20 Days Under Quarantine
Pat needs Wiley’s help – their cousin Amy cut her leg,
she needs medical attention but none of Pat’s family dare go into town for fear
of being shot after Chuck’s little reign of attempted terror. They need Wiley
to be an ambassador for them – they’re also keeping her baby while she goes and
gets help, ostensibly because she can’t do both but mainly because Ronnie tried
to rape her and they don’t want her to run without helping. Yes the baby is
being held hostage. No, Tracy, “Sorry” doesn’t really make up for that.
To Gord and Hannah where Gord describes how Hannah being
a Mennonite and sticking to her Mennonite friends made them very much outsiders
at school. She also doesn’t want a ride back to her community, when it’s clear
she doesn’t want to explain, Gord lets it lie and offers her a place to stay.
Hoepefully she’ll have home cures for their cows which are all ill with cow
disease.
Two of Chuck’s minions are wandering and helpfully telling
us that while the power is on, the phones are still down when Vince becomes very
ill. To Gord who is there to fix everyone’s problems and is far too good or
these people!
He goes with them and, after examining him, tells them
that Vince’s appendix has burst which is very not good in a town without
hospitals or doctors. Chuck decides they need to fly Vince over the fence and,
thankfully, one of his other minions, Kevin, has had a couple of flying
lessons. How lucky, I’m sure every small town has a trainee pilot or two under
the age of 22 hanging around.
Wylie joins them looking for antibiotics but, of course,
Chuck refuses because he hates them so much (despite the fact the Creekers have
done absolutely nothing to him – unlike him to them). Chuck will only allow the
family to have antibiotics if they get the pain killers Ronnie took back
Gord (who is too good for these people) points out that
Kevin flying in a no fly zone with his limited experience of flying and trying
to get a hospital to accept a sick quarantine kid is pretty suicidal but Chuck
won’t hear it – he has to DO SOMETHING (even if that something is not helpful
or sensible). Chuck dismisses Gord to his farm, calling it a mistake to call
him despite Gord having made the diagnosis – but he then dared to disagree with
the precious Chuck.
Next step on Gord’s list is reassuring a fretting
Melissa.
Over to Ronnie who is not dead – he is withdrawing quite
nastily from the pills he takes and Tracey stops him taking more, thinking a
little suffering is the least he deserves after trying to rape Wylie. She asks
him when he became a monster.
Fighting withdrawal, he asks his sister for help – and flushes
the pills showing his dedication to overcoming his addiction. Except they kind
of need those pills and now they can’t make a deal for the antibiotics. Pat is
not amused, Tracy at least gives a nod to the strength of will needed to throw
the pills away. Tracy suggests going to steal the pills – but Pat insists they
keep Wylie around since Chuck has armed half the hockey team minions.
Wylie tries to leave with her baby and is stopped by
Ronnie… who gives her his car keys so she can leave. He does tell her that
Annie still needs medicine.
She drives off – then comes back because guilt weasels and not being able tio
Back to Chuck & co and Kevin does manage to get the
plane in the air with Vince (with a bit of wobbling) and is promptly blown up
with a missile. The term “no-fly-zone” is not used lightly. Chuck is shocked.
Gord finally seems to snap and tells Chuck that he warned him and is stark –
these deaths are on Chuck’s head (throwing in the kid he nearly killed the day
before as well). Of course Chuck, being a terrible person, refuses to accept
criticism and accuses Gord of hiding at his farm (except when he is called to
help eleventy billion times). Gord throws back that he’s trying to make things
work and Chuck is just tearing it down and someone else should start making decisions
not just the rich kid.
YES YES PLEASE GODS ANYONE ELSE! But preferably Gord (or Francis).
YES YES PLEASE GODS ANYONE ELSE! But preferably Gord (or Francis).
Chuck refuses to let a farmer take control and pushes
Gord before we get a full on fight with Chuck beating ford.
Gord goes back to the farm to Hannah (she and Frances got
some cow medicine from her fellow Mennonites – though she was careful to hide
from them) where he broods over memories of his father’s suicide. She treats
his bruised face then kisses him.
At the dinner table he basically says he’s done – he’s
tired of trying to talk sense into Chuck and if the Creekers and him want to
kill each other then that’s their business
But new drama – a Mennonite man comes to the farm looking
for “what belongs to him” Anna. The fact his openly lines refer to his wife as
property is a very bad sign
Elsewhere Samantha and Amanda meet as Samantha found
Amanda’s lost dog. At home she finds a sulky Chuck who yells at her.
Adam adds Amy to his little tribute to the dead ad his
ongoing investigation before riding out and running into Wiley and they make nice.
Adam goes on to search the mysterious Art’s house and find a card from the
prison with a room number on it.
In the prison, ever-more-sinister Ellen is investigating
Adam and she recognises the name of his father, Clarence Jones. Then sees Adam
himself walking into her prison. She uses remote door locking to lure him in –
and trap him. She then confronts him at gun point but he manages to escape when
a door randomly opens.
She chases him, shooting at him until he hides. Then she
tries to tell him she just wants to ask some questions. Uh-huh, questions with
bullets. She does catch him and ask what he knows about Art – and Adam tells
her what he found on Art’s death and that the plague is not natural. When he
says he didn’t tell anyone else about this, she knocks him out – she’s on Art’s
side. She points a gun at him… and is shot. By a man who is clearly older than
22 – Adam’s dad.
Melissa goes to get a beer from Mark at the bar and he
gets all pushy and clingy after 5 minutes conversation. She leaves the bar and
finds Wylie with Parker taking antibiotics – like everyone she decides that
Ronnie’s actions brand the entire family and she actually equates taking
painkillers to taking antibiotics. Who are all these people who think that
antibiotics are narcotic? Melissa tells Wylie she doesn’t have to do this – but
Wylie knows there’s a girl who may die and says she doesn’t have to do it, she “should.”
More drama, driving back home they hit Amanda who runs
out into the road chasing her dog. She’s dead. Pat wants to abandon the scene –
he doesn’t trust Chuck not to get trigger happy (honestly, I have to agree).
They leave.
Samantha decides to visit Chuck to forgive him for trying
to kill her brother (WHY?!) in the hope that he’ll admit he was wrong and prove
what an awesome person he is. Ugh beyond nauseating. She comments on how
wealthy he is and he, in a telling fashion, says it’s all normal to him. He
also realises that he’s an utterly terrible leader and part of the problem in
town and that his assuming leadership was just part of his rich boy arrogance
This could be the start of something good – except now is
the time he gets the news about Amanda.
Back to Ronnie who, overwhelmed by withdrawal and the
baby’s constant crying, threatens him and Tracy with a knife and she ends up
having to apologise for hitting him with a shovel which sends him into a wave
of guilt, questioning “why did I do it?” and now turning the knife on his own
wrists until Tracy talks him down and tells him he’s trying to make it right
and good.
I don’t like the Amanda, Samantha scene. Amanda seems to
exist to be a burden on poor Chuck while simultaneously trying to convince us
he’s not a terrible useless person because he’s kind to his disabled sister.
Look Samantha, he may have nearly killed your little brother acting like judge
jury and executioner, but he’s kind to Amanda so he can’t be that bad! This is
not only an insulting use of Amanda, but also casts her as a massive burden, a
trial in order to try and cast Chuck as a decent person. Then she dies –
welcome to the fridge Amanda.
And can we get past this whole “hey at least I make decisions” defence. Making decisions is not a good thing if they are bad decisions. Doing nothing is preferable to making things worse.
The only thing worse than Chuck is Ronnie - and him now
stepping on his redemption train. Now a compelling addiction storyline is not a
bad thing (though his withdrawal didn’t seem to last that long) but he still
tried to rape Wylie – and no amount of giving up the pills is going to change
that.
Do we even have to look at the whole hot mess of everyone
deciding that Annie can’t have antibiotics because Ronnie stole? Antibiotics
are not narcotics. I can see it with Chuck – because Chuck’s an arsehole who
has lived his whole life in his spoiled rich kid bubble – but Melissa? Really,
Melissa?
There is a nice point made by Pat that they’re treating
the entire extended family like one entity – like what Ronnie does is
indicative of all of them; it’s an extremely classist view which is one thing
this show does well in exposing. Chuck’s assumption of power, his dismissal of
Gord as a farmer, the collective dismissal and contempt for the Creekers is all
underpinned by class bias.
Gord is too good for these people.
I think it sums up how I feel about this show that when
another storyline starts I think “damn, more drama” rather than looking forward
to it. I care too little about most of the cast
