A Teacher season 1, episode 9 recap – getting over it

By Jonathon Wilson
Published: December 22, 2020 (Last updated: last month)
0
A Teacher season 1, episode 9 recap
3.5

Summary

Claire and Eric both attempt to move on and see disastrous results in the penultimate episode of A Teacher.

This recap of A Teacher season 1, episode 9 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.


As it turns out, getting back into dating after a sexual assault conviction is easier said than done. And when it comes to getting over being a victim of that sexual assault, well – not especially easy either. Both Claire and Eric attempt to find some normality in this penultimate episode and both fail miserably, begging the question of whether or not either of them is ever going to be the same again.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to both of their healing seems to be the fact that everyone knows what happened between them, including Claire’s Tinder date, Don (Peter Skagen), who turns out to be pretty creepily into Claire’s felonious recent past. When they have sex, which seems to be the only thing he’s interested in, he brings up the whole teacher-student debacle in his ropey dirty talk game, and while Claire bristles at first, she eventually embraces it.

The problem is she embraces it a little too much, perhaps having resigned herself to the idea that how people see her is ultimately what she has to become now. After meeting with Matt to sign their divorce papers, which predictably doesn’t go well, she returns to Don and tries to turn things up a notch, telling him to hit her increasingly hard. Eventually, he draws blood and realizes he’s perhaps not quite as into this whole kinky business as he thought, and Claire is forced to leave in disgrace.

Things aren’t going much better for Eric either in A Teacher episode 9. He’s lounging around and moping a lot, and the efforts of his friends don’t seem to be working. While he’s out drinking alone, a group of girls asks him to take a picture for them, and before you know it he’s sinking shots with them and looking very much like a good time is on the horizon. Chloe (Grace Gummer), a yoga teacher, seems particularly promising, especially once her other friends abandon her. She and Eric slow dance, and it’s going well right up until it isn’t. Chloe knows how old Eric is, and she’s just come out of a long-term relationship, and it just isn’t a goer. Eric looks pretty disappointed, but is that because his night is ruined, or because he’d gotten hung up on the idea of being with another teacher?

Someone has to be to blame for all this. Of course, for Eric, Claire’s the culprit, but what are the real roots of Claire’s dysfunction? She blames her dad, Wyatt, which makes sense, but seems like passing the book. Here, he’s the only person who seems to have any tolerance for Claire whatsoever, and she still berates him, calling his concern hypocritical after what he put her through in her childhood. Again, a fair point. But if Claire chases away the only ally she has, what’s going to be left for her?


What did you think of A Teacher season 1, episode 9? Comment below.

TV Recaps