To be honest, I’d been waiting for an episode like Briarpatch 1×08 “Most Likely to Succeed” since, well, since Briarpatch first started. There are many things the show set up that they could have developed better, none more important than Allegra and Jake’s relationship, and in this episode, it finally all explodes, so to speak.
Mostly because we care about what happens. Yes, some things still don’t add up – everyone’s motivations shift so often in this show that it’s almost impossible to follow what the characters really want and/or feel – but all in all, this pretty much follows the general setup of the season, and the general idea this show should have been based on.
Felicity wasn’t a bad guy. Allegra and Jake were always meant to be a team. The rest of the people in this town, minus, the lawyer, are not to be trusted. The end.
Except the show never took us there intuitively, it wanted to take us there via plot points, and that’s never as interesting as that gut feeling that so and so has to be the good guy, so and so cares about this other character. That’s what keeps us coming back to a show. That’s what makes us invest.
And right now, in episode eight, we sorta care, yes, but is too little, and most importantly, too late? We’ll see. Two episodes to go.
FIVE THINGS ABOUT “MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED”:
- My favorite thing about Allegra Dill is that she does not flinch. She absolutely doesn’t, ever. No matter what life is throwing at her, no matter which supposedly bigger, scarier man is standing in front of her. Allegra does not flinch.
- I kinda appreciate how this went from Jake Spivey the bad guy to the senator and Cyrus and the whole government are kinda as crooked if not more than the bad guys they’re supposedly pursuing. Even if that was a rather predictable twist.
- Jake and Allegra working together was literally was this show needed. Why did I need to wait eight episodes to really get it? These two were primed to take their complicated relationship on the road!
- I won’t deny it, my first response to the kiss was WHY NOW, NOO. And then his face went all soft, and then he reached for her again, and then she kissed him again, and then I was just like oh fuck, see …I know I called it, but even I didn’t know how much this all would have worked had the show decided to go there earlier.
- Because now I’m more invested in where the final two episodes are taking me than I have ever been while watching this show. Imagine that – showing emotions helps bring the viewer in. Who knew? (Everyone. Everyone knew).
Agree? Disagree? What did you think about “Most Likely to Succeed”? Share with us in the comments below!
Briarpatch airs Mondays at 11/10c on USA Network.
