The Passage Review: You Are Not That Girl Anymore (Season 1 Episode 8)
Amy has a decision to make on The Passage Season 1 Episode 8, “You Are Not That Girl Anymore.”
The episode picks up right where we left off on The Passage Season 1 Episode 7, “You Are Like the Sun,” with Fanning at Amy’s door — the door to the home she’s recreated in her mind.
Fanning truly is a compelling villain. We see his evil, but he uses the humanity he once had to his advantage. He understands how to talk to Amy just as he understood how to convince Carter.
And the idea of creating the family he wants — another common thread in vampires stories — could be reason enough to Amy to choose him.
Jamie McShane’s portrayal of the character has been a consistently great performance, too. Within just this one character, he’s played several roles — from a typical human, to a persuasive villain, to a bloodsucking monster — and he’s played them with nuance.
While Amy is dealing with Fanning in her mind, what’s happening on the outside is that the virus is taking over. She loses her tooth, then begins to run a high fever, just as we saw previously with Carter.
Brad stays by her side while Sykes works on a new idea that could save Amy. She’s successful, but they’re on a timeline, and Fanning has other things in the works.
Fanning’s control over Lawrence Grey continues to feel like Dracula and Renfield to me, which only makes it more powerful when Grey cuts himself lose — the pain and blood be damned — and manages to lock Sykes in her lab and head toward letting the virals free.
Guilder’s presence and a viral on the inside have also led to that moment, and the reboot of project Noah has only added further to the chaos.
Almost anyone who isn’t a viral, at this point, is on the same side. My favorite of these is Clark, who should be on the right side of this. It’s even a little more difficult for him because of the feelings he’s had for Shauna Babcock.
We get flashbacks on this episode that show that in more detail, but when Babcock tries to use this to her advantage, Clark doesn’t succumb. He knows she’s not the same person he once cared for.
But everything circles back to Amy. As she gets visibly sicker on the outside, Sykes and Brad realize there’s nothing left they can do. Sykes explains Amy is going to have to make a choice, and they both feel she’s going to choose to die rather than to go with Fanning.
In a heartbreaking, totally selfless moment, Brad tells Amy that she can let go if she has to. He’s strong, though, but it’s worse knowing he’s been in this place before.
Meanwhile, Amy is at a place where she’s forced to make a choice. Fanning starts by giving her a bike, a gesture that is bittersweet because Amy should get to enjoy a typical childhood with bicycles and simple adventures.
This bike, of course, is manipulative. Fanning takes her to a tunnel and tells her she has to choose. Go through the tunnel and choose life — and choose to be one of the twelve, or die in the tunnel.
Halfway through it, Amy stops to make a choice. She was already strong before this, but we’re shown what she’s thinking.
She thinks of her mother telling her that she is like the sun. She thinks of Brad and all of the encouraging words he’s given her since he’s known her.
She remembers him telling her that she can do anything she wants with her life. Of him telling her she’s tough and smart and important. And of how she was able to scream to protect herself and Brad from a viral.
Because she’s smart and tough and knows what she wants, she makes a different decision. That decision is also one that she feels is right because she understands she has an important power. So she turns around, shocking Fanning, and heads back through the tunnel, passing him by.
It’s a pivotal moment, and it’s clear Amy really will be different.
She wakes in time to be able to go with Brad as they run from the virals who are being let free. Brad even drags the horrible Guilder with them just in time.
That’s not the entire cliffhanger, though. Part of the reason Amy chooses her path is because she knows she can have power against the other virals. When her eyes flash just before the credits roll, we know she’s changed.
Overall, it’s another strong episode of The Passage. It’s fun to watch and it’s captivating. There’s a balance of the human moments and emotion with action and suspense that works really well, and the connection Brad and Amy have continues to drive the show.
I do continue to wish some of this could be more developed, but the show moves too quickly to delve into the characters as fully as it could.
What did you think of this episode of The Passage? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Passage airs Mondays at 9/8c.
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.