Episode 2

The first episode of Crystal Lake ended on a bit of a WTF-moment where Pamela had to dispose of two nefarious agents who know her by a different name. What could this mean? Who is she? Who was Jason? Well, leave those questions for now because we are on a different path this episode.

The episode opens with a warning by a woman named Nora who Pamela reaches out to, warning her the company she’s running from may be sending more trouble her way. Almost immediately after, we get a chance to see Pamela go on a date with Levon (at least, he probably thinks so), and there, while bowling, she gets to know Rita, a new potential ally, and is invited to a kooky self-help seminar run by a man named Wilhelm.

This whole self-help seminar is interesting but I don’t think it holds attention and interest as much as the first episode or the idea of it would lend. It’s got several interesting character moments but it left me wondering if the focus for nearly an entire episode needed to be set here in this moment and will it be necessary once seeing the end of the episode and where it leaves our characters. At least it gives Linda Cardellini a lot to work with, and she’s excellent here, adding layers to her performance that had not been seen in the first episode. If that’s all the reason this episode exists, I can be thankful for that, even if I didn’t love the storytelling around her.

I was much more interested in the B-story as Levon investigates a human pelvis found in the woods that likely belongs to one of our assailants from last episode. It’s one of those ways we knew the story would head, and I’m just surprised it happened so quickly. It’s also crazy that he thinks it’s normal to put it into his fucking fridge. I know, different time, but that’s unhinged behavior that the story is convincing us that this was logical.

The other B-story concerns Grace, another character on a trajectory that we can kind of telegraph. These two B-stories both went predictable ways, but I also feel like a lot of the first episode went the way I thought, and yet I was more interested in all of that than the writing for the A-story with the self-help. I know, I keep harping, and I’m hoping it becomes worth it in the end. This is a show I’ll definitely be rewatching, so I really want to see how it plays on a second viewing.

I’m hoping that, upon completion of the season, I can look back and see all the heavy lifting of this episode, but I was far more engaged with the B-plots than the A-plot, even though Cardellini is excellent and gives another beautiful and wide-ranging performance of grief evolving in a mother as she takes new shape and becomes something else. It’s a good episode but not a great one.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

• For more Crystal Lake: Camp Crystal