Monsters of Television

We are all, in our own ways, slaves and masters.

Through a sense of responsibility, because of debts owed, on account of fear or love or hate, we are both slave and master – to ourselves and others. We are slaves to another’s whims, slave to our own passions. We are master of others because of their loyalty, master of ourselves only some of the time.

While there are many slave-master relationships at play in this episode, the main dynamic centers around – of course – one Mr. Windom Earle.

I now finally get why we kept Veggie!Leo around! The relationship of focus in this episode is that between Windom and Leo, who has – thanks to an electro-shock collar – become nothing short of a trained monkey, slave to Windom’s every direction. This means eating gruel is a very similar fashion as he did when he was mostly a vegetable and penciling a message for Windom’s next victim(s): Shelly, Donna, or – and we have a winnah! – Audrey. (It’s always Audrey, y’all.) Even for such a horrible person as Leo, it’s kind of a brutal fate. (That being said, Windom is kind of deliciously cracked.)

Then we have the big one: Windom and Cooper. Coop’s a slave to Windom’s game, but also in master in that he can direct the play based on the moves he makes. The same goes for Windom. It’s a very symbiotic relationship. It’s messy, painful, dangerous, and skewed, but symbiotic. Like all master-slave dynamics!

On top of the Windom-related shenaniganry, we have two very interesting triangles of master-slave going on in this episode.

First up is the two masters story of Josie, Catherine, and Thomas Eckhart. Josie, a life-long slave, is now at the mercy of both Catherine – who has quite the chip on her shoulder over the whole Andrew ordeal – and Thomas, a man obsessed. Catherine seems content to wheel and deal with Thomas to secure an exchange of some kind (Josie for an as-yet-unnamed payment), but considering Thomas’s part in Andrew’s death, methinks more sinister plotting might be afoot. Josie, meanwhile, is being quite useless, cowering silently instead of poisoning dinner and being done with the both of them.

Death – or murder, to be more specific – breaks up the next trio-plus-hanger-on: Malcolm, Evelyn, James, and Donna. In an almost comical turn of events, James confronts Evelyn, Malcolm attacks James, Donna interrupts everything, Evelyn shoots Malcolm, and Donna cries ineffectually. Donna, of course, confronted Evelyn first, attempting to save James from himself and a possible murder wrap. The most she’s able to do is cry ineffectually. Again. Which is super annoying, because if Audrey had been there, she’d have Trophy Wife singing like a canary and Not Brother on the ground, writhing in pain.

Because Audrey continues to be badass, you guys. She puts Jerry in his place quite deliciously, wrangles everyone into the Appomattox gambit, and gets Ben back from the brink of Southern-tinged insanity. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, she gets into now that her dad is back in the business. Probably not much, since she’s Windom’s next target (it’s always Audrey, y’all).

Notes:

• ALBERT’S BACK! AND HE HUGS HARRY. AND COMPLIMENTS COOPER’S PLAID. AND IMITATES GORDON! OMG! OMG! Albert is my favorite.
• Norma and Ed go for it and Nadine is (possibly) okay with it. Hrm.
• THERE WAS AN OWL. AT THE BAR. BESIDE DRUNK TROPHY WIFE.
• Continuity Isn’t Hard (TM): Cooper’s facial injuries.
• Coop’s not alone in his deadly chess game anymore. PETE’S A CHESS EXPERT. BECAUSE OF COURSE HE IS. “If there’s chess boards in heaven, Jose is sittin’ next to the Lord.” Sweet banana chips, you guys. I love Pete.