I feel these episodes can be reviewed in two parts, the Midnight-mini story, and the mystery TV show story. For this particular episode, the Midnight story is by far the stand-out part.
SPOILERS: TURN BACK
Ilonka is suffering so badly with main character syndrome, that she automatically believes she is the one to go home when she eavesdrops Stanton saying one of the kids is not terminal any longer. As most pseudo-science goes, Ilonka believes this was a result of the ritual, and that someone was saved, just not Anya.
While Ilonka is hanging out with her vegan-witch friend, Spencer spews a monologue onto his mother, which I'm sure meant more to other viewers than myself. But the primary story, the bland relationship between Amesh and Natsuki takes the reigns. It's clear Natsuki is severely depressed, in fact, she said so in the previous episode, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who expected someone to open her bedroom door and find that she hurt herself in some way. Instead, we get an intimate Midnight story. The kids dispersed after discovering the library doors were locked, but Amesh and Natsuki made their own fireplace and thus began her story.
I'm a sucker for subtle metaphors, so this was right up my alley. Although, it wasn't as subtle as it could have been; right at the end, the writers must have thought the viewers weren't paying attention enough to see the obvious clues in the introduction (tennis ball was on the nose), so they made sure to show us everything, even down to the meaning of each and every character in the story.
Reminiscent of Lost Highway, Natsuki drives endlessly down a misty and dark road. She picks up two rock-band hitchhikers, and stops at a gas station. The dialogue is dream-like and blatantly metaphorical. It's clear these characters are thin veils to mask the trauma and pain she is experiencing. It reminded me of a Shelley poem, where he warns, "do not lift the painted veil which those who live call life" and that "Fear and Hope, twin destinies" distort reality like shadow-play.
The longer she drives, the more disturbing things become, and she realises something is very wrong. Ultimately, she discovers in reality that she is dying from monoxide poisoning, and makes a great closing line, "it was the longest drive of my life, yet I didn't even leave the garage." (Not verbatim) After finishing her story, Natsuki admits it rings true for her own suicide attempt.
We are left on a cliff-hanger as the attention is pulled back to Ilonka, when she hears strange noises coming from the cult-basement. That scary woman is there again, and she's kind of pissing me off. But no! Bait and switch, it was... Steven!
At this point, do I really care? We've had very little revealed over the course of EIGHT episodes. I'm aware this will be more than just one season, but with the way Netflix is handling their shows, I'm expecting this to be cancelled prematurely. But who knows, it's apart of their "Flanaverse", whatever that means, and they've pushed it so much, it may well be protected from the axe.
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