What I’m Watching: Casual

Casual: Season 4, Episode 6 “Faultless Bodies and Blameless Minds” (B+)

I feel like we’ve seen a lot of Val floating around this season not really being in charge of her life despite making some big decisions to change things. That made it all the more worthwhile in this half-hour to watch her regain her edge, lashing out at and swearing at Alex for continuing to do the same things over and over while in the process giving her a hard time for how she’s conducting herself in her own relationship. Of course it would be Alex who messed up by pumping unleaded gasoline into a diesel-only Range Rover, but it was Val who, upon learning from John that spark plugs weren’t a relevant concern, took action and stole the dishonest mechanic’s keys to spring the car from its temporary prison. I would have thought that Laura throwing up in the car would have been immensely more problematic since the smell of vomit is near-impossible to remove. At the very least that unfortunate expulsion of banana caused her to be far more forthcoming with her mother on the drive back, which has to be the healthiest decision she’s made in a while. Alex following around the woman he found attractive and then accusing her of tormenting him was a bit silly, though I’m also not sure if Laura’s time spent dancing with a number of older bargoers was just a hallucination. While these field trips are always informative, I’m looking forward to spending some time back home for the final two episodes of this series.