SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
Oh, so Prairie did die. I thought she would have been knocked out at the most. But then again this is a show about dying.
I knew from the moment Khatun told her that she needed to make a fair trade for the bird that her father would be what she needed to sacrifice. Now I’m not sure if he’s dead or if what she saw was simply an illusion of him. It did seem like if she chose not to take the bird that that meant she was choosing to stay dead and if staying dead means getting to see her father again, then that means he’s dead. Which in any other show would be a bad thing, but here death is not the end.
I was rolling my eyes the entire time Hap was sitting next to the bed nursing her and telling her how worried he was he would lose her. He hit her in the head. With a gun. Hard enough to kill her. He could not have cared that much. And he apologised too and was sincere about it.
I did not think that she would regain her sight so soon or obtain her higher knowledge already. I expected that to happen when she finally escaped and that she would gain the knowledge incrementally over time as she died again and again.
I was glad to see that Prairie kind of opened up to the FBI agent, but at the same time I’m wary of her getting comfortable enough to tell him maybe not everything, but, perhaps too much. He does seem genuine and I do believe that he is there for her and not the bureau, but I still think that she should keep her little rescue mission as much to herself as possible.
Of course Prairie and Homer’s plan would not have worked perfectly and they wouldn’t have found out the truth about the experiment easily. But three years? That is a really long time and they just kept trying over and over and over again. That is determination and persistence to the highest degree, especially considering that Homer died in one of the most painful ways possible every single time and had to learn to not react or panic when drowning. That would have been incredibly difficult.
It was no surprise to the viewer that Hap was killing them. That, I think, was obvious to us but not to them.
After that lengthy struggle I was overjoyed when Homer finally did it. I’m curious as to why his in-between-life-and-death space is different from Prairie’s and why he didn’t see Khatun. Is the space personalised for the individual or something along those lines? And his has people that chase him apparently?
I thought at first that because he was in a different space that meant that he hadn’t been successful and since Khatun wasn’t there and she didn’t give him the fish that eating it didn’t work. But it looks like she doesn’t need to be there.
Random thoughts:
- The blind one is the most troublesome. That’s what you get for underestimating her.
- Hap: “I was worried about you.” You hit her over the head with a gun!
- Is she going to let anyone know she can see?
- She did.
All episode of The OA are currently available for streaming on Netflix.
We got our first and second runway challenges this week. I was a little disappointed that Benny Ninja didn’t come on to coach the girls along with Stacey Mackenzie in the first one, but voguing was involved so that softened the blow. The best performer in the first challenge for me was Binta (who proved her prowess on the runway last week) and the worst was Justine.
But it all paid off in the end because Kyle ended up winning the second challenge. She brought her own style and personality to her walk, much like she had in the first challenge and that is what Law and Zendaya loved. She may not be the best walker in the house – and again, she’s not even particularly bad to begin with – but she just needs to bring that confidence and put her own stamp on it and she will do fine.
I felt so bad for Cody when she went up for judging and just broke down crying before anyone said anything to her. She was incredibly nervous and scared. I can sympathise with that, but if she is going to continue on in the competition and work in this industry, she needs to toughen up. The fashion industry is notoriously brutal.
Back tracking a little to earlier in the episode, Paige’s whole “I want to use the privilege I was born with as a white [American] woman to change the world” speech, while admirable, felt fairly disingenuous. To me it came off like she was trying to score points with the Black girls. I would even go so far as to say it was a little white saviour complex-ish. As some of the others said later, she was being too extra. She was “passionate” in a way that was almost forceful and aggressive. Like she was trying to prove herself or win likes or something.
I know the show is edited and she probably didn’t say it as much as the show has made it look, but I am starting to get tried of hearing Coryanne talking about her supermodel mother and now she is bringing in her supermodel friends. Being in the vicinity of supermodels does not make her one and she proved that this week with her performance. I wanted her to go home and Justine to stay. Not because I dislike her or anything, but because I just liked Justine more.
I didn’t buy that this reporter, Pat Knoller from the Chicago Tribune, really cared that much about Prairie and letting her tell her story so that she could heal. She can do that without having someone write a book about her. And all of her talk about how successful her last book was and how much money it made the family didn’t make her look any better either. She very not so deftly dodged Prairie’s question about if the money healed her previous subject.
When Hap sent Prairie to get his back up EpiPen and she paused, I thought it was because she remembered Homer’s ring, not because she was contemplating letting Hap die. Homer’s ring was the first thing that I thought about when Hap sent her to the bathroom so I assumed it would be her first thought as well. When she dropped the ring into the bath tub I thought she’d lost it for good. And then of course she did when they tried to send the letter.
I’m curious as to how August died. I’m sure it has something to do with the experiment and it wasn’t until now that I realised that we don’t know what it is or what it entails. Prairie, Homer, Scott and Rachel haven’t been subjected to anything yet. Not that we’ve seen on screen at least. And if August died before Prairie got there, why did he have her in a tub (of purple liquid) for that long? Why didn’t he dispose of her body sooner?
I knew Hap was going to kidnap Prairie! I got so many creepster vibes from him. He was far too eager when he first encountered her; overly nice and charming. And he seemed oddly adept at interacting with a blind person. Perhaps he had before, but so far in the story we don’t know if he had. He never once made a mistake or forgot she was blind. He was too perfect. And all of that stuff about she should never have been medicated and he thinks she’s so special, making her feel accepted. He was just buttering her up.
And what a perfect target she was. Her blindness, unfortunately, made her easy to manipulate. When he was taking her down to the basement, just the look of its door was way off for what it was (who has a steel door to their basement?) and the fact that he led her to an underground cavern and that the handrail changed. All of these little things that we, the audience, could see and that Prairie couldn’t that were red flags.
I kind of believe that Prairie’s father is alive. Either he is or she really is crazy. I’m hoping that all of the things she has experienced with the dreams/premonitions etc is real and she’s not mad. The story would be so much more interesting that way and it would just take the wind out of my sails if it wasn’t. It would probably still be just as impactful, however.
I do not want this thing with Prairie to mess up Alfonso’s scholarship. TV writing being TV writing, it likely will. I want him to keep that scholarship because I want him to get away from his mother. Although, I don’t want his little brothers to stay with her either and if he goes there is no one there to take care of them. There is nothing wrong her. She’s just lazy and couldn’t give a damn about her children.
And speaking of economically friendly, another concern he had while living in the island was how expensive it would be for an entire family to go out and enjoy an evening together. He envisioned his space as one with ‘family friendly’ pricing; at present the prices are $7 BDS for adults and $5 BDS for children under 12 for 30 minutes in the rink, skates included.
After his historic advancement to the World Finals of the Red Bull Thre3style World DJ Championship on Tuesday, Barbadian competitor 
The first thing I noticed about this show – because it’s the most obvious – is how it is shot and coloured. I love it. The style is a familiar one; it’s the kind you see in smaller budget, sometimes indie, films that tend to be deep, philosophical and serious. Maybe even a little pretentious. So that gives me certain expectations about this show.
Despite Prairie being the main character, she wasn’t the one that stood out to me. It was Steve.
Prairie’s meeting with Betty took a really strange turn. I’m glad it didn’t take the usual route of Prairie’s strange rambling – especially about Betty forgetting her first reason and having lost someone – didn’t just somehow unlock this thing within her that made her soften and break down and promptly change her ways. It did by the end, but when Prairie said something that would be sensible to someone not on her wave length; that Betty should focus on the student who isn’t succeeding instead of the one that is.
It seems like dying – or at least having a near death experience – is important to whatever it is that Prairie is a part of. It looks like it involves obtaining a deeper understanding of the world or the universe (dimensions?). It makes sense that dying would somehow be linked to that considering the myths etc surrounding death and what happens when you die.
