I’ll admit, I’ve been “watching” the first five episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers mostly in the background, and I mainly started watching it in the first place because of Filipino-Canadian Manny Jacinto (The Good Place).
Therefore, rather than go back and recap the first five episodes, I’ll just start with episode six. (Although, I will say that it has been really weird/funny/amusing to see “Jason” from The Good Place get it on with Nicole Kidman. Nice work, Manny.)
This episode begins with a disclaimer about mental health challenges and suicide, along with information for NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness, so going into it, I expect it will be intense (as if the other episodes haven’t been!).
First, we see Masha losing her shit over having almost eaten some of Zoe’s birthday cake while staring off into space remembering her childhood.
Next, we see Frances (Melissa McCarthy), we get a lovely hallucination from which features a teeny tiny Paul (McCarthy’s real-life husband, Ben Falcone) singing “Money” from Cabaret. While amusing, it was nothing quite like this gem.
We first see Lars (Luke Evans) having a nightmare of being a child and having what look like boys’ school classmates taunt him by chanting a homophobic slur. He wakes up to Masha literally in his face (freaky, much?) and asks her what she’s doing. She awkwardly caresses his face and whispers “I hate bullies,” then explains some funky psychedelic stuff about how she is able to know what he was dreaming.
She then gives him a cell phone that doesn’t work except to take photos and video, and she assigns him to take photos of what happens today — she’s giving him a story. She reminds Lars that he came to Tranquilum to advance his career as a journalist, and tells him that instead, he can be the one “who told the world,” whatever that means.
Lars tells the group about the dream stuff — that Masha controls them through drugs and audio — and the group pretty much reacts with eye rolls and shrugs.
Frances tells the group about her hallucination of Paul singing from Cabaret, and we get treated to Luke Evans singing snippets of “Wilkommen,” “Maybe This Time,” and of course, “Money.”
The group seems amused by the “rediscoveries” that Masha points out, except for Carmel. She definitely has not been enjoying her time at the retreat. Personally, I really just wish Carmel would break through already. Yes, she had the moment where she beat the dummy back in episode 4, but she’s still like a little turtle — albeit a turtle who occasionally breathes dragon fire.
Masha tells the group they will be receiving higher doses of drug cocktail and explains they don’t have to take it, but that there are three new rules: no climbing, no going near water, and they will employ a buddy system. The buddies are The Marconis (including Michael Shannon’s Napoleon), Ben and Jessica Chandler (Melvin Gregg and Samara Weaving), Carmel and Lars, and Tony and Frances. All but Carmel drink the higher-dosed tea.
Carmel asks to see Masha in private. She reveals that is concerned about the psychedelics because she’s on psychotropic drugs. Masha of course already knew that.
Masha also knows that the reason Carmel came to Tranquilum is… BECAUSE SHE HAD AN AFFAIR WITH CARMEL’S EX-HUSBAND!!!
Carmel reacts by asking if she’s in trouble rather than, oh, I don’t know, being completely enraged at the woman who slept with her husband. Masha then asks if Carmel is the one threatening her, which Carmel denies. She came to the retreat to study what it is about Masha that made her husband start going after other women. Carmel insists she wants to become like Masha. Then, Masha apologizes and says she’s trustworthy and wants Carmel to heal and let go of the hatred — and that she should take the drugs. Carmel relents. This is one of those scenes that seems foreboding, but also, maybe not. I’m not so enthralled by the show or the conflicts presented, so to me, this scene could be a red herring. Whatever it is, it’s awkward.
Meanwhile, it looks like some of the group participates in a sound bath in the meditation/dummy-beating room. The Marconis are outside doing… soft movement — Tai Chi? Yoga? — on what looks like a solar panel deck with Yao (Jacinto).
Out in the field, Delilah asks Masha why she is pushing the “protocol” so quickly, and wonders if it’s because the retreat is out of money. Masha denies this. Delilah then amits to seeing Masha eat sugar (gasp!), to which Masha replies that she was trying to connect with the little girl within her. She admits to Delilah that she hasn’t.
Back at the sound bath, Frances is led outside by… light? a bird? and Tony has to be reminded to join his buddy.
Next comes a montage of Yao and the Marconis yoga-ing, when Napoleon vomits. It’s a good thing, Yao says.
Under one of the many large trees, Frances plays with a lady bug and Tony finds her. He asks, “How’s your head?” and I immediately think of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Another awkward moment happens when the two look at each other to Rihanna’s “Love on the Brain,” and Frances says out loud “Oh my god, I think he’s going in.” She thinks he’s going to kiss her, and he admits he thought about it but remembered he hurts everyone he loves. Plus he’s too dizzy to lean in. After some cutesy chatter, they kiss.
Back to the Marconis, they are all tripping out in the field now, but reacting in different ways. Zoe is floaty, Napoleon is philosophical, and Heather tries to stay close to the ground. Zoe wants to go for a walk, but Heather says they should stay together. She starts off, then all three get caught up in big huge bubbles that one of the Tranquilum drones is making. Zoe then sees someone enter the woods, and starts to follow. Yao and Delilah seem to look on as she does.
Tony asks Frances if she ever thinks about “not going on.” He admits to thinking of it often before coming to the retreat. He was at the “bottom-bottom.” He points out that Masha picked nine people who “needed to be in a place where they would try anything she wanted.” And they’re all going along with it. Ah, but he doesn’t say this as a negative. Masha has given him hope. Frances has given him hope. He has thought about the future – painting his house, getting a dog, taking her out to dinner. His comments inspire the writer in Frances – she wants to steal them.
Lars and Carmel sit near another large tree, where Lars asks if she’s stalking Masha. She’s studying her, she explains. Lars is recording their conversation — well, Carmel talking — with the phone Masha gave him. She admits she’s afraid she would hurt someone if she hallucinates something like Frances did, about her ex. Lars doesn’t think so (but I kinda do). She wonders if Lars has visions of his recent ex. Up until now, I didn’t tknow if Carmel was aware she was being recorded, but she knocks over the camera and asks how it looks. “Like a young Gloria Gaynor,” Lars says.
On to Ben and Jessica, or just Jessica at first, and one of the grosser hallucinations yet. As Jessica admires her body in the bathroom mirror, she notices what looks like a piece of skin missing from her nose. When she goes to touch it, her nose falls off into the bathroom sink! She tries to put it back on, but it doesn’t stay. Naturally, she screams and Ben runs to her asking what’s wrong. She looks perfectly like herself, nose on and all. He tries to tell her that her nose is on her face. She doesn’t quite believe him, but he manages to calm her down.
Masha walks in to see what the hubbub was about, and the couple asks if she gave them mushrooms — she was only supposed to give them ecstacy. Of course she gave them mushrooms, they asked for it. She helps confirm that Jessica’s nose is still on her face, then leaves. Then in the most that’s what I was wondering moment, Ben asks “Where’d she come from?” [Is Masha herself a hallucination? She sure pops up everywhere out of the blue. Hmmmmm…]
Zoe is following whoever walked into the woods. She is buddy-less, which is not good, in my opinion.
**CONTENT WARNING**
For a brief moment, behind Zoe, we see legs hanging from a tree. Zoe does not see this; instead, she turns around looking for the person she followed. Eventually, she hears/sees Zach ask what she’s doing. As she turns to him, we see it’s actually Heather. Napoleon is also there now, and he and Heather ask Zoe if she sees Zach. Napoleon sees him briefly, then Heather. Heather grabs him, hugs him, while Zoe and Napoleon don’t see him. Heather asks him why. He says she knows — it’s her job. He describes medication side effects that she read on a pamphlet and apparently underlined a line about suicidal ideations. She starts screaming that she didn’t know. She drops to the ground and lies nearly comatose as Napoleon, Delilah, and Yao help her up. They all walk out of the woods with blank stares.
Zoe and Napoleon wait outside of a medical exam room. Heather comes to awareness on an exam table and asks where her son is. She starts to wail, and it seems Napoleon and Zoe can hear her. Masha and Yao try to calm her down and sedate her. Delilah thinks they’re out of their depth with Heather. Masha tells the family that Heather saw Zach, and Napoleon admits they all did. Masha seems surprised. The other two describe the conversation Heather had with Zach and Masha looks to be in complete shock. She then tries to explain to Zoe that it had to happen and Heather had to have the memory come back. But Masha looks absolutely terrified, and Yao looks quite concerned. It seems Delilah is totally correct.
All the others but Tony are in the pool. Frances still has her shoes on, Carmel looks… like Carmel always does — worried and insecure. Tony stays on deck, reminding everyone that Masha said no water. He’s very anxious about it, but he eventually walks in. Almost immediately, Delilah comes to tell everyone to get out. Everyone wonders where the Marconis are and Delilah tries to avoid the subject, saying they all need to go to their rooms. On the way out, Lars touches Carmel and she freaks out. He offers to take her to her room.
Zoe is back in the fields again, possibly hoping to see Zach, and she does. She asks what he told Heather. “I can only tell people what they already know,” he says. He tells her she hurts, and she’ll be ok.
Masha approaches Napoleon out by yet another tree to tell him Heather is awake and he can talk to her. He doesn’t know what he would say. When he thought Zach’s death was his fault, he was afraid Heather would blame him an dleave him. But now, “the shoe is on the other foot.” Heather examines every detail of what they intake — she must have read the medication label. He doesn’t think he can forgive her now. When Masha asks him what he wants most, he says he just wants his son back. And she says she can arrange that — she can make the couple hallucinate him. Later that evening, she tries to convince them to let her do it, but they are hesitant. Delilah looks on as she tries to win them over.
Carmel finds Frances in “her spot,” a swinging bench under a tree. She tries to relate to Frances’ vision of Paul, that they were both made fools. Frances points out that everyone is starting to feel better in their own way, but she’s worried that Carmel is getting worse.
Delilah and Yao walk in the woods, and she tells him she overheard Masha’s conversation with the Marconis. She’s worried another lawsuit will occur, and claims “the Connellys” (previous guests, we assume) are the ones threatening Masha. Yao disagrees and looks reluctant when Delilah insists they need to leave before shit hits the fan.
Masha sits by the pool, meditating or something. We see more of her memory from the first scene. It’s the same little girl she remembered as she ate the cake. She’s on a bike. Now we see that the girl was not Masha — Masha is following the girl as she rides, so are we to assume it’s her daughter? The girl rides her bike out of the woods and onto a street, where a truck is headed directly for her. Before we see the outcome, the scene cuts to present-day poolside Masha who gasps in shock. The end.
So… is Masha trying to force her visistors to push through the healing process because she is unable to? Is she experimenting on them in order to find the right mix of drugs that will help her heal herself? Will Yao and Delilah leave? (I think she will, but he won’t.)
We only have two episodes left, and I don’t like to theorize or make predictions about shows, ever since way back when Lost ended up being a huge disappontment. That said, I can’t help but feel like someone on this show will die, because, that’s how these shows go. I’ve read the book synopsis, but I honestly can’t remember what the major plot points were, and show adaptations often stray from the books anyway. So yeah, my only prediction is that someone will die. Oh, and I guess also that Carmel and/or Masha will be involved in that death.