Sense8 - S1E5 - Art is Like Religion
Previously on Sense8, ‘What’s Going On?’
Lito
In Mexico City, shooting the end of a movie, Lito is having a hard time. As he’s sitting in the makeup chair, he says he feels groggy and bloated and asks for an Advil. Meanwhile, a world away in Seoul, Sun is starting her period. It seems the two are linked—although, I’m not sure how the sharing of feelings and/or hormones fits into what Jonas explained in the last episode. Is Sun visiting, or sharing? Or is this something else, just for comic relief?
Anyway, on set, the director really wants Lito to “keep it sexy,” but during a scene in which he’s supposed to fawn over a sexy woman, he just breaks down in tears instead. He says he’s feeling a little emotional today, and is upset by the thought that all beauty is only temporary.
Lito’s bad day continues in his car when he calls Hernando in the midst of a traffic jam. People are flipping him the bird and cutting him off, and then Sun appears in the passenger seat. He wonders aloud if maybe he has a brain tumor… cancer runs in his family… because he is staring at “a crying Korean woman.” Certain that he is going insane, he asks Hernando to save him.
Later, back on set Lito walks into the set of a museum where he will be filming the movie’s final shootout. As he and the director talk about the wonton waste of art, the director tells him that “art is like religion. To the believers it is everything, but to everyone else its just a pile of stinking bullshit.”
Capheus
Riley is in her flat listening to headphones in London as Capheus suddenly visits her. The two share a cute exchange in which they muse about what the phenomenon means, and Capheus pretends to be an English gentlemen while sipping her tea. But glaring headlights sever their connection and Capheus is back in Nairobi facing down a gang of men who want whatever it is he has in the bag.
Remember, even Capheus doesn’t know what is in the bag at that point. But he needs the medicine promised to him by Silas, and so prays silently to the “Spirit of the Jean-Claude Korean Lady” for help. Since we know trying to force a visit never works, he instead humiliates himself in front of the men by falling down while trying to do a roundhouse kick.
The men take the bag and kick him and stomp on him. “Van Sham,” they call him, and run away. Undeterred, Capheus once again implores the Jean-Claude Korean Lady to help him. “I know you have more important things to do,” he tells her, “but to me nothing is more important.”
He takes off running after the men, and catches up with them. He finds his bag in the back of a van and takes it back, but then realizes it was all a test of his loyalty as Silas reveals himself and the bag’s contents as being nothing but a pair of coconuts. Amused, Capheus smiles, and Silas stays true to his word and hands Capheus a case of medicine, vowing to be in touch.
Will
Meanwhile in Chicago, Will is getting reamed by a superior officer who himself was getting reamed by the feds because of Will trying to call in favors and talk to Jonas in the last episode.
Looking for more clues, will decides to call Janet Marks—Nomi’s mother. Will has found Nomi’s arrest records for hacking, and as the two talk Will has to correct her after she asks whether or not Will has found “Michael.” Will says, “Nomi. Her name is Nomi.”
Will and Doubting Diego get a “hi-rez” version (one of those unbelievable TV tropes I could do without) of the image of the kid who was walking by the abandoned church where Will got a vision of Angelica and a visit from Riley a few episodes back, and he finds known priors so go to pay him a visit.
Unfortunately, when Will and Diego arrive at the kid’s house and knock on the door, Will begins visiting Lito on set in Mexico which gives the kid enough time to take off. As Will and Diego give chase, the shootout happens in Lito’s art museum. At the climax of the scene, Lito is dominating his opponents in a glorious performance (thanks to some knowledge about guns from Will?) as the kid runs up to the protection of his gang. Will and Diego give up and walk away instead of using their authority as police officers.
Nomi
Through the connection with Will, Nomi overhears everything her mother says about “Michael” as she sits on a bench trying to get her bearings. Amanita walks up and the two talk about how strange it is to be both seen and unseen, and how scary and impossible her current situation is. The two talk about how their own situations and how the odds were nigh impossible for them falling in love. But, as she leans in for a kiss, Amanita tells Nomi that impossibility is only kiss away from reality. She tells Nomi that she sees two possibilities—either Dr. Metzger is telling the truth and there is something wrong with Nomi’s brain and her hallucinations mean she’s doing to die; or two, he’s lying, and what he says is happening is not, and they need to find out what the reason behind the lie is.
Just then, Nomi and Amanita’s friends show up. They’ve been staking out their apartment and have seen unmarked cars patrolling the area. Indeed, when Nomi and Amanita go home, they find their place has been ransacked. Someone was there looking for something… and why on earth would anyone do that because of a brain tumor?
Sun
In Seoul, Capheus ends up making contact with the Jean-Claude Korean Lady by visiting her as she walks the streets, pondering whether or not she wants to take the fall for her brother’s criminal actions. Without telling him, Capheus knows her name is Sun and that she has a difficult decision to make. Sun prefers to assume Capheus is a hallucination and resumes her walk, but Capheus doesn’t know how to leave. So the two sit down.
Capheus tells her that he knows the struggle of her choice… he, too, has made a promise to his family that he cannot bring himself to break. Capheus recounts a time from his childhood in which his mother faced an impossible choice by standing up to a gang of knife-wielding criminals in order to protect him. She knew she was outnumbered and would surely die, but the gang also knew she’d take at least one of them with her, and nobody wanted to be that one. So Capheus asks Sun, “who can say if it is we who make the choice, or the choice that makes us?”
Later, Sun walks her dog to her martial arts teacher. She gives the dog an affection rub, presumably because she has made her choice and will be gone soon.
Wolfgang
In Berlin, Wolfgang pays a visit to his uncle, who makes it clear that he suspects Wolfgang and his friend beat his son to the jewel heist. His uncle says it would be an irony of Shakespearean proportions for a son to crack the same safe that fucked his father. But Wolfgang says he’s not his father, and as he goes to leave his uncle reminds him to “always remember who you are.”
By the way, can anyone identify the painting hanging behind Wolfgang’s uncle here? It was featured too prominently to just be a throwaway prop.
Kala
Kala is prepping for her wedding. She has a conversation with her mother about marriage, and how “love” marriages weren’t very common in her mother’s day. Her mother says she’ll be the first in the family to marry for love.
Later, Kala is in her bedroom when Wolfgang visits… to some extent. Wolfgang is behind a door, and the two hear each other but can’t see each other. Kala recognizes his voice as the singing man from her dream in the last episode.
Felix interrupts Wolfgang and Kala’s aunt interrupts her, so their connection breaks. So Kala begins putting on her wedding clothes, remarking how heavy they are. She hopes she doesn’t collapse from the weight. The music starts to play and the wedding begins.
As Kala and Rajan begin to recite their vows, Wolfgang is skinny dipping and treading water as if to symbolize what is going through Kala’s mind. Wolfgang gets out of the pool and visits Kala—butt ass naked—and boldly asks Kala what the fuck she’s doing… “you’re not in love with him.”
Realizing her worst fear, she collapses.
At this point in the series, I am most intrigued by Wolfgang and Kala and how two Sensates might deal with falling in love with each other, particularly in light of what Jonas said about them being eight different “selves” rather than eight separate individuals. I’m pleased that, so far, the characters have taken center stage rather than a generic “shady organization” hunt, although Nomi’s story hints that might be coming soon enough.