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Commence The Purge Episode 7: We Are Sliding Off the Rails Now

Published Wed, 17 Oct 2018 19:05:55 -0500

by Jeremy Konrad

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The Purge has gone a bit off the rails these last couple weeks. Sadly this weeks episode was full of weird story beats, wooden acting in spots, and aimlessness that tells me some of these storylines should not have lasted the whole ten episode run. Case in point: I am not really sure we need to see Miguel and Penelope anymore. They have been reunited, and are now just trying to survive the rest of the night. Well, when Penelope is not waffling about dying still. Its annoying that she wants to die still yet fights to stay alive at every turn. They are the lens we see all of the Purge violence through however, so I guess we will keep plodding along. At least we might be heading back to Pete the Cop's bar!

Onto the world's worst love triangle, and Rick continues to not trust Lila at all after she shows up on their doorstep. Jenna of course wants nothing more to help her, and that makes him kinda mad. Their neighbor shows up, and ready to Purge the both of them for parking their car in front of his house, but they get the upper hand and Lila stabs him to death. Yet another set of characters who should be dead but the person who has them cornered starts monologing about BS until something stops him. It actually would have been bold and for them to take out one of them, especially Rick, but then the story is over and there are three episodes left. We leave them recovering on the couch, Jenna drifting off to sleep between them and Lila holding her hand while Rick looks on jealous. Hello, she is your wife! Do something you spineless dummy! I am convinced he is getting offed even more now, Lila and Jenna 4 ever.

Which brings us to Jane. She is the subject of this week's flashbacks, as we gets some answers as to why her and her mother have such a strained relationship. Jane has been being used and taught by her mother that to get ahead as a black female, she needs to use her good looks to get by. This starts when she is passed up for a promising spot in a robotics lab at a young age. We see Jane become increasingly uncomfortable with the whole thing at beauty pageants and such, until finally she tells her mother before a big job interview that she is done doing things this way. Her mother begs her to wait to stand up for what's right until they are financially secure, to which Jane replies "I can't". It is one of the more emotional punches the show has given us so far, and kudos to them showing it to us instead of treating it with the usual sensationalism. Perfectly played and acted.

If only that were the case in the non-flashbacks. Jane listens to endless soliloquies from David now that she is tied up (he's a pig, get it?) remaining defiant as always as shouting variations of "You are a monster" for what seems like forever. When Joe the Purge Punisher arrives and saves her, the show gives us a moment we have been waiting for (?) and Jane shoots David herself. That moment felt completely unearned and not the fist-pump moment they were hoping for. Jane and the now-worried looking Anya free the other women and they all escape. Joe tells a forever-changed Jane that he is "taking her somewhere safe", which I doubt again since there are three episodes left.

All of these storylines could have ended this week. There would be no more show, but it feels like they are really stretching things out now. Hopefully they can bring it back around in the last three weeks. There are certainly some opportunities for complete mayhem left on The Purge, so we shall see.

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