Review: ‘Neagley’ Season 1, Episode 4 “Breaking and Entering”

“Breaking and Entering,” episode four of Prime’s Neagley, continues to provide viewers with a considerably well written, surprisingly disturbing show that, in relation to its quality, is wholly underappreciated. 

Episode four tackles many avenues, but seems to focus mainly on giving viewers a clearer insight into the depravity of Echo Canyon Farm. A flashback a year prior works to show the extent to which the drugs they are dosing their subjects can boggle the mind, in a way even Lawrence Cole describes as “chemical lobotomy.” As it is a drug which seeks to effectively reverse the effects of trauma, we also see how on the farm Judith Gray (one of the highest ranking officials on Echo Canyon as well as Lawrence Cole’s right hand man) attempts to extract traumatic information from each of the farm’s members, having them relive it through a factual lens in an attempt to prime them for the later experiments (though of course this they are not aware of).

As all this happens, Neagley and Hudson continue attempting to discover the underlying mystery – who is perpetuating this experiment, and what it actually is. Though they make leeway when they secure a meeting with a man who had resided at Echo Canyon Farm, (though now lives in a psychiatric facility, as he was the subject of the “chemical lobotomy”) his answers fall short, as the drugs and traumatic flashbacks have essentially scrambled him. 

Things grow more personal when hired killers, who we can only assume to be under the direction of Echo Canyon, wait for Neagley at home, but end up killing her boss York instead and, in an effort to cover their tracks, dose the milk in her fridge with their unfinished, trauma-inducing drug. The episode ends with Neagley going to spend the night at Hudson’s, but not before drinking the milk. At the same time as this, Keno has once again broken into the warehouse on the compound and, in a disturbing turn of events, discovered bags of body parts. 

All of the information revealed in this episode contributes to an atmosphere that is, somehow, much more depraved than expected upon watching the first scene of the first episode. While the plot is outlandish and intricate, episode four still manages to ground it in reality, with characters that are still flawed and dialogue that is still realistic. Though it is certainly the most out there episode, it did not feel as if it was completely unmitigable, and almost, in a way, felt refreshing. Every ten minutes, it seems, there is something new, and the A and B plots are so well interwoven that the story feels a completely contained, lived experience. They manage, somehow, to tow the line of overwhelm.

9/10