"Death suks"
Fight, Death
Farid wakes up speaking Spanish "Siempre te comiste todas las mariposas" (You always eat all the butterflies), after a dream where both his consciousness and Ramon's seemed to be connected, they seem to be pointing at something called Uncanny Communication and the Porous Mind, something that joins Ramon and Farid's minds (and maybe other people too), which is what we see in that opening dream sequence, their stories, their mothers even their languages get mixed up. Layla seems to be sick of his latest behavior but she tries to ignore it and sends him to buy groceries for his uncle Amir, who seems to have been a nightmare growing up but is also the one who took him out of Iran during the revolution. Amir is moody and angry, he insults Farid's mom, and then he tells him he always ate all the bowties, which is a different name for the same pastry (butterflies). After this, Farid seems to be more open, even a little bit too much, to the idea of this unknown and he starts to unravel, which is something very dangerous as it has been implied he takes medication, though it's not clear why he's medicated exactly, it is clearly related to this kind of behavior.
"There's something connecting us that's way stranger and deeper than anything we can possibly imagine."
Duc seems to be conflicted with the "just friends" thing with Carmen, he "happens" to run her place only to deny her invitation in, I don't know how much I care about this but it's fun to see someone throw him off his game so much. Greg is sleeping in his office, which gives him a chance to bond even more with Michael. After he gives him the draft for Duc's book, Greg invites him to join in the gym appointment Duc gave him as a gift. He tells him he read his manuscript and that he's more like his dad than he thinks. Then the conversation gets serious and Duc realizes his father is more open with Michael that he is with him when he tells them they found his dead brother, Archie, close to where they found Duc. Later the episode ends with Michael calling Greg to tell him the good news that he's engaged and then someone opens their car door and he runs through it with his bike, which was a shocker and felt a little out of place.
Ashley keeps struggling with this new feeling of unrest, she even starts a Krav Maga class that's shown as a bit of an aggressive take on self-defense. There she meets Denise, an ex-marine, and a loaded one, which seems to point to a maybe dangerous direction for Ashley's feeling. To make matters worse she sees the video of her mom defending the racist kids at Kristen's school and she can't seem to shake how personal it feels for her. She even confronts her mom about it, she tells her she didn't need to be reminded constantly that she was different, her skin wouldn't let her forget, and that she can't presume to help without fully understanding.
"You can't be kind to dangerous people, it hurts me, it hurts people like me"
Later, she goes to pick up Hailey, and she tells her a little girl called her poopy because she's brown, so Ashley confronts her mother, Babette Gibson, the mother immediately defends her daughter Chloe and says she would never say something like that, she dismisses it right out the bat, and she even says that Hailey called Chloe a carrot-head before and she didn't complain. This, of course, upsets Ashley but she finds herself not knowing what to say. Later that night, Malcolm confronts her, it appears Babette called him about it and he takes her side over Ashley's, which pisses her off even more.
Ramon and Kristen get together for coffee and she shows him the video of Henry, he goes off on her, maybe overreacting a little bit, but then he goes to confront Henry at his workplace (which was very disrespectful) and says he realizes Henry's homeless and he thinks he was just using him to have a place to stay. After that, he goes to his parents' home for a pick me up, since no one's home he decides to look at his old paintings from when he was a kid and finds not only a lot of butterflies but also a woman with scratches on her face, and drawings that look a lot like the avatars of his game, but he seems to be trying to ignore it all.
When Audrey gets home she tells Greg to go home to pretend they're okay and they both try to be there for Ramon. As they chat it seems Ramon is second-guessing his own behavior, he realizes he was unfair and handled it all wrong, but both parents are giving him advice from very different paces because of the current state of their own relationship, she's unforgiving and he says if he loves the guy maybe he should give him a chance to explain himself. Ramon is still confused when he decides to go to bed, and Greg and Audrey start going at it, which is when Duc shows up to thank his father and listens to the whole thing.
"If you can't trust him, honey, he's not worth your love"
I have to say I love Kristen and Navid's relationship, they're so cute, she says she thinks about killing people often and invites herself to his Friday noon prayer. He's not convinced but then he agrees and of course, has to make her change into something more conservative, and though she is annoyed by the sexism of it all, something in the spirituality seems to connect with her and she starts diving in at home as well. I find this story very interesting because it gives us a chance to get to know more about the religion and Kristen's lack of filter helps us learn things we might never dare to ask, and I mean about Navid's sexuality a much as his religion.
Wake
On the previous episode Raon was avoiding his sessions with Farid and it seems the psychiatrist's concern is not so much for Ramon's sake but for his own search for answers, he tries to pry it out of him without seeming too suspicious but he's not getting anything so far. While trying to get to the bottom of the significance in the details of Ramon's game he makes him realize things he hadn't before about his own creation which inspires him to make some changes before the Portland Expo and cuts the hour short, but the positive thing is he began the session thinking about quitting and he leaves excited.
"They're ashamed that we can see their wounds, but they all have them"
Greg goes to Michael's funeral and talks to Emma, his would be fiance, and learns Michael was a completely different person at home, she says he was a rageaholic and she's actually relieved she doesn't have to marry him now. Later Audrey asks him to go to Ramon's expo and this gives him some nice bonding time with his son, it seems he's one of the few people there who actually gets what his game is about. But then Ramon has another very public episode and they take him home, they call Farid but he has the worst timing and instead of helping Ramon, who's sick of these episodes interrupting his life, he decides to come clean to Ramon about his scars and his dreams. Ramon is not in the mood for that at that moment and says he doesn't want to see him anymore, which is totally understandable because Farid really crossed a line, and he can't pretend to continue being his shrink after that, the relationship for therapy is no longer viable, he should've planned for it, suggested a referral, and then IF Ramon wanted they could start discussing the existential crisis they're both having.
"When did war become entertainment?"
Audrey is starting a whole new project with Steve Benjamin and he pushes her to think big, he proposes they design a pilot program for the entire state to be later instated throughout the country, and then he immediately gives her an office. Now that they're working so closely together they flirt constantly and eventually they even go for a drink and sparks fly, but when things are about to get too real Audrey learns Greg has been trying to contact her because of Ramon's "episode" and leaves immediately, but we know that won't end there.
The drama at Kristin's school doesn't seem to be winding down anytime soon, there are just too many assholes there, Maddison and a couple of girls were spray painting Nazi crosses on lockers (one of them Navid's) and when she caught them they threw her the can and took a picture to frame her for it. Later, while Navid is putting some makeup on her and they discuss femininity, with some major sparks, she sees the photo published framing her as a white nationalist so they decide to do something about it.
"Don't take the high road"
There's not a lot of Ashley here but she seems to be soul-searching and trying to let Malcolm in, she tells him she feels off balance, which is a recurring theme in pretty much every one of the characters so far, Malcolm doesn't understand why she's suddenly more aware, and less inclined to let things go, and she doesn't really know why that is, their assumption is that it might be related to what's happening to the world politically. She's not really convinced, but maybe it does make sense on a personal level too, maybe things change because we were under this illusion that things were getting better, slowly, but incessantly, and it kept us complacent, but maybe after it's proven that was never the case, we're just not willing to take the bullshit anymore.
What did you think of the episode? I look forward to your comments.
