What I’m Watching: The OA

The OA: Season 1, Episode 5 “Paradise” (B-)

Now we’re getting back to a very strange idea of this show that transcends reality and moves much more towards something supernatural that sounds pretty crazy. The opening of this episode was hypnotic, as we saw Hap in the outside world scouting his latest prospect and entranced by the music he heard playing from Renata, played by Paz Vega, in Cuba. Bringing Hunter with him to Cuba was quite the voyage, and the way that Prairie narrated his immersion back into the world was intense. Understandably, he didn’t know what to do when he had the opportunity to run free and tell those around him that there was someone after him, but Hap was ready for such an attempt at betrayal and reacted calmly and nonchalantly to express to him that there was nothing he could do to earn a rescue for himself and his friends. I also don’t think he could have done anything to prevent Hap from abducting Renata, especially with Hap threatening the very likely truth that if anything happened to him, those imprisoned in the basement would surely die of starvation. Scott cracked in a big way before he died, but then of course people don’t tend to die when you think they do on this show, and therefore his unexpected reincarnation was quite the spectacle. Homer and Prairie have been practicing their movements and seem to think that they brought him back to life, so now apparently that’s what Prairie wants to do with her five new friends? That seems to suggest that everyone else is still alive, as far as she knows, but I don’t think this new plan recommends itself as being terribly sane or likely to work, though who knows with this show.