Rectify - A House Divided - Review: "First step of the last journey" + POLL

As Daniel Holden tries to adjust to his new life outside of Georgia, we try to prepare ourselves to a life without this amazing show called Rectify.Tonight the fourth and final season debuted on Sundance, with the first of the final eight hours that will wrap the show, and though our window on the adventures of the Holden family may be closing sooner rather than later, I'm sure that that the characters will just continue in their journey, as they struggle to understand what all this is really about.

The show ended last season (almost a year ago!) with Daniel now forever banned from Georgia, closing the door of the New Cannaan Project halfway house he just entered, dropped there by his mother after one last road trip. The show would've been fine with that as its last shot, after all while we hadn't gotten yet to find out who really killed Hannah, that looked like a perfect and natural conclusion to Daniel's phase of life outside of prison, now ready to move on in another state, far and away from his family but also a town that didn't really wanted him to stay around. But McKinnon must have thought differently, and now he lets us take a look at what happens to Daniel in his next phase, living in Nashville, in the previous mentioned New Canaan Project halfway house, an organization that helps ex-offenders like Daniel to re-acclimate to society and also to find a job, and live together in something at least resembling a family.

This episode marks a big departure on the structure that the show has been following so far, since basically all of it is devoted to Daniel and his new life in Nashville, and we don't get to see any of the other main characters, while we are also introduced to a whole new set of characters, connected to Daniel's new life. As could've been expected, things aren't so easy for Daniel, as the show opens we find out that, other than sporting a moustache and a goatee, initial clue about the amount of the has passed since when we saw the last of him, he has now found a job as a warehouse man, but his co-workers don't really have a kind eye for him, showing all the kinds of bias a person could have about an ex-con, the same bias Daniel has been used to get in Paulie since getting out of death row. His behaviour isn't helping either, as he struggles to integrate with them, and remains a distant shadow, present but silent.


The largest bulk of the episode though, is spent on the halfway house where Daniel (or "Dan" as he now seems to go) lives with 4 other ex-con, each one with his own struggles, all of them trying to adjust to living on the outside. He has now a roomate, Julian, and most of the drama of the episode stems from Julian sudden and overnight departure. The other tenants accuse Daniel, they think that it's his fault that Julian left, that he hadn't done enough to convince to him to stay and that he doesn't really care. The leader of the house is Avery, a counselor with the job of being some sort of a guide for the people living in the halfway house. He seems to operate with great sincerety, which can also mean tough love as when upon finding out that Julian left and that all the tenants are basically accusing each other, that he won't stand for a divided house, that they're not in prison anymore and should understand that if this is not what they want, if they don't want to "learn" how to integrate in society again, they could just leave. Clearly this has some kind of effect on Daniel, that in what turns out to be the climax of the episode, opens up to Avery about what was for him living for almost 20 years in death row, how his experience is very different from that of almost all other ex-prisoners. And this is when Aden Young proves why he is considered by many as one of the best in the business of dramatic television, his portrayal of Daniel's struggles is simply sublime, and he reaches new heights as he describes what was happening inside himself when his own sense of self was basically being destroyed by loneliness, how he became, using one of Daniel's word, "unglued" (which seems a nice throwback to when in Season 2 he described himself as "unhinged").


This breakthrough leads to the opening of new opportunities for Daniel, as he comes back to the art showroom he had visited the day before while unable to work because the power was out, and now introduces himself to one of the artist working there, Chloe (played by the Masters of Sex alumna Caitlin Fitzgerald), in what could become the first friendship for Daniel since leaving Paulie, and also he finally tries to open up with his co-tenants, as he join them while they are playing cards, in the final moments of the episode.

I must say I'm really satisfied of this first hour, despite being almost a reboot, with new characters, new settings and a whole new arc, the show still managed to feel true to itself, with Aden Young carrying the weight of this extremely profound, extremely human character, that after three seasons still allow us to uncover new layers of what makes him tick, and while I'm sad at the thought that in a couple of months we will no longer be able experience the feelings that Holden and all the other characters have given us throughout the years, I have very little doubt that McKinnon won't make this a wortwhile trip.

Episode 4.01 - "A House Divided" - A