Summary
After Life Episode 4 provides a breakthrough for the character and the chapter ends in dark circumstances.
This recap of After Life Episode 4 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
The central theme of Ricky Gervais’ After Life is that Tony gets less miserable with each episode. Well, slightly less sad. The start of chapter four shows how happy he was with his wife, Lisa.
After Life Episode 4 gives us another funny gag on the journalism front; Tony visits a hospital and interviews a woman who nearly died from a spike. She claims “fatness saved her life”, but Tony responds, “if you were thin, you’d have missed the spike altogether”. This line reverberated classic Gervais.
But with comedy comes a moment of sadness, as Tony sees his wife’s old hospital room. You can see his eyes well up as he agrees to go for lunch with his colleague.
In the office, Tony discredits the legitimacy of journalism for The Cambury Gazette, claiming the place gets you nowhere. Matt (Tom Basden) refutes this idea, explaining it’s a good stepping stone before revealing that he has set Tony up on a date. In a rage, Tony explains that he does not want help, and the less help makes him happier.
But regardless of his resistance, he does consider the date; speaking to his therapist about it and also visiting his father and apologizing to his nurse before slipping it into a conversation. His hard-hitting therapy session revealed he is too busy feeling sorry for himself. This notion is reinvigorated even more when he speaks with the woman at the cemetery regarding this date, and she points out that it isn’t just about him.
Tony gives in and accepts the date – Matt asks if an Indian is okay with Tony’s response, “I don’t care who she is!”. He was, of course, referring to a restaurant.
After Life Episode 4 sees Tony growing his circle of friends, going clothes shopping with Sandy, the new colleague at work, and bumping into the sex worker who once again cleans his house, but this time for free.
The date was an eye opener for the character as the pair were so oddly familiar – she was like a female version of Gervais. She mocks him, stating she does not believe he desperately wants to commit suicide.
After Life Episode 4 ends on a dark note – Tony once again hangs out with the drug addict discussing how similar they are. The addict claims they are nowhere near identical, and if he had enough money he’d consume as many drugs as possible. Tony gives him a wad of cash, ensuring that the drug addict goes through with it.
You can check out our recap of the fifth episode by clicking these words.
