"I never loved you."
The first thing we see when Camille wakes up is Amma and her posy paying dress up for Calhoun day, so we know she’s not dead, and if you checked, you knew from the promotional photos, so what we saw by the end of the last episode was probably Camille’s imagination, but it did bother me they didn’t address it properly by at least showing us what really happened that night, because this way it feels a little cheap. Still, every episode has been getting better and better and this is by far the best one yet, Amy Adams shines like no other and I can't stress enough how perfect I knew she was for this role from the beginning.
This episode revolves around Calhoun day, a celebration of Wind Gap's founding pedophile (as Camille puts it). Curry tells her the story is blowing up, he wants more, and he wants her to milk the whole rotten-confederate-south thing, she says there’s no way she can fit that in 800 words, and given what will happen during the day, it seems even less likely to fit in just one article. While preparations are going on, Camille and Amma seem to be bonding and at one point Amma opens up about Ann and Natalie, saying she doesn’t like to think about them because it scares her, she also mentions that they used to play together but then Amma started to have other interests and, since the other two still wanted to play like kids, making forts, etc., they just drifted apart.
Adora is appalled that Camille is wearing all black so she gets a clothing store open just for her to find something "appropriate". She forces Camille into trying sleeveless dresses, and Camille thinks she's doing it on purpose, to force her to show her skin, perhaps trying to get Amma to see how much of a cautionary tale she is, so she gets angry and gets out of the dresser in her underwear, asking her mother if that's what she wanted. They are both horrified, Adora asks if she’s done doing it, Camille says yes but then her mother says it doesn’t matter, that she’s ruined now (ouch). What Adora doesn’t get is that this only intrigues Amma more, and after coming down from the shock, she goes to he room where Camille is packing up and apologizes, saying she had no idea and she begs her to stay, but it's the sight of Richard that really convinces her.
After seeing Camille and Richard talking, Adora is suddenly very interested in him and invites him on a tour of the house, where she makes sure to make him uncomfortable and make him wonder about Camille's past. She says Camille is delicate, to avoid saying damaged, and that she’s a rare rose, but not without thorns, he is polite but he's definitely intrigued. Then the representation of the story begins, and it's hilariously mediocre, we also learn the director of the play, Kirk Lacey, who Amma looks very interested in, was one of the boys that were with Camille in the woods back in the day. While everyone else is focused on the stage, Bob Nash, who's very drunk, goes for John Keene, and in the middle of the chaos, a high Amma leaves running through the woods. They start a search party until Camille finds her in the shed, pretty shaken up.
Once things have calmed down a little, Adora asks Camille to have a drink with her and opens up, she says she wants to apologize because she never told her about her dad, she says that's where she got her cold nature from and that's the reason why she never loved her. And you can see how this is a gut punch for Camille, she has always suspected it, but somehow one never really wants confirmation of such things. In a daze, she goes to Willis and they have sex, with all her clothes on of course, and her insistance that they do it her way will only cement his curiosity.
The scenes between Camille and Adora are definitely one of the biggest highlights of this story, it's all so heartbreaking and intense, absolutely mesmerizing. The last conversation actually reminded me of Camille giving Willis the murder tour during the last episode, telling him the story of that baby that paid for the sins of a mother she'd never even met. And that seems exactly what Adora has been inflicting upon her all her life, punishing her for being similar to a father she never met and is never mentioned, a ghost if you will. Also, earlier, when Camille broke down talking to Curry on the phone, she said when she’s home she always feels like a bad person, and he has to remind her she’s one of the few decent people he knows. This shows perfectly just how much damage has been inflicted upon her, in the book, she talks about Wind Gap and her mother’s house, like a special slice of hell, and here you can see exactly why.
"I was raw. I felt swollen with potential tears, like a water balloon filled to burst. Begging for a pinprick. Wind Gap was unhealthy for me. This home was unhealthy for me."
What did you think about the episode? What are your theories so far? Let me know in the comments.
