Milk Bath
Episode 6 of Brand New Cherry Flavor jumps us back to the past as we see Mary and Lisa shooting their film. The pair are romantically linked and after telling the film crew to leave, decide to take a drug called peyote before filming commences again. Back in the present, Lisa awakens to find herself in a strange murky bath at Boro’s jungle house. At the same time, Mary shows up to see Lou, overhearing his conversation about Lisa being killed. She’s actually pretty happy about it though, and decides to join him up at the apartment to look over her corpse. Obviously when they get there though, all they see are blood stains. After a fruitless visit to Boro’s, the pair leave while Boro heads back in and reveals who her visitors were to Lisa, who looks like she’s seen a ghost. While she rests up in the milk bath, Boro probes her around exactly who Mary is. Getting nowhere, she decides to open up about a story from her past. 900 years ago to be precise. This story involving a white jaguar and James Dean. The story ends with confirmation that the strange woman in Lisa’s basement seems to be a manifestation of this white jaguar. It’s also revealed that the zombies at Boro’s are 100% dead. They have fractured memories though and Boro is keeping them alive based on a very specific substance – that tadpole smoothie we’ve been seeing glimpses of. Picked up by Code and Christine, Lisa swings by her place to pick up some gear before staying at Code’s. James happens to be waiting at her place though. Only, this time Lisa is ready for him. She pounces and the scene cuts. The audio design is pretty sickening though, with ripped flesh and squelching prompting Mary to squeeze her eyes shut while in the closet. With blood everywhere and covering Lisa from top to bottom, Roy decides the gang should all team up together and dump the body. Everyone is surprisingly nonchalant over this revelation too, with Christine convinced that burying the body would be best. The only person who actually is a little torn up about this is Code, who sticks around and smokes instead. While the group dump the body, Roy decides to turn away from Lisa and leave. He admits she brings out the self-destructive tendencies in him and he’s best off staying away from her. Back at the apartment, Lisa returns to find Mary has killed Code. As tears well up in her eyes, Mary arrives at Boro’s place.
The Episode Review
Brand New Cherry Flavor has been a show that’s flirted the line between genuinely unnerving and creepy alongside silliness for a while, and this episode jumps into that without actually thinking about crafting believable characters. The fact that no one even bats an eyelid to Lisa killing this guy in cold blood is pretty telling, while characters like Christine and Code get very little development in the grand scheme of things. Now, don’t get me wrong the mystery is enticing enough to stick with and there’s definitely an unnerving air to this but some of the character inconsistencies are hard to look past. The main story seems to have been muddied, with Lisa’s revenge on Lou overshadowed for this hallucinatory trip into nightmarish territory. While the reveal about the zombies does at least answer one of the questions, there’s still a lot still to be developed here. With only two episodes left, let’s hope the show manages to get its plot back on track.
