Take Three: Enlightened

Enlightened: Season 1, Episode 3 “Someone Else’s Life” (B+)

I like that this episode had a rather definitive theme to it, bookended by Amy’s perceptions of other people’s lives, going from those whose joy she envied to those whose loneliness she wanted to fill with something else. Amy’s current job situation is truly miserable, stuck in an office where she can literally apply for jobs all day but isn’t allowed to leave for a made-up doctor’s appointment since it’s not an emergency, forced to pretend to have slept in her car while she goes to have an interview off the premises. I enjoyed her defense of her theoretical homelessness, to which Dougie didn’t really know what to say. I’m glad that she’s taken an interest in being friendly with Tyler, especially since it was so sad to see him ask her to lunch and then be rejected. She did swoop to his defense, amid his own protests to the contrary, when Krista suddenly decided she was free for lunch and tried to steal Amy away. There’s no debating that Amy’s run-in with Krista and Damon and the crew wasn’t hopelessly awkward, and it’s going to be a while before that kind of interaction gets back to normal. What is clear is that Amy is a kind, sensitive soul, and though she may have been privy to a mental breakdown, she’s doing much better now, and even co-workers wiping their germ-soaked, diseased hands on each other’s faces as they leave to go home sick aren’t going to get her down.