What I’m Watching: Rectify

Rectify: Season 1, Episode 5 “Drip, Drip” (B+)

This episode started out from an odd perspective, seeing Daniel watch his neighbor bash his head into his cell door many times, and then following him on a hypnotic journey broken by the sight of that flying red balloon. Daniel asking his companion “Are you real?” was a haunting way to close off that part of the episode and get back to the rest of our characters. Tawney telling Ted that Daniel was going to be saved could not have gone worse, and it helped to unleash a truly ugly side of Ted that hadn’t quite reared its head before. Going over to visit Amantha and Janet expressly to break the news about his baptism to them was mean-spirited, and it’s clear that Amantha and Ted hate each other equally. Ted deserves full blame for egging Daniel on and speaking harshly to him in the episode’s final scene, and I do hope that Daniel didn’t go too far and that he didn’t break Ted’s neck. The baptism scene was extraordinarily powerful, with the joyous refrain of “Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down” interspersed with dramatic, contemplative silence as Daniel underwent his transformative experience. Daniel ending up in front of the school looking lost was intense, and lashing out at Amantha and telling her to stop living her life for him was an unexpected moment of visible passion from a man who tends to keep his feelings bottled up inside. Asking if he could kiss Tawney was definitely a mistake, but at least he asked rather than just tried it.