If you aren’t watching Sense8 yet, check out these eight reasons why you really should be! If you are watching Sense8, or have watched the first season already, make sure to check out my reviews of the first three episodes. Today we’ll jump in with the next quarter of the first season. For the sake of everyone’s sanity, these reviews will focus more on recapping and responses, and less on trying to explain the mythology of Sense8, because the best way to do that is to watch the show. Fair warning, this is my second (or in some cases third) time through watching this season, but I won’t be giving anything away ahead of time, so as long as you’ve seen the first three episodes, you’re good to go!
PHOTO CREDIT: NETFLIX
We kick off with episode four, ‘What’s Going On?’ which might be one of my favorites because of a sequence near the end, but we’ll get to that in a second. In the storyline I care about least, Wolfgang attempts to sell some diamonds he stole from a safe earlier on. At this point he’s already the character I care about least. But at least Capheus is seeing some benefits to the smackdown at the end of episode three. His bus has more passengers than they can fit! Unfortunately, there is also a downside as Capheus has caught the eye of a local crime lord, who now wants Capheus to get involved in the business. in exchange for Aids medication for his mother. We also learn a bit more about Kala’s upcoming marriage. Her future husband is charming and so in love with her, but he and his father are involved with a few anti-religious movements that stand strongly against Kala’s own beliefs.
The episode wraps with Nomi’s surgery coming up fast, but before we get to her great escape we get to enjoy Riley listening to “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes at the same time as Wolfgang sings the song at a karaoke bar, putting the song into the heads of all the others. Everyone is singing the song together unknowingly and the effect is amazing. Sun, naked in the shower; Capheus, driving his bus; Nomi as they prep her for the big surgery; and Kala, who is pulled adorably toward Wolfgang. The result might just be the happiest scene of the entire first season, and absolutely the one I’ve gone back to rewatch the most. Of course, that’s not the most important connection of the episode as Will help’s Nomi make her great escape before Aminita swoops in to take her to safety.
The second episode, “Art is Like Religion,” focuses mainly on the characters beginning to interact more with one another. The obvious highlight is Sun and Leto. While Sun doesn’t understand any of Leto’s flair for the dramatic, Leto get’s all of her mood swings, cramping and other super fun “that time of the month” side effects. Sun has a lot going on right now already as she has to decide whether or not to go to prison to protect her family, and it becomes a little too much for Leto too handle. He has a bit of a breakdown on set, even though Sun handles everything as stoically as always.
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Nomi, on the other hand, is enjoying her regained freedom as well as an intermittent connection to Will who is currently trying to track her down. In a really interesting development, Aminita is completely open to learning about what’s happening to Nomi and the others. How often on TV does something incredible happen to a character only to have them unable to share the details with their partners because it’s too unbelievable. This was a really nice change of pace. The highlight of the episode for me was the meeting between Sun and Capheus, who are likely the most opposite of the cluster but both figuring out what’s going on in much the same way as they’re faced with big decisions moving forward.
Our final episode for today, ‘Demons,’ opens with Riley and Will making the first deliberate connection. Both are hanging out in a bar, and thinking of each other, which brought them together in order to finally acknowledge that they aren’t going crazy and that something pretty strange and/or special is happening. Unfortunately, things aren’t quite so positive for Sun who is now officially taking the fall for the family business and the mess her brother created. She and Riley connect at the end of the episode as Sun sits in her jail cell, and Riley watches the sun rise, contemplating returning home to Iceland but worried something terrible will happen if she does.
Now, enough of about that. Time to talk about the orgy scene. Scense8 has already made a point of not shying away from sex, but this scene kicks it up a notch. Leto and Hernando are having sex at the same time as Nomi and Aminita enjoy a morning quickie. Somehow Will gets sucked in as well, while Wolfgang experiences the whole thing from a hot tub but remains mostly unaffected. The scene itself definitely isn’t a quickie, and even though there aren’t exactly any hardcore shots, there’s no doubt about what’s going on. I suspect that this is the episode that first really got people talking about this show. It certainly isn’t afraid to push the envelope.
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Thanks for sticking with me. Reviews of the next three episodes will be right here on TYF in two weeks time.
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