Wow. In a word, that’s really what episode seven amounted to when the end credits began to roll.
In a series focusing on a city in crisis, tension is the fabric that ties everything together. All of the recurring characters in Treme are familiar with it. It’s something they carry with them everywhere they go. Whether they’re struggling to pay bills, to keep their families together, to earn their keep in an overcrowded and hyper competitive music scene or just to regain some semblance of the life they once have, it’s in their bones.
That tension has always been there from the very first episode, but this week it really started to boil over. At points it was downright palpable. From Albert suffering teh wrath of a corrupt New Orleans Police Department to the heart wrenching final chapter in the quest for Daymo, this week’s episode saw many characters facing their problems and demons head on with varying results. But man did it make for good TV.
So let’s see, this week Albert took his cause to the media, trespassing and stying in the projects in hopes of convincing local politicians to open its doors to those who have been displaced since the storm, Annie’s insecurities as a musician are starting to catch up with her, Davis makes a deal with a prominent city judge, Antoine settles into a new gig playing at the airport and says goodbye to his mentor, Toni and Ladonna’s search for Daymo comes to a literal dead end, Janette takes her cooking skills on the road and Creighton begins crumbling under the weight of his deadline.
Some other stray observations…
-The scene where the cops draw the shades and more or less jump Albert out of view from the public and the media was the stuff of vintage David Simon drama. It felt distinctly like the Wire, taking corrupt institutions to task for bullying those with the courage and conviction to stand up to what they see is wrong. Definitely one of many powerful scenes from this week’s episode.
-Nice to see some more Steve Earle this week, but what’s Annie’s deal? For someone who’s clearly talented, she really has some severe self esteem issues. It seems everyone sees how talented she is but herself, and not to belabor the point, but you know her whole fucked up situation with Sonny isn’t helping.
-Once, just once, it would be cool for a kick ass jazz band to play when I get off of a plane. Just saying…
-The roller coaster ride that is the search for Daymo finally came to a tragic end. After a court order demanded that the state locate Ladonna’s brother within 72 hours, they found him: dead with a sea of other misidentified prisoners in the back of a semi trailer. It was sad for sure, but it felt right. Simon has long lived by the credo that happy endings are bullshit, and this was just another somberly effective example.
-Maybe it’s just me, but i thought Davis totally sold out. As silly as he is, I always had a feeling that at his core he was a person of conviction, and that he would militantly fight his good fight, however petty or substantiative. So when he took the get out of jail free card from the judge in exchange for his dropping out of the city council race, it irked me a little. All that talk about taking it to the streets and upending the status quo, and for what?
RB
