3x02 Grape Vines and Orange Trees

Things are falling apart much quicker than I was expecting: expecting on a subconscious level, I guess. It makes sense, though, as this final season only has six episodes. The pacing needs to be moving forward fairly quickly.

• The Chairman being Marissa's father was a surprise; I didn't expect that. I guess he was abusive as well. The bits and pieces of that particular flashback she was having made it seem that way. But at the same time, why would she refer to him as Dad while on the phone and seem a little sad that she hadn't seen him in so many years?

I don't think we've seen all of that particular flashback, so there may be a twist coming: a twist showing that it's a fond memory and not a traumatizing one. But that's likely not the case. I'm probably reading too much into it. It seems more likely that it is a traumatizing memory.

• Mireille Enos' acting during the scene on the phone was exceptional. I don't remember any specific instances from the previous two seasons where someone's acting stood out as much. If there were, it was probably from Joel Kinnaman or Esme Creed-Miles.

Since the start of the show, people seem to be impressed by Esme's performance. So, there are probably people who'd say she's done better acting than Mireille did in that scene at some point in the show. I wouldn't know because it's been a while since I've watched the second season, and more so since I've watched the first season.

My personal opinion: I think Mireille's acting in that scene is the best acting by anyone in the entire show so far. But something tells me that maybe Esme will top it by the end of (the show) this final season. Perhaps because of something happening to Marissa. I'm starting to get a death flag feeling from her as well. Not only John Carmichael, especially after this episode.

• Since this episode was pretty long, even longer than the premiere, there was more of an opportunity for me to develop a solid opinion of Abbas. And I have to say: he's pretty likable. No wonder Hanna likes him so much, but not just because he's likable; in her case. The show could end a bit dark and not with a happy ending; Hanna could end up alone.

• How convenient that the CCTV camera footage was so high-quality; and able to be zoomed in so much. But I'm probably ignorant: and CCTV footage IS high-quality. At the very least, remaining high-quality when zoomed in that much has to be a stretch.

Even if that whole thing was realistic, it seemed like forced conflict, forced to move the story somewhere. I know there are only six episodes, but it was a little too quick for my liking; Hanna and Marissa, on the run already. Their clandestine endeavors could've at least lasted one more episode. But I guess convenience was the only way to go to make that happen.

• Benson didn't last as long as I thought he would. He's already off-ed. There are still the other few guys we've seen that work for Brianna: but he seemed like the main guy. As far as seemingly apparent importance is concerned, Brianna is the only one left. Now, there's no way she's not going to survive until the finale. Surely.

And the fighting choreography of that fight sequence had too many cuts. But I'll give credit to whoever edited it. Despite there being a lot of cuts, you could still follow along, although it would've been much better if there weren't as many cuts, of course.

I also noticed that there wasn't any muzzle flash when Hanna pulled the trigger. Supposedly, silencers and suppressors (whatever the difference is if there is one) help reduce the muzzle flash, but not completely. Of course, since this is a TV show, the gun probably wasn't fired, or maybe it was, but there weren't any muzzle flash VFX, either. Not even ever so slightly. Or at least it didn't look like there was. But I'm probably wrong and being too critical of that.

Overall, I think the premiere was a little bit better than this episode.

Both episodes were similar: in the sense that the story did move forward but still felt slow and not that interesting. Not only that, but they also shared the similarity of the highpoint being close to the end.

But there was something that I can't explain about the premiere that this episode didn't have, which makes me consider it to be better than this episode.

The soundtrack may have had something to do with it. Specifically, the song that played during the motorcycle ride with Abbas and Hanna. Darkest Hour by Sevdaliza.

I don't have any predictions of where things are going, let alone how they'll end. But I guess I'm a little interested in seeing where everything goes. I hope Carmichael and Marissa survive. And Abbas. Hanna probably will. But Carmichael, Marissa, and Abbas are the characters that I don't want to die. That's pretty much the only thought that I have that doesn't regard the events in each episode.