No one goes unscathed by the CarrieRed_ Instagram account–faculty and students alike. Carrie obsessively refreshes the meme page, almost studying the widespread circulation.
Carrie discovers a letter in the trash addressed to Margaret concerning the cremation remains of the White patriarch, shocking Carrie. She processes her grief with Sue, who as Coach Desjardin requested, befriended Carrie, or at the very least, began to look out for her. The scream queen confronts her mother about the betrayal, seeking closure. Maybe then she can stop hallucinating him to lay him to rest. This throughline of grief perhaps comes across as the most human element of this episode.
Chris undergoes grief of her own after her car gets repossessed. She enlists emotional support from Billy to release her teen angst. She expresses her disapproval of her parents’ divorce, which leaves her at the intersection of the turmoil. An eerie spark of danger allures her when Billy drops a bottle from above the overpass of a highway, offering to push the limit further with a sizable brick. Concerned for the safety of the drivers below them, Chris nearly tries to stop him, until he entices her.
“…[I]f I let this go, and gravity takes it, then someone can get hurt, but I am holding it back, so everyone driving by down there has me to thank…Half the people down there probably wouldn’t give me the time of day, the other half probably think you’re a f*cking stuck up little bitch, and we’re up here saving their asses, and they don’t even know.”
Chris peers over the edge, cars rushing in a blur.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would. If you told me to. Dare me.”
The adrenaline rushes over the burgeoning couple, though Flannagan holds on to the moment of humanity, guilt even, that Chris exhibits…until, she gives the go ahead.
With a second of hesitance, Billy drops the brick.
Margaret successfully devises a scheme against her boss so that she can relinquish her janitorial duties.
Chris and Billy pressure Carrie and Sue to take an afternoon excursion. Tina, who comes along for the ride, offers edible gummies to Chris, yet Carrie takes two voluntarily, sharing that her parents prohibited from a sugar-fueled diet.
By dawn, they arrive at the destination: the ditch in which Carrie’s father passed away. Already under the influence, Carrie’s delusions of the bricks that murdered her father taunt her.
Sue, who surreptitiously bought a pregnancy tests amidst distancing herself from Tonny, scolds Chris and Tina, who record a soiled Carrie. Tina outs Chris as the account holder of the CarrieRed_ account. For once, Sue expresses concern for Chris, who does not exactly absolve Sue of her part in the account (the name).
Carrie walks back into town. Her screams shatter lights. Emaline takes notice. At this point, it becomes more obvious that Emaline is a figment of Carrie’s imagination, and I do not quite agree with her role in the show. Carrie is quite capable of accessing her powers by herself rather than by a non-canon character to the franchise.
Carrie returns home into her mother’s embraces, the only redeeming antidote to her social emotional wound.
Rating: 9/10