Just Think of Queen Margrethe
Episode 2 of Chosen begins with Emma heading to school, reconvening with Marie and discussing the night’s events. Ironically, Emma’s first lesson is with Mr Hans. After class, Hans invites her over to his place in an absolutely-not-creepy moment. Emma immediately crumbles, telling him she didn’t see anything. This is, of course, in reference to thee affair but his dumbfounded look causes her to reel back this confession. Meanwhile, Jonas continues to act like a jerk at school. He pretends he’s still in a relationship with Emma, and pranks Marie with paint in her bag. In retaliation, Emma takes Jonas’ phone and decides to use the pictures as incriminating leverage to use against him. When Mads and the others find out, they refuse to get involved, pointing out that they may be snooping illegally but not willing to expose people for their misdemeanors. Instead, they encourage Emma to meet Hans that night. Mads hands her over a USB stick which she wants to hook up to his laptop. There’s a program on there that can hack into his system and see if he’s hiding anything. If that wasn’t enough, Emma also manages to bag herself a job at Astraeus too. Emma eventually does head over to Hans’ house that night. While he’s on the phone, Emma looks set to see the USB stick but Hans’ computer doesn’t seem to have a slot for it. Emma listens from afar as Hans tells the person on the phone to “assemble now”. I doubt he’s an Avenger but it’s certainly an ominous sign. In fact, after his call his whole persona changes and he begins to grow suspicious, telling Emma she needs to leave and asking who sent her. When she leaves, Mads suggests she snoop again, but this time with Frederik and Marie with her. Meanwhile, that strange figure we saw last episode purposefully through a field. He appears to be human too, as it turns out, but his arm has a weird holographic map on it. Frederik sneaks into Hans’ place while Marie and Emma talk outside. Marie has big parental issues, namely her father who’s handled the death of her mother really badly. She’s tried to be there for him but it’s clear that this is taking a toll on her well-being. When Hans leaves his house, Frederik scrambles back in the car. Together, they follow Hans and realize that he was having an affair with Susan after all. Hans’ most recent visit is actually to break things off. The thing is, when he returns home he finds Emma snooping around and warns her that they can’t trust anyone. However, that strange figure from before suddenly shows up in Hans’ house. Quick as a flash, he strikes Hans several times. Hans fights back. As Emma gets involved too, she’s subsequently knocked out for her troubles and taken down to the basement. Hans tells her to relax, touching the back of her head with a strange orb that sees her experience dazzling purple lights. When Hans lets go, he kills himself while Emma manages to slip away, all of which done in shaky cam Point Of View mode. When Emma heads home, she catches up with Marie and the pair end up sleeping together. While they do, that masked figure from before begins to look through everything Hans has collected up in his basement.
The Episode Review
Alas, the plot thickens and with it, the cliched character tropes. The story is interesting enough but Emma feels pretty bland and there’s not that much depth to her. We actually know more about Marie and her family set-up than we do Emma. The strange masked figure and whatever Hans is covering up are both enticing prospects though and it seems the remainder of the series is going to hone in on that and flesh it out further. The series does have a decent hook but as we’ve seen from so many of these mystery box shows, they’re only as good as the characters and so far, that side of things is lacking. Hopefully things pick up over the coming chapters.
