The Purge - General Discussion

[Anela]

JFC Penelope, stay with the cop and your brother. 

Oh, great. Just watching the end here.

I have expected Jenna to kill someone all along. I just wasn't sure if it would be her husband or Lila.

I was hoping the one guy was a good guy. 

[Neurochick]

This episode made sense until the last two seconds.  WTF was that about?  Rick and Jenna’s system gets mysteriously disarmed and Joe kidnaps them.  That part felt badly edited, it made no sense.  How did Joe get to their house?  I mean the guy keeps appearing places, for a moment I thought I was watching Supernatural.

The interesting thing about Joe is, for the most part, it’s like he’s in a different show.  Even his backstory felt like it was from a different time, like the 30s or 40s.

[Jediknight]

2 hours ago, Neurochick said:

This episode made sense until the last two seconds.  WTF was that about?  Rick and Jenna’s system gets mysteriously disarmed and Joe kidnaps them.  That part felt badly edited, it made no sense.  How did Joe get to their house?  I mean the guy keeps appearing places, for a moment I thought I was watching Supernatural.

The random alerts, showing up at Pete's just as Miguel and Penny are there, and being able to disarm the security system?  I'm telling you, he's working with NFFA.  He desperately needed money as we saw in the flashbacks, so they hired him as a Purge assassin/collector.

[Dobian]

So the Lila lesbian love triangle comes to a merciful end.  I really think that whole plotline was written by a college creative writing student, and a guy.

[BigDfromLA]

Think of Joe's story. He had become redundant. At his all time low, he gets sucked into the pro-purge "motivational speaker", to the point that he listens to it 24/7. He was definitely brainwashed by the pro-NFFA speaker. Notice that the speaker worships the purge and thinks its the greatest thing ever. Joe just became a useful idiot and anything he does fits the NFFA/pro purge mentality of his masters. I just don't get why he picked those people as hit targets. Why Penelope? Because she "killed" Tavis who was an NFFA stooge?

Maybe Penelope's brain was fried by the drugs that scumbag ex gave her, leading to her crazy decisions? She's too cute to die!!

Speaking of beauty, it's sad to see Lila go. Actually, if a guy wrote that lesbian love triangle story, Lila and Jenna would have ended up together.

[Neurochick]

10 hours ago, Dobian said:

So the Lila lesbian love triangle comes to a merciful end.  I really think that whole plotline was written by a college creative writing student, and a guy.

I'm starting to think this show  was written by a creative writing student, and not a good one either.  I really can't stand the Joe character.  It's like someone said, "oh shit, we've got to include the angry/white/male/middle aged/blue collar person.  And voila!  

I could do without a show featuring some angry white middle aged dude.  I see enough of them on the TV news shows.  Besides Beecher Joe is a stupid idiot.  It's the rich folks who fucked you in the ass in the first place.  I hope Miguel purges his dumb ass.

I guess they had to stretch this show out 10 episodes.  

Edited October 25, 2018 by Neurochick

[Chaos Theory]

Heh I must be the last person who thinks this show is fun.   I hope it gets a second season.

[Fellaway]

Was one of the people in Joe's van the woman who laid him off?

[Neurochick]

Who was the old man Lila killed at her first Purge?  Could that have been Joe's father?

The show WAS fun for me, until they introduced the Joe character.  It felt like someone wanted to include the stereotypical "middle aged/angry white male."  Why couldn't the show just be about the three sets of people we were introduced to? 

Why did they have to go the "superhero/antihero" route?  

To me the Joe character is just unnecessary.  

[Macbeth]

On October 26, 2018 at 10:30 AM, Neurochick said:

 

To me the Joe character is just unnecessary.  

I think the Joe character is the point of the entire season.   The rest of the characters' fates are going to revolve around him. 

This episode felt like a bottle episode. (Keep the story to a couple of set pieces to keep the costs down). With a story like The Purge, where the writing is lacking, it brought the story to a complete stop. 

I know Penelope was dumb to leave the bar to seek revenge, but I was so grateful to get out of that bar I did not care. 

[Neurochick]

Figures that all of the characters fates will depend on the angry/middle aged/white male.  Typical.  For me, I could do without that archetype.

[SimoneS]

Penelope really is an idiot. She will get Miguel or Pete killed trying to save her.

I am surprised that Jenna ended up killing Lila. I thought Rick would be the one die in that triangle.

[fountain]

I would totally love this show to continue on with post merge stuff, at least for a while because I really what to know what is it like in the weeks after. There are so many stories they could tell. I mean there must be a whole business of cleanup so a follow someone there, the major construction crews who post merge is their busy season, then workplaces short staff, people coping with knowing their neighbor murdered their husband, people planning for next year, coverups of crime outside the purge, etc. Continue on with stories and an uprising of desentors until until the Purge is abolished.

IDK, this show gets me thinking so much, I cannot imagine people wanting to commit so much crime because it is allowed, it seems like a great societal commentary/analysis - do laws make us more moral or keep us moral, do so many people want to murder, rape and assault people? I personally don’t think so but look at the glorification of Purging, it has normalized murder, rape, assault and yet people still function the other 364 days a year?

[legxleg]

I think they’ll have a hard time finishing out this season in a satisfying way, but I’m curious to see what they do. The lone purger as a NFFA assassin/stooge is compelling, but even if that’s the case I feel like he still has too much information. The rich couple was being recruited for the NFFA, so why would the NFFA put them on the hit list? I find it hard to believe that the dying act of someone at the party would be to inform HQ that the rich couple didn’t join and needed to be eliminated (although realistically I think they’d schmooze and try to recruit them again next year). If the NFFA wanted to get someone from that party, surely the rebels who killed the Stantons (well, most of them) would be the priority? And why would anyone go to special effort to put Penny on a kill list? She didn’t do anything to piss off the NFFA until she stood up to the cult leader, and unless the NFFA has a live feed watching her there’s no way they’d know that happened so quickly. If they have trackers on people like Jane, whoever is pulling the purger guy’s strings must have picked them all in advance, and I can’t imagine why. The more I think about it, the more I wonder what this show has in mind. I’m curious if nothing else.

Edited October 29, 2018 by legxleg

[hookedontv]

On 10/28/2018 at 9:53 AM, SimoneS said:

Penelope really is an idiot. She will get Miguel or Pete killed trying to save her.

This. Yes. Selfish idiot. 

[Gemsteel]

I keep seeing pretty in regard to Penelope, Lila, and the "rich" couple and... No. They're all too stupid to qualify as attractive in anyway. 

I can somewhat buy that people are being targeted and tagged for NFFA live, it's alluded to on a lesser level in the film series (from the second on). 

[Neurochick]

I think I’m done with this series.  Given the events of this past week, the last thing I need is to see an angry middle aged white man period, end of story.

[Zoe]

So all of this to culminate with.... an incel?

[Jediknight]

So, I was wrong about Joe.  He isn't working with NFFA, he's just a massive shithead racist douchegoblin.

[Neurochick]

7 hours ago, Jediknight said:

So, I was wrong about Joe.  He isn't working with NFFA, he's just a massive shithead racist douchegoblin.

Yup, typical angry/middle aged/white male/asshole.  (which in itself is a stereotype)

Edited October 31, 2018 by Neurochick

[sugarbaker design]

Wow, this show really turns on a dime!  Last week it was so full of potential!  And now it's all about a disgruntled incel's irrational revenge!

Note to producers:  Killing off the only interesting character in the season's penultimate episode (Jane) will not guarantee viewership of the season's last episode.  I don't care what happens to the suicide cultist, the vapid couple or the disgruntled incel.  I'm out.

[Neurochick]

3 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Note to producers:  Killing off the only interesting character in the season's penultimate episode (Jane) will not guarantee viewership of the season's last episode.  I don't care what happens to the suicide cultist, the vapid couple or the disgruntled incel.  I'm out.

I didn't watch most of this episode, and I won't watch the last.  Maybe the producers didn't care since, from what I heard, the ratings weren't good for this show.  Fans of the movie thought it lame.  Jane was the only interesting person in the entire show.  

What I wish would happen is for Joe to get his balls blown off by a woman that HE stood up.  "No one stands me up, motherfucker."

[Ohwell]

When Jane was on top of Joe and beating him with her fists, I was hoping she'd just gouge his eyes instead.  He would have been so concerned with his eyesight, and she would have only needed a nanosecond to just grab the gun and shoot him.  Oh well.

[CheezyXpressed]

Joe is a stereotype, but it makes sense for the Purge. This is a night to give people who have a severe victim complex a way out. He might have been okay before, but after losing his job and taking care of his dad he's just become spiteful and petty.

I do find it funny how many episodes back we talked about how scorned lovers might use the Purge to get their revenge and Joe did just that. I hope Jane is alive, since she's my favourite character on the show.

[fountain]

7 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Wow, this show really turns on a dime!  Last week it was so full of potential!  And now it's all about a disgruntled incel's irrational revenge!

Note to producers:  Killing off the only interesting character in the season's penultimate episode (Jane) will not guarantee viewership of the season's last episode.  I don't care what happens to the suicide cultist, the vapid couple or the disgruntled incel.  I'm out.

I am hoping Jane isn’t dead but unconscious and Joe couldn’t tell. Maybe I am hoping for too much. 

[sugarbaker design]

30 minutes ago, fountain said:

I am hoping Jane isn’t dead but unconscious and Joe couldn’t tell. Maybe I am hoping for too much. 

Fingers crossed!

[Neurochick]

Maybe the point of the Joe character was to show why a society can NEVER have something like the Purge.  There are too many adults who have the emotional maturity of a two year old.  Joe was an ass to Jane.  He never saw HIS part in ANYTHING.  True, as a child, he was a victim, but as adult, you really shouldn't still be a victim of someone who bullied you 40 years ago, if you are you seriously need therapy.  I mean it's not like any of those people actually murdered a member of his family (I don't think)

As for Jane, it never occurred to Joe that maybe a woman HIS OWN AGE wouldn't have those same issues.   My bf is blue collar; I know I NEVER would have dated him 20 years ago.  One of my best friends was an English professor, she married a blue collar man and they had a happy life, up until the day she died.  

So you can't have the Purge because too many people can't grow the fuck up.

[Anela]

I don't know. I have issues, but I can't imagine murdering people, or doing anything else to them, because of it. You can have issues, and still not want to hurt people. 

I saw something on meme, about robbing Barnes and Noble, if there was a purge. LOL. I suppose that one might be more tempting to me, but I don't think I'd go through with it - I'd feel guilty. 

[Dobian]

So the main villain turns out to be some angry white guy.  Meh.  The episode lost me when he opened the cell door and the woman ran out to escape.  Why didn't the others run out right then and just swarm him?  I thought that was the plan.  Instead they just stood there cowering and did nothing, including Rick who looked like a total wimp.  Of course the purge would never work in the real world, and not just because of some crazy guy like Joe.  You let people run around killing, raping, and maiming people, and don't think there will be spillover the next day of hate and vengeance?  Like people are just going to turn that off for the next 364 days.  Sure.

Edited November 1, 2018 by Dobian

[Neurochick]

Okay, I'm going to nit pick. 

If Joe has been unemployed since the factory closed, how is he getting the money to do all this?  

Where did he learn to fight like a ninja? 

How is a fiftysomething fighting like THAT, I mean once you turn 50, shit starts to hurt, no matter how in shape you are.

Where did he get all that equipment if he's been unemployed for all these years?  His setup costs a pretty penny.

If they guy has THAT much cash, he could probably buy himself an island and just say, "fuck all of you assholes."

[Dobian]

What did the guy have that was so expensive?  Maybe I was watching too lazily and missed stuff.  The abandoned school of course is free.  The cell cage, who knows where he got that.  Maybe just salvage he found looking around online and he cleaned it up.  He had a gun and a cattle prod, not that expensive to get those.  The C4 he obviously stole or knew someone.  He had some body armor.  Not too big a stretch for him to have bought that back when he was still employed even (same with the guns he owns).  He had a laptop I guess and a big screen.  Lots of unemployed people have those things.  What else?  I'd have to re-watch.

Edited November 1, 2018 by Dobian

[kdm07]

I expected more from this whole show. Joe needs to grow tf up. 

I will be seriously annoyed if the show ends with Joe purging all of the characters (except Penelope, she can go).

[Neurochick]

1 hour ago, Dobian said:

What did the guy have that was so expensive?  Maybe I was watching too lazily and missed stuff.  The abandoned school of course is free.  The cell cage, who knows where he got that.  Maybe just salvage he found looking around online and he cleaned it up.  He had a gun and a cattle prod, not that expensive to get those.  The C4 he obviously stole or knew someone.  He had some body armor.  Not too big a stretch for him to have bought that back when he was still employed even (same with the guns he owns).  He had a laptop I guess and a big screen.  Lots of unemployed people have those things.  What else?  I'd have to re-watch.

 

An abandoned school might be boarded up.  I didn't see rats running around.  

I can't believe someone can just "find" a huge ass cage.  Who'd throw it away?

How many years had he been unemployed?  Did he get severance?  Does he live in a house?  Wasn't his dad sick, what about the medical bills?

True, unemployed people have laptops and big screens, but the body armor had to be expensive and he didn't seem like that type of person who'd buy body armor, when he was working.  Was the purge even going on then?

People like Joe need to have the first line from "The Road Less Traveled" in a prominent place in their home:  "Life is Difficult."  Douchebags like Joe think life is supposed to go their way, that women will just swoon to be with them, that they'll never lose their jobs, get old or get sick.  Wrong-o.  

Edited November 1, 2018 by Neurochick

[CheezyXpressed]

5 hours ago, Neurochick said:

Maybe the point of the Joe character was to show why a society can NEVER have something like the Purge.  There are too many adults who have the emotional maturity of a two year old.  Joe was an ass to Jane.  He never saw HIS part in ANYTHING.  True, as a child, he was a victim, but as adult, you really shouldn't still be a victim of someone who bullied you 40 years ago, if you are you seriously need therapy.  I mean it's not like any of those people actually murdered a member of his family (I don't think)

As for Jane, it never occurred to Joe that maybe a woman HIS OWN AGE wouldn't have those same issues.   My bf is blue collar; I know I NEVER would have dated him 20 years ago.  One of my best friends was an English professor, she married a blue collar man and they had a happy life, up until the day she died.  

So you can't have the Purge because too many people can't grow the fuck up.

Pretty much.

There's this anime called Hell Girl that deals with something similar when it comes to people like Joe. In the show, Ai will send someone to Hell for you as long as you pull a string on a doll. She warns that if you pull on the string then you'll also go to Hell when you die. Most people on the show end up pulling the string causing the person they're against to go to Hell. The idea is that a lot of the problems could be fixed through therapy or just talking things out, but whenever there's an easy option available people will go towards it.

The Purge, like Hell Girl, allows people to feel arrogant through their own victimization at least when it comes to people like Joe.

[Anela]

I finally watched it. He lied about his age, assumed she wasn't successful based on her own merits, and then expected her to show him respect?

What is Penelope supposed to have done? What about the couple? 

[MrsWitter]

5 hours ago, Neurochick said:

An abandoned school might be boarded up.  I didn't see rats running around.  

I can't believe someone can just "find" a huge ass cage.  Who'd throw it away?

How many years had he been unemployed?  Did he get severance?  Does he live in a house?  Wasn't his dad sick, what about the medical bills?

True, unemployed people have laptops and big screens, but the body armor had to be expensive and he didn't seem like that type of person who'd buy body armor, when he was working.  Was the purge even going on then?

People like Joe need to have the first line from "The Road Less Traveled" in a prominent place in their home:  "Life is Difficult."  Douchebags like Joe think life is supposed to go their way, that women will just swoon to be with them, that they'll never lose their jobs, get old or get sick.  Wrong-o.  

We learned this episode that he’s been installing Purge security systems since he was laid off. That’s why he was able to so easily disengage the security systems of some of his victims. He’s clearly been doing that for years because he mentioned it on his date with Jane too. So he has some source of income. And we saw his Dad and his house when Miguel and Pete went there. They talked to his Dad, who was old and very ill.

[MrsWitter]

39 minutes ago, Anela said:

I finally watched it. He lied about his age, assumed she wasn't successful based on her own merits, and then expected her to show him respect?

What is Penelope supposed to have done? What about the couple? 

Penelope didn’t say thank you when he held the door open for her, apparently making him feel like she is just an entitled young person (it probably doesn’t help that Pen is a woman and a woman of color). The guy in the couple (can’t remember his name*) said Joe thinks they didn’t pay him for some work he did on one of their properties. Couple guy told his wife he did pay him and Joe is mistaken (I’m guessing couple guy is lying because he seems like he cuts some ethical corners).

 

*I think part of the reason I can’t remember his name is because I decided early on that he looks like Jared Kushner so my SO and I just keep calling him Jared.

Edited November 2, 2018 by MrsWitter

[Neurochick]

15 hours ago, MrsWitter said:

We learned this episode that he’s been installing Purge security systems since he was laid off. That’s why he was able to so easily disengage the security systems of some of his victims. He’s clearly been doing that for years because he mentioned it on his date with Jane too. So he has some source of income. And we saw his Dad and his house when Miguel and Pete went there. They talked to his Dad, who was old and very ill.

Then Joe is even MORE of an asshole with a capital A.  Installing Purge security systems probably brings in more $$$$ than he was making in the factory.  No, Joe's not an asshole, he's just a total douchebag with a victim complex.  "Everybody HATES me."  Well, maybe there's a reason.  If everybody has a problem with you, 9 times out of 10 the problem is YOU.

[Macbeth]

I really liked Jane's speech.  Something she wanted to say for a long time, but held back.

To have her chocked to death was so brutal. Joe knows deep down she is right; why else silence her. 

[hookedontv]

The pace of tonight’s episode really slowed down for me. When the 3 guys left Joe’s house I was thinking “wow, it’s purge night and no one happens to be in that area?” And then BAM, the missile. 

I was also thinking about how good looking Pete the Cop is. Just sayin’...

[SimoneS]

10 hours ago, hookedontv said:

I was also thinking about how good looking Pete the Cop is. Just sayin’...

Yep, Pete is a hottie. I hope he doesn't end up dead.

[Jediknight]

On 11/2/2018 at 12:36 PM, Neurochick said:

Then Joe is even MORE of an asshole with a capital A.  Installing Purge security systems probably brings in more $$$$ than he was making in the factory.  No, Joe's not an asshole, he's just a total douchebag with a victim complex.  "Everybody HATES me."  Well, maybe there's a reason.  If everybody has a problem with you, 9 times out of 10 the problem is YOU.

And, by doing this he's actually going against a rule of the Purge.  Remember in Anarchy, Leo Barnes said he disabled a guy's security system before the Purge so he could kill him, and Eva told him that what he did was illegal.  So, if Joe installed the system, and put something in there that he could override, that's against the rules of the Purge, because he would have committed that act before it began.  Joe's purging and going against the rules.

Edited November 4, 2018 by Jediknight

[CheezyXpressed]

I do find it timely that Joe ended up being the main antagonist while a bunch of white guys have been shooting people and sending bombs and those that they don't like.

It's kind of funny when you think of it.

[Neurochick]

5 hours ago, CheezyXpressed said:

I do find it timely that Joe ended up being the main antagonist while a bunch of white guys have been shooting people and sending bombs and those that they don't like.

It's kind of funny when you think of it.

Very true, it seems like it's always a middle aged white dude who fucks shit up LOL.

[tennisgurl]

Nothing more dangerous than entitled middle aged white dudes with a victim complex. 

I hope that maybe Jane might not be dead, but it looks like she is. Poor Jane, if only she had stayed in her office. That last speech she gave him was freaking on point though. That was epic as hell, ans if that was her last stand, she went down swinging. 

Joe really is a petty piece of shit. Its bad enough killing a former bully who is now homeless, or people who were just doing their jobs, but he also kills a woman for the crime of not wanting to date him after he said a bunch of racist shit to her, and a girl whos crime was not saying thank you. Dear God, his stupid, petty reason for wanting to kill Penelope would be hilarious if it wasn't so horrible. 

This episode just continues my theory that the best way to survive the Purge is to hit up party city and buy a silly costume and a creepy mask. 

[opus]

Renewed for season 2

https://ew.com/tv/2018/11/06/the-purge-tv-show-renewed-season-2/

[CheezyXpressed]

2 hours ago, opus said:

Renewed for season 2

https://ew.com/tv/2018/11/06/the-purge-tv-show-renewed-season-2/

I'm happy about this, but I'm also wondering how this will work. 

[tennisgurl]

So, will the next season cut to the next Purge night in a year? I am glad that they're getting another season, but I am very curious about where they go next. 

[SimoneS]

I was hoping that Jane would make it, but at least, Pete, Miguel, and Penelope survived and Joe is dead. I like Miguel and Penelope going out to help people on Purge night. I am glad Jenna went to Europe although it looks like it might start purging. I hope that we see Pete, Miguel, and Penelope again next season. Penelope grew on me.

[Jediknight]

I was expecting it to revealed that Jenna was helping to fund the Resistance.

Miguel and Penelope survived, and now are Purge triage.  They won't be Purged, since Purge triage is off-limits.  Just an unwritten universally known rule of the Purge.  Great to see they're helping people, and won't be killed for it.