TV Review: Outsiders S1 E05, “Demolition”

By Laury Scarbro

In the aftermath of the sheriff’s untimely demise, Haylie takes it upon herself to go work her verbal voodoo on the new sheriff, Wade. Taking him a basket of goodies with some alcohol and oxycodone tucked in the bottom could grease a few wheels, so why not? He’s not entirely stupid, though; he blames her for the former sheriff’s death, and calls her out on the fact that she just wants him to do what she says. He finds the alcohol of course, and tucks the pills away in his pocket. It’s pretty obvious that he suspects an ulterior motive.

We’ve got another stale spat between Gwin and Asa, where she proceeds to berate him again for abandoning her. Is this record broken yet? Piss or get off the pot already. The argument puts Asa in a mood, which results in a day-drinking binge that leads to a bonding day with Big Foster, of all people. The two take off for some late night mining company demolishing shenanigans. Gwin and Little Foster go see Lady Rae for her blessing on their upcoming nuptials, she reminds them of how marriage is a serious undertaking and only death can release someone from their vows. Later, Lady Rae speaks to Gwin alone about her feelings for Asa, forcing her to admit that she still loves Asa, but is scared he’s going to leave again. Not that we didn’t already know that, but at least she’s admitting to it.

Hasil and Sally Ann meet up for the first time since his trip to jail. She’s pretty pissed about being stood up, understandably, and tells him they’re too different, “I’m black and you’re weird.” He gives her a hand-carved wooden bear, which apparently wins her over, and they kiss. Later, they run off to an abandoned house to be alone away from everyone. As she’s lighting candles, he pulls the Naked Man routine–and it works. Unfortunately, all their carnal adventures make her extra late getting home and she leaves Hasil, panicked, when her phone rings. She arrives home, lying to her obviously alcoholic brother about where she’s been. He accuses her of it, and judging from her reactions to her brother, it’s pretty clear it’s an abusive relationship, but I don’t quite get why she’s answering him as if he were her father.

Wade wakes up in the middle of the night, drunk and stoned, to find Caleb’s gone missing. He freaks out and searches all over trying to find the little boy, who’s sitting on a bench staring off into nowhere. Wade asks what he’s doing, to which Caleb responds that his mother told him to go out and wait for the bus. It’s a scary thought when a kid goes missing, even worse when that child goes sleepwalking and talking about his dead mother. Suffice it to say, this is the catalyst that drives Wade to return the basket, with alcohol and pills unused, to Haylie. I’m more interested to know how it is that Haylie counted those pills up so quickly and adeptly after he left her office.

The night following the Misadventures of Lostie and the Curmudgeon, Asa returns to Ned’s garage and pours some kind of chemical into the water heater; the liquid was taken at the beginning of the episode from a chemical plant with the letters MCHM on the side of a tank. (The letters stand for methylcyclohexanemethanol, which has been patented for use in air fresheners, but is also a chemical used to clean coal; it separates the burnable portions from the dirt, debris, and other impurities from the ground it comes from.) It isn’t long after that Ned, brushing his teeth, seems to be having difficulty seeing. He splashes some water on his face and begins screaming.

This episode was a vast improvement over the last one, which saw no character growth. Here we have Wade trying to do the right things, but it’s a shame that it takes his son disappearing into the night to shake him out of his drug-induced reverie. Someone really needs to tell Hasil that when a girl says “no, go away, we can’t be together,, that that’s precisely what she means. Don’t try to win her over with some hand-carved doodad so you can get your own doodad out later and play hide the pickle. Asa and Big Foster bonding over destruction and chaos was a nice change, although I don’t like that side of Asa. Those two, allied in a way that would be a positive direction for the clan, would be a force to be reckoned with. If Big Foster could see past his own petty jealousies, maybe that could happen, but I doubt it.

RELATED ARTICLES

TV Review: Outsiders S1 E04, “Rubberneck”