Love and Death Episode 2 Review: The HBO Max miniseries is a true-crime story starring Elizabeth Olsen as Candy Montgomery, Jesse Plemons as Allan Gore, Lily Rabe as Betty Gore, Krysten Ritter as Sherry Cleckler, Elizabeth Marvel as Jackie Ponder, Patrick Fugit as Pat Montgomery and others. The series has been created and written for TV by David E Kelley, and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter. In addition to the two crew members, Nicole Kidman and Per Saari are also few of the executive producers of the show.
Love and Death Episode 2 Review Contains Spoilers
Premiering on April 27, 2023, Love and Death Episode 2 is titled ‘Encounters’ and has a runtime of 54 minutes. Based on Texas Monthly articles and the book Evidence of Love by Jim Atkinson and John Bloom, this series maps out the real life story of a Texan housewife, who was ultimately accused of brutally murdering her friend in the ’80s. With Nicole Kidman as one of the executive producers of the show, it’s quite likely that the thematic thrust of the series will take you back to her own former show Big Little Lies.
Love and Death Episode 2 Review: Discussion
The next episode in line leaves us with no choice but cosy up to the unlikely pair of Olsen’s Candy and Plemons’ Allan. Their conversations with each other help fill in the gaps of their respective marriages. As they start getting closer to each other despite one of their fundamental rules not to get emotionally pulled in, it makes you wonder if it’s all happening because they just fit together or if it all seems to be working because they’re using each other to get what they couldn’t otherwise get out of their marriages.
This is where affairs become tricky to deal with. However, many of their interactions still centre around their relationships with their respective marital partners, which gives away the answer to the previous question. Moreover, the show keeps playing with the parallel divide between the immoral conduct initiated by Candy and the show’s rather religious contextual background. Jumping from the scene with Candy and Allan sharing time to the new Pastor taking over the morning service marks a comical transition in the rather severe tonality of the show – thematically and represented in its grim yellowish colour palette.
Candy’s exchange with Betty also comes to the centre, focusing more on their shared friendly ties. Additionally, yet another montage mapping out the fairy-tale-like escapades of the former’s affair with Allan plays out with hymns in the background, again juxtaposing the two adverse prime themes of the series.
Soon enough, we head into July 1979, and a new track starts playing as far as Allan’s relationship with his wife, Betty, is concerned. And this, as could’ve been anticipated, sets off Candy. For the first time, we witness a break in her rather calm and composed demeanour when Allan discusses the possibility of breaking off what they had going on.
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The pacing of this particular episode slowed down even more. To Candy’s anguish, Betty and Allan leave for a retreat to mend their marital ties, where they also renew vows. Upon their return, Olsen’s character puts up a pretentious front to block out her true feelings from dropping at the front gate.
However, this episode’s slower pace also allows Betty’s character to stand independently. While earlier, Allan was speaking for her and dissecting her traits to us, which even, in a way, foregrounded her position in a negative light. This time, Betty is granted the opportunity to voice out her insecurities. By putting out this portrayal, Allan’s marriage “encounter” with Betty is also juxtaposed with his sexual “encounters” (and now somewhat emotional as well) with Candy. The lack of communication that’s ruled his marriage with Betty is exactly where his affair with Candy settles in, especially with the two of them sharing jokes and memories.
Final Thoughts
While it’s too early to judge her character, the dark and sinister shades within Candy are starting to peak through. On those terms, the episode does a good job of balancing the personalities of Betty and Candy. While the former’s relationship with her husband seems open now, Candy’s marriage is still in the back seat.
Mere glimpses of her husband laughing his heart in front of the TV while ignoring Candy and acknowledging how beautiful she is in this episode aren’t enough to dig into the switch in Candy’s character yet. It may be hard to proclaim as a villain through and through, but her feigned conduct with Betty is starting to take shape gradually
New episodes of Love and Death will stream every Thursday till May 25, 2023.
Also read: Love and Death Episode 1 Review: Do’s and Don’t’s of an Affair Well Planned-Out