The Pharmacy
Episode 3 of Daybreak sees us switch perspectives to Angelica as she paces around the mall talking to the camera. Instead of fourth-wall breaks, she’s simply narrating the tale while Josh takes a nap following his finger-loss last time out. With Josh in desperate need of antibiotics, Angelica asks Eli if there’s any on his side of the mall but after some back-and-forth, he reveals he doesn’t. Instead, she continues searching around. After an incident involving Josh’s arm and Ms. Crumble, Angelica drives off with Wes in search of Victor’s Pharmacy. When they get there, they begin looking for the drugs until they unfortunately find out they’re not alone. Back at the mall, Ms Crumble struggles to control herself, calling on a bowl full of maggots to eat away at Josh’s flesh while he’s tied up, eventually passing out from the pain while she watches on in glee. Back at the pharmacy, Wes and Angelica are saved by an unknown accomplice who stops the ghoulies who pile up by the window. On the way out, Wes steals the lotion as agreed with Eli, his way of keeping him quiet about his dark secret, before it’s revealed that the ones who saved them were the cheerleaders. It turns out they’re out for revenge against all of men for inequality. They invite Angelica to join the Cheermazons. but after some deliberation, she decides against it and joins Wes as they head back to Josh with the antibiotics. Back at the mall, Ms. Crumble talks to Josh as he regains consciousness. The maggots ate away at the bacteria to stop the infection spreading but the antibiotics did the most amount of work. However, he’s brought back down to Earth when Wes and Angelica show him Sam’s body in the boot. Only, it’s not actually the real Sam and instead, is an elaborate plan to keep Josh at the mall. As the episode closes out, the Baron snatches up Josh’s severed finger from outside the pharmacy and gobbles it up. With plenty of drama and a nice pacing throughout, the changed perspective to Angelica is a nice touch and certainly an unexpected one. While some of the flashbacks do a good job fleshing her character out, for the most part our present-day Angelica is a bit one-dimensional. Still, the self-contained plot involving the antibiotics does add an extra element to the show and allows for some of the moments between Crumble and Josh to play out. Beyond that though, Daybreak continues to deliver good drama, even if it is a little contrived and predictable at times.
