I gotta hand it to Wayward Pines – this show continues to zig when I expect it to zag. After the stunning ending of last week’s episode, “One of Our Senior Realtors Has Chosen to Retire” was a welcome exhale of breath, a slower, talkier episode that not only provided some much-needed backstory, but also sought to answer the question “What’s it like to actually live in Wayward Pines?”
“Our Town, Our Law” raised a lot of questions, such as, how the hell is Ethan going to get away with killing Sheriff Pope? “Senior Realtors” answered that question almost by not answering it. Not only is Ethan not going to get Reckoned, but while raiding Pope’s weapons cabinet he finds out that he’s the new Sheriff. The Sheriff is dead, long live the Sheriff, that kind of deal. It’s not long before he encounters complications, obviously through Pam. Melissa Leo’s performance is always teetering on campy, but the Oscar winner knows how to dial it back when necessary. After Pope’s departure, she could be the sneering evil that this show needs in order to further ratchet up its insanity factor, and she makes a good opening salvo aganist Ethan, bringing in Peter, the titular realtor (Justin Kirk, who we met last week), dubbing him an insurgent and demanding that he be Reckoned. Look at Leo in this scene, her leather jacket creaking in a way that’s impossible not to evoke similar garments worn by the Gestapo. Pam is this close to dropping her facade entirely, and director Zal Batmanglij (who directed last week’s episode as well) really lets Leo savor the moment.
Apart from Ethan’s dilemma, “Senior Realtors” focused mostly on Theresa and Ben, the latter of whom is not only stuck in an inescapable prison of a town, but also has to go to school there. That sucks. In any story of people trapped like this, there’s bound to be someone who acclimates to the lifestyle and allows themselves to be brainwashed (this happened as recently as Mad Max: Fury Road). To be fair to Ben, though, his teacher Mrs. Fisher (Hope Davis) gives him a guitar (“for your heartsong,” she says, the episode’s most cringe-inducing line) and he gets the attention of one of his classmates, a young girl named Amy.
My favorite part of “Senior Realtors” was the sheer frequence of loaded conversations. In contrast to the previous three episodes, “Senior Realtors” featured almost none of the huge revelations or plot twists that Wayward Pines has hung its hat on. (The biggest reveal, if you can call it that, is that Ethan finds Pope’s files on all the citizenry.) Instead we get to find out backstory, all of which I’m sure will come into play later, such as the fact that Theresa quit the Secret Service program and that Mrs. Fisher used to be a hypnotherapist (that last one was a little too on the nose for me).
Even though “Senior Realtors” ends on another cliffhanger – Ethan scales a rock face, and we see one of those horrible creatures watching him from the trees – it was a wisely scaled-back episode and afforded Wayward Pines some breathing room. To wit: several scenes were just Ethan and Peter talking to each other; throughout these conversations Batmanglij keeps his camera at a tactful distance, letting Matt Dillon and Justin Kirk, two excellent actors, fill the space between the walls. It’s a pity that Peter killed himself by running into the electric fence; it’s an even greater pity that the next place we’ll see Justin Kirk is on Tyrant.
A Few Thoughts
- So Pam is taking over the Sheriff position. This seems…ill-conceived
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Pumping the music through speakers in trees was a nice, creepy touch. Reminded me of something you’d see in Bioshock
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