Hello again, Chancers! I promised you wouldn't have to wait until episode nine to hear from me again, and as you can see I was completely wrong! I would love to try to promise you again that I'll do better, but why set myself up for failure twice? What I will promise you is that every episode will be reviewed, and that is certainly something you can hold me to! But enough about me, let's check in on Chance!
Patient History
After our triple episode premiere, things got significantly messier in the life of Chance. Chance continued to attempt to push Winter into trusting him, and even staged a meeting at a dangerous time and place so Chance would be forced to save his life, which automatically gains trust points with anyone. After the incident, Chance revealed he learned the truth about Winter's childhood and said they were done until Winter could learn to trust him. This sent Winter into a bit of a spiral, leading him to murder again. This time, however, his coping mechanism (murder) stopped working. Winter called Chance and decided to admit everything to him before Lyndsay kicked Chance out of the house. Chance later kidnapped him and attempted to talk him into turning himself into the police. Hynes then got a call from his contact, Frank, saying Winter is ready to confess and that Hynes should meet him at Winter's house. When Hynes showed up, however, he was greeted by Frank with two bullets straight to the chest.
Some other notable tidbits: Nicole was taken away by cops after Pepper's parents decided to press charges against her after she smashed Pepper's face with a book, D paid his dad a visit to tell him to never bother him again, Lorena has been willingly helpful and cooperative because of her and D's relationship, and Kirsten has begun an investigation of sorts. Oh, and Lucy is still pretty into Winter and has absolutely no idea that he's a crazy murderer...yet.
This Session
Define Normal
This episode, we are treated to a series of flashbacks showing the history between Frank and Winter. We start out with a teenage Frank chase down a boy named Stevie before tackling him to the ground and holding him down. A young Winter shows up shortly after, though this is long before he changed his name. Frank and Winter are clearly already friends at this point and while Frank holds Stevie down, Winter shoves a rock down the boy's throat, suffocating him. Years later, after Winter has finished a presentation, Frank approaches him and the two catch up momentarily. Frank then tells Winter that two detectives were looking into a recent murder of a mother whose throat was slit, with rocks found in her throat. Frank warns Winter that if he keeps doing this, he can't use the rocks anymore because they're too easy of a pattern to pick up on. Frank has been covering for Winter since day one. Not only covering, but providing victims and helping dispose of them.
In the present day, Frank talks Winter through the story he needs to tell the cops in order to make Hynes's murder seem like self-defense. Unfortunately for Lyndsay, she comes to the house around this time. Still thinking about the tings Hynes told her, she begins to try to ask Winter about the murders, but as soon as she sees Frank in the living room, Winter pounds her head into the counter, killing her almost instantly. I want to feel bad for her, but she's been a little rude, and she definitely wouldn't have died if she'd just let Chance do his job. Nicole, meanwhile, was being brought into a juvie holding cell. Once inside, she was harassed and attacked by one of the other girls, and she definitely fought back. While waiting for her in court the next day, Chance finally admits his stalking past to Christina, and she does not take it well at all. Pile on top of that the fact that Nicole's sentence might be longer because of her incident the night before, and you have a bad day for Christina. Poor thing, I guess. I don't really care. There is a bright spot for Nicole, however. If she takes a plea deal, she may be able to get out of the whole incident without having to be locked up. She jumps at the opportunity, and a final sentencing date is set up for two days later. Also getting out of much legal action? Ryan Winter. With his story, combine with Hynes's past, all charges are dropped against Winter, and he is free to go. Frank calls him up later to reassure him that he's fine, and to tell him that he is no longer allowed to talk to Chance. Winter completely ignores this, though, and finds Chance in a parking garage. He tells Chance that now that he's killed a cop, there's no way to turn himself in now. Winter tries to sell Chance the fake story, but Chance sees right through it and calls him out. The interaction eventually turns a little violent when Chance begins punching him. As Winter walks away, he shouts that he wanted to turn himself in, but he can't anymore. Chance tells D about the incident, then recruits him to teach Nicole a self-defense lesson in case she ends up doing time in juvie. Such a good father. Chance's next task is to speak with somebody about Winter. Unfortunately, he ends up talking to Frank, who obviously is not helpful at all. Frank gives him a series of excuses as to why they can't look into Winter, while also probing for information shared between Chance and Hynes. Frank ends the meeting, and meets up with Winter to tell him what he's learned. When Winter learns that Chance and Hynes were friends, he says that the parking garage confrontation makes more sense, and that Chance needs to suffer like he has suffered. He's already about to suffer a bit though. After Kirsten surprises everyone at Nicole's hearing with a speech that gets Nicole out of juvie, Christina tells Chance that there are going to be changes made in light of is stalker past. Really, she just means one change: Nicole will be spending less time with Chance. Nicole doesn't take this news well when Christina tells her, and she responds by arguing, yelling, and slamming the door in her mother's face. Because Christina can't deal with the fact that she doesn't know how to properly take care of her child, she decides that Nicole must be going crazy and has two people roll her up in a blanket and take her "somewhere they can help". I've never been overly thrilled with Christina, but I might hate her now. As D and Carl sit outside of Winter's house waiting for anything, D reveals that he hasn't been able to contact Lorena, and he's slightly concerned. He later checks out Lorena's apartment and discovers that her sonogram picture has been ripped off the fridge and thrown on the ground. That doesn't bode well for the baby. Winter, meanwhile, is at another property he owns waiting for someone to arrive: Lucy. Of course. They just keep trying to kill her. She even brought her baby along for this date! That turned out to be the right move, though. He attacks her with a knife later, but she's able to fight him off long enough to get to her baby. When he sees her with the baby, he stops and tells her to call Chance. She's still alive! A short time later, Frank is approached by a detective saying that a tech billionaire was in the middle of confessing to a series of murders, and things are starting to check out. Frank looks through the files, and is not happy at all.
Kirsten is currently putting her own investigation skills to the test. She brings back the son of a previous patient to ask him about the attack he suffered through, and to describe the man responsible. Just like Pardo, the man that attacked was a large bald man. Some time later, she has the son come in again and describe the man to a sketch artist. After the description is done, we see a very clear sketch of D, and Kirsten is clearly ready to move further with this investigation.
An Infant, a Brute or a Wild Beast
We start out this episode with Frank waiting menacingly outside his boss’s house. Luckily, he’s only up to slightly menacing things. He just wants to be assigned to the Winter investigation, under the guise of wanting to close this case for Hynes. In actuality, he is of course just doing this to control the investigation. Winter, meanwhile, is having a chat with Chance in an interrogation room. He says that he feels so much better now that everything is out of him. When Chance confronts him about Lucy, Winter reveals that he knows about Chance and Hynes, and that a part of him suspected Chance was lying the entire time, but that he needed to believe someone was there to save him. Ultimately, he admits gratitude to Chance for hurting him to save him. Chance then tries to find out who else was with Winter when Stevie was murdered, but Winter insists that no one else was there. Chance ultimately leaves Winter in the room with an uncertain future. D and Carl are discussing possibilities of where Lorena could be, and Carl points out that D doesn’t know as much about her as he would anyone else, and that he hasn’t done his normal amount of research. Carl advises he fix that next time D sees Lorena. Chance arrives at the office trying to contact Nicole, but he doesn’t know the evil thing Christina has just done. He is then brought into a staff meeting centered around looking out for the man attacking people in patients’ lives, and when Kirsten passes around the sketch of D, Chance panics a bit. Kirsten creates more reason for panic, unbeknownst to Chance, by handing over the sketch of D to Frank and asking for help after answering some questions about Winter. Frank agrees to assist, which surely won’t end well. Frank then goes to speak with Winter and Winter’s lawyer, where the lawyer reveals they are going to plead guilty, and are also going to motion for an insanity hearing pleading diminished capacity. Frank is far from thrilled about this and tries to convince Winter that this is the wrong course of action, but Winter simply says he’d like to talk to Chance. Chance is occupied at the moment talking to Christina to try to contact Nicole, and he finally learns about the camp. He then goes to her house and they have a pretty thorough argument about her decision. She fights for the validity of the program by telling him about a meth-addict that went to the camp, which is definitely not the same issue, but sure. Chance questions the legality of the situation, but when Christina challenges him to take her to court so both of their pasts can be looked into, he backs down. Chance then has a meeting with Frank, as Frank tries to figure out if Chance is the expert who will be used to prove Winter’s diminished capacity. Chance apologizes for asking and offers Chance a drink, while Chance looks around the office and finds a picture of a young Frank on a baseball team in Mendota country, where Winter grew up. Connecting the dots, Chance takes Frank’s lunch fork from the trash while Frank steps out, and brings the DNA to be tested by detective Valerio, a former friend of Hynes Carl connected with while dealing with Hynes’s body. This DNA test is a good call, too, because winter is visited by a guard in his cell and promptly murdered, so no good information will be coming from him anymore. When Chance shows up for his meeting with Winter, an officer reveals that Winter has “committed suicide” and Chance is sure Frank is behind it. In more positive news, D is finally contacted by Lorena! Less positive news: he learns that she is hiding and about to run from the father of her child, Hector Ibarra, a member of a gang known as Los Cazadores. D swears that he can handle the situation, but Lorena begs him to reconsider. D is pretty set on this path, though. Chance and D meet later at Chance’s place to discuss Winter’s “suicide”, and that’s the most positive thing that comes from the evening. Kirsten shows up for her date with Chance and spots D coming out of Chance’s apartment. Understandably, she is not very happy about this and confronts Chance. Of course, Chance attempts to justify is actions, but Kirsten has none of it and tells Chance that his things will be sent to him, and that he is never to return to the office. D then uses his resources to locate Los Cazadores, and makes a foolish attempt to confront them on his own. Classic D! He attempts to hold their doorman hostage, but the man is shot for not being a good doorman and D loses his leverage and is left in a precarious position. Chance also finds himself in a pickle when he is met by two detectives while leaving his apartment who want to question him about the man he beat up in an alley way back in the first episode of the season.
Nicole spends her time this episode at the correctional camp Christina sent her to called the Wilderness Program. The camp is centered on rehabilitation through wilderness survival. Though a bit disgruntled, Nicole thrives on their first challenge of starting a fire and is very satisfied with herself, especially when she is able to help her new friend, Lexi, who has been to the camp a few times already. During a group discussion, Nicole reveals what she did to Pepper, and says she would gladly do it again. The counselor drops a little knowledge on her, though, and she seems to start reconsidering. The next day, however, Nicole speaks privately with the counselor and apologizes for what she said, then proceeds to sneak away from the camp.
A Madness of Two
The latest episode opens with Chance being booked for his assault, while Nicole leaves him a voicemail from a gas station letting him know that she's ok, and also telling him she's mad and doesn't want to talk to him. Chance receives the message the next day after Lucy posts his bail, because she's one of the best people on this planet. He's also got a few worried messages from Christina since Nicole ran away from camp, so he stops by to let her know Nicole is ok. He should have just called her though, because all she does is yell at him and blame him for the way Nicole thinks. A bit uncalled for, if you ask me, but I'll give a minor pass on this outburst because she's panicking. She should still maybe get over it, though. As D later escapes his capture (with some new, creative uses for pencils), Chance has a conversation with his lawyer about anyone who may have anything on him regarding the assault and any other crimes. Chance thinks, and then vividly remembers Kirsten scolding him when she connected the dots. She clearly could be an issue. Before confronting this, however, he stops in for a meeting with Valerio, who confirms that the DNA sample matches the DNA found at Stevie's crime scene. When Chance tells him who the DNA belongs to, but the more Chance connects the dots for him, the more he believes it. D finally makes it back to the warehouse where he convinces Lorena to let him help her out of her situation, but she says they must first ask permission from her old best friend before they take down Ibarra, so they begin a road trip together where their connection grows stronger. In the meantime, Valerio shows up at Frank's office with an officer from Mendota to discuss Stevie's murder. Though Valerio remains intensely suspicious the entire time, Frank weaves a tale of a friendship with Stevie, and claims that his DNA was on Stevie's body because the two of them had gotten into a fight after a game of basketball on the day Stevie was murdered. Super convenient explanation. They report back to Chance and say that they believe he's guilty, but there's nothing they can do at the moment. Ready to atone for his sins, Chance later decides that he's going to plead guilty to the assault in hopes of a lighter sentence of two years (Despite D's protests) and he shows up at Kirsten's office to assure her that he can make everything ok, as long as she doesn't tell anyone what she knows. D and Lorena reach their destination, and after gaining an ominous form of permission to kill Ibarra, they scope out their target before D calls in a group of men to prepare to help him out, determined to never underestimate an enemy again. The next day, Chance gets another call from Nicole letting him know where she is in case of an emergency. He shows up to talk to her and let her know he had no part in sending her to that camp, and that he was ready to pull her out of it when he got arrested. He tells her he'll likely end up in jail until she's 18, and, because she doesn't want to stay with her mother, convinces her to stay somewhere he knows she'll be safe while he can't look after her: Lucy's house. Really, Lucy is just the actual best person. Chance then heads to a court hearing, during which a number of his patients testify to how much he has helped during their sessions. Not present at the hearing is Kirsten, who was supposed to be a witness against Chance. Looks like she's not talking after all! The judge declares there will be a sentencing hearing in two days, and that night, D has is confrontation with Ibarra. After a bunch of big boy talk, Ibarra starts a knife fight, which he quickly loses. Also quickly lost is his life. D is able to get a nice throat shot in with his knife and Ibarra officially goes down for the count. On the day of Chance's sentencing, he gets a visit from Frank confronting him about the DNA business. During the conversation, Chance claims that Frank is alone now without Winter, but Frank insists that he will never be alone, and that he has contingencies in place to ensure that. Knowing that Frank is not finished killing, Chance skips his hearing and heads to Mexico to meet D and Lorena to start planning on how to deal with the situation.
Final Analysis
I just recently re-watched the first season finale with someone who is catching up on the show, and I can't believe how different the show is now. The quality has improved so much this season, and watching that episode was a bit of a chore for me the second time around. It's a strange feeling, because I really enjoyed the first season when I watched it, but I realize now that it was nothing compared to what we've seen this season. I love how Winter was poised for most of the season to be our Big Bad, but in the end he was simply Frank's puppet. It actually makes me feel sad for Winter. His psychological issues could have been handled so much earlier in his life without the influence of Frank. I have no doubt he would still have turned into a murderer, but it's possible that the body count would have been significantly less, and he would still be alive getting the help he needed. As much as I have spent the season rooting for Chance to take Winter down, I also spent a significant amount of time rooting for Winter to come to his senses and confess to his crimes. I truly believe there was a person in there who wanted to change, but couldn't figure out how. I don't really feel too sad for Lyndsay's death though. She was kind of a pain, and really brought it on herself for not letting Chance help Winter.
My dislike for Christina continues to grow. From a human standpoint, I 100% understand why she's doing and saying all of these things. She is completely out of her element here and has no way how to relate to her daughter and help her when she very clearly doesn't want help. I get it. But Nicole was nowhere near out of hand enough to justify having two strangers kidnap her from her bed in the middle of the night. She also seems to handle not knowing what to do with Nicole by making herself the victim. Again, I get it, she feels helpless in the situation, but she needs a new way to handle things because she's starting to get on my nerves. For example, the first thing Christina does after learning that Nicole called Chance to say she was ok was to point out the fact that Nicole called him instead of her, then start blaming Chance. Maybe take a little more time to enjoy the fact that your daughter is ok, and then consider that maybe she didn't call you because you had her kidnapped and watched as she was taken away wrapped up and crying.
Enough about her, though. I'm very excited to see what D and Chance are going to come up with to put an end to Frank's plans. D made quick work of Ibarra, but I get the feeling it won't be so easy with Frank, especially now that Chance is a fugitive. Also, I really want to know how Carl and his family are getting along. We haven't heard about that story line in a while. All-in-all, I'm very ready to see how the rest of this season plays out!
Are you excited for the new episode? Do you also hate Christina? Do you agree that Lucy is the absolute best thing that could ever happen to anyone? Sound off in the comments below!
