This episode had two moods: Meme and emotional. It was a little strange but I’m not going to lie, this episode was pretty entertaining, though maybe the auditions were a little dragged out. But we got something I’ve always wanted, which is a nice connecting moment between Carole and Tuesday.
The girls got a little bit of pay from the music festival, but Gus and Roddy figured something else to give a boost to their debut. A competition show basically like American Idol or America’s Got Talent, but this one is called Mars Brightest. It has all that you’ve seen on these kinds of talent shows such as really annoying people like that dumb Instagram influencer dude…which pains me to think that maybe in our future, influencers are still going to be big. Just saying the word “influencer” irritates the hell out of me. Well, anyway, we also got another staple of these talent shows which is all the really strange and funny auditions. We got the panel of judges that want to die, we got a singing puppet, a shamisen dude, a singing martian, and a dubstep grandma. Oh, and IDEA was there too for some reason. The auditions were funny but they were pretty dragged out. I think they could have cut a couple of them out or shortened it so we could focus more on Carole and Tuesday’s audition, which sadly we didn’t even watch them sing. People are guessing that we’ll be hearing a new song from them, which I also believe as well, but we could have heard them sing one of their other songs and seen the judges’ reactions. Either way, I did like this part because for the first time, Tuesday learned something about Carole that she didn’t know about, which was her being a refugee from Earth and being an orphan since she was a baby.
This prompted Tuesday to really think. Here she is, worried about something small like not wanting her face to be on TV so her mother won’t find her, coming to a big city with no plans, and Carole helping her out and yet she doesn’t know a single thing about Carole. Which….yes! You don’t! They have a good talk on a bench together where Tuesday admits this to Carole, and she even talks about herself and her family. About her mom being a politician, her parents divorcing when she was really young so she doesn’t remember her father either, her brother having gone to Harvard (Mars Harvard?), and Carole dropping out of school. That part interested me the most. I wonder what happened that Carole dropped out of what I guess is high school and how that affected her relationship with her mother. We haven’t seen them interact but from how her brother found her but didn’t force her to return home, I’m guessing that they at least have a good relationship.
They shared an intimate moment together, which I think is a bit overdue. I would have expected a talk like this between them a lot sooner, but it’s better late than never. It was a small moment, but I liked it nonetheless. Also, hey! They passed the audition and they’re going to appear on the show! Too bad they don’t have any money because Gus lost it all. What the fuck, dude? Also, I would have done without the cringey handshake.
Angela’s side of the story continues to interest me more, though. While she’s got the funding to start her career, Tao tells her and her mother that she’s going to appear as a special guest, and contestant, on Mars Brightest (along with C and T). It’s surprising and risky because there is a possibility that Angela could lose, but Angela and I guess Tao is confident that she won’t. The competition will help her career with all the publicity she’ll get, which makes sense I guess. But still, there is a risk. But what stood out to me the most with Angela’s part of the episode was the reveal of the trauma and abuse Angela was victim to by her mother. Her mother says the medication she’s taking is making her stable and she wants Angela to come back home to her, and while Angela may have forgiven her mother to continue working with her, she absolutely won’t return home. Everything in her old room, from the trophies, the pictures, the curtains, and the dry blood on the wall reminds her of the trauma that happened there. When Tao mentioned her mother’s physical assault charges, it wasn’t revealed that it was against her own daughter. This episode cemented that though, and the dry blood on the wall really set the tone.
That whole scene was really well done and was my favorite part of the episode and I can’t wait to see more and to learn even more about Angela. What exactly is she feeling and does she really want this career in her life?
Looks like we’re going to be seeing the competition next episode, and it’ll be pretty cool to finally see Carole and Tuesday, and the Angela stories kind of mesh together. We have these two stories and I’m curious how they’ll be connected.
