The Walking Dead
Episode 3 of The Mosquito Coast begins with Allie and the gang breathing a sigh of relief as they evade the authorities. Shivering and exhausted, the family wait out the night and watch as the sun rises. Chuy is angry and lashes out at Allie, knocking him down to the ground. Just before he punches Allie in the face, the kids convince him not to. Eventually he gets back to his feet, telling Allie that there’s no way they’ll get past the border. Allie has a plan though. He intends to cross the bombing range, a place that’s well-known not to be patrolled that heavily. It is, however, bombed from time to time, so there is that. “Bad plan’s better than no plan right?” Allie says brightly. The others, are not so sure this rings true. Still, they continue on. The landscape is undeniably beautiful, with the dry, choked desert stretching on for many miles. However, the rumbling of a helicopter send the family sprawling down to a ruined outpost. They hide out from the authorities, and while they manage to escape the helicopter, they don’t escape the inevitability of thirst. A skeletal body alongside them happens to have a canteen of water though, and Allie siphons that into their supply as they continue on. On and on they walk, taking refuge in an abandoned school bus during the night. Lightning strobes on the horizon. The days drag on and the group make it to a memorial out in the desert. Chuy and Allie stop to discuss their route, with a mountain standing in their way. Chuy wants to go around, but with dwindling water supplies Allie believes they should go over and take the risk. Before that, they stop to take supplies and look for water. Charlie happens to find a handgun in a bag, and stuffs it into his backpack. However, a whole group of Mexicans arrive, leading travelers across the mountain. Allie and the gang hide to make sure they’re not spotted. Only, a snake shows up and bites Chuy. Thankfully the group evade the threat of these travelers but another now presents itself. Allie and the gang need to rush Chuy to the beacon – and that involves moving asap. The family make it in time and with Allie in the driver’s seat, allow him to recharge his phone as Chuy make the call to Enrique. It’s touch and go for a while but he manages to get the family passage to Mexico. Chuy collapses after the call, prompting the gang to create a makeshift stretcher in order to move him to the group. They make it to Enrique and continue on their journey.
The Episode Review
The Mosquito Coast should have been released in one go rather than weekly. The benefits of a straightforward binge-watch would have really helped the flow of Apple TV+’s latest series. As it stands, each episode feels like a continued cat and mouse chase, with this episode in particular serving up a very predictable and lethargic trek across the desert. With no focus on the detectives hunting the family, the entire 45 minutes basically see Allie and the gang walking and talking. While it helps to give a sense of scale and allows for our characters to move from point A to point B, it also feels unnecessarily sluggish and drags the pace down. Hopefully next week’s chapter can improve, but this was a pretty poor episode.
