Emmy Catch-Up: I May Destroy You

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. Last year, I started watching the entire season of each show to get a better idea of the quality I missed, and I’ve decided to continue that this year.

I May Destroy You: Season 1, Episode 3 “Don’t Forget the Sea” (B+)

I’ve heard nothing but raves about this show, and I really didn’t know what to expect after watching a pilot that did little to indicate the trajectory of the show and what I knew of its story. After a second installment that laid out the inconsistencies in everyone else’s stories that existed, this episode ignored all of it and instead took us back a few months to a formative Italy experience with Arabella and Terry. It’s very helpful to understand their relationship and the way that they interacted when Terry came to visit Arabella, introduced by Arabella going to audition and, after an initial absence of an answer, returning to share her memorable experience of having a threesome. The circumstances under which that happened were a bit more complicated, and of course they involved drugs, which in this case didn’t lead to anything bad but definitely compromised judgment and led to choices that might have otherwise ended up being unsafe. There was a certain element of trust in the Italian people who freely offered up access to these drugs that felt irresponsible, and fortunately the men vying for the attention of both women did not have malicious intentions, though they easily could have. I’m curious to see how the memory of that visit and night will influence Arabella’s search for the truth in the present and her continuing relationship with Terry. It’s always a shame when I don’t watch a show until after it earns awards and nominations because I don’t get the chance to be upset that a clearly talented performer like Weruche Opia didn’t get recognized until long after the snub has happened.