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S01.E06: The Wilderness


maraleia

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This episode has been a high note for me so far in the series. Not sure why, exactly, but everything sort of jelled. I complained in the all episode thread about not enough focus on Maura early in the season (and too much Gaby Hoffman for my taste), but this episode and the one before it struck a very nice balance.

Unspoiled: this episode's flashback to Bradley Whitford's character gave me a bad feeling. I'll spoiler tag my spec, although I assure you it's just spec.

We've only seen the character in flashback, so I'm wondering if we will find out she killed herself, and perhaps that was part of what motivated Maura to transition and accept herself.

Overall, this is the best "indie" show going since Rectify. Very pleasantly surprised.

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The final scene at the dinner table was so well done, and Jeffrey Tambor was sensational in that monologue Maura gives to Sarah's ex. There is such intrinsic kindness to Maura a lot of the time, and I loved the palpable affection and sympathy she showed for the husband in this moment, that she recognizes that she should have spoken to him about this directly before now.

 

Melora Hardin, who plays Tammy, was also really wonderful there -- you could see Tammy wanting so badly to support Maura, and to speak up to defuse the situation, but also realizing that her role in the breakup would mean that she would only be adding to the tension.

 

There is something touching to me about the scenes of Marcy and Maura so shyly testing their femininity, and it makes me think a lot about female beauty in U.S. culture and how much we attach to the outside trappings of female beauty.

 

Yet here we have these two men yearning simply to be female -- for them the trappings are beautiful in themselves, so that they are simply delighting in the colors and fabrics, in the makeup and hair and dresses. While they are kind of awkward and graceless as women, their delight in simply donning those butterfly wings fills them with joy. I also love the way Whitford and Tambor's faces change in their female transformations -- the softness of age gives a poignancy and gentleness to their appearances as Maura and Marcy.

 

I've found myself wondering if Jeffrey Tambor has the same yearning that Maura were prettier, much as Dustin Hoffman used to talk about wishing his Dorothy was prettier in "Tootsie," simply because he felt she deserved to be.

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