S02.E06: The Machine

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Allison decides to find out what Kevin can ruin when he decides it's inconvenient for him; Tammy's recent discovery leads her closer to the truth as both Allison and Patty weigh whether change is actually what they want.

Streaming on AMC+ 2022.09.19

Original network air date 2022.09.26

[Spartan Girl]

Allison is becoming more and more like Kevin by the minute with her tactics.

Getting that reporter fired just because she called the horse the new “wild dude” is a new low for Kevin. His comeuppance can’t come soon enough.

Speaking of comeuppance, welcome to fucking around and finding out, Sam. While it was kind of redundant for Jenn to smash the car after it already got wrecked in the accident, revenge is revenge, and I support it.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Spartan Girl

[Cranberry]

That felt rushed. So much happened offscreen; there was a lot more exposition this week. I assume that's partly because they have to wrap up the show in a couple more episodes, and partly because they couldn't show scenes like Kevin's angry conversation with Jenn in the sitcom world, but it was jarring.

[DrSpaceman73]

I keep waiting for someone to die or commit suicide.  It's going to happen just not sure who. 

On 9/19/2022 at 3:12 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Allison is becoming more and more like Kevin by the minute with her tactics.

Getting that reporter fired just because she called the horse the new “wild dude” is a new low for Kevin. His comeuppance can’t come soon enough.

Speaking of comeuppance, welcome to fucking around and finding out, Sam. While it was kind of redundant for Jenn to smash the car after it already got wrecked in the accident, revenge is revenge, and I support it.

Is it a new low for him though?  I think he has done worse. 

But it was bad. 

[Spartan Girl]

56 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Is it a new low for him though?  I think he has done worse. 

But it was bad. 

True. He has done worse, but it was cruel and petty even for him.

I really don’t like that Allison is using Kevin to go after people that she thinks deserves it. Jenn’s parents might be snobs, but Sam cheated on their daughter after she stood by him throughout his addiction. They’re right to be pissed, so they didn’t really deserve disproportionate retribution. Sam obviously didn’t think about the consequences when he started hooking up with Allison behind Jenn’s back; then again he didn’t care back in high school, so why start now?

[DrSpaceman73]

1 minute ago, Spartan Girl said:

True. He has done worse, but it was cruel and petty even for him.

I really don’t like that Allison is using Kevin to go after people that she thinks deserves it. Jenn’s parents might be snobs, but Sam cheated on their daughter after she stood by him throughout his addiction. They’re right to be pissed, so they didn’t really deserve disproportionate retribution. Sam obviously didn’t think about the consequences when he started hooking up with Allison behind Jenn’s back; then again he didn’t care back in high school, so why start now?

And don't they support them financially?   And back rhe restaurant?  I don't recall the details but seems they've allowed him to survive financially despite his , let say, flaws and marital infidelity. And now he is taking the restaurant?  Seems pretty low. 

Also Kevin is just a flat out liar I think based on what he has done.  He had to have lied to get the woman fired and he lied over the lawsuit. I'm not sure we knew that before.  A user, sleazy, selfish, many things but flat out liar added to the list. 

[Avabelle]

I’m now at a stage where I hate everyone on this show and agree the network did us a favour by cancelling it. The faking your own death storyline is both ridiculous and boring at the same time. I don’t see Alison as a victim. I think she’s a self pitying martyr. I think the show is relying on the Patty/Alison relationship to keep the audience rooting for her but i find Patty just as annoying.

At this point I’m only hanging on because I know it’s nearly over and I’m dying to see Non sitcom Kevin. I don’t care if Alison gets out or not.

Such a great idea for a show but not having it as a limited series killed it.

[DrSpaceman73]

1 hour ago, Avabelle said:

I’m now at a stage where I hate everyone on this show and agree the network did us a favour by cancelling it. The faking your own death storyline is both ridiculous and boring at the same time. I don’t see Alison as a victim. I think she’s a self pitying martyr. I think the show is relying on the Patty/Alison relationship to keep the audience rooting for her but i find Patty just as annoying.

At this point I’m only hanging on because I know it’s nearly over and I’m dying to see Non sitcom Kevin. I don’t care if Alison gets out or not.

Such a great idea for a show but not having it as a limited series killed it.

I agree I think the concept has been better than the execution

The reason I'm hanging around is I want to see what happens to Neal. I think this season has been as much about him as Allison snd I want to see if he takes a stand to Kevin and ends the abusive nature of their relationship. 

[Aileen]

3 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I agree I think the concept has been better than the execution

The reason I'm hanging around is I want to see what happens to Neal. I think this season has been as much about him as Allison snd I want to see if he takes a stand to Kevin and ends the abusive nature of their relationship. 

Agreed. At this point, I’m much more invested in the Neil storyline and I don’t think that’s what the show intended.

[Cranberry]

Although I thought this episode felt more rushed than usual (I've read in a couple places now that this was the first one that had to be retooled after the cancellation), I've still been really enjoying the show. I like how the sitcom scenes have had duller lighting this season and how everyone is slowly becoming disillusioned with Kevin. I like Allison learning to hate herself less. I like Patty learning not to be such a pushover. I like that Allison is realizing her plan is dumb and that there are good things in her life that she doesn't want to lose. I like that we're learning, through Diane and her unseen husband Chuck, what Allison's life would have been like if she'd gone on accepting the status quo (and what would have happened had she ever tried to leave).* I'm disappointed the show is ending, but I hope they at least manage to make the finale satisfying.

* The show's creator said during a podcast interview (around 31:30) that Chuck and Diane are the "Ghost of Christmas Future" for Kevin and Allison. (And oh! This is also the source of the "last three episodes had to be retooled after the cancellation" tidbit; it's around 26 minutes in. I'd been looking for that.)

[Starchild]

I guess we're about to find out what your life would be like if you could find a way to weaponize a narcissistic sociopath.

[possibilities]

Tammy makes no sense to me. She tells Allison that she has that video, but she doesn't tell Patty? 

Patty is right to be stalling on moving in with her. They don't trust each other, they don't know each other, they don't talk. It's crazy.

[Chyromaniac]

“Leave it to Kevin to bring you back to reality.”   I see what you did there, show…

I liked the realizations that we got to in this episode.  I buy that her plans have inadvertently brought Allison closer to the other people in her life- and that she may not be ready to give them up as she gets closer to hatching her escape from Kevin.  It was easy to let Patty in when she was just Neil’s weird sister- but now she’s a friend.  Same with Diane and Sam- even Neil.  These are people who she knew in one context, but by opening herself up to them, she gets to see them in new ways.  And, they are forced to confront unpleasant truths in their lives.

That being said, this episode felt a bit disjointed.  I assume this was intended, but it felt like a lot of scenes without an overall narrative.  The sitcom elements especially felt pieced together.  Like, as more of the story exists outside his world, it’s as if Kevin is just trying to rope us back in.

Thematically it’s interesting- but it led to some odd moments when the sitcom and real world bled together.  It’s jarring to me that the hot tub was apparently a real thing, and not just a sitcom gag.  Kevin somehow getting the reporter filed, and Sam’s in-laws to back off felt too easy.

Overall I agree that if the important part of the show is supposed to be the high concept “sitcom wife secretly wants to kill her husband/fake her death” then they needed to have a payoff ready, or just be a limited series.  Like if they had been renewed, would they really have had her not go through with it, again?  And if so, then what scheme do they come back with for S3?  Instead they seem more invested in the low concept of these characters who are trapped in dead end town, and the orbit of a selfish jerk.  I think both ideas work with the framing device of the sitcom world vs real life. However I don’t know if you can sustainably do both together.

[qtpye]

On 9/21/2022 at 9:53 AM, Spartan Girl said:

True. He has done worse, but it was cruel and petty even for him.

I really don’t like that Allison is using Kevin to go after people that she thinks deserves it. Jenn’s parents might be snobs, but Sam cheated on their daughter after she stood by him throughout his addiction. They’re right to be pissed, so they didn’t really deserve disproportionate retribution. Sam obviously didn’t think about the consequences when he started hooking up with Allison behind Jenn’s back; then again he didn’t care back in high school, so why start now?

On 9/21/2022 at 9:57 AM, DrSpaceman73 said:

And don't they support them financially?   And back rhe restaurant?  I don't recall the details but seems they've allowed him to survive financially despite his , let say, flaws and marital infidelity. And now he is taking the restaurant?  Seems pretty low. 

Also Kevin is just a flat out liar I think based on what he has done.  He had to have lied to get the woman fired and he lied over the lawsuit. I'm not sure we knew that before.  A user, sleazy, selfish, many things but flat out liar added to the list. 

I hated the way Sam said that you can always find more money. He takes his wife's emotional support and his in-law's financial support totally for granted. I would not be surprised if he totally goes belly up when he is actually out on his own. He does not seem to have a lot of common sense. 

On 9/21/2022 at 1:17 PM, Avabelle said:

I’m now at a stage where I hate everyone on this show and agree the network did us a favour by cancelling it. The faking your own death storyline is both ridiculous and boring at the same time. I don’t see Alison as a victim. I think she’s a self pitying martyr. I think the show is relying on the Patty/Alison relationship to keep the audience rooting for her but i find Patty just as annoying.

At this point I’m only hanging on because I know it’s nearly over and I’m dying to see Non sitcom Kevin. I don’t care if Alison gets out or not.

Such a great idea for a show but not having it as a limited series killed it.

The "fake your own death" storyline is totally stupid unless Kevin is dangerous.

I had speculated that Neil might end up killing Kevin and now I have a new speculation.

Kevin might actually be a figment of Allison's imagination and does not exist in real life.

I have no proof of this beyond that I have just watched a lot of movies lately where this ended up being the twist.

[cardigirl]

I'm so confused. I realize that this episode was put together after they had found out there would be no season 3, so some things had to be vocalized rather than shown to the audience, but it still felt like they were using huge amounts of exposition to carry the audience along the narrative. I felt like I had missed an episode or two. 

I like Tammy, only because she seems normal, compared to the rest of the cast. I could buy the idea that she cares enough about Patty that rather than turn the evidence on the video over to the investigation, she's trying to help her stay out of trouble. (Or, she could suspect Allison of being the "ring leader" and is hoping to pin something on Allison, saving Patty.) 

The Neil and Diane story is an interesting development, but I'm not sure why it was brought in so late in the show. The two actors are doing a very nice job with it. 

I thought this was the penultimate episode, but I see that there are two more. I have fears for the following people:

Kevin, Neil, Tammy, Patty.  Someone is going to die. 

[TiffanyNichelle]

8 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

These are people who she knew in one context, but by opening herself up to them, she gets to see them in new ways.  And, they are forced to confront unpleasant truths in their lives.

That being said, this episode felt a bit disjointed.  I assume this was intended, but it felt like a lot of scenes without an overall narrative.  The sitcom elements especially felt pieced together.  Like, as more of the story exists outside his world, it’s as if Kevin is just trying to rope us back in.

Thematically it’s interesting- but it led to some odd moments when the sitcom and real world bled together.  It’s jarring to me that the hot tub was apparently a real thing, and not just a sitcom gag.  Kevin somehow getting the reporter filed, and Sam’s in-laws to back off felt too easy.

I noticed that we are spending more and more time in the real world with everyone but Kevin and his dad while in the first season it was more evenly split between real world and sitcom world in each episode. And all the main characters except for Kevin, of course, and his dad have been seen in the real world. What happens when his dad "wakes" up?

I did think that the real world did feel heavily merged with the sitcom world. Kevin having a hot tub in the living room in the real world seems odd. But maybe it was actually in the backyard but to Allison it felt like it was smackdab in her living room?

Allison deciding she wants to keep her life in town and figuring out how to "work" Kevin for her benefit makes me think that the end will be her as the "star" of the sitcom world and Kevin as the husband/sidekick. In a way we go from Everybody Loves Raymond to Roseanne.

13 hours ago, possibilities said:

Patty is right to be stalling on moving in with her. They don't trust each other, they don't know each other, they don't talk. It's crazy.

Half the time I'm not sure if Tammy even likes Patty. There's encouraging someone to be a better version of themselves and then there's forcing them to be who you want them to be. At times it feels like that's what Tammy is doing. Stop being friends with your neighbor, stop drinking beer, move in with me right now or we're through.

[seacliffsal]

I am actually most interested in Neal and am unsure how that happened.  He seems to have a complexity to his character that others don't.  It also seems like there's a sensitivity to him that he masks through humor and at times violence.  

I really don't care what Allison does at this point as she seems just as manipulative as Kevin.  Sam, who I initially liked, seems entitled and I didn't blame his in-laws for taking back the business.  And Tammy just kind of freaks me out-very demanding to Patty and trying to push Patty to become who Tammy wants her to be.  And showing the video to Allison just seems all kind of wrong-if Tammy doesn't like Allison or Allison's friendship with Patty why is she showing her the video and telling her about Patty's potential criminal activity?

I hope there is resolution to the various story lines.

[Kel Varnsen]

I signed up for a free month of AMC+ so I can watch Halt and Catch Fire again, but I figured while I had it I might as well watch season 2 of this show. But now there are only 2 episodes left and I am not sure if I actually like the show or if I just like the concept. One thing I do know is that it would work a lot better if the episodes were only 30-35 minutes. Since a lot of times the episodes drag and there are people talking about the same things over and over again.