The following…is murder on the thumbs.
Is Ryan Hardy’s hunger for revenge morphing him into a mirror image of his nemesis? “Reflection” certainly makes the case that he is.
When he’s interrogating follower Giselle, it’s clear that he isn’t interested in justice outside of getting his hands on Joe Carroll. When he offers to let Lily Gray and all her acolytes go free, I believe him. And when he expresses a desire to drive an ice pick into Joe’s brain, as a shaken Max looks on, I don’t doubt his sincerity.
Ryan’s slide down this slippery slope is even better exemplified later in the episode. After a shootout, a bleeding Ryan flees into the woods and seeks refuge in a farmhouse. Now, us watching at home, we know that Ryan is this story’s hero. But to the terrified woman he holds at gunpoint, blindfolds, threatens, and eventually locks in a closet, he’s just as big a monster as Joe Carroll. The reaction work from Kevin Bacon as the woman whimpers that she knows he’ll have to kill her if she sees him is wonderful. Some of the best scenes of the season.
I’m liking Max more and more. In the beginning, I was concerned that she was solely going to be Ryan’s Chloe O’Brian. And after last week’s cliffhanger, I was convinced that the tables would get turned on her by Giselle and she would have to be rescued. So I’m glad that she was shown being resilient and smart out in the field. I loved her decking Giselle in the face, lamenting that her hand hurt, but then immediately offering that it felt good. Awesome. And Jessica Stroup was excellent in the final moments of the episode when a relieved and traumatized Ryan wrapped her in a hug. I think she’s catching on to how out of her depth she might be.
It’s interesting, considering how she presented herself to Ryan as a Sarah Fuller/Claire Matthews composite, that Lily is also playing the role of Claire for Joe, although one that accepts and supports Joe’s work, gifting him co-eds to slaughter and the like. Her line comparing being an art dealer to her desire to nurture his talent was also shrewd. Curious what her ulterior motive is here because she definitely has one outside of being obsessed with Joe. My current guess is that one of her “children” was a previous victim of Joe’s. In any case, Connie Nielsen is both charming and chilling as the unhinged mother hen.
Sam Underwood also continues to shine, making the twins distinct characters beyond their different hairstyles. I found myself uncomfortably siding with a serial killer when the snarky, straightforward Luke was dismissive of Joe being a big deal. And while Luke having a special bond with Giselle came a bit out of nowhere (and was also a surefire sign she wouldn’t be living to see next week), I liked how Underwood played the notes of despair when he found her dead body.
And while he’s as batshit as his brother, Underwood also sold Mark’s gentler, warmer nature in his scenes with Emma. Emma (who, to my dismay, lost the piercings and pink punk hair) is becoming, in my opinion, something of a wild card. She does seem to feel a kinship with Mark, but his control games this week got her walls up real fast. And while she’s also clearly still enthralled with Joe (hence her drawing his face on Mark’s body), she is also dealing with feelings of betrayal and likely won’t be happy about him getting involved with Lily. I think where her loyalties lie will end up being key.
Finally, in a micro-plot designed to push things along, the FBI figures out what went down in Arkansas and Mike, after seeing a surveillance picture, realizes that Ryan was right about Joe being alive after all. Since Mike keeps that realization a secret from his fellow agents, I’m thinking he’ll be more amendable to working with Team Hardy once they’re back in town. Also willing to wager that knowing Mandy is with Joe will be important at some point.
So, when you looked at “Reflection,” what did you see?
