Summary
Happy Face introduces a villain even worse than the serial killer in Episode 6, morphing from a story about institutional failure into one about overt institutional corruption.
And here we all were thinking that the serial killer was the villain of Happy Face. No such luck. This is what Melissa finds out to her surprise and horror in Episode 5, “Don’t Dream”, just when it looked like she was getting somewhere with Elijah’s case. After the breakthrough with the murder weapon, there’s a feeling of being right on the cusp of something positive, which this episode effectively builds on throughout its entire runtime, only to pull the rug right at the end. I thought it was the best the show has been thus far.
I mean that in terms of both the development of the case and Melissa’s personal life. And Elijah’s sister, Joyce, provides another compelling lens through which to view this story of what is turning into institutional corruption rather than simply failure. But Happy Face isn’t strictly about this, so it does spend most of its time with Melissa and her rather irritating family, including a husband who seems on the cusp of an affair and a daughter who apparently couldn’t spot a smart decision if it sent her a drawing from prison.
More on that in a bit.
In the meantime, let’s talk about D.A. Craig Calloway. He’s awful, right? It was obvious anyway; he immediately pushed back against Melissa and Ivy’s efforts to exonerate Elijah because it’d shine a negative light on his own efforts back in the day, and one gets the sense he probably can’t be bothered with the paperwork either. But having evidence destroyed is one thing. What he does at the end of Happy Face Episode 5 is quite another.
“Don’t Dream” is largely structured around Melissa, Ivy, and Joyce’s efforts to find a sample of Heather’s DNA to match against the DNA found on the wrench. This is easier said than done since all the case evidence has been destroyed thanks to Calloway and Heather’s only living relative is adamant that Elijah is guilty and isn’t prepared to do anything that might exonerate him. This is all tied up rather nicely in development for Joyce, so we can see how Elijah’s incarceration has affected her, and how the legacy of that trauma relates to Melissa’s own very different but nonetheless similar struggle to escape the long shadow of her father.
This eventually culminates in Heather’s family DNA being provided and matched with that on the wrench, conclusively proving that Keith, not Elijah, committed the murder. It’s a jubilant moment for Melissa, Ivy, and especially Joyce, and when Calloway calls an emergency press conference, they assume it’s to announce the news that Elijah is innocent. Instead, he claims that Keith and Elijah were co-conspirators.
Michael O’Neill in Happy Face | Image via Paramount+
This is a serious (and unexpected, I thought) body blow. And with it, Calloway becomes the show’s true villain. Sure, Keith has done more heinous things, but he’s a nutcase. Calloway isn’t. He’s a deeply cowardly and self-serving man who is willing to sacrifice the life of a man who has been conclusively proven innocent just to save face. It’s a despicable turn, and I’m now so eager to see him be taken down that I can totally understand why Melissa will further alienate her family to continue working on the case.
But this decision will have its own consequences. “Don’t Dream” finds Hazel in predictably terrible form, privately reaching out to Keith so that she can “learn more about him”, but really satisfy a seemingly pathological need of teenagers to do precisely the opposite of what they’re told. It’s hard to see what Keith has planned for Hazel, though one suspects it’s using her as a tool to wound and control Melissa, but at this stage, Melissa might not be at home to see it either way – which is perhaps the point.
This texture is working for Happy Face. Melissa is doing the right thing by Elijah but neglecting her family, and there’s still some ambiguity around whether her actions are rooted in morality or the allure of her own newfound celebrity. Hazel is seeking some kind of connection, some deeper understanding of herself, but she’s putting herself and her mother at risk to find it. Ben feels lonely and like he’s playing second fiddle, but it’s hard to feel especially sorry for him since the show hasn’t done a great job of communicating how long Melissa has been away. He should be thankful for the break instead of moaning all the time.
I still find the Hazel stuff tedious, to be fair, but I’m willing to let it play out before condemning it too harshly because everything involving the case is really picking up steam, and there’s a fascinating interplay with how it relates to Melissa’s personal struggles. Hopefully, that’s where most of the focus is in the back half of the season. If so, Paramount+ could be onto a winner.
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