The episode kicks off with Isabella putting Krone in her place. The latter tries to put on an act, but the former assures her that she’s well aware of everything. Krone shouldn’t think for a second that she’s managed to pull a wool over Isabella’s eyes. Nevertheless, I can’t help but think that the woman is way too overconfident in her abilities. She knows that Krone wants to sabotage and betray her, but she still thinks she has the situation under control. I personally wouldn’t risk it. From a storyteller’s perspective, however, it’s interesting to see the kids face a similar predicament. One of them is the traitor, but Norman is confident that he can win them over to their side. Like Isabella, he feels as though he’s in control of the situation no matter what ends up happening. In this week’s episode, we see him cook up a plan to get Gilda and Don involved. Tell the kids some crucial details about the escape plan and see who leaks the information. What’s apparent, however, is that he never really suspected either of them. Instead, he has had his eyes on Ray for a while now, so towards the end of the episode, he finally has enough proof to confront the kid. Like with Krone and Isabella, Ray couldn’t pull the wool over Norman’s eyes either.
But there has to be a difference — there’s always a key difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Krone still intends to “defeat” Isabella in this little chess match. Ray wants to survive and become an adult, but it always seems to me as though he cares deeply about his two friends. He would rather protect them over the others. Now that his secret is out, will he continue working for Isabella? Or is Norman right in claiming that he can convince the traitor to defect? I guess we’ll see.
Stray observations
— Looping both Gilda and Don into the plan just makes sense anyways. As smart as Emma, Norman, and Ray are, it’s just too much work for three people. The hard part is shattering their friends’ world view, which… well, I’ll get to that later.
— I wish Isabella actually got more screentime, because I feel like the show is much more serious whenever she’s around. Her character does a good job of lending a much-needed sense of palpable tension to the story. When it’s just the kids onscreen by themselves, the show oozes teen power. Yeah, stick it to the adults! You kinda get the sense that every single children is gonna make it. I think one commenter even said that the show reminded them of those young adult novel series like The Hunger Games and I can’t disagree. Meanwhile, whenever Krone is onscreen by herself, the show just becomes goofy. It’s like when Higurashi tries to scare you, but the silly faces just make you laugh instead. Spare me the antics.
— Norman is super smart, so again, I think he’s been suspecting Ray for a while now. But what’s Emma’s excuse? Maybe she’s just too naive to see the obvious right before her very eyes. Maybe she just believes in her so-called family too much.
— Oh yeah, Emma reiterates that she wants to save everybody, because they’re family. One of my problems with this show is that it just lacks nuance. Even though Ray is the traitor, you feel as though he’s only doing it because he cares about his two closest friends (maybe his only friends). And as far as I can tell, there aren’t any bad eggs among the children, which is a little hard to believe. From experience, some kids are angels, but some kids are pure, unmitigated assholes. To be fair, they have underdeveloped brains, so it makes perfect sense why some kids are selfish and immature. Look, all I’m saying is that it takes me out of the story a little bit to see that every single one of these orphans are completely innocent (other than Ray, of course). It would be a little more interesting if a few of them were difficult to handle.
— Our trio finally breaks the bad news to Don and Gilda, and the guy has a lot of trouble believing them at first. After all, who would? You want to tell me that my kind and loving mother is actually… not? C’moooooooon. But Gilda has no problems believing them. She seems rather attached to Emma, and as a result, she has been able to sense for a while now that something is off with her friend. To be fair, Don does get angry at them for badmouthing Isabella, but he comes around and buys in after Gilda has her say. I dunno, I just feel like this was a little too easy. I feel like Don should’ve put up a better fight. ‘Cause look, if you have no evidence, I don’t care how trustworthy Emma, Norman and Ray have been up until now, I’m not going to go and believe that I’m essentially cattle. That sort of thing destroys your perception of the world. It shatters your worldview. I just find it hard to imagine that Don would eventually trust their word without any actual evidence.
— Not only that, no one gets horribly depressed or anything. Like even if you manage to escape, you have no clue how you’re going to survive on your own in the outside world. That’s one lingering worry. Not only that, Emma and Norman leads them to believe that it’s still possible to save Conny. What are you going to do? Lead your ragtag army against grown ass adults? Nevertheless, both Don and Gilda seem determined in their mission now. They’re like good, little soldiers. It just feels too convenient.
— Oh yeah, I guess I kinda agree with Ray here. I don’t like the idea of giving the kids false hope about Conny. Yeah, it unites them — and you could argue that it’s for their own good — but I don’t like deceiving and using people like that.
— Maybe in some twisted way, Isabella thinks that what she’s doing is for the kids’ own good. Maybe she knows that they can’t really survive in the outside world, but on this farm, they at least get to believe in a fairy tale until their fateful day arrives. They do live a pretty nice life here…
— Norman eventually asks Emma how she would treat the traitor. He knows who the traitor is, but he isn’t quite ready to reveal the truth to her. Nevertheless, since Norman’s doing all of this for Emma, it’s her call. Whatever she wants, she gets. It’s a good thing that she has such a pure-hearted soul. Well, to nobody’s surprise, the girl would still want to help the traitor escape.
— I just feel bad for Ray, because he’s ultimately just as naive as Emma. Maybe that’s why he keeps calling her out. Maybe he’s just projecting. Either way, even if Norman hadn’t found out about him being the traitor, a super genius like him can’t honestly feel all that secure about his deal with Isabella. She can easily renege on their agreement and he would have absolutely no recourse. When you’re negotiating with someone you can’t trust, you need some sort of leverage. You need something to make sure that they stick to their word. Well, there’s nothing of that sort with Isabella. If she ultimately decides to ship him off one day, what the hell is he going to do about it? Nothing.