Dr. Bright's plan to save her brother fell apart because of Damien, who kidnapped Mark, used his manipulative power, and lied to him about everything. Joan and Sam are distraught and have no way to find Mark. The AM is all over Joan and her patients, making sure she won't step out of line again. Caleb and Adam are back together. Chloe continues to help Frank and struggles with Joan's hypocrisy. Unresolved issues between many are brewing beneath the surface and threatening to explode.
The Bright Sessions becomes more complex as it goes on. The characters continue to develop, grow, and create new relationships. Joan is worried for her brother since he was kidnapped by Damien. She also struggles with her ties with the AM that simultaneously allows her to help Atypicals live normal lives and puts her patients in danger if their abilities prove too interesting for the AM to ignore. The AM also forces her to work with Wadsworth, her former friend and colleague, who she still finds herself admiring and achieving breakthroughs with. Chloe criticizes Joan for chastising her for being unable to give people privacy with her ability to read minds while Joan records people without their knowledge and feeds information to the AM. This situation isn't black and white, so there's debate on all sides with good points.
The AM is seen in more detail this season. It's always loomed in the background but now we get to see how it operates on an everyday level and its deeper recesses. Every day, they take in Atypicals to test them and assess if they need help on a more intense level to control their ability and blend into normal society. On the surface, this seems normal and even altruistic to help people. If you probe deeper, they are conducting unethical experiments and trying to find people with specific, rare abilities to exploit. Mark fills in many of these gaps with the abhorrent way he was treated while confined to the AM that includes mental torture, physical torture, and threats to his family to comply. Each season, the veil gets pushed back a bit further on this organization and it's not pretty.
The character who grows the most is Frank. He's always been in the periphery of the show and only appeared in person last season. Joan talks through some things with him and it's truly heartbreaking. He reveals details about his military service and the experiment his unit consented to. They all had an artificial empathic connection to one another that lost focus over time. Their shared decision to not tell anyone about the complication so they could stay together had devastating consequences, but was understandable in the situation. The fact that a huge revelation about Mark's story line happened the episode right before took away a bit from this emotional episode.
The last few episodes of this season went places I didn't think the show would go. It was surprising, devastating, and hopeful all at the same time. Damian goes from fairly harmless to dangerous through his rocky journey. The ending is explosive in a variety of ways. Many characters who have kept their feelings hidden have meaningful conversations with others to hash out feelings, articulate what has been unspoken, and get issues out into the open. It's also the most violent episode from an unexpected source. I'm hyped to see what happens next season both in the relationships and in the main action of the show.
The scope and cast of the show continues to grow. It's wonderful to see representation in so many different spheres. A glimpse of a new Atypical is seen. Rose travels through dreams and doesn't know whether to be honest with her girlfriend about her ability. I'm interested to see how she will fit in with the group and how the group will move forward in the face of the traumatic events of the last episode. The next season is ongoing so I'm excited to listen as it's being produced.
My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins
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