TV Show Review

TV Review: OUTCAST: Season 2, Episode 4: The One I’d Be Waiting For [Cinemax]

Callie Brook McClincy Outcast The One I'd Be Waiting For

Outcast: The One I’d Be Waiting For Review

Cinemax’s Outcast, season 2, episode 4, ‘The One I’d Be Waiting For,’ followed up the last episode’s big steps with a pair of stumbling blocks. It was Megan’s (Wrenn Schmidt) turn to suffer through the acting out of a would-be victim daughter, while the show’s two reforming camps had to stop to tend to respective weak links.

Both Kyle (Patrick Fugit) & Sidney (Brent Spiner) had legacies to live up to (and down, in Kyle’s case), in the run-up to round two of this now open conflict. Sidney’s Vacant Lot apprentice prospect, Aaron (C.J. Hoff), however, had a bigger ax to grind than he was fit to swing. He swung, anyway; provoking thin-skinned Anderson (Philip Glenister) to break ranks from Team Bad Touch.

Megan’s had it rough, dealing with having killed her husband ‘under the influence.’ How Holly (Callie Brook McClincy) expressed herself over that loss, however, dragged Megan out of her own head. Kids can be pretty petty & self-absorbed, sure; but the only redeeming value to her acting out, this time around, was the prospect that both mom & daughter may have cancelled out their common preoccupation.

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I expect Amber to work on her own mom, at some point.

If the denial was strong in the Liberated moms of the Creepy Cousins, it was downright OCD for snapped Ginger mom, Patricia (Melinda McGraw). Anybody remember the definition of insanity? Anderson may have dodged a bullet, with this one; but there was the prospect of viewers now having three mental moms to put up with.

Then the Ginger snapped back. Somewhere between Aaron baiting Anderson, and a whole lot of precedent (when it comes to sociopaths & their doting mothers), the writing was on the wall before it literally was.

So, I spoke too soon (sorry, Trish)….

Maybe it was that heightened senses quality, but I found it odd that Megan would recognize the boy her Occupant ran into, last season, without him recognizing her, as well. He’d have to be leading a pretty interesting life, to not have that encounter on permanent playback.

In any case, the plot was more concerned with poking at Megan’s PTSD, so that Holly could have a turn at acting out. The Creepy Cousins better get to being useful, at some point – I’m about ready to declare “oh well,” next time one of them pulls a stunt (teaming up for one: maybe something there).

I suppose with Team Bad Touch finally consolidated into something kinda official (for now – looking at you, Anderson), an Occupy Humanity movement update was due. The reveal as to which peripheral character has been playing Sidney mole was a little disappointing. I had mentioned how the actor’s presence was a clear red flag; but I had hoped for it to be a misdirect – not a telegraphed plot point.

Speaking of telegraphs: does anybody use the expression “fight fire with fire,” anymore. Even preoccupied, Anderson must’ve put some thought into how Aaron might come at him. Well, Anderson being Anderson, not even threats to his Facebook Friend status could keep him from seeing what the underside of a frying pan-in-use looks like, while in it.

As much as I despise just how one-dimensionally vile Aaron has been, I’m starting to think that he & Anderson deserve each other. Between them there isn’t enough impulse control to step on. I’d be lying if I didn’t feel as disappointed by Kyle not reprimanding Anderson, as I did by Sidney not killing Aaron.

Sometimes drama means not jettisoning the weakest links.

Given last ep’s developments, I’d be willing to declare this one a bottle episode. That said, I’d be willing to declare it a better blown bottle episode. PTSD drain circling aside, getting Aaron & Anderson to finally go at each other – clearing out one of the show’s maudlin melodrama elements, in the process – kept things interesting.

Of course, it could’ve just been the fact that weak-link-on-weak-link-violence made it easier to root more for the carnage, than either of the perpetrators. Classic Colosseum blind blood-lust, FTW.

As much as I’m beginning to tap my feet, at some of the prospects starting to take shape, more bottle episodes like this one wouldn’t hurt too badly.

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Leave your thoughts on this Outcast The One I’d Be Waiting For review, and this episode of Outcast, in the comments section, below. Readers seeking more TV show reviews can go to our TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page,  our TV Show Review Facebook Page, and our TV Show Review Google+ Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? FilmBook staff members publish  articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

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Sam Joseph

Sam is an Avid consumer/observer of Geek culture, and collector of Fanboy media from earliest memory. Armchair sociologist and futurist. Honest critic with satirical if not absurdist­­ wit with some experience in comics/ animation production.
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