This might be the best-written episode of the show thus far. I hardly ever cry at TV shows, but watching broken people unite to process their grief and pain through drama, backed by Sophocles' moving verse, left me sobbing aloud at my kitchen table. There is power in fiction - in any form.
This episode demonstrates beautifully how drama can give us a safe way to process our most painful experiences. We identify with the characters. We step into their shoes and feel what they feel. We immerse ourselves in their circumstances and wonder how we'd react. And somewhere along the way, as we pretend to be someone else and live a life that is not our own, healing takes place. We are reminded through the characters' struggles that we're not alone in this world.
We see Vijay step up in place of his patient, who he can sense is still too vulnerable to reenact his own trauma. In itself this is a noble act, but then the audience learns that Vijay, too, can identify with the veteran troupe. He has trauma of his own that enables him to step into the world of the play. What we thought was a simple moment of kindness blossoms into something much more powerful.
On top of it all, we see other characters wrestle with their own grief: Floyd attempts to reconnect with his father. Lauren confronts a threat to her sobriety. Everyone shows up to care for Max after he's pushed them all away for so long. This episode seems determined to impart to us as the audience that we are never alone. Someone out there shares our grief, and countless others will show up to hold our hand and get through it.
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