We premier our Blindspotting reviews! We started with episode 4 because this show is so great that we have seen all the episodes at once and… we have to talk about what happened in Blindspotting 1x04 “The Four Hustlateers”! This episode is more of a transitional one and could be titled "Mothers Always Keep Secrets" because it’s about how being a mother changes your perspective on life. Ready?
Here we go!
Ashley's day doesn't start out too good. Her attempt to visit Miles doesn’t go well and that makes her furious and the truth is that her mother doesn’t help at all. Or does she? Because Rainey tries to help…in her own way. Being a mother is equivalent to giving up many things, life itself is equivalent to sacrifices and truncated plans. Even secrets.
Rainey, at the time, realized that Ashley, Janelle and Miles AKA "The Four Hustlateers" needed to feel rebellious and transgressive so she didn't tell them anything about smoking weed or that she did it too because ... well, sometimes you have to let your children experiment and make mistakes. But that doesn't mean that Rainey didn't know what Ashley was doing.
She knew it.
Just as she knows now that Ashley is hiding something about Miles and why he didn’t accept the deal to return to his family as soon as possible. Rainey knows that Ashley is hiding something from her… and she also imagines what it is. She just wants to give Ashley time for her to confess.
And this secret is tearing Ashley apart from little by little. That's what secrets do for you. Keeping a secret, especially from a loved one, is like a very heavy slab that you carry on your chest and with each lie to safeguard that secret that slab weighs more.
Until you just can't bear the weight. And you are irritable, nervous, tortured ... because imagining what will happen if that secret comes to light, the people you could lose, the lonely you will be left wreaks havoc inside you. Your conscience, your own mind tortures you more than just confess the secret and face the consequences.
Ashley is in that position now. In a position with no way out, with a weight on her chest that she cannot bear anymore but, at the same time, with a paralyzing fear of confessing everything for the consequences that that would have. And I understand it. It may not be understood from the outside why Ashley is keeping this secret but I do it, things are not that easy.
Rainey knows how her daughter feels, a mother always knows, and she is giving her time. Because what happens with secrets is that it’s a matter of time before they are discovered.
In the midst of all this, Janelle and Ashley are reunited as the amazing friends that they are. I love seeing the way they understand and support each other, no matter what. The two had very different plans for their lives but life is an expert in making the best laid plans truncate, blur and change. And that happened to them.
But their friendship remained strong. Their friendship are that kind of friendship that can go months without catching up and when they talk again it’s as if time hadn’t passed. And I love it.
Earl, for his part, must start being responsible for his life if he wants to stay free but he prefers to just sit on the couch, smoke weed and relax - and it doesn't seem like a bad plan. Unexpectedly, it’s Janelle who pulls him out of that spiral ... more or less.
They both smoke weed together but thanks to a cooking competition, we see Earl do something that he really knows how to do very well ... even if he doesn't like it. Cook brings back good and bad memories. Cook unites him to his father, to the good times they spent together but it also reminds him of their current situation and it hurts.
Thus, this competition serves to strengthen the bond between Janelle and Earl little by little ... and I like it.
I hope Earl finds his true passion and heals those wounds that are still bleeding. He deserves to do it and, most of all, he needs it.
PS: I miss Trish in this episode!
And here ends our Blindspotting 1x04 “The Four Hustlateers” review, the show returns with a new episode on July 18. Stay tuned to read our review!
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to share with us in the comments below!
Blindspotting airs on Sundays at Starz.
