I Am the Night Review: Dark Flower (Season 1 Episode 3)
The darker natures of I Am the Night’s seedier characters becomes more apparent on I Am the Night Season 1 Episode 3, “Dark Flower.”
The sense of threat grows as Jay Singletary (Chris Pine) and Fauna Hodel (India Eisley) search for their respective answers and find bigger truths. It’s an episode of place setting more than making progress, though it does bring the leads together, its major highlight.
The short windows into Jay’s anger and rage are fantastic little moments for Chris Pine, like after a man falling off a chair gives him shell shock or Fauna makes a run for it in the diner. They are short flashes, some larger and some smaller in scale, but they each provide Pine a character with trauma and disappointment in himself.
The scene of Detective Billis (Yul Vazquez) nearly stabbing Jay in the eye in the interrogation room is tough to sit through, even if TV has taught us the hero will get out of this when it’s still so early on in the season. It’s another great example of how tense the show can be, and Chris Pine really sells the panic as he does his best to fight with just his legs.
The re-enlistment into the army attempt scene is so devastating, as it’s almost like Jay is doing it for self-destructive reasons than for bettering himself or joining for a cause.
The episode is a great showcase for Jay, showing the desperation to prove himself right and to solve the mystery which destroyed his life. Though he has not shared time yet with George Hodel (Jefferson Mays), the man holds so much sway over his life and demons.
The Fauna side of the story is bolstered by the fact it finally crosses with Jay’s story. It’s taken a lot longer to get these two together, but it was worth it, even if it was for a brief car ride and diner snack. It’s about connecting the dots still as the show hits its midway point, about the characters learning the facts which eluded them until now.
Fauna, until then, doesn’t get to do a lot outside of breaking into her step-grandmother’s house. It’s not until the meeting with Jay where the episode gives her a more active presence, and India Eisley’s casual nature with Pine in the diner scene is such a fun scene. It’s hard to tell if she’s playing him or she genuinely enjoys his company, which is a fun wrinkle to her character.
Fauna is more careful and does not trust so easily as Sepp (Dylan Smith), George Hodel’s right-hand man, grows bolder in his attempts to insert himself into her life.
His violin mannequin creation is one of the show’s creepier images, and with where the show is looking to head, it might be a prototype for an even more disturbing version.
The show is slowly dipping its toes into the theory of George Hodel being the Black Dahlia killer, with his mentoring of Sepp, George’s strange vision of a devil bull in his home, and Jay starting to connect the body in the morgue on I Am the Night Season 1 Episode 1 “Pilot” and the Dahlia killing in the magazine.
This comes at an important time in the series, as Fauna falls deeper into the dangers of this new world she’s navigating. The time of being followed and not knowing her roots has been replaced with something more nefarious. Hopefully, she trusts Jay a little more and he can protect her.
I Am the Night Season 1 Episode 3 “Dark Flower” keeps its characters on the edge of a knife as it enters the halfway mark. There’s an uneasy feeling of dread building, like everything can go wrong at any moment. This works in the show’s benefit, as Jay and Fauna have almost all of the answers and finally meet.
It’s a promising hour, and hopefully, the show will start to pick up speed from here.
Some stray observations:
- The diner scene is absolutely gorgeous. The neon, the classic style, it’s such a great location for the show to set such an important scene.
- We finally get to see Tamar, but in a flashback. Her spying on the sex parties her father holds hints at a very disturbing relationship between George Hodel and Tamar, and it’s no wonder why she runs away as far away as possible.
What did you think of this episode of I Am the Night? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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I Am the Night airs Mondays at 9/8c on TNT.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.