Sweet Surrender
Episode 5 of Nine Perfect Strangers begins with flashes in the past. Masha lost one of her residents at Tranquillum. Shots of CPR, flatlining heart monitors and blinding images confirm as much. While Masha suffers with ghosts of her past, so too does Zoe, who dreams of Zack being before her. It turns out she and Zack were close and she misses her brother dearly. Zoe admits she feels incredibly lonely and now that her son has gone, there’s a big hole in her life. In the morning, Napoleon rocks up in the room given it’s Zoe’s party and starts dancing about in his underwear. There’s a lot more laugher with this family but whether it’s actually all just a façade or not, remains to be seen. Anyway, the gang join together and discuss dreams. Specifically, Napoleon discusses how he dreamt of being one of the Beatles. Carmel however, is triggered by a song being hummed, leading her to plunge a fork straight into the table. Speaking of dreams, Lars’ confirms that he dreamt of giving birth while all the other residents are there to see it happen. He can still see the dream vividly while Tony happens to be the Father, crying uncontrollably. Francis has a visitor. It’s Paul and he’s there to say sorry. Now, all of this is one big dream sequence after she collapses in her oatmeal and passes out. However, it confirms what her big drama actually is. It seems like Paul is a scam artist and a reflection of her own insecurities regarding writing. Of course, the one person here who shares the most with Francis is Tony. He sits with her and encourages the girl to keep writing. During this tender moment, Francis suddenly needs to vomit and hurries off. Meanwhile, Masha invites Delilah out into the open where she apologizes to the latter for what happened with Connolly, the one who died in the past. Delilah is being dosed up it seems, and Masha encourages her to stay with her while they build “something great.” And just like that, Delilah suddenly leans forward and kisses Masha. Well, that was unexpected! It doesn’t take long for a weird montage to pick up though as Delilah and Yao share some intimate moments together. While they do, Masha receives another threatening message. Anyway, the day’s event goes ahead with a cliff dive. Napoleon wastes absolutely no time jumping straight in the water down below but Heather is far more reserved about this. Well, the second time he laps with her while holding hands. This shot of adrenaline is just what the pair need, finally making new memories together. While this is going on, Lars heads out to his secret spot, phoning his contact and letting his contact know that he’s being dosed. Benjamin and Jessica head off together as well, where the latter admits she really hates all the money he has. As they talk about their old life together, the pair reflect on their best moments and how much they miss it. Well, while the pair make love in the hot spring, Carmel ends up seeing them together and becomes erratic. As she hurries off, it’s clear that this reminds her of her past with her boyfriend. On the way off, she runs into Lars. It turns out Carmel has had to pent-up all of her anger and despair, putting on a brave face for her kids. Given her abusive partner, Lars encourages Carmel to embrace disassociation. The easiest way of doing that is to find someone who sees her for who she is. As they hug it out, they realize that the drugs have certainly had an affect on them both. That night, the gang all join together to celebrate Zoe’s birthday. The celebrations involve Napoleon singing. While he does, Zoe notices Zack standing by the pool. As she stares off in his direction, Masha notices and perks up. She hurries over to her and whispers in Zoe’s ear, telling the girl that she’s the key to what’s happening. But how? What does this mean?
The Episode Review
The latest chapter of Nine Perfect Strangers takes on a bit of a weird turn, injecting a lot more humour into the show with mixed results. Some of the jokes don’t quite land and the drawn out dream sequences early on don’t quite work. However, they do serve the purpose to deepen the ties between our characters and seeing the journey some of these guys have taken is certainly good. The mystery behind Masha and who’s sending abusive messages is certainly a big talking point and the show has done a pretty decent job keeping that a mystery for so long. However, this also feels like one of the weaker elements of the show. By comparison though, there’s much more emphasis on the different couples and seeing how all these players slot together in the grand scheme of things is one of the best parts of the show. There’s a lot of interesting dynamics here between all the different strangers and that’s ultimately where the show thrives. The ending hints that we’re going to see more of the truth regarding Masha and what she’s up to as well, as the series marches on to the next episode.
