Remember that list of things I thought you might not want to find as a crash victim waking up in a strange town from last week? I’ve found a worse one. What you really, really do not want above all costs to encounter first thing in the morning at your new school … is a perky Hope Davis ready to do the high-five hand jive with all the returning kids. That’s just … wrong on so many levels.
Oh, yeah, Hope is as psycho in her own way as Registered Nurse Pam, who at least lays all her cards way out all across the table at all times. Hope is more of a mind-games type (a former hypno-therapist, even) who likes to hint and cajole and sort of point to what she wants rather than ever come out and say it. Fucking WASPs.
Ethan is getting a little better at playing along, and settling into his role as Sheriff (“I guess when you kill somebody here, you get their job,” he ruefully explains to his wife). She also gets a job offer by the end of the episode (thus the best episode title of any series this year by my count). And she better take it, because “retire” is the same thing as “suicide” in Wayward Pines.
The mix of the predictable with the offsetting continues this week, with every word Davis utters carrying an air of menace or threat, but delivered in such a carefree way you’re not sure what you just heard. The polar opposite of Pam, actually, who’s every leering utterance lands with a cruel thud of greed and superior knowledge. She “knows” what really happened to the former realtor, she’s sure Burke won’t keep his new job long, she’s sure something more than professional was going on with Pope and Arlene, that must be why she’s so upset?
Really, can anyone even in this surreal place be so blind to their own most grating qualities? Dillon plays it cools to Leo’s heat, making it easy for Burke to take her insulting toast at the steakhouse and turn it completely around to his benefit. He’s getting the handle on how things are done in this town, that no meal is ever offered or partaken in without veiled subtext, that friendships are never as easy as they seem. He’s pretty sure he’s still got room to maneuver, which is rather blind confidence I’d say but his well of rage (and protective duty to his family) are powering him pretty well so far. The town has hit him hard, but he’s still got that Matt Dillon swagger.
Teresa’s going to have to develop swagger of her own, if she means to deal with Amy (so clearly an assignment behind her every word), a fellow student that has been aimed at her son. Is Ben just young and naïve enough to be open to reformulation and persuasion by the powers behind all those phone calls? He’s just angry enough at his parents and the situation that he’s vulnerable, but he’s old enough they should stop protecting him and start leveling with him. Indoctrination should be the last thing he wants.
Burke also keeps refusing to answer all those ringing phones. And by episode’s end, he’s in trouble again … the show is keeping up its fairly rapid clip of peeling away the layers of Wayward, so I’m definitely hungry for the next surprise.