Sense8 - S1E3 - Smart Money is on the Skinny Bitch
Previously on Sense8, ‘I Am Also a We’
Despite the first real “sensating” fight scene at the end, I didn’t really connect with this episode as much as the previous two. I’m starting to feel there are too many characters to do them all justice. For instance, Wolfgang wasn’t in this episode at all and I didn’t even notice, and Kala had only one scene and even that felt like too much. Nevertheless, I was glad to finally see more of Capheus and Sun, even if I do find Sun to be one of the least interesting characters so far.
Here is what our characters were up to in the third chapter of this strange series:
Will
Will opens this episode as a boy in a flashback. He’s hiding in a dark room peering in on someone slicing open a scalp. A girl appears and tells young Will not to look at the man slicing open the scalp, because “that’s how he got me.” When Will turns to look at the girl, she’s gone… she is the girl on the table.
Will suddenly jerks awake and finds himself on a hospital bed where he presumably ended up after last episode’s car crash with Jonas, whom the nurses congratulate him for catching.
But who was that girl? ‘Twas a dream? Could be, but ‘twas probably something else, since we later find out the girl is none other than Sara Petrell, the girl whose case his father warned him to leave alone in the last episode. If her head was sliced open—something Nomi was threatened with in the last episode—she probably has some kind of connection with the Sensates. Either way, I’m glad I don’t have dreams like that.
The nurses tell Will they’d like him to stay since his brain is showing unusual activity, but he doesn’t listen and heads back to the police station to talk to Jonas. Unfortunately, he learns Jonas is in the process of being transferred to another location.
Nomi
Speaking of head splicing, we only see Nomi for a few minutes this time around. She’s still in the hospital, of course, being held against her will, and actually gets sedated and taken to the operating room. As she begins to sob and beg for help, the building fire alarm goes off. It’s a non-critical evacuation, so she’s not out of the woods yet, but as she’s being wheeled back to her hospital room she remembers Amanita’s words from the previous episode—“I’ll burn this building down before I let them touch that beautiful brain.”
She cries in relief, quietly saying “thank you, thank you, thank you,” and although she goes unseen, Neetz has definitely proven her loyalty.
Riley
Riley’s story seems to be meandering just as much as Riley herself meanders through London. We catch up with her as she approaches a blind piano player on the street and, recalling a sweet childhood memory involving a piano, has second thoughts about the money and drugs she took from the previous episode. She dumps the money into the blind piano player’s tip box, and chucks the drugs into the trash.
Later, she catches up with a friend named Shugs and his friend, a girl named Bambie. As they talk over a pint, Shugs tells Bambie that Riley is the natural wonder of Iceland, and tells Riley he never did like Jacko—one of the drug guys she was messing around with her in the first episode. After talking about Iceland and its periods of eternal darkness, things get heavy and the trio starts talking about suicide. Riley mentions that, contrary to what one might assume, Icelanders actually get depressed when the sun comes back. Shugs shows off his tattoo… a bunch of hash marks, each one representing a point when someone told him he was lucky to be alive. Apparently, Shugs has tried to kill himself eleven times before, and probably doesn’t plan to stop; he tells the girls that anyone who really pays attention to the world and how fucked up it really is eventually come to see suicide as the only choice that makes any sense.
Well, okay. But—not to get morbid—if you’ve tried it eleven times before something tells me you’re not very committed, bro. I don’t quite know what to make of Shugs, and Riley seems to have very shifty friends.
Lito
Lito’s story continues to be one of the more entertaining ones, to me. He and his boyfriend, Hernando, are trying to figure out how (and if) Daniella fits into their life. Lito approaches her and essentially says as much, admitting he isn’t sure if they need a live-in beard. But Daniella, although she admits to loving gay porn, says her motives aren’t entirely just for them… she fucked her ex-boyfriend’s best friend and needs a place to lay low.
They go out to dinner and discuss her situation, her father (an importer/exporter of “stuff people want”), and Daniella asks why Lito chose her over other actresses like Gloria Sanchez. It was actually Hernando, he says, who chose her. As paparazzi arrive and start snapping photographs, Daniella beams and says it’s the best part she has ever played.
On the set later that day, Lito finishes shooting a scene and the director calls it a wrap. But Lito wants to try again… he wants to play it like he knows he is being betrayed. When the director asks how his character could possibly know at that point in the film, Lito says, “I do know.” And here, we cut to Riley in London. Shugs turns around and asks her, “know what, love?”
Riley, be careful.
Later, Lito meets a Mr. Joaquin Flores, who claims to be a big fan and wants to take Lito out to lunch. We know him as Daniella’s ex. At lunch, the two discuss what makes a good actor, and Lito repeats his line about actors being good liars. Suddenly Joaquin wants to talk about the secret behind killing someone on camera and making it appear real. Joaquin pulls a knife and holds it to Lito’s throat, explaining how to cut a jugular. Lito asks if he’s some kind of expert, and Joaquin laughs…. “no,” he says, “it’s just a hobby.”
Lito, be careful.
Joaquin admits why he’s really there—he thinks Lito is fucking the love of his life. But he can’t be mad at him, because if Joaquin were a girl he’d also love to fuck Lito. I guess Lito is on Daniella’s list of “freebies,” right? But Joaquin says his heart is broken, and when Lito assures him that she is very happy, Joaquin says he did it… Lito got him right in the jugular.
Sun
At this point in the series, Sun has had the least amount of screen time by far, and honestly I’m not even sure what to make of her. We saw her “handling business” at work, but that’s about it. Otherwise she seems to just ignore ringing phones and sigh a lot.
When we catch up to her in this episode, that is exactly what she’s doing. She’s standing in her office overlooking Seoul, and her phone is ringing—it’s Mr. Jeung—but she ignores it. She walks up and kneels down to a safe—and in Chicago, we quickly see Will is also opening one—and both Will and Sun pull out a red file. But while Will’s is a dossier about a missing child—Sara Petrell—Sun’s is full of spreadsheets and office documents. Sun and Will sensate with each other, and they each appear in each other’s places briefly, and we flash back to Sun as a child listening to her mother tell her to take care of her brother. Meanwhile, Sara Petrell pleads with a young Will to help her.
Sun is notified by her office aide that if she doesn’t pick up the phone and talk to Mr. Jeung, he will call the authorities. So Sun goes to talk to her father about things, but is told by his staff that he’s not available. Sun pounds on the receptionist’s desk, taking a chunk out of it. Sun, it seems, is much stronger than she looks.
Capheus
Kala’s one scene in this episode played directly into Capheus’ storyline, if only tangentially, because as Kala walks into a meeting where she will receive a flirty text from her husband-to-be (who is sitting across from her), the topic being discussed at the meeting is all about how certain drug manufacturers water down their products. Watered down, ineffective drugs are the main reason we catch up to Capheus as he is seeking out someone from whom he can buy superior products for his mother, who we learn is dying of AIDS.
As Capheus and his friend come upon this new drug dealer, whom his friend dubs “Mr. Fuck Off” due to his charming attitude, Capheus hands his friend $800 to complete some kind of deal. The friend puts on a show by flashing the cash and (pretending to?) talk to someone on his cell phone about having the wrong address. Mr. Fuck Off is baited by the act and asks what they need, but when Capheus tells him he needs drugs to help his mother, Mr. Fuck Off laughs and says it would be cheaper to just let her die. Nevertheless, Capheus’ friend talks Mr. Fuck Off down to $8 from $25, and they walk away with a bag of the good stuff.
Later, while driving his bus, Capheus goes into a bad area hoping to find more fares despite his partner’s warnings. Things look up as a girl flags them down, but just as they come to a stop a group of men run up with guns and raid the bus and its passengers. Unsatisfied with the loot, they demand more, and start pushing around Capheus who appears to be hiding something in his pants. It’s the drugs for his mother, which they take. Capheus initially decides to just let them leave, but something comes over him and he decides he wants it back. So he gets back in the bus.
Here we go…
“The Sensate “
Sun is stuck in a taxi amid Seoul gridlock. She gets fed up and gets out, telling the driver she’ll just walk. But she ignores and forgets her phone in the seat as she slams the door.
Will at the shooting range. As he walks up to take a lane, we cut to a cheering crowd surrounding some kind of fighting ring. One man stands in the ring, and then Sun enters and takes the other side! Apparently, Sun is in some kind of underground fight club. Her opponent refuses to fight a girl, but the referee reminds him that there is nothing in the rules about gender.
In Nairobi, Capheus is determined to get the medicine back. Most of the passengers choose to leave the bus, but a woman in the back stays with him because she wants to get her ring back. It’s all she has left of her husband after 43 years. So they leave the rest behind in the middle of the bad neighborhood.
The fight in Seoul begins, and Sun is as quiet and motionless as she is at the office. She watches her opponent closely and ducks some jabs, and then lights up and starts kicking the guy as Capheus catches up with the robbers and rams their car with the Van Damn bus. Sun does an awesome takedown like Rhonda Rousey while, in slow-mo, Capheus starts hitting the robbers with an iron rod.
At the firing range in Chicago, Will picks up a gun and immediately sensates with Capheus as the two temporarily switch places. In Nairobi, a truck approaches and Will/Capheus start firing the gun. (I’m unclear on whether Capheus found a gun in Nairobi and knew how to use it because of Will, or if the gun itself actually sensated to Capheus from Will, which seems unlikely.)
One of the robbers attacks Capheus and beats him up pretty badly. As he struggles to rise, Sun is looking down at her opponent in the ring in Seoul, but sees Capheus lying there. He starts pleading for her to help.
The vision distracts Sun long enough for her real opponent to get in some pretty good hits. The robbers tower over Capheus, ready to kill him. Just then, Sun sensates and takes his place. She’s in Nairobi and in the ring, dealing serious damage in both places.
She wins, and the crowd in Seoul cheers as the robbers take off vowing to get back at Capheus. He turns and smiles at the woman in the bus who tagged along for the ride, convinced that Capheus is Van Damme.