What I’m Watching: Perpetual Grace, LTD

Perpetual Grace, LTD: Season 1, Episode 8 “Fiveever” (B+)

We really haven’t seen all that much of the real Paul this season, and therefore this episode was about as informative as it’s ever going to be. Flashing back to his interactions with the child who would later be found dead demonstrated that there was a bond between them, and it appears that, though his intentions weren’t good, he didn’t want her to die as an apparent result of her insatiable curiosity to try the trick in the water with the handcuffs. Having him continue to pop around and disappear at every moment was disorienting, adding to the notion that, unless someone actually saw him, they might not believe James’ story that there was someone else named Paul. New Leaf saw him, but he stayed far enough away that he might think it’s just a trick egged on by his grief. The description of Paul by his uncle as a genius but also incredibly stupid is indeed fitting, since his use of a term like “fiveever” indicates a true disconnect with a reality that’s dominated by his latest scheme. Hector calling to read his pre-written speech was an entertaining goodbye to the character, and I’d so love to see Luis Guzman earn some accolades for a truly fantastic performance. The best scene of this episode was the interaction between Walker and Glenn, with Glenn mispronouncing a number of the words he used and then saying that one of the words he couldn’t remember started with a 3. Glenn’s two best lines of the hour were “He never murdered me” and his response to being told that he was awesome by James: “I’m a special boy. That’s my gang.”