Summary
This week’s episode of Mr. Mercedes, “You Can Go Home Now”, trades weirdness for emotion as Brady continues to puppet his helpless victim and Bill finds comfort in familiar arms.
Thanks to a variety of unforeseen circumstances, I wasn’t able to write about Mr. Mercedes last week, which is a shame because it contained a scene of telepathic masturbation that probably deserved some analysis. No matter. Things aren’t quite as flagrantly weird in “You Can Go Home Now”, but enough oddball stuff happened to keep the show compelling, even if the transition from straight-faced murder-mystery to mind-controlling wankathon is still a bit difficult to swallow.
Bill (Brendan Gleeson) is still a bit suspicious of Sadie (Virginia Kull) after she pulled a scalpel on him last week, and a brief investigation confirms she intended to open him up with it. He doesn’t yet know she was compelled to do so by a comatose man’s mind-control powers, but I suppose that isn’t the first thing that would spring to my mind either.
Besides, he has other things to worry about. Jerome (Jharrel Jerome) is feeling alienated at Harvard and Holly (Justine Lupe) is pissed off that he let De La Cruz (Danny Garcia) escape. She’s also, perhaps justifiably, annoyed that he didn’t mention Brady’s (Harry Treadaway) sort-of revival, and wants to be an equal partner in the business that Bill, at this point, just considers to be bullying the downtrodden and unfortunate. “You Can Go Home Now” had some charming interactions between Bill and Holly, as the former took the latter on a stakeout of Sadie’s home for a sleuthing tutorial that didn’t go particularly well when Sadie’s mother basically told them to f**k off.
Bill, dejected, fell into the arms and bed of his ex-wife Donna (Nancy Travis), which is never a smart romantic decision. Turns out she’s going through some s**t. That never bodes well, either; two divorces and career trouble? No wonder she’s fed up.
Speaking of being fed up, Brady is eager to get back to his murderous ways, and his only avenue in “You Can Go Home Now” is poor Sadie, whose attempts to kill first an opioid patient and then nurse Wilmer (Tammy Arnold) were frustratingly thwarted at the last minute. I should note that Brady’s newfound reckless enthusiasm comes after a conversation with the ghost of his dead brother – whom he killed, by the way – just in case you were worried about Mr. Mercedes failing to meet its weekly weirdness quota.
Oh, Sadie. She’ll be missed. After realising that her obvious bloodlust was attracting too much attention, Brady walked her to the roof of the hospital and had her dive to her death, which gave “You Can Go Home Now” a tragic feeling that the second season has lacked until now. It also raises some interesting questions and possibilities about where, exactly, the show is going to go from here. On the one hand, the depths of Brady’s depravity are virtually limitless now, if they weren’t to begin with; but I do question how Bill is going to convince people of a telepathic coma patient in a way that makes sense and feels earned. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
