"I will not bring a kid into a world this fucked up."
Yes
Ramon continues to struggle with his visions and is not successful in convincing his mother they are actually real. No one knows how to help him so he decides he needs some space, but he asks Duc to go with him to a quiet spot where he can think and they feel an earthquake. Knowing this show, I'm sure there's a meaning to this, but I don't think I got it.
Farid continues down his rabbit hole, he's even dreaming with Ramon. Later he has an outburst when Layla is asked to take off her scarf at a restaurant, a restaurant that is run by people who actually share their faith but it seems they've been victim to violence over it, so both sides are understandable, but Farid goes overboard screaming and even getting physical with his wife. Fueled by a dream Farid goes to the store where him and his uncle Amir used to live to buy groceries and a woman gives him a box of stuff they'd left behind, among those things there's a phone and a tape that has a message from his mother, this was a touching scene and Peter Macdissi killed it, you could eve see his knees get weak.
Greg and Audrey continue to have this passive aggressive fights, he things thinks she's being too self-righteous because she can't forgive him and she's not willing to budge in any way and goes all the way with Steve. Greg decides to take the night to cook for Ashley and Kristen and they have one of those existential debates that make me love this show so much. Even discussing whether or not Ashley and Kristen should wash the dishes because he cooked he says there are way too many transactions in relationships, that it doesn't have to be this for that, something can just be a gift, and they also talk about current affairs and how the girls feel apocalyptic about the moment in time they have to live in, but he tells them humanity has faced that feeling over and over again many times.
"Safety has always been an illusion."
A point he proves when he wakes up his class by pointing a gun to his head to make an existential point. At first, he defends his actions but given the current climate he later understands it wasn't his best idea, and they decide to put him on a six-month leave of absence. Luckily he decides to take it as a gift to find himself again. Speaking of finding yourself, Kristen and Navid enact their revenge by using water guns with Silver Nitrate on Madison and her possy wearing a horse and a chicken mask, this scene was really fun, and then they celebrated by kissing, they're just too cute.
Ashley continues to get closer to the idea of carrying a weapon and I have to say I'm very uncomfortable with them taking her story there, I feel it can't end well. She even goes to the gun range and it appears she has a lot of pent-up rage and great aim. There also a very odd moment when she's called a race-traitor by a white man because she stands up to him for putting a "black lives matter" sign on her door without her consent. The good thing here is we meet Michaela Conlin (Bones' Angela), she plays Sharon Chen, a businesswoman who will later offer to buy Ashley's company at a very enticing price, though it means Ashley won't be the boss anymore and won't get to do things her way.
Ramon goes to see Carmen and we learn he might have had a near-death experience in the past even though he doesn't remember it. Duc gets territorial about Ramon seeing Carmen, which is ridiculous. Honestly, Duc being awkward with Carmen is not even cute anymore, it's just annoying. He invites her to a hike but he's denying his stress and he gets sick in the middle of it. He ends up running and hurting himself and he's so embarrassed he acts like a child. I can't convey enough how bored I am with Duc, I need them to find something actually useful for him to do, and not this Carmen thing because, even though I enjoy how she handles him, he doesn't seem to be getting any better, or interesting.
Dream Logic
We find out Ramon's appearance at the expo didn't go as bad as he thought since he gets a call from someone who left before his vision. He gets offered a job to start slow but with the possibility of designing levels for different games later on, though his own game is only a possibility in the distant future. But our other character headed down the rabbit hole, Farid, doesn't seem to be getting better, he gets Layla to listen to the message and translate, since she's better at speaking Farsi than he is, and then he confronts his uncle. Amir insults his mother and Farid loses it once more. The relationship is a complex one, it's his mother, so there's nostalgia there, but she was also abusive and a fanatic who told him at nine years old he might have been responsible for his father's death, and Ramon seems to have stirred all this feeling up.
Duc's book reading gets overshadowed by his father's work but he takes the opportunity to distance himself from that and give it his own spin. Speaking of which, Greg is still as lost as ever but no one knows what to do about it, he even shows up to get on Steve's face and then leaves just like that. There Audrey finds out there have been many worker suicides related to Steve's company, he says he can fix it like he suddenly can make inhumane labor disappear, but nor Audrey nor we, are sold. Later, Audrey goes home and has an honest talk with Greg, he says he wants to fight for her, and that sleeping with their old friend means she doesn't get the moral high ground anymore. Then he tells her he was investigating and it looks like Ramon's adoption agency never existed but he found their caseworker Beverly's address. When they go to her, she acts sketchy as fuck, and they learn Ramon was stolen.
"Bullshit, I fight for what I believe in."
Navid a Kristen take their relationship to the next level and I have to say, even though I love them and they're super cute, I feel it's like two best friends having sex, not a lot of sexual chemistry. When she's about to go home she crosses paths with Farid who's very creepy and starts telling her how Ramon sees beyond the veil and might not be able to return. Okay. The next day they show up at school, where they were investigating what happened with Madison and her posy but not the swastika, they walk through the halls hand in hand, Navid with his makeup and both wearing hijabs. They think they pulled it off but then the racist kids including Madison go up to them wearing masks and beat them up, Navid, of course, gets the worst of it.
"Maybe you're boxless, we can be boxless together."
Then they go to Kristen's house and decide to ignore what happened and go through with the Alterna-mitzva, she listens to all the nice things her family has to say and then talks herself, she says she never felt she had an identity so she tried different ones, like game, but after getting beat up with Navid because of his real identity, one he can't take off, she realizes how hard it must have been for her siblings, it was a sweet scene, if very Kristen. Then, Farid picks up Navid and he's angry, on the way home he says he shouldn't see Kristen anymore, that a girl who thinks Judaism is something you buy at a store is a bad influence, and so white. They're arguing in the car and suddenly Farid sees Ramon's mom in the street and halts to a stop in the middle of the street, which means his behavior is straight up dangerous now.
Speaking of dangerous, back at the house Ramon plays with Hailey while Ashley and Malcolm argue. Ashley is insecure about how much time she spends with her daughter and how this affects their relationship, and she hadn't told Malcolm about her job offer because she felt he wouldn't let her think there was a choice but to take it, and when he found out, a lot of insecurities and older resentments popped up. But their argument is interrupted by Hailey screaming and they look through the window to see how Ramon, thinking the tree house they were playing on is on fire, throws her off of it (cover mouth with hand).
"Is it over yet?"
What did you think of the episode? Are you liking the show so far? I look forward to your comments.
