In the Flesh - S2E3 - Episode 3
Previously, on In the Flesh: “Episode 2”
This episode begins through the view of a camcorder recording a wedding video of a happy couple on their big day. Then we exit the video, and we see the groom in the video is now the one watching it; he’s Freddie, Dean’s pal. Someone comes downstairs, sees him watching the video, and tells him he shouldn’t be doing this to himself. I guess his wife died.
Next, we see what we’re really interested in, and that’s what the hell Jem is up to now. Gary has driven her home after she shot Henry in the woods. We see this is pretty much immediately after the end of the previous episode. Jem doesn’t want to be home, though; she wants to tell people what she did. I guess you sober up fairly quickly after shooting someone in the back of the head. Anyway, Gary tells her to go inside and not tell anyone anything. She is still sitting on the stoop of the house when Keiren gets home from the party. They both go inside, Kieren comments on the fact that their parents didn’t wait up, and Jem goes to her room and tearfully buries her gun deep in her nightstand drawer.
Back at Freddie’s house, oooh, the woman who told him not to do this to himself (by watching the wedding video) is Haley, his wife. It seems she must have remarried (to a man named Amir), and when Freddie came back from the treatment center, they let him live with them for a while. It’s Haley’s birthday, and Freddie forgot; then Freddie goes into a memory about something he and Haley did before, and Amir gets upset. Amir tells Freddie he wants him to leave because he has outstayed his welcome; Amir makes the mistake of asking Haley if she even wants Freddie to leave, and she does not answer… which is kind of an answer.
Here, we check in on Henry’s body in the woods; yep, he’s still dead-dead.
At the Walker home, Kieren is sitting at the breakfast table with his parents, as they present him with some ideas of what he could do while he’s unable to leave the country. Then Jem comes downstairs, makes a brief appearance, and then tells them she loves them as she leaves. That can’t be an omen for anything can it? As Jem leaves, Amy comes in and makes Kieren’s parents uncomfortable.
We jump over to the B&B where Maxine Martin is staying. She’s having a conversation with the keeper of the B&B, when they are interrupted by someone at the door. It’s Jem! Guess what she’s doing. Borrowing sugar, right? Nope. She’s there to turn herself in.
Back at the Walkers’, Amy is talking to Kieren about the conversation he had with Simon, Amy’s husband-to-be, but Kieren won’t tell her what they talked about. Speaking of Simon, we check in on him, and he is reciting a prayer. Another thing that can’t possibly be an omen for things to come.
Freddie’s on his way to the Community Give Back Scheme/slave labor, and he’s walking with a woman who tries to cheer him up by telling him what’s happened to them is a gift (the undying part; not the give back part). Freddie isn’t having it, though, because his “gift” included his wife shacking up with an estate agent and him sleeping in their guest room with the guy’s vinyl collection. He has a point.
At the Give Back meeting, everyone is told what they’ll be doing for the day, and Philip has Amy stay behind. As everyone is loading up on the bus, on their way to wherever their various assignments are, Freddie approaches Dean and pays him to let Freddie out of the Give Back program for a little while.
Then we see that Jem has told Maxine everything about everything, but we don’t get any real answer about what’s going to come of this confession. Probably nothing.
Kieren and Simon are on their way to the hospital for their day’s assignment. As they’re walking, Kieren asks Simon what he is really doing with Amy because Kieren is worried Simon is leading Amy on. Simon basically admits that what Amy thinks is going on (that they are to be married and that Simon loves her) isn’t what’s going on; Simon ostensibly says he’s leading her on, but he’s not really leading her on. What really happens is that Simon talks his way around Kieren and convinces him that everything is fine. Is everything really fine? I don’t know, but I’ll just go ahead and guess that it’s not because, you know, television.
We jump right back over to Jem and Maxine; there are now in a taxi, and Jem thinks Maxine is taking her to the police, but Maxine really brought Jem out to the woods so Jem can show her “where it happened”. Maxine doesn’t give a shit that Jem killed that dude. We know that, but Jem has no idea.
Now we see Haley at work, in a boring meeting, when an annoying horn starts blowing outside. Who is it? It’s Freddie, of course. The reason he wanted out of the Give Back Scheme is so he could go get his car and pick up Haley for a joy ride. Haley is all, “This is how you died”, and Freddie is all, “Yeah, but now I know better.” You can’t argue with that logic, so they go on their little joy ride. He has taken her out to where he drunkenly proposed to her and where she drunkenly said yes. Oh, how romantic…
Out in the woods, Maxine makes the argument to Jem that Henry was a killer; he killed countless people while he was a zombie, so Jem shouldn’t be upset. That’s when Jem realizes that Henry’s body is gone.
Back with Amy and Philip, we learn something we already knew: Philip intentionally had her stay there with him because he loves her she’s good at secretarial things. He asks her to be his “personal assistant”, and she’s basically like, “Go fuck yourself.”
At the hospital, Simon and Kieren are told to go a bit like early Hershel on The Walking Dead on some rabids who’ve been sedated. Basically, they’re to hook them around the neck and then lead them away to be cleaned up (or some their cage can be cleaned?). Kieren goes along with it, but Simon basically calls it for the bullshit that it is; they’re basically herding these zombies around like cattle and not treating them like people. This is another opportunity for Simon to educate the naive Kieren about the fact that this “system” is not set up in a way that’s good for PDS sufferers.
Out in the woods, Jem and Maxine find Gary, and Jem tells him that she told Maxine everything. He’s like, “I was pretty clear on how you shouldn’t do that.” Anyway, Maxine acts concerned, and Gary tells them he burned Henry’s body and buried his bones elsewhere. Poor Henry.
Back at the romantic excursion with Freddie and Haley, Freddie asks Haley to go away with him, and we learn that their relationship wasn’t always as perfect as this roadside picnic makes things seem. Haley shuts Freddie down and says she has to get back to work. That can’t lead anywhere good.
Back with Philip, Henry’s mother is trying to get him to work up a missing person’s flier for Henry, and Philip is pretty much like, “That’s not necessary.” She says she’ll come back when Maxine is in; unfortunately for her, that won’t help matters at all.
In the hospital, Simon pours all the cleaning fluid he and Kieren were to use down the toilet and has Kieren ask for more. As the nurse is getting more, Simon pilfers her keys from her desk, but Kieren sees him and tells him to put the keys back. Simon reluctantly does so and then gives Kieren the most “I’m disappointed in you” act that you’ll ever see anyone give another person who isn’t their child. He’s all, “I thought you had potential! You could have been somebody! You could have been a contender!”
At Maxine’s office/Philip’s office/Hell, Maxine returns and does two things that show she’s even a larger bitch than previously shown: 1. Philips tells her about Henry missing, to which Maxine asks “Living or PDS?” and proceeds to not give a shit when Philip answers “PDS.” 2. She sees that Amy is there and tells Philip to get rid of her. Philips asks what he should say, and Maxine just yells at Amy, “Get out!” Maxine is horrible.
However, when Maxine and Philip go see Henry’s mother, Maxine acts like she gives a shit about Henry… for about thirty seconds. Maxine basically interrogates the mother about Henry’s actions (which leads to the mother telling them Henry was psychic after coming back), and then Maxine accuses him of running away to join the resistance. Yes, well, fuck you, too.
Afterward, Maxine meets with Gary at the pub and tells him what happened with Henry can’t happen again because she’s paranoid and blah blah blah, she’s a shitty person.
Now we see Simon holding court over a meeting of PDS sufferers where he’s telling them about how they should stop hiding who they really are. Then he passes around a rag for them to wash off their cover-up.
Back with Haley and Amir, we see Amir has made Haley a cake, and he’s basically being a good guy. He barely gets to start singing “Happy Birthday” when Haley interrupts him and says they need to talk; that’s never good. Freddie had left a note for Haley to meet him at the garage (I think, since that’s what happens). Haley goes to meet Freddie at his garage and makes you think she’s leaving with him, and he thinks so, too. But no, she’s actually there to tell Freddie that he has to leave and that she is staying with Amir. Damn, that was serpentine as fuck; I didn’t know where it was going, and it’s not over, yet! Freddie resists, at first, but then is all cool with Haley’s decision. That’s when we see Amir back at his house hearing Freddie’s watch alarm go off… you know, the alarm that tells him to take his shot… you know, the shot that keeps him from going rabid. So, Freddie says he “forgot his shots”, but could he have done this on purpose? I’ve got whiplash from how many turns this has taken.
It’s even more not over, now, than it previously had been! Amir gets to the garage, and the door is jammed, so he can’t get in. Inside, Freddie grabs a hammer and asks Haley to bash him over the head… I guess that answers the question of whether or not he did it on purpose. Haley won’t do it, even though Freddie gives her several opportunities. Meanwhile, Gary is on his way, and he calls Jem to get her to come, too, but Kieren answers. Jem doesn’t want to talk to Gary, so Kieren goes. Gary gets the garage door open just as Kieren arrives and slides underneath. Gary follows him in and shoots Freddie in the leg; he showed just a glimpse of humanity, but then he wants to finish him off, which is more than a glimpse at the dickhole he really is. Kieren stands between them, and then good guy Amir walks through and gives Henry his shot. I mean, not to be a jerk, but Haley really seems to have traded up. Anyway, now that Freddie is treated, Gary can’t shoot him (or at least doesn’t), so he puts him in restraints and throws him into the back of his truck. He tells Kieren that Freddie will be taken to a facility for uncooperative PDS sufferers, or some such nonsense, and Kieren knows that’s wrong; he tells Gary he can’t do that because Freddie didn’t do anything wrong, and Gary is all, “You’d be surprised what I can do.” What a piece of shit, but at least now Kieren has been able to witness the system firsthand.
Later, Gary goes to Jem’s window and stalks her talks to her. She acts like she’s unpleased he’s there, but then he kisses her to absolutely no resistance. She’s into it, and this kiss just makes me several kinds of uncomfortable.
Then we watch as Kieren walks up the street and comes to the door of Amy and Simon. When Simon opens the door, Kieren steps in and kisses Simon long and hard. See now this kiss, as surprising as it was to me, didn’t feel uncomfortable at all because they’re just living up to the potential they saw in each other. Now Kieren is in the cult or whatever they’re calling themselves.
