Damn, it's amazing how good this show can continue to be, week in week out. Consistently well written, consistently directed and consistently awesome, this show was one of my favourites of 2014 and it's already well on course to be one of my favourites of this year as well, along with the second seasons of both FX's Fargo & WGN America's Manhattan. This trio of series are all examples of the best shows on television right now, and "The Best With The Best To Get To The Best" was another impressive episode.
I feel like I have to say the same things every week so I might as well get them out of the way early, as usual, Soderbergh's direction and Cliff Martinez's soundtrack is brilliant, as far as I'm concerned, and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. The main context of the episode itself, picked up after the end of the previous one where Thackary was tempted by a return to a drugs addiction and in this episode, as I suspected, it didn't take long for him to fall back into his old habits. There was an episode in FX's Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll ("Clean Rockin' Daddy") where the lead character, Johnny, a rock singer and writer, was forced into coming clean by his fellow band members only to find out that his best music was performed whilst he was on drugs. The same thing happened here with Thackary, and the moody, brooding character that we've seen in the first two episodes was gone, replaced with a more driven, interested Thackary. I'm not sure what the consequences will be yet but it'll be interesting to see how he manages his addiction, and what the consequences will be for him further down the line. It's also interesting because he's been devoted to curing addiction, but it's quickly becoming apparent that he needs bodies for his task and his own addiction isn't on the agenda. Thackery winds up with a family whose mother has succumbed to a disease and is able to convince them that he can experiment on the body so the daughter doesn't avoid falling victim to the same disease that the mother had. It's a gambit that works, and just like that, he has a body that has been OD'd. It was also interesting to note that Thackery is at the heart of a budding rivalry between Gallinger and Dr. Edwards, with Gallinger not holding him in the highest esteem because of the fact Thackery prefers Edwards over Gallinger.
Algernon also played a role in Thackary's attempt to experiment with drug addiction at least, at the stage when they were working with bodies of pigs, because he had problems of his own that kept him busy, as he finds himself reuniting with a wife that nobody knows about, Zaraah Abrahams's Opal Edwards. This naturally causes problems for him because of the fact that she's so unknown that not even his parents know about her, but it also spells problems for his affair with Cornelia Robertson. So Thackary is certainly not the only one with plenty to deal with on this week's episode.
We learnt what E.D. Elkins was capable of this week in a bloody, brutal fashion as he beat his own daughter Lucy, showing her no mercy when he learned of what she'd gotten up to with Thackary, and her drug use. This wasn't perhaps the main storyline of the week but nonetheless an important one, with other subplots also coming into play this week as well. Bertie's ditched The Knickerbocker for a new tutor in the form of Dr. Levi Zinberg (Michael Nathanson), and a potentially new romance with a journalist Genevieve Everidge (Arielle Goldman). Now working for the Mount Sinai, it'll be interesting to see what happens when he crosses paths again with Thackary and how much these two competing hospitals come into conflict in the future.
There are plans, remember, to move The Knick North, and plans are taking longer than expected which works out in Barrow's favour, and naturally, he's taking full advantage of this. He wants more expenditure so the more expensive the plans and material are, the better. But Barrow himself isn't out of the woods just yet as he soon finds himself pitted against one of Collier’s henchmen, who has come to collect unpaid debts.
Back to Thackery again, and there's an interesting new development ahead in this storyline when we learn of the rivalry between Gallinger and Dr. Edwards. This is another area for potential conflict as Gallinger isn't too keen on Edwards, mainly because Thackery prefers him to Gallinger. This along with Sister Harriet's problems when she appeared in front of an anti-Catholic Judge to be rejected of an appeal for a mistrial. Harriet needs Cornelia to get her husband Phillip to finance Harriet, but he's having none of it. So that naturally doesn't put Harriet in the best of places right now.
"The Best with the Best to Get the Best" continued the series' excellent form as we start to delve deeper and deeper into Season 2. The various problems that each character has to face is incredibly fascinating to watch them attempt to solve, and of course, Soderbergh and Martinez add an extra layer of brilliance to the show. An interesting sidenote is that The Season 2 soundtrack seems to already be available on Spotify, so if you're looking for more of Martinez's excellent music then head over there. Now that I'm done, what did you think of this week's episode? Do you enjoy the direction for Season 2? What potential conflicts do you see coming in future episodes? Let me know in the comments below.
Overall Episode Verdict: A
Positives:
+The usual direction and soundtrack.
+The atmosphere.
+The many layered subplots.
+Thackery's story, and Clive Owen's acting.
The Knick continues at 10pm Next Friday on Cinemax.
