At this point we are ten episodes into a sixteen-episode series. So we are deep into the ‘main conflict’ period. And to my surprise, I finally strongly connected to a character in this episode. I had strong emotions come out. But I was also … disappointed? frustrated? with the situation.
So in this episode we start with Neil in the hospital, where Patti finally brought him out of guilt. Allison had NOTHING to do with saving Neil from death. And yet, we begin with Allison threatening a man with a serious brain injury – a man whose crime was to want to save his best friend from a nasty murder plot. Allison warns him that, if he says anything, that she and Patti will counter-claim that Neil was responsible for the attack. After all, Neil played hockey with the assassin. Neil has a criminal record. Neil had just been ranting about how angry he was with Kevin. It would actually be a fairly simple frame job. So either Neil keeps quiet about a real-life murder plot against his best friend, or he’ll go to prison. Not only that, but Kevin would probably believe the lies, and Neil would lose his best friend, too.
Allison then takes her aunt to a PI, supposedly to help the aunt deal with her cheating husband, but really so Allison can get some help with her situation. During this, there’s the conversation about ‘why doesn’t she just leave’ and the aunt, at least, shows some brain cells and realizes this is a great option.
Neil comes home from the hospital, head shaved, and is clearly showing signs of his brain injury. When he encounters the police officer, he makes up a lie about the injury. He tries to talk to Kevin but Kevin is repeatedly dismissive of Neil’s issues and turns him into a servant. Finally Neil can’t take the lying any more and tells Kevin straight-out that Allison is trying to kill Kevin. Kevin laughs it off.
A newspaper reporter comes to interview Kevin, which of course goes poorly. It turns out the reporter is a high school friend of Allison’s. The reporter asks Allison why she didn’t go to college and escape Worcester. Allison really doesn’t answer.
Allison’s aunt DOES leave her husband and head out for a new life. Allison decides the only way this could possibly work for herself is if the old Allison is DEAD so she can start wholly fresh without anyone trying to find her. Which makes no sense because Kevin is clearly incompetent. If Allison simply moved to a rural town in Vermont, there is zero chance that Kevin would know where she was. Allison COULD start a new life. And it really seems as if Allison’s only living relative was her aunt, who has just launched out on her own. So there really isn’t anything holding Allison in Worcester any more.
I just don’t see why the “I have to be dead” storyline even is in here.
I agree money could be useful. Even if the bank account was completely empty, there are clearly SOME items in the house worth a few hundred dollars. Grab a few, go sell them, and then get a bus ticket. Go up, rent a super-cheap room for a few weeks, and get a job as a waitress. The restaurant market is DESPERATE for workers right now. She’d get herself settled in no time, and could start planning out fresh options.
So with all of that being said, this was the very first episode where I was strongly struck by emotion. I was really disappointed, though, that it was NOT for Allison. This entire series, I was really wanting to root for Allison. I support battered women’s shelters. This is a key cause I believe in. I loved the idea of ‘looking beneath the sitcom’. I wanted this series to succeed. But in episode after episode, the ‘real’ subtrack seemed just as fake and sitcommy as the main one. It just seemed to feature Allison as the clueless dolt instead of Kevin.
So finally, in this episode, another layer was peeled away.
I’ll make a video to explain why I felt this way.
In the meantime, here’s my video on the Worcester MA references in season 2 / episode 2.
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