Emmy Catch-Up: Pen15

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.

Pen15: Season 2, Episode 5 “Sleepover” (B-)

This episode returned to more miserable full-on awkwardness, starting with the terrible idea for Anna to ask Maya with Maura on the phone what she would rank her out of ten, which resulted in Maya very clearly saying a four and then trying to pretend that she had actually said, “for sure ten.” Things got much worse when Maya creepily unzipped the suitcase from the inside and burst out of it, extending a bit that already wasn’t going very well by way too much, and the idea of playing truth or dare wasn’t going to lead anywhere good. Making Maya feel very uncomfortable about the whole bathroom situation was unkind and unpleasant, and it only got worse when things got physical later in the episode. The boys’ night in wasn’t much better, though at least they weren’t being horrible to each other. The idea of staying up all night didn’t work too well, and, as her mother knew would be the case, Maya called to be picked up. But the most significant development, of course, was Anna finding the magazine which showed her that Maura had been lying all along about her very cool doctor friend. Maura didn’t react well, and I hope that this is the last that we’ll see of her, though I’m sure the final two episodes of the season will involve plenty of discomfort and pettiness, even if someone like her isn’t around to cause it. Maya and Anna seem to be back on good terms, which should last at least partway through an episode.