Episode 6 of The Mosquito Coast upped the momentum a bit by having us move towards a direction that we probably saw coming: with Richard back in the picture, Margot now wants to flip him to the feds – but the problem is, they’re onto Allie – having overheard him at the conference, which he, surprise surprise, was able to escape with William Lee after a frantic series of sequences that made the most of AppleTV+’s budget, but the show feels entirely redundant now – like it’s spinning in circles. That said – this episode helped right a few wrongs, pushing us on a course to the endgame – we get reminded of where Margot and Allie stand, Allie desperately wants to cling onto this little utopia of his that he has together, whilst Margot wants a life for herself.
The kids are still grappling with the knowledge that Margot lied to them and ever the source of drama this season, Charlie, believes after being told by Dina that take Richard away, and his mother will be okay – not realising that Margot may just be as ruthless as Allie and can have her own agenda. He pulls a gun on Richard and almost shoots him, but it blanks – and Richard gets the upper hand, taking the gun and leaving Charlie behind after a reminder that people are naturally good, so they make their enemies worse than they intend to be – Ariyon Bakare did a fantastic job at selling how scared he was of Charlie with the gun pointed on him – Charlie has killed before, and one of the big questions of season 2 so far has been: can he do it again, and what does that make him now? Gabriel Bateman does a solid job at grappling with the material that he’s been given.
Isela reveals to Allie that she’s still team Allie, but she’s playing both sides – she has to work with Lee’s people sometimes to get what they want. Having the pair work together ticked the sequel trope of having bad guys work with the good guys to fight a greater evil, and clearly, something greater is coming – but The Mosquito Coast is unsure it wants to tell us what it is yet. It’s got itself – as ever, playing its cards close to its chest, just as much it took the criticism of not giving the audience too much about the first series to heart.
One more thing I will say about this episode is that; if you want to use Coconut by Harry Nilsen, you'd better know you're as good as Tarantino - and I don't think this show's quite there yet. It's setting the stage nicely: Margot is double crossing at least one of Richard and Allie, trying to find out what Richard is really planning - and even in this community, they still answer to a landlord. Presumably Allie's goal will be to change that, and keep ahold of what he has. But at what cost?
