1x04 The Twin Thing

[7.6/10] Let’s be frank, addict stories are pretty common, or maybe it’s just to people who cut their T.V. drama teeth watching House M.D.. But I enjoyed Luke’s spotlight episode here, where he runs away from his rehab facility in order to chase after a friend he doesn't want to let relapse, and remembers his childhood experiences with his (unbenknownst to him) dead sister.

What I really liked about this episode was the way it blended its supernatural and humanistic elements in a better way than the show’s managed to do thus far. While there’s been a certain amount of metaphor in all of the hauntings and abilities we’ve seen thus far, the use of the floating, Gentlemen-esque ghoul who haunts Luke at every corner works very well as a corporeal manifestation of both his anxiety and his addiction. It’s more atmospheric than outright scary, in an It Follows sort of way, which works better for this show than some of its more explicit attempts to be scary. And at the same time, Luke’s little rituals to ward off the spectre feel real and familiar and endearing.

The story does lean on a lot of tropes. The way it plays on your sympathies for Luke, showing siblings and caseworkers being harsh when he wants help and everyone assumes the worst of him, elides the way he probably earned a good amount of that with past chances he burned. But like Better Call Saul, it makes you sympathize with someone who’s screwed up a lot, but has genuinely gotten better and is looking to turn the corner with the help of those closest to him, who are reasonably but also inaccurately suspicious of him.

I also really appreciated the use of the titular “Twin Thing” in this episode. The sense that there’s a connection between Luke and Nell, to where he experiences the sensations of her death secondhand, are very compelling. As much as this episode explores the depths of addiction, the creeping realization that he feels Nell’s demise, and that it feels like withdrawal to him, adds to the severity of his situation.

I also appreciated the way that he is on the receiving end of an addict’s issues and not just the deliverer of them here. The story with Joey is heartbreaking, both because you can see how hard Luke is trying to do right by someone who did right by him, with hardly any help whatsoever, and you just know that Joey is going to burn him in the end, because that’s what addiction does to people. The end of that is predictable, but it works.

While the flashbacks are less heavy-handed in this episode, they still explicate Luke’s childhood fears, the sense that something has been following him all his life, in a way that is less highlighted but superior by being baked in. Hell, even his big 90 days clean speech, the chance for the show to go big, is more affecting than eye-roll-worthy thanks to a heartfelt confession about the struggles Luke took to get here, the sense of waiting for his dead mother to come home, of knowing the opportunities he lost, all bolstered by a lived-in central performance.

Overall, there were some cliche or oft-done moments in this one that kept it from feeling novel or as compelling as it might be, but the tropes here were done well, and the central performance and integration of the supernatural buoyed it a lot.