Sharp Objects Review: Cherry (Season 1 Episode 6)

On Sharp Objects Season 1 Episode 6, “Cherry,” Detective Willis digs into Camille’s past. Amma grows closer to her half-sister, and Willis and Vickery finally catch a break in their investigation of Ann’s and Natalie’s murders.

What comes across in “Cherry” is how the characters use words. We know Camille feels the weight of the meaning behind some of them so deeply, she’s compelled to carve them into her flesh. But on Sharp Objects when people speak, it’s not so much the words they speak, but the tone and intent behind what they say.

All along, we’ve had the feeling Jackie knows more not only about Adora and Marian than she’s letting on but also about the murders. This becomes even more evident when Detective Willis questions Jackie about Camille’s episode:

You’re gettin’ warmer Detective. And not just because it’s warmer than a whore in church today.

Jackie’s statement confirms Willis should be taking a closer look at Camille and Adora. We just don’t know exactly why. It could be the fact that Adora would give Willis a huge breadcrumb, leading to the revelation of Camille’s issues. Specifically, how Camille’s self-destructive behaviors are related to Adora, and the family’s dysfunctional dynamic.

There are the comments John Keene makes to Alma, “I like to keep on you, Amma. Just know I always got an eye on you. It’ll be your day. Soon.” This could be construed as a threat, but John being the murderer is so obvious and so simple, nobody, not even Camille or Willis truly believes the young man murdered these girls.

John doesn’t say it with concern, there’s an undertone of not just malice but suspicion. John sees Amma as someone playing with fire who is close to getting burned.

During Camille’s interview with Ashley, the fangirl’s sugar-coated descriptions of the Ann and Natalie contradicts what Camille has learned about the girls who shared one thing in common — they were outsiders.

What’s most interesting about Camille’s interview with Ashley on Sharp Objects is Ashley’s idea that someone would murder to gain popularity. Infamy and notoriety would be more accurate. Nobody strangles two little girls and pulls out all their teeth expecting it will make them “popular.”

Viewers witness the opposite to be true. John Keene is shunned and called a “baby killer.” He’s attacked in public and loses his job. Ashley’s take on the motives of a murderer aren’t entirely off base, just poorly communicated. Murderers do enjoy a degree of popularity.

They become the subject of movies and books and TV shows, and in Wind Gap, where everyone strives to achieve a level of success that would by most standards be considered mundane and mediocre, murder could serve as a means to an end.

There are instances on Sharp Objects where the intent behind the words someone uses are easy to interpret, particularly when it comes to demeaning Camille in some way. When she gets together with her high school cohorts, they eagerly point out that Camille can’t feel empathy, grief or compassion for the dead girls because she has no children of her own:

Camille doesn’t have any children, and I just don’t think you [Camille] can feel the pain we do.

We know the opposite to be true. Camille is haunted by the memories of dead girls, and though she may have no children, she’s shown a maternal instinct towards both Alice and Amma. Camille’s decision to embed words on her skin show how deeply words can cut.

Camille is one of the characters on Sharp Objects who doesn’t mince words. That “Bless your heart” BS just doesn’t apply to her. She owns her words. But for just about everyone else, what is said can be inferred, implied, or misconstrued either on purpose or inadvertently.

When Adora says Camille looks like a “plump, juicy cherry” in her cheerleading uniform, Camille takes it as a negative assessment, mainly because of the ambivalence– with an underlying tone of sarcasm — of the delivery. Yet, Becca’s take on the term is vastly different:

We were so shiny. Luscious on the outside. But on the inside, there’s that dark hard pit.

Amma is very calculated when she speaks. She has a disarming maturity at times. She speaks to Camille about how easy it is to control boys and girls with a self-awareness far beyond her years.

But Amma’s final, sleepy, drug-induced words to Camille are either a prediction or stem from some innate sense of intuition:

Do you ever feel like… bad things are gonna happen to you, and you can’t stop ’em? You can’t do anything? You just have to wait?

Is Amma talking about herself, or Camille, or does she sense an impending doom bonding them together? Given Adora’s lingering presence in the doorway, and Camille’s drug-addled brain conjuring up a dead girl to warn her she’s not safe, it feels like the latter.

What did you think of Sharp Objects Season 1 Episode 6? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Sharp Objects airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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Amy Adams Previews ‘Sharp Objects’ at the ATX Television Festival [Video]