There’s a whole lot of things to unpack in Solos Season 1 Episode 5; at one point, I wasn’t even sure what the purpose of this chapter was; it appears to be a mix of many things, but the ending kind of stuns you.
Table of Contents
Solos Season 1 Episode 5 Recap
Welcome, Jenny (played by Constance Wu), who is sat in a waiting room and has angel wings attached to her — she’s been there for a long time, and she is growing impatient. Jenny looks into the camera and begins her monologue by saying, “can you smell my vagina?”. She recollects her friend’s child’s birthday party the day before, and she wonders if she smells and feels she is still drunk. She hates waiting.
The sexy neighbor
Episode 5 feels like a random collection of stories, but it does indicate where Jenny was in her life.
She talks about how she and her husband are trying for a baby, which makes her feel wanted by him because they have sex to conceive. She knows she was born to be a mother as she is patient (ironic) and loving. Jenny talks about her sexy neighbor Carl and how her “ovaries” exploded when he spoke to her. She talks about how she agreed to babysit his child Tyler and find a way to get her neighbor to fall in love with her; however, she had no idea how to babysit. Jenny insists she had to make the kid like her in order for her neighbor to like her.
There’s plenty of references to reproductive systems in this episode, and while Jenny appears obsessed with everything, the real obsession is that she wanted a child.
Obsessed
She explains how she told Tyler how she hated being Jenny and her reproductive system is working against her. Jenny soon learns that her neighbor Carl had a girlfriend, which frustrates her. She met her, and she is beautiful. However, Jenny grew fond of Carl’s son and imagined living in the same house and being “perfect” — she pretended she was Carl’s girlfriend while babysitting. She told herself that she was beautiful and was too good for them. Jenny describes how she got butt naked in their bedroom one time, but she was caught by Carl and his girlfriend and was told never to come around again. Jenny admits that Tyler was her only friend.
The missing piece
She misses Tyler, and she has to see him every day because she lives next door. Jenny recalls the party she was at, and there were so many children, and the conversations were so simple. She hid in the downstairs bathroom. Jenny describes how she was five days late on her period, and she was filled with hope. However, she finally saw blood on the tissue — she’s upset as having children was her missing piece in her life.
She then describes how she had a sudden urge to talk to people at the party and started drinking excessively. Eventually, she was told she was embarrassing herself and was asked to go home — she felt shame and feels like everyone hated her. As she looked down, she could see the blood through her dress.
Solos Season 1 Episode 5 Ending Explained
Jenny describes how she is got in her car and sped away — she can still feel the humiliation, and the road felt distorted; she crashed, and as she did, she saw a Spider-Man figurine that Tyler owned — Jenny sobs hysterically into her hands. The scene then flits to Jenny on a hospital bed in a high-tech room — she’s at a place called e-ternity; she is unconscious, and her memories are uploaded from her — she’s cuffed to the bed. The doctor says Jenny is a child killer and thinks it’s a shame she didn’t die in the crash. The doctor’s colleague ponders who would want her memories.
We can assume from this chapter that Jenny had become all-consumed by her desire to have children, that every time an obstacle was placed in her way, she became more resentful. Notice how she had an urge to have sex with the next-door neighbor; it could be that the failure to conceive with her husband drove her away, and she wanted to conceive elsewhere by someone she found strongly attracted (earlier in the chapter, she hinted she gets little attention from her husband).
We can assume that her resentment grew, especially when Carl banished her from his home, and as a result, killed his son for revenge. At the party, she learned that she had a period, knowing another chance to get pregnant had gone. Coupled with killing a child, Jenny sped down the road to her demise.
The monologue is slightly choppy despite bringing a good ending — Solos Season 1 Episode 5 is one of the weaker chapters in this series.
Solos Season 1 Episode 6 Recap
Solos Season 1 Episode 6 (Credit – Amazon Prime Video)
Episode 6 opens with a weather warning playing on the radio — lockdowns are implemented. The fireplace is burning nicely, and we see the lead character Nera (played by Nicole Beharie) for the first time laid on the couch — she’s heavily pregnant. On the table next to her, there are loads of fertility treatments. She’s struggling with morning sickness, with burps coming up.
Going into labor
Nera hears something outside and locks the door. She starts singing Celine Dion in her kitchen, but the record keeps repeating the same line — she turns off the music player. When she opens the fridge, we see medication for BetterBaby — it’s IVF treatment. Suddenly, Nera is getting bad contractions, and she calls the doctor from BetterBaby. She tells him she’s going to labor, and he tells her that isn’t possible and must be a fault with the programming. Due to the bad weather, the connection is severed. Nera rings 911, but they cannot hear her.
They grow up so quick
Episode 6 then takes an unusual turn — whatever treatment Nera was receiving, it’s certainly not worked as intended.
Fluids spill from Nera, so she gets into different positions to start her birth. She delivers her own baby and quickly focuses on looking after her child, and cuts off the umbilical cord. She nestles her newborn baby in the pram to sleep and then swigs some water. When she checks her baby again, he’s not in the pram. When she enters the living room, her baby Jacob is now a child running around giddy. Nera calms down and gives her baby a jumper to keep him warm. Jacob bites her and runs off. The doctor tells Nera she’s experienced a malfunction and she needs to be careful — he suggests she needs to kill the child.
Dangerous Jacob
When she sees Jacob again, he’s a young boy and wielding a knife in the kitchen. He tells her he’s done nothing wrong apart from being born. Nera tells him to give her the knife, but he tells her he needs it for protection. Nera explains to her son that she’s scared and asks for the knife again. As Nera receives more voicemails from her doctor, Jacob threatens her with a knife and tells her he’s hungry.
Solos Season 1 Episode 6 Ending Explained
While making Jacob food, Nera tells Jacob a story about a little girl who wanted to find a family, but she’s always alone. Jacob grows up even more, and Nera manages to sneakily grab the knife and put it behind her back as she continues the story — she explains that this girl who aged into a woman finally had a baby, but it didn’t come out as she thought.
The police turn up and ask Nera if she’s okay. However, when she looks into the kitchen, Jacob is now an older teenager. Jacob asks about the ending of the story, but Nera tells Jacob that the woman’s child was “perfect”. In the end, she accepted who her son was and decided to stay with him until he ultimately dies of old age.
Solos Season 1 Episode 6 brings a dark-twisted story on giving birth following near-future and new IVF treatment.
What did you think of Solos Season 1 Episodes 5 and 6? Comment below.
Related:
