Egg Shells
Episode 3 of Somebody Somewhere begins with Sam returning home to find her neighbour, Drew, arrested. He’d been dealing Fentanyl and that gets her thinking about people closer to home. Namely, it fuels the fires of doubt she has over Rick and where he got the wad of cash in his back pocket from. She’s convinced that he’s dealing drugs, and believes the local Drive Thru is the hot-spot. So naturally, Sam waits for Rick and then tails him from afar with Joel as the desginated driver. Parking up (in a spot that has shade, which is pretty funny) they notice him arriving to see a chainsaw artist called Bill Baker. Unfortunately, both Sam and Joel fall asleep while on the job. When they awaken, Sam admits she has a big Saturday where she writes goals for the week. Joel meanwhile usually does a lot of charity work on Saturdays, trying to keep busy and “make sure the terror doesn’t creep in.” With Rick on the move, the duo end up losing him on the road after a close call with an oncoming car. Sam eventually heads to her parents’ house, where Rick’s there already and preparing to grill. This gives Sam a chance to do some snooping, where she notices two phones in his bag. When Rick shows up, Sam stumbles over her words and makes up a very shaky cover story. Only, it’s not as shaky as Rick’s, who leaves soon after. Drama ensues with Mary-Jo soon after, as Ed reveals that sh run over his foot and an incident with the grill almost sees Shannon’s head consumed in an inferno. She’s drunk and clearly a liability. That night, Sam arrives at the church where Fred encourages her to sing. Sam completely rocks the crowd, letting loose and grinning from ear to ear. She even gets a standing ovation too. It’s a really beautiful moment, and one that’s incredibly well-acted by Bridget Everett. As she clutches her necklace, the mixture of elation, sadness and thoughtful reflection is so clear to see and it’s easily the best scene of the series so far. That night, Sam heads home with the strength to talk to her father. After the Mary-Jo incident, Sam urges Ed to talk her into going to rehab. And as he heads inside to do just that, Sam watches quietly from afar.
The Episode Review
Somebody Somewhere returns this week with its best episode yet. The humour during the opening parts of this chapter, leaning into the absurdist humour with tailing Rick was really nicely handled and it also allows for the plot to develop a little as well. Rick is definitely acting suspiciously but it’ll be interesting to see exactly what’s going on with him. I don’t think it’ll be drug dealing but the two phones and the wad of cash could be linked to something bigger…or it could be a massive misunderstanding, we shall see! This episode also has some really nice moments between Joel and Sam, especially the way Joel keeps himself busy. When he’s on his own, it’s clear he’s going through his own battles but is keeping busy so he doesn’t have to dwell on it. We haven’t seen too much from characters like Fred yet, but hopefully the episodes ahead remedy that. Somebody Somewhere has been a really solid watch and despite a slightly wobbly pilot episode (which, let’s face it, many shows struggle with anyway), each chapter has been getting better and better. Roll on next week!
