Martin Carr reviews the seventh episode of Wayward Pines season 2…
What we get this week is more backstory but not served up in quite the same way. Flashbacks are designed to show us more background, deeper motivational meaning or any additional conflict or context present day actions are incapable of providing. But enough of this sucking eggs.
Wayward Pines serves up CJ or Christopher James as an ageless journeyman. Portrayed with restraint and dignity by Djimon Hounsou who silently watches over the inhabitants of Wayward Pines incapable of connecting, yet charged with a guardianship of sorts. Taking that topic alone and making it fly is difficult enough, but to counterpoint this with a two hander between Yedlin and Fisher while their supposed enemy are at the gates is a tall order.
Hounsou has been Oscar nominated before and can carry the burden of his role with an ease which might see others resort to caricature. While Patric and Davis are solid players, experienced actors and more than a match for this source material. Once again Pines has taken difficult questions and presented an entertaining and non-preachy method of investigation. Whether you like this or not becomes academic after a short time, as mortality, ethics, testing, evolution and our place in the food chain all under fire. Toby Jones and Tom Stevens, who both play a limited role, contribute and offer possibilities but no ultimatums to anything addressed within this episode.
What is becoming apparent beyond the role of CJ, Megan, Yedlin or Jason are how much more the abbies have to offer character wise. If anything it will be the exploration of them that may prove the salvation of Wayward Pines into a third run. Because right now the human element are hell bent on destroying themselves and others, while offering up very little dramatic meat for us to feast on.
Any interaction either past or present which has gone on has only expanded the narrative minutely. Up until now Pines has been obsessed with in-fighting, finger pointing and naysayers. All anyone had alluded to was the loss of a relative, ineptitude amongst those in charge, or wrong doing against anyone within spitting distance. In a word Wayward Pines had become nothing more than a mothers meeting with high production values.
At least with the capture of a female abbie events have taken an interesting turn. Sure it has promoted conflict, but at least this was directed externally rather than bouncing from one to another inside. It felt like watching that one person just out of focus putting the plug in and flipping a switch, while those arguing in the foreground seemed unable to realise that someone had just turned the power off. That may sound like a simplistic example but sometimes that’s all you need only time will tell.
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published July 12, 2016. Updated November 29, 2022.
