As we get into the second of the four episodes Mike Flanagan has directed during Carrie’s run, we already start to see evidence of dark forces pushing in on the titular teen and those caught in her orbit. But I’m not just talking about the threats caused by bullying someone with burgeoning, telekinetic powers (although that’s certainly a prominent issue), I’m actually talking about the fact that my fears that eight episodes may have been a tad too ambitious for book as lean and mean as Stephen King’s Carrie could be coming true.
After setting everything up beautifully in the first episode, we find that “Foreign Language” is already starting to repeat itself as it doubles down on plot points it’s already covered. That’s not to say that the episode isn’t filled with great performances and neat character beats; it’s just that if we’re already going over covered ground in the second episode, maybe the show could have stood to shed some narrative weight.
After the incident that saw a terrified, menstruating Carrie pelted with tampons in the school showers, the school hesitates over how it’s supposed to react. Carrie just wants to put the harrowing experience behind her and no one seems to want to inform her genuinely intimidating mother, the fanatically religious Margret; but in an attempt to help the overwhelmingly naive teen, gym teacher Rita Desjardin, offers her leaflets about the female reproductive cycle which ultimately, inevitably, makes things even worse.
But while the staff wonder about what’s to do with poor Carrie, her fellow students seem to be doubling down on mocking her until Desjardin decides to go slightly rogue, punishing them in gym class and singling out Sue Snell to look out for the targeted child. However, while Sue’s conscience is starting to kick in over the whole shower incident, one person who doesn’t intend on laying off is Chris Hargensen, the ringleader of the whole affair. As her perfect, privileged life continues to crumble after the separation of her parents, she ignores the suggestions of Sue to be humane and instead acts out, callously creating an entire Instagram profile for Carrie’s menstruating accident.
But what of Carrie during all this? As the pressure of an alien lifestyle continues to chip away at her, two things surface – the first is the school counsellor opens her eyes to the school library which allows her to experience an influx of ideas and prose that’s never been open to her before. However, the second thing is that she’s starting to get the hang of that curious, telekinetic phenomena that seems to occur whenever she’s unduly stressed or upset. With Carrie’s confidence growing daily, Margaret grows ever more disturbed that the wicked, sinful outside world is corrupting her child. However, offering a word of support to Carrie is the mysterious new student Emaline – but what’s her angle?
While Carrie’s second episode certainly contains all the diligent storytelling and cast iron strong performances we were treated with in the first episode, it’s pretty apparent that in an effort to get those early ducks in a row and justifying that eight episode run, the show is already running on the spot. There’s nothing really contained within that hasn’t already been covered and all the second installment seems to do is escalate matters ever so slightly. It’s an accusation that’s been leveled a Flanagan (and King) before and it’s strange to be complaining about an overabundance of storytelling – but it’s also amusingly ironic that one of King’s leanest novel is getting the “overwritten” treatment considering he weathers the same criticisms for his writing. Still, it’s hard not to be distracted by the extra flourishes that are showing up that seems to be actively campaigning for further seasons.
The main addition this episode is the introduction of Thalia Dudek’s Emaline who, on first inspection, could be anything from a normal student, to a fellow telekinetic, to even a figment of Carrie’s overworked psyche to help talk her through her growing powers. It’s an interesting addition, and if the show does go on from the original story to involve further, future seasons, it’s a fairly interesting choice – especially as it actually gives Carrie someone to finally discuss her powers with for once, but we’ll have to see how it goes on whether it actually works for the bigger picture. But someone else that benefiting from some fleshing out is Alison Thornton’s Chris as the episode dedicates a lot of time explaining her increasingly cruel behavior and the origins of bullying as a whole. Simply put, Chris was always something of an entitled bitch, but with her mother leaving and her funds dwindling due to an upcoming divorce, she’s taking out her growing insecurities on the easiest target she can find. But as her situation worsens, her bullying intensifies, leading to the tormenting of Carrie moving into the realms of social media.
While other characters are also getting plenty of room to grow such a school faculty – that includes Amber Midthunder, Matthew Lillard, Tim Bagley and Rahul Kohil – and the show is making interesting points about the moral minefield of trying to teach children in this day and age (with social media and helicopter parenting it seems frankly fucking impossible), Carrie and her mother still remain very much the focal point. In fact, while in my last review I pointed out how impressively controlled Samantha Sloyan’s performance was as the famously deranged Margaret, the strain of navigating a world that’s plainly abhorrent to her is starting to make the mother crack. With the added pressure of Carrie starting to question her parenting about the lack of sex education to prepare her for life, we’re starting to see little traces of the Piper Laurie version slowly peek through and the expectation of watching Margaret blow proves to be fairly enticing.
And yet, all the way through, it’s the tragic niceness of Carrie herself getting constantly stress tested that proves to be the real draw. Watching Summer H. Howell negotiating shame, fear, confusion and elation all at the same time is the true heart of the show and the actress is more than up for the challenge. But as we wait for both the White women to pop in their various ways, there’s a sense that a lot of what transpires here is actually technically superfluous. Yes, there’s some escalation, and building your characters and making them feel lived in is never a bad thing, but aside from the appearance of Emaline, there’s actually nothing here that hasn’t already been said during the last episode. No doubt momentum will shift once things start getting really nasty, but as of right now, Carrie seems content to stay in one place.
With the young adult themes running strong through the veins of this second episode, the true horrors of bullying and adolescent revenge are put on the back burner in order to take a look at the complex nature of teaching. But while watching the faculty try to walk on eggshells through the thankless task of shaping minds in the current climate of overstimulation and instant gratification is an admirably timely subject, Carrie White’s imminent explosion seems still very far off.
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Where to watch Carrie – Season 1, Episode 2: Foreign Language: