Summary
Episode 3 brings a fruitful monologue in space from Helen Mirren, with her character describing her life and her ultimate personal shortalls.
This recap of Amazon Original series Solos season 1, episode 3, “Peg,” contains spoilers.
It’s never too late — that’s a mantra we all live by. We are taught that we must have everything figured out as soon as we reach adulthood — a foolish lesson birthed from insecurity rather than logic. Episode 3 follows a character that would rather escape than facing the truth — being seen and being heard is never too late at any age.
Episode 3 opens in space, with Peg (played by Helen Mirren) humming to herself as she sits in the command seat. She wants to remember a particular song, and her AI asks if they can assist — she declines and wonders about the study they are conducting. The AI tells her it has already begun. Peg begins talking to the recording log, but the AI system tells her not to act like she’s on television and to be herself. Peg explains she signed up for this journey “to the far reaches of the universe” after seeing an advert. The company who sent her on this journey assigned older people to the journey because there’s no expectation of returning to the earth; Peg wanted adventure, apparently.
Mother and father
The AI points out that they are passing the moon, and she is amazed. It reminds Peg of her father, Tom (episode 2), who died of cancer. Peg explains that he died when she was six — she calls him the best father, and he used to do Tik Toks with her. As we saw in the previous chapter, this father and daughter loved each other. She then describes her father’s robot and expresses how her mother did not like “Dad 2.0” but pretended for her. Peg explains how her mother died 6 months later after a driver-less car glitched and how she cried for days.
Ming
Peg describes the prom when she was younger and how her dream boy named Ming invited her. She fainted, but afterward, she rejected him. She knew what the other children would say and states it would have been nice to be seen, but she thanked him anyway. Peg felt Ming asked her out of sympathy as she was a lonely girl.
This is clearly a character that suffered from judgment and felt like she was a bother to people for doing what she desires.
Her first kiss
Peg talks about her first kiss under the moonlight with Ming and how she ran off afterward as she was scared. She went to bed dreaming about that kiss, and she was too nervous to answer the phone in fear that Ming believed the kiss was a bad idea. Peg explains that years later, she saw Ming with his wife and children and that when she looked down, her hands looked different; she saw wrinkles — it hit her that she’s 51 and she lost track of time. Peg wondered what a life with Ming would be like — she regrets not picking up his phone and wonders why she’s so scared of “being seen.”
Why am I not seen?
Peg then discusses old age and how she was once on a bus, and she didn’t know where she was. And then the bus ended up in the parking lot, and the lights turn off. The bus driver didn’t notice her until he walked off and said, “oh, I didn’t see you there”. Peg gets irritated and upset and thinks it is wrong that she wasn’t seen. She believes she is funny, intelligent, and sexy and wanted to tell the bus driver this. After this moment, she decided that she would do it on her own terms if she were going to disappear.
The ending
Peg reveals she applied for this journey because there’s nothing left for her, but in the far reaches of the universe, she’d finally have a spot and be counted. The AI tells Peg that he believes Ming wanted to marry her and that he “sees her” and doesn’t need eyes for that. When Peg asks how far they have to go on this journey, the AI says, “we are where we are heading”.
Peg then realizes that she could call Ming and be herself again. She wants to start a whole “new her” starting immediately and asks the AI if they can turn around. The AI tells her they will see what they can do. David Bowie – “Space Oddity” comes on, and Peg tells the AI that this is the song she was trying to remember. The ending is wonderful, highlighting how Peg realized that the obstacles in her life were created by herself — she didn’t act in her own interest, and the start of his space journey triggered her to face her ultimate demons.
Solos season 1, episode 3 brings a fruitful monologue in space from Helen Mirren, with her character describing her life and her ultimate personal shortalls.
