Trigger warning: suicide

Following the sudden unaliving of Mr. Peist (played by Rahul Kohli), a frenzy sets Chamberlain in a split of ideology–the one instigated by Margaret in favor of parent-child protections, and one in which the Carrie Red account “did some good” due to it correctly detecting Peist as a predator. 

Ms. Desjardin says she discovered that Mr. Peist had allegedly engaged in relationships with female students at his previous school before coming to Chamberlain. The day before his suicide, when Rita invited herself over, he frantically sought a solution given Brooklyn (the daughter of the man Chris’s mother is dating) planned on telling her father about the encounter. 

“I guess he didn’t see a way out this time,” Coach Desjardin says. She confesses she feels that engaging in a relationship with him herself jeopardized her credibility, “which is nothing compared to what he took from Brooklyn.”

A photo of Sue purchasing a pregnancy test taken by Tina in episode 4 disseminates widely across campus. Students snicker at her while Tommy finally confronts her about the distance she put between them. The two break up. Meanwhile, Carrie tries to shut out Emaline, which falls within the realm of sight of the general public and her mom.

Principal Grayle calls Chris to his office, where she finds her parents awaiting her to discuss possible expulsion due to the audio recording of her admission of guilt that Sue captured in the previous episode. Chris’ father threatens a lawsuit against Principal Grayle before Grayle mentions a number of behavioral (and potentially lethal) encounters Chris had participated in that her father expunged from her record.

Due to the widely surfaced video of Carrie talking to “Emaline,” Carrie searches the house for cameras and interrogates her mom about the lack of privacy. Margaret retorts by alluding to Carrie’s changed behavior since starting at the public school. Carrie is unsatisfied, and seeks this opportunity to ask her mother if they have a family history of mental health problems. 

Margaret flashes back to her quarrel with young Carrie when Carrie snuck into her neighbor’s yard, resulting in the rock pelting of the White house. A concerned Margaret addresses her husband that she believes the rocks corresponded to and resulted from Carrie’s behavior. Her husband delegitimizes this concern with conspiracy of government testing and the poisoning of the drinking water… 

This frustrates Carrie who seeks help from her mother

“You think I am crazy.”

“Of course not because that word doesn’t exist.”

The audience can now reason that Margaret White’s religious fanaticism was cultivated by her husband, not innate. And her argument with  Carrie, a mere regurgitation of her husband’s words and relic of his memory. 

At the remediation, the parents leave little room for their daughters to resolve anything. Chris’ mom (played by Heather Graham) attempts to reason with Margaret, showing Margaret a photo of when Chris was a young girl. She implores Margaret to find compassion for the young girl Chris was and the woman she could become if offered another chance. 

Pandemonium boils among the student population in the form of a walkout as news outlets arrive. 

Chris excuses herself to the restroom when the adults occupy themselves in their own schism. Carrie follows her, where she asks Chris why she targeted her. Her trail of questions renders Chris nearly speechless, caught in a moment of elusive guilt–nearly an apology–before Chris reverses the tables on Carrie, urging Carrie to consider that an expulsion could adversely affect the direction of her life.

When they return, the parents have come to a final compromise–should Chris apologize publicly, including to news outlets, and admit culpability for her role in the Carrie Red account, she could evade expulsion. Her father chimes in saying that could be held against her in potential lawsuits in the future.

In lieu of an apology, Chris tells Carrie in a now viral moment, “F*ck off, freak.”

Carrie sanctimoniously replies, “That’s three words, b*tch.”

The news spreads rapidly to the crowd in the schoolyard–the verdict: Christine Hargensen has been expelled. For that, she will not attend the prom. 

Not making Sue pregnant in this adaptation falls out of line with all other iterations and feels strange. Sue’s character seems noncommittal to a fault, by the conception (no pun intended) of her character, so much that she cannot even fall into her canonical character trait. Perhaps season 2 will follow showrunner Mike Flanagan’s direction for her character, as it has just been confirmed that the show has been picked up for an additional season. 

Flanagan’s choice to cast Kohli as Mr. Peist is clever in that Kohli has a proclivity to play well-mannered, agreeable men in Flanagan’s projects. It almost makes him unassuming in this role, and easy to glare over the problematic behavior in plain sight over the course of the whole series up until his death. 

The conversation between Mrs. Hargensen and Margaret adds layers to Chris’ upbringing. Chris leaned more towards her Machiavellian father, whose role in clearing her behavioral bouts vindicated his own family reputation not to mention his conscience, which enabled of her reckless behavior behavior. In the previous episode, the guidance counselor gave Chris a necessary reality check that is too little, too late.

Mrs. Hargensen leans more sympathetically of the Hargensen clan. While she may not employ the same parenting methods or deceptive lawyerly tactics as her soon-to-be ex-husband, Margaret (and the audience) cannot help but suspect that Mrs. Hargensen’s intentions are not all quite altruistic. After all, she seeks to further absolve her daughter of accountability by pleading to Margaret to have Carrie forgive Chris despite the CVS receipt of behavioral offenses her daughter has inflicted on others.

A surprising guest in the mediation: Mrs. Hargensen’s boyfriend and father to Brooklyn. He attests that Chris tormented his daughter upon him dating Chris’ mom. Even despite his daughters’ heartache at the loss of a man who preyed on her innocence,  in spite of Chris’ relentless bullying of his daughter, he still does not believe that Chris should take full accountability for managing the Carrie Red account.

Rating: 9/10