Critic’s Rating: 4.3 / 5.0
4.3
Oh, how the fates intertwine on this show!
Alice and Catherine’s first real encounter was as riveting as we could’ve anticipated on Furious Season 1 Episode 6, and the ties that bind them go far beyond Catherine shooting Marshall to protect Alice.
We just stumbled into some more Alice lore that’s enough to leave one’s jaw on the floor.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
Throughout all of Furious Season 1, it’s been evident that Alice and Catherine are more alike than different. For Alice, hunting down Catherine has left an impact and shaken up some things about her own life.
The only real distinction between Alice and Catherine is that Alice navigated a way off the streets much sooner.
Knowing some of Alice’s history, especially when it came to Marshall and his family’s influence on her, it’s so deeply complex that a family that ultimately saved her in some regards could also be who caused her such harm, too.
It’s a sobering reality for Alice that the only reason she didn’t end up like Catherine is because of a little bit of luck. Those are the breaks, right?
So it’s made her more equipped than ever, despite being a baby Fed, to navigate this case with the empathy it calls for, and it’s the gusto she’s had for it that has propelled it forward.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
The season has been building toward these women coming face-to-face, and Furious doesn’t disappoint.
We saw the moments leading up to Catherine returning to this facility, where she used to work, after two to three years of being MIA.
Fresh off killing Hal and leaving Alden, it seemed Catherine was having another out-of-body experience and went somewhere that made her comfortable.
The hour confirms that Catherine has a Depersonalization-Derealization disorder, something of which she’s hinted at throughout.
Catherine’s body doesn’t always feel like it’s hers; she has bouts of feeling completely detached from her body and emotions, and it’s something that stems from her trauma and abuse.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
After another murder, it triggered an episode, and Jean was the person who felt the most like home. That dynamic was endearing, especially as Jean led her through coping and grounding strategies to help her come back to herself.
You can sense that Jean has devoted her life to helping all of these women, and she takes that gig seriously.
She’s also had a real effect on these women, and their discussion about Elena was heartbreaking because Jean genuinely felt like Isabel’s daughter had found a good home, but instead, she’s back with her violent pimp.
Alice showing up when she did felt like fate, and what I liked about those scenes, again, is that these are the types of spaces that Alice could’ve easily been navigating during a portion of her life, too.
Posing as a sex worker whose boyfriend abused her is not far from her reality. They say the best lies are those that stick closely to the truth, and that’s what she used to build a dynamic with Catherine, not superficial talk about cats as Nora suggested.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
This is where Alice continues to excel in this case — most law enforcement speaks from above these people, whereas Alice routinely comes from a place of “I’m not that far off from you.”
That connection is what actually saves Alice.
Truthfully, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out that she was a fed, especially Catherine. She was probing for information, raised Isabel’s name even when it didn’t warrant it, and has been walking the streets asking questions.
But it’s that she shared so much of herself and her own experience that allows her and Catherine’s dynamic to shift from a cat-and-mouse game to an uneasy alliance, of sorts.
It’s an interesting spot for them to be in, with the two of them having their sights on Jay Easton, due to their own suffering.
And it’s such a great moment when Catherine effectively calls Alice out. After all, how is Alice pedaling the wheels of justice and a system that she herself won’t even entrust to help her punish Marshall?
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
How does Alice genuinely feel that she has all the power in the world to take down the most powerful man out there, when she can’t even find enough strength to take down Marshall?
Catherine is right to feel that her way is the only effective way. She has a more realistic, albeit bleak, perception of what’s really happening and how they can resolve things.
And in the end, deep down, Alice sees that too. Especially when a drunken Marshall with all of his privilege and lack of good sense attacked Alice outside of what amounts to a women’s shelter.
If they weren’t bonded before, Catherine shooting Marshall (with Alice’s gun) to save her has done the trick. Alice will say it’s not what she wanted, but deep down? It probably was.
After all, nothing reinforces everything that Catherine and, frankly, all the women in this series have felt about the system at large and its inefficiency, like a pissing match and power plays being the reason that everything went sideways.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
In Catherine’s mind, women are all each other have.
Girls supporting girls, because the very embodiment of the system is what left Alice stuck in a facility with a serial killer and no backup, and almost had her getting murdered by her ex-boyfriend, who flashes his badge and gets away with everything.
The system is broken, and Furious keeps reinforcing that. On the bureaucratic end, every time Nora feels like she’s making progress and getting to flex her power, Ed knocks her back down again.
Nora remains my favorite character in this series, and I couldn’t stop laughing at her antics of stalling the meeting with Ed. The physicality of Quincy Tyler Bernstine’s performance gets me every time. I’m obsessed.
But damn, do I need my girl to get a win. She was so confident in everything that she was saying and doing, and it’s that cockiness that makes Ed humbling her and using his power over her all the more difficult to watch.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
She gets too far ahead of herself, and it always backfires. Ed is in deep with the powerful people like Easton himself, so taking him down won’t be easy.
It could be, though, if she, Alice, and Danny got on the same page more often and communicated better. As it stands, Alice could potentially face more trouble after Marshall’s shooting and because Catherine went away.
Nora is now under investigation because of her excessive drinking and Ed having her in his crosshairs.
And Danny, thanks to Alden, has invaluable information that can take down Easton and whoever else.
The closest this series has ever become to a full-blown comedy has been Alden’s antics at the police station.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
The tonal shift in that should’ve worked as well as it did, but it added the necessary levity the hour needed, and I could not stop laughing at Alden being such a little shit to the authorities.
Choi didn’t know what to do with him, and Alden couldn’t respect Choi, who really was sounding like a moron.
But what made everything more amusing was that even Danny wasn’t immune to finding Alden hilarious. His experience with his own son had him treat Alden like a person and not lob all that ableist crap at him.
As a result, they had a healthy respect for each other amid all the foolery.
Alden is a ride-or-die; not even seeing Catherine kill Hal in front of him dissuaded him from loving her fully, and he wouldn’t turn on her by any means. He gave them the runaround the whole time.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
But he also touched on something that got to Danny when he pointed out that part about Danny only thinking love is when someone does everything that he wants them to do. Love isn’t conditional.
Danny feels that Alice is this black hole, and she’s too broken to love him properly, but Alden gave him more perspective as someone who spent his whole life having people tell or treat him like he was unworthy of love and then finding just that with Catherine.
Goodness, I love Alden.
And now, he’s assisted and given them the edge they need by sharing with Danny, and only Danny, the flash drive of information from Hal’s computer. It has everything they could maybe need to take Easton down and expose some things.
For starters, it has endless files on a bunch of abused women and sex trafficking victims. And one of those women, in a jaw-dropping moment, is Alice herself.
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
Alice is such a common name, so what are the genuine odds that a file named Alice would be our Alice? Is it a little contrived? Sure. Does it still work as a twist? Absolutely!
Also, kudos to our boy Danny for shutting it down immediately when he first saw her.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, though, right? We know Alice had a rough life and a dark past, but what are we to make of her being one of the women on that drive? Is this why Jay Easton acted like he knew Alice when he first saw her?
But this also brings up a few questions.
With Nora’s boss clearly working with Easton and trying to bury evidence, how long before he realizes that Danny has this drive? Can he put it in the chain of evidence when there are clear attempts at destroying evidence?
(Disney/Sarah Shatz)
Will Danny even want to turn it over now that he knows Alice is on it?
Will Alice want to use it to take Easton down and honor her word to Catherine if she knows that there’s a lot to it, too? I’m reeling!
Over to you, Furious Fanatics
There’s so much to unpack here, so let’s dive into the episode, and I’m excited to hear your thoughts!
You can stream all-new episodes of Furious Mondays on Hulu.
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Alice and Catherine’s cat-and-mouse-game takes on a new edge as the become uneasy allies on Furious Season 1 Episode 6. Our review!
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Nora’s secret behavior catches up to her on Furious Season 1 Episode 4. Alice and Danny work through issues, and Catherine has a new target.
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