Partners?
Episode 6 of Dom Season 1 begins in the past, moments after Pedro’s release from prison. What should be a joyous occasion is tinged with uneasiness. Pedro is a shell of the man he once was. His experience in juvie has changed him, and despite accepting a cell phone from his father as a gift, still hasn’t forgiven Victor for what’s happened. It doesn’t take long for him to head back out to the favela and catch up with Lico. He decides to leave home but before that it’s another intoxicating cocktail of booze and drugs. Back in the present, Victor continues to try and reach Jessika. Of course, her antics last episode have caused her to meet a sticky end. Despite knowing where its come from, Victor caves and opens up the laptop Pedro bought for him. Loading it up, the first thing he searches for are rehab clinics, which is pretty poetic. Anyway, this rehab is different to what’s come before. He drives Pedro up through the countryside to New Horizon. Just before departing, Victor hugs his son. It’s a warm, loving embrace too, one that’s a reminder that these two do still love each other. Once there, Pedro gets talking to a guy called Felipe, who actually happens to be one of the guys in charge of running meetings. Could this be what Pedro needs to turns a corner? Well, while this is going on Victor learns about Jessika’s passing and tries to work out what to do next. We then jump back to 1970. Victor brings back the drugs to Ribeiro after finding out his customer has died. Ribeiro doesn’t seem to care and in fact he predicts (unfortunately correctly) that in the future every favela will be selling coke. This “collateral damage” hits Victor hard as he starts to doubt himself, wondering whether Marcois’ death was really necessary. Eventually Arcanjo convinces Victor to purse this drug case with more conviction than before, desperate to uncover the truth behind the operation. A lot of police officers are involved in this though, while the product itself is laced with extra ingredients to bulk out stock and squeeze more money out of customers. Victor continues to learn the ins and outs of this operation, using the payphone as before to inform Arcanjo of a change in operation times. Nerinho seems to figure this out but when he takes him to Ribeiro, Victor is given a new task of finding Crybaby aka. Chora. Only, they’re stopped by police on the way and taken into custody. When we catch up with Pedro again in the 90’s timeline, this retreat seems to have done him the world of good. He’s been there over a year and he hasn’t touched drugs once in that time. The family has seen this before though, and Laura has her doubts. However, Pedro does send Victor a handwritten letter. It’s a beautiful and touching note, one written from a place of peace and genuine love. Within this, Dom apologizes for everything and decides to set out to make a big change in his life. He even invites Victor along to see him, witting out “I love you” numerous times. When Victor does show up, he throws his arms around his son in a touching moment between the two. Eventually Pedro leaves the facility and heads back to see his Mother. Once there, Pedro opens up to his sister and apologizes for everything, including not being able to attend her wedding. As the phone is passed to Dom, he agrees to go diving with his Father in the morning. Left alone, memories of the past come bleeding through and Pedro starts to spiral. He borrows some money from his Mother to head out “for a walk”. Pedro tries to ring Felipe but he doesn’t pick up. Instead, he heads over to visit Jasmin instead.
The Episode Review
Will Pedro Dom remain sober? This is the big question going into the next episode and judging by what we’ve seen at the end of this chapter, it doesn’t seem like he well. If he caves now it will be right back at square one again so the pressure really is on for him to try and stay sober. Meanwhile, the investigation into the General and his illegal shipments are sidelined this time in favour of Pedro’s storyline about his drug addiction and Victor’s past investigation. While there’s nothing wrong with that, this essentially feels like a second-act to the excellent episode preceding it, leaving lots of question marks over the direction of the season ahead.
