Summary
Absolutely chock-full with zingers, “What an Unseasonal Delight” is as good as Avenue 5 gets.
This recap of Avenue 5 season 2, episode 2, “What an Unseasonal Delight”, contains spoilers.
You’ll recall that, after Avenue 5 season 2, episode 1, things aren’t going well. The passengers have just found out that they’re several years away from Earth rather than four weeks. Supplies are running out. Chaos is brewing. Even Billie is flustered — “You’re being mean and your eyes are vibrating,” says Matt, brilliantly, as evidence. And he’s right since, perhaps worst of all, the ship is heading directly into the sun.
Avenue 5 season 2, episode 2 recap
Well, not into the sun, you understand, but very near it, which is almost the same thing but not quite. Since the ship’s insulated — Ryan’s initial suggestion of using giant magnets to repel heat doesn’t hold much water — moving everyone over the cooler starboard side of the ship might just solve the problem.
That’s assuming that the higher-ups can actually get everyone to move, which is easier said than done. Elena and Charlie are still bickering, at least in part over Ryan. Gary decides he’s not moving until Ryan threatens him with a foam fire extinguisher (“that’s an oversight,” Matt quips when Ryan reminds him that they’re flying into the sun and fire extinguishers don’t work.) Mia is pregnant with a baby that Doug thinks is his but is probably Mads’s.
Speaking of Mads, he has the good (or bad) fortune of being shacked up with Judd, who is tearful about the potential that he won’t outlive the sun as he somehow expected to. Neither, it turns out, will the eels, which are the ship’s only source of food, since they can’t stand extreme temperatures either. Luckily, there’s a maintenance tunnel that is cooler than the rest of the ship, but it’ll only fit the eels and 300 passengers. The idea is to prioritize the elderly, children, and the otherwise infirm, but that isn’t going to happen, is it?
Spoiler: No, it isn’t. There’s chaos outside the tunnel and the only people who get in are those essential to the ship’s survival like Ryan, Billie, and Rav, those considered “key workers” like Frank, and those who “crawled in under someone’s legs like a worm,” like Doug, which is just as well since Mia thought the doors closing between them was the ideal time to tell him that their baby might not be his. They continue that debate along the length of the tunnel, with those in between them passing the responses along.
Crucially, Matt, Elena, Karen, and Spike are left outside to broil with the others, which is great news since Matt takes charge and gives something resembling a motivational — or at least distracting — speech, tinged with hilarious mania. “Look, a hedgehog’s out, what an unseasonal delight!” he barks, which is obviously where the episode’s title comes from. As the Avenue 5 approached the danger area and we were confronted with the very real possibility of everyone dying, I spared a thought for how much worse this show would be without Zach Woods.
Crisis averted, though. The ship passes by the sun with zero casualties, although some relationships might have been irreparably damaged by the encounter. We’ll have to wait and see.
Anyway, back on Earth, some shenanigans are clearly afoot. Lucas is suspiciously interested in lithium, while Iris, getting so sick of the media climate, releases the remainder of Judd’s funds to buy the Avenue 5 show outright, installing Sarah as its new star. She’s popular for reasons Iris doesn’t understand, which means that through the show they can begin to leverage public sentiment and take control of the narrative — but to what end? Again, we’ll have to wait and see.
You can stream Avenue 5 season 2, episode 2, “What an Unseasonal Delight”, exclusively on HBO.
