Day 7: Morning
Episode 6 of Them begins with Lucky standing over Gracie late at night, gripping an axe in both hands. This is, of course, all a dream. This motif of dream sequences has become a frequent occurrence in this show, and yet again Them throws another at us. Lucky isn’t the only one struggling though. Henry stares at himself in the mirror, taking a straight razor and struggling to concentrate while shaving. In fact, he winds up cutting himself and spilling blood in the sink. While he continues to shave, Lucky burns Gracie’s neck by accident, straight off the back of frightening visions of her hair on fire. We’re on day 7 now, and after dropping off the kids at school, Henry heads back to work. Unfortunately he receives a frosty reception from Stu Berks, who’s not happy about Henry going over his head to talk to the Director. After failing to show a notation, Berks takes Henry off the Pentagon Project,. The ripple effect of this also means he’ll lose any possible bonus that comes along with that. Henry is irate but manages to hold in his anger for now. When he heads home, Henry continues to see visions, this time in the form of ta frightening black-faced clown called the Tap Dance Man. He stamps his feet and chants a mantra of “what you gunna do” regarding his situation at work. This murderous chant is enough for Henry to grab a gun and head out, lusting for revenge. He heads straight to Berks’ house, eventually taking out an innocent bystander who antagonizes him. Smacking the man with the butt of his gun, Henry leaves this guy in a bloody heap on the ground. At the same time, Gracie starts to hallucinate at school, seeing Mrs Vera outside in the distance. Gracie is entranced, repeating “cat in the bag”. When Lucky finds out what happened to Gracie, she’s immediately shocked and picks up her daughter from school. The teacher however, tells her Gracie should probably find another school. Betty heads to the bank and asks for a withdrawal. Only, it turns out the money from her account is completely gone – save for 400 dollars. That’s a massive amount missing, and something that sees Betty struggling to hold it together. Clarke seems to have withdrawn the funds and taken off. At school, Gracie is encouraged by Doris to head down to the basement where the other girls are practicing. Only, this is obviously all a big vision, which we see when the camera pans out from the choreographed dance to show Ruby all alone. Lucky heads home with Gracie, where an angry Betty hits out and calls her the N word. When she does, Lucky loses her composure and smacks her straight in the mouth. I don’t know about you guys but that was extremely satisfying! Betty is absolutely irate and grabs a knife in her kitchen, peeling off the wallpaper and screaming to the heavens. Eventually though she composes herself, picking up the phone and asking the man on the other end of the line for a favour.
The Episode Review
Them returns for another episode that leans in hard on these visions. The circumstantial issues surrounding the previous Black families in this neighbourhood seem to be connected on the surface, but really the underlying theme with the Emory household comes from stress and grief. The entire family have been through a horrific ordeal and it’s now clear that the coping mechanisms for all involved are these visions. This has certainly not been a particularly scary show but the horror has stemmed from that incident in the past involving their youngest child. This also serves as the crux of all the drama that’s followed too. Having said that, it’s still unclear how the supernatural segments slot into this. However, I’m sure we’ll find out in the coming episodes.
