela gets her tattoo. It’s clear the five moms were just absolutely terrible teenagers. As stated previously, it’s easy to forgive someone for being somewhat of an ass as a teen, but what these people are doing to Angela is borderline psychological torture. Again, they don’t deserve to die or be put in peril, but I kind of understand the pain they inflicted on this poor girl.
Imogen and Tabby meet Crazy Jo at the railyard, where he invites them into his house: a train in the railyard. Crazy Jo tells them about how he was in love with Angela but “those five girls” ruined her life. They overly included her in things, Crazy Jo said, that would always end up with Angela in some sort of mental peril and turned her on him. Jo is certain without doubt Angela killed herself because of them. He also goes on to tell about how Angela’s mom even went to the school with a knife and tried to attack some kids. Soon after Angela’s mom was sent to the Radley Sanitarium in Rosewood. Can we assume Angela’s mom is moonlighting as A? That would be a fair assumption, but she would [probably] be in her early 40s, and to be able to lift a 200+ pound high school football player might be out of the question for her…or maybe she is a bodybuilder now? It seems pretty logical Angela’s mom would have the motive. Could Angela have a brother no one knows about?
Greg and “Kelly” make out in an auditorium, but he gets too rough and doesn’t know when stop means stop. Seems Greg and Tyler have quite a bit in common. We find out Noa’s mom Marjorie got fired from the hospital, rightfully so. The hospital says they’ll hire Marjorie back if she goes to rehab for 30 days. Marjorie agrees, but once Shawn confronts her saying that she has no right to put her addiction on her daughter, she decides to get a job at a pizza place.
After a bit of a trek to the neighboring football town, Imogen and Tabby rent a hotel room in Rosewood. Though I’m pretty sure you need to be at least 21 with photo ID, have to put a credit card down for incidentals…I digress. In a scene that doesn’t get the attention it deserves, someone from the American Ballet Theatre comes to watch the class and is beyond impressed with Faran. They ask Faran why she dances the way she does, and “Kelly” decides to blurt out, “because she has scoliosis,” thinking it would ruin her chances. In turn, this makes the person from ABT even more impressed. This is a good win for Faran, though after Episode 7, I cannot help but feel bad for her.
Mash (Mouse & Ash) goes bowling, and it’s as cute as you would think it is. Though just a few lanes down from them is the one and only STEVE. Steve even goes so far as to tell Ash that he is Mouse’s dad. It’s honestly super gross. I really don’t know if/what this arc is commenting on but it honestly rocks. I could honestly take a spin-off of Mouse. Malia Pyles is one of, if not the, best actors in this show.
We go back to “Kelly” as she receives a text from A, we think, asking “Kelly or Karen?” This leads to a chase where A sports a new mask and chases “Kelly.” After corning her “Kelly” screams, “I’m Kelly,” about 15 times before A just leaves. THIS is what I was talking about when I mentioned they needed to do something interesting with the Kelly/Karen subplot. This also leads to “Kelly” dropping out of ballet because she thinks Faran is doing all of this maliciously.
Imogen and Tabby get a tip to talk with someone named Eddie Lamb (Charles Gray) and end up being able to have a sit-down talk with him. Eddie was a caretaker at the sanitarium and has tons of good story-progressing Angela info. Angela’s mom Rose had six visitors regularly visit her, as evidenced by a check-in log he has. Each person that visited Rose signed in as Angela…all SIX of them. This is also where we find out Angela was, like Imogen and Tabby, sexually assaulted.
Faran gets a text from an unknown number saying, “The scars go deeper than you think. Yours and Angela’s. Corey did wrong by you both. Check your locker.” What’s inside Faran’s locker? Medical records. More specifically there is a note from the doctor recommending Faran does NOT get her surgery at this time, since she was a young child. This just progresses the thoughts Faran has of Corey that Corey will do whatever benefits Corey, most. This takes the win Faran had earlier in the episode and drags it right through the mud. Faran decides to change her Swan Lake bio to be a scathing repute of Corey and her actions. It’s absolutely brutal. Corey leaves the show and gets into an “accident.” The whole Faran arc really is handling the idea of beauty standards, with the scar and her mother’s wanting of the scar to be surgically altered, with tact. This is probably the second best character arc, personally, right behind Mouse’s.
Oh, two final things, Noa decides to join the track team. The Losers Club goes to the show to be there for Faran, and who else could be at the performance? If you guessed Steve, you’re right!
Episode 7 “Carnival of Souls”
Mouse’s mom Elodie (Lea Salonga) gets a letter from the ’99 Millwood carnival that says, “Meet me in the hall of mirrors.” Cut to ’99, in the hall of mirrors. Teen Elodie (Emily Bautista) and Angela galivant around, before stopping to make out. Teen Davie sees them, which leads to Elodie pushing Angela off of her and pretending that she was jumped by Angela.
There’s quite a bit that happens in “Carnival of Souls” but a lot of it is just character bits without too much actual story progression. Imogen says Wes or Angela’s dad might be A, which is an interesting thought. Wes is not credited with a last name; could it be Waters? That would be a left-field twist I wouldn’t have even seen coming honestly. Wes knows horror, he would know what to do and what not to do!
Corey is back home from the hospital and basically blames the crash on Faran, which is just selfish and proves she may not have changed so much since high school. “Kelly” thinks Faran was the one who texted her that message and chased after her. Little does “Kelly” know, Faran has to stop dancing for six months to get the proper back treatment her mom neglected, so she would have no reason to chase “Kelly” out of ballet.
In a weird twist, we have “chemistry” forming between Imogen and Chip. In all actuality Chip is probably a raging sociopath with nothing behind those Patrick Bateman eyes. In one of Imogen’s classes, they are told they will have to pair up and take care of fake babies for a week. Which is something I thank God I never had to do in high school. Imogen and Chip end up teaming up, which leads to one of the weirdest, and possibly most telling, moments of the show. In Mr. Smithee’s film class, they are tasked with writing, editing, and directing a short about a moment in their life; you probably know what Tabby is going for. This is doubled down on a conversation between Wes and Chip at The Orpheum where they want to have a Last House on the Left and Virgin Spring double feature. Tabby has a blackout moment where she mentally stabs Wes, and it was completely shocking for a moment. When this show steps out of the norms of what you would expect, it can provide some of the best moments. Sure I was happy that some blood was finally thrown back in the mix, but the moment was so unsuspecting and very welcomed.
The weird scene between Imogen and Chip is imminent. Imogen has a moment where she loses the fake baby and finds it Chip helps her find it in a storage closet. This leads to really only the second baby-related panic Imogen has. While they don’t really use Imogen’s pregnancy as too much of a character trait, this is a really intense moment for her. The idea of losing a fake baby in high school is really not a huge deal, in hindsight, but having a pregnant high schooler losing their baby really adds a whole other level to it. There is a note on the doll when they find it that says, “you’re a bad mother.” After having a bit of a breakdown, Imogen asks Chip if he would go to the adoption agency with her, he agrees. While they are there the adoption agent also asks Chip if he is okay with adoption, and he runs with it and pretends the baby is his…like what? Imogen vibes with this for some reason, and they end up agreeing to a little carnival date. Again, Chip just gives off weird vibes. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out he’s a serial rapist who is using his immense film knowledge to enact some weird fantasy that could be used as fuel by anti-art right-wingers.
Tired of being harassed by Steve, Mouse visits him at work. Steve tells her it is crossing the line, but Mouse retorts by saying the line had already been crossed. Steve reveals that he knows Elodie and that they regularly meet at a group that meets weekly for parents who lost their children. Mouse is confused as to why her mom goes to the meetings still.
Poor Noa, she gets thrown into the whole drug addiction commentary again and again. Noa goes to track practice, but due to her previous circumstances really hasn’t had the ability to practice. This leads to her coach referring her to a specific sports doctor. In a meeting with this doctor, Noa is given an inhaler, an inhaler that supposedly helps with performance. To call a spade a spade, it’s doping, and Noa knows it. With extreme hesitancy, she takes the inhaler and even takes a few puffs. There is a conversation between Noa and Shawn where he tries to justify the football team’s use of the inhalers, though he doesn’t do it, Noa is adamant about the fact that it is cheating. On top of being a commentary on drug addiction, this is a really interesting take on the over-competitive nature of high school sports.
Episode 7 ramps up with the exposition dump we have all been waiting for…what happened to Mouse! At the carnival Mash decides they are officially dating! While this happens, Elodie gets a text from an unknown number saying, “If you’re not honest with Mouse, your worst fears will come true.” This is immediately followed by Mash going into the hall of mirrors and being terrorized by A before they find a door to make their hasty exit. Elodie just happens to be running to the hall of mirrors as they escape and the two embrace. We find out Mouse was taken into the hall of mirrors as a kid by her real father. Mouse was a surrogate for another family, but Elodie didn’t want to give her up. Mouse questions whether the man just wanted to see her or if he was actually trying to take her, but Elodie is unsure about it. This is a wild reveal that I didn’t see coming at all. I had assumed that she was either directly involved in Steve’s daughter’s life somehow, but he is, more or less, a red herring. It also comes to light that it was not A who texted Elodie, but it was Mouse from a burner phone. This is really the first time we have physically seen someone impersonate A and leads us to the question, could others be impersonating A?
The Episode ends with the Losers Club sitting together and getting a text at the same time from A. It’s a photo of Tyler, dead.
Final Thoughts
Episode 6 and 7 did a solid job of keeping the horror elements, while also expanding the story into deeper and darker trenches. Faran and Corey end the two episodes with their relationship in peril, Imogen probably just made out with a sociopath, Sheriff Beasley thinks Tabby had something to do with Tyler’s disappearance, Mouse was technically kidnapped at birth, and Noa is doping to become a better runner. The episodes cover a variety of topics and does a good job of looking at each idea and giving it the proper time to grow and flourish. With just three episodes left it makes me wonder if we will get the answers to who A is, and whether the season will end with more answers or questions.
