Episode Recap: THE PURGE S2 E2 & E3

Last week THE PURGE dove into the aptly named second episode, “Everything is Fine.” This is the first full episode dedicated to showing the audience the aftermath of Purge night. As the terrors of the night turn into day people clean up, bodies are disposed of, and citizens get on with their normal daily lives.

Yet that isn’t the case for the four characters this season. Marcus is still coming to terms with the knowledge that someone was stalking him before Purge night and tried to kill him. He doesn’t have much time to let this sink in before he has to rush to the ER where he is a doctor. Naturally, the hospital is a madhouse after the Purge. Marcus is shocked to find the man who tried to kill him there. Before the man dies of his injuries he manages to say “the Ivory Road.” With the help of Marcus’s son, Darren, he learns The Ivory Road is a part of the dark web where a price was put on his head. 

Ben returns back to his fraternity house covered in blood. He is clearly shaken from his near death experience. It not only causes a rift between Ben and the friend who left him behind that night, but it is also putting strain on his relationship with his girlfriend, Kelen. He can’t talk to her about what really happened and the marks it left on his psyche. Ben must struggle with how he is supposed to act and feel vs. how he truly feels on the inside.

For Esme, witnessing the death of her friend under such strange circumstances forces her to abuse the technology at her disposal to investigate. She is a skilled investigator and is able to track what her friend was doing before she left the house. Using those clues, Esme finds a folder hidden under a staircase. What’s inside was important enough for the woman to risk her life for and important enough for those men to come for her on Purge night.

Max Martini in THE PURGE “Everything Is Fine”

We watch as Ryan, leader of the bank-robbers, visits his mother in a nursing home. His mother has some kind of dementia or Alzheimer’s and Ryan needs that money to pay for her care. Eventually he reconnects with the other thieves, but one of them is arrested for still being on bank property when the last siren finished ringing. He gives himself up willingly, leaving Ryan and the other two to make sure the money goes to his family. They also are shocked to find there was much less cash in the vault this year, leaving them to barely have enough for their living expenses for the year. 

Clearly, for all of these characters everything is definitely not fine after the second episode of THE PURGE. Which takes us to this week’s all new episode titled “Blindspots.” 

Esme continues her quest to find out why her friend was killed. Now she has the envelope with brain scans and tapes inside, but she isn’t sure what their significance is. At the same time her job has tasked her with keeping a close eye on some suspicious activity from Ryan, though he has managed to keep his face out of all surveillance. 

Ryan is the focus of the third episode. The plot goes back and forth between his past and present. The flashbacks show the audience how Ryan and his friends turned to a life of robbery on Purge night in order to make a living and why they are so skilled at what they do. In the present, Ryan is doing his own investigative work to find out where all the cash that was supposed to be in the bank vault ended up. 

Derek Luke in THE PURGE “Blindspots”

Marcus hires some help to figure out who put the bounty on his head for Purge night. While most of the obvious choices check out, the investigator suggests perhaps it was Marcus’s wife. It forces him to look at the woman he loves as a possible suspect. 

Ben is finding it more and more difficult to pretend to be normal. Purge night haunts him to the point where he is having difficulties performing in bed with his girlfriend. He tries to work through these strange new feelings by finding legal outlets to his newfound aggression. 

Each character offers a unique perspective into life after Purge night. You have some who have trouble adapting to the violence, those who have managed to stay above it until now, and those who are doing the best they can with the lot they have been given. 

After the third episode, THE PURGE delivers a few truly compelling plot points that they haven’t done before. First, they show runners show how strict laws have become in the wake of The Purge to the point where minor offenses are given extreme punishments. The show also conveys how being exposed to this extreme violence can have immediate and lasting psychological impacts. In “Blindspots” we are also already seeing the characters come together as their plotlines converge, which is much sooner than fans saw in season one. The intrigue is quickly building, leaving fans eagerly awaiting the next episode.

You can watch the excitement of THE PURGE Tuesday nights at 9/8c on USA. For coverage on our earlier episode, click here

https://youtu.be/0fbymIUau-w

Molly Henery
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