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3%: Glass

“People with the Cause are the only ones fighting for a better world, fighting to end this division, because that is what’s criminal.”

If you were running the Process, what kind of tests would you put the candidates through? This is a question Fernando is asked — sort of — and one that I asked myself already. I don’t know the answer yet, but I know the tests I would not come up with, such as drugging the candidates to bring out their worst fears. I mean, what does that accomplish, besides giving us that good episode focused on Joana? Not always have the tests made sense, which is why I liked “Glass” so much: not only did the tests made sense this time, they were personal.

The first test is pretty much the same for everyone: each candidate gets a shiny new bedroom, where they meet someone from the Inland that matters to them. Fernando receives a visit from his dad, Rafael from his pregnant mom. Michele has no one to visit her, and Joana meets a man who presented himself to the Process as her relative but in reality has been hired to take her to Gerson, the man whose son she killed. Inside the bedroom there are also lots and lots of coins — Inland money — which the candidates can bring back home if they choose to quit the Process. See? That’s a good test right there.

Always driven by his good heart, Fernando wants to bring the money home to help his dad. His father, however, always driven by his blind faith, wants Fernando to move forward. He actually makes the decision for Fernando in the end. Rafael, whose real name is Tiago, is also in a conflict with his mom, who is rightfully pissed that Rafael/Tiago stole the ID from his brother (boy... did we know it was his brother?). How interesting that mother and son blackmailed one another at one point. It could be just the case of a very pissed off mother, but from what Rafael said before, his relationship with his parents probably wasn’t the best. It’s also interesting that he talks a lot about having children. Maybe he wants to compensate, be the parent that his parents weren’t.

The test is easier for Michele, who has no one to argue with, but Joana is not so lucky. Her visitor/capturer proposes a deal: they will return together to the Inland and split the money, it’s more than Gerson had offered him to take her out. Joana is not having it, though, and when she tries to escape, her determination to go to Offshore saves her: the man was in reality faking that he's a criminal, faking that he's her relative, he is an employee of the Process and she just completed two tests in one. Go, Joana. What’s more relevant, though, is that they know who she really is and what she did, but still see the good in her to let her stay. That was a nice revelation, and this kind of acceptance, more than the actual approval in the Process, is just what she needs to see herself as a good person.

It’s over and good for Joana, but not for the others. The Process runners reunite to cook the following test, which is personalized by candidate. Ezequiel runs the meeting, but Aline takes the calls. It’s delicious to see him cornered like that, actually. She is not happy that Rafael, who cheated in the cubes test, is still there, so she comes up with an individual challenge for him that will require someone else’s assistance. How ironic and evil. I loved it. Fernando must complete a simpler task, to come up with a new test for future Processes, and he does it without much trouble. Michele has the toughest trial of them all: in thirty minutes, she needs to tell Bruna’s parents that Bruna died and convince them to register their younger daughter to take the Process anyway.

I have to be honest, I thought Michele’s challenge was impossible to accomplish. Were they setting her up to fail? She did a hell of a good job, but part of me didn’t believe those parents would actually agree to let their youngest go through the Process, not so quickly and maybe not ever. In any case, Michele passed, but the memories that the test brought didn’t make her any happier. By the end of the episode, she was taking out of her body a capsule, presumably inserted there by the Cause. The purpose of it is yet to be shown.

Speaking of the Cause, Rafael tells Fernando that he and Michele are part of it, it’s the only way he gets to convince Fernando to help him on his test. I didn’t understand at first why Rafael would tell Fernando and not Joana, but it makes sense. Joana is smart, Fernando is naïve and can be more easily manipulated, even more so considering he loves Michele. He practically tells her that, when he says he will go wherever she will go. But she won’t go wherever he goes, even the Process employees see that. Fernando’s quest now might be one of love, but Michele’s is still one of vengeance.

Bits and Pieces

- There was a flashback/dream scene to Michele and her brother, André, playing hide and seek. When it was her time as the seeker, she couldn’t find him, she found Ezequiel instead.

- When the candidates first entered their bedrooms, there were pictures of them and their loved ones projected all over the walls. In Joana’s there was only a picture of her alone. :(


- Ezequiel visited Augusto one last time to say goodbye. Augusto lay on his lap, but he tossed the kid aside and left without ceremony. That says a lot about Ezequiel.

- Right after Fernando’s confession of love, he and Michele had sex. It’s cute, but, again, that cute young love might compromise his chances in the Process.

- Cássia asked Michele how she came up with the story of a dead brother. Wouldn’t Cássia know Michele has a dead brother?

- They don’t use money on Offshore.

- It makes no sense that there aren’t cameras and microphones inside the bedrooms.

- This episode could’ve been named “Coins” if, you know, they hadn’t already used that name.

Three out of four pieces of glass.
--
Lamounier

1 comment:

  1. Another good episode. I felt for Michele, who had to dredge up the worst thing that ever happened to her in order to pass the test. As we go further into the story, the more I sympathize with the Cause. The Process is obscene.

    Every episode has had shots with interesting angles plus reflections, but I think that it was most effective this time. Those perfect bedrooms were so oddly shaped, and the money was displayed in a way that it looked wrong, somehow.

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