I said it once, i said it twice, i likely said it more times than needed but that’s just how obvious that it’s become but these episodes truly are lacking content wise. I know this stance Has gonna tiresome for anyone taking the time to read this but it really does remain a problem for me who has to review each episode individually and find that I can fit an episode synopsis into a paragraph. When thinking about it I could fit it into a sentence. Kids decide that Norman will escape first and he attempts it only to find that there is an obstacle that they didn’t account for. The next episode being just Normans death(?) and the characters reaction to it. What am I really to say here?
Well I do like how Norman’s feelings are portrayed which getting water for Emma and just the pure terror and despair in his eyes but I did feel the scene went longer than it needed to. We didn’t need that long shot of Norman walking to the sink. That was just padding for time. As well as the long lingering shots when mom was checking her watch. I get the intent but it dragged longer than it needed to. So on to the rather odd explanation as to how Ray found out about the nature of the farm. I say many of us wouldn’t find it all the surprising if Ray found it out by himself just from investigating as he is the most meticulous of the group. Happy or not he is likely to begin to question the nature of the farm and it is fairly likely he would find out. Yet instead the reasoning they give for Ray finding out is due to him having memories from the time he was born. Yes, Ray can remember things from when he was barely a few months old, or even when he was a fetus. This is certainly one of the weirdest explanations they could have gone with. It’s also highly debatable if this is even possible considering that at the point of being born Ray’s facilities for retaining memory may not have even developed yet. Admittedly the children of the farms are super geniuses so genetic tampering may be in effect but it’s still rather odd if Ray could understand anything going on at the time and not dismiss it later as some childhood nightmare.
As for the episode focusing on Norman’s death, I admit this didn’t really affect me. I feel that being a manga reader has proven to be a detriment as many of the moments building tension or pushing for a emotional punchline tend to fall flat to me due to my knowledge of what is to happen. So having the characters all react hopelessly to Normans departure and Emma’s last ditch efforts to try and save Norman just didn’t really get a reaction out of me. I don’t feel that anything on screen was presented poorly but there is this overwhelming sense of just wanting it to get on with things. Of course there is the big question of what exactly happened with Norman as it wasn’t shown him getting killed. Hints are pointing heavily towards Norman not having died and instead being chosen for some other duty but really be it manga or otherwise I don’t have confirmation on that. If there is one thing I truly appreciate in this series it’s Isabella, I love the contrast between her utter ruthlessness in doing her job and an underlying current that she truly loves these kids.
Norman asking her whether she was truly happy and how much that question threw her off balance show that in this world humans like Isabella may have a disconnect in that they are so focused on staying alive that the notion of being happy is such an unknown concept. I never grow tired of Isabella while the main characters of the series I find myself growing increasingly disinterested in. Some efforts to develop them have been made such as the flashback to when Norman was sick but they just feel rather basic. I will give credit to the seemly flasefied depression that Emma and Ray displayed as it makes for a good ending hook to show they haven’t given up even when Isabella thinks she has won. But at this point I have grown tired of the planning and just want this escape plan to be carried out already.
The series delving into endless escape-plan related psycho games is my biggest fear too, I somehow assumed the escape would happen early in the show. I have to admit that the series has never bored me though. Yet. But I have read enough manga to know that a single and somewhat simple goal I had only considered as the content of the very first arc might always end up becoming an endless will-they-won’t-they-(make-it?) that drags on for ages and kills the pacing. I do hope the first season ends with the actual escape and concludes this arc because there is only so much you can do with this single premise and I finally want to see the actual world they’re living in.