The Terror: Infamy Review: A Sparrow in a Swallow’s Nest (Season 2 Episode 1)
It’s difficult not to compare The Terror: Infamy Season 2 Episode 1, “A Sparrow in a Swallow’s Nest,” to the show’s first outing, despite the differences between the two. Given that the creative team behind this season is almost entirely different than the first, it’s interesting to see what type of show this new incarnation will be.
There are some similarities, of course. The first season revolved around a group of outsiders trapped in a world that they had no business being in and followed as they became prey to a supernatural force in response to their poor treatment of the indigenous people. With this season — subtitled “Infamy” — the opposite is the case.
“A Sparrow in a Swallow’s Nest” still revolves around a group that can ostensibly be classified as “outsider,” here being Japanese Nationals and Japanese-Americans set just before the Internment camps that followed the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. The difference is that they are being mistreated by the group that supposedly belongs there.
The writers are telling this story, one that feels all too timely, under the auspices of a ghost story which draws heavily from Japanese culture. It’s used to great effect to tell a story of the immigrant experience — even decades down the road for many of the characters — and how that journey ultimately goes wrong.
It’s impossible to divorce this season from the current state of immigration in America and how it responds to that — nor should it. As much as this is intensely a story of the Japanese experience in America at this particular time, it’s also about how the dominating force will turn on you when it’s deemed convenient.
America encourages assimilation and accepting people from other countries, but will go against that the moment it is deemed “necessary,” which it rarely is. Many of the characters from Japan are as much Americans as any Caucasian person that’s on the periphery of the show, but they’re rounded up the moment things go bad.
The show emphasizes the kind of precarious position that immigrants so often have in this country — and of course, that (sadly) isn’t exclusive to the 1940s in the shadow of WWII. Characters watch their parents get loaded onto buses but at the same time will be expected to fight in a war that they marginally benefit from.
What is happening now, in real life, informs what is happening on the show, and vice-versa. These things don’t exist in a bubble, and this story serves a strong rebuke of not only the Japanese internment camps but also of current events.
A big difference between the last season and this one is the lack of easily recognizable prestige actors at the forefront. Whereas the first season had Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, and Ciaran Hinds, this season basically just has George Takei as its most recognizable star.
The cast is solid throughout, but none that are on the level of star power as last season — and that’s a benefit of Season 2.
The characters here get to exist beyond a measure of familiarity and get to stand solely on the performance and the strength of that character.
Overall, “A Sparrow in a Swallow’s Nest” makes for a good start to a story that has a lot of promise, even if the episode’s purpose is to, more or less, set the stage for what the story is actually going to be about.
What did you think of this episode of The Terror: Infamy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
The Terror airs Mondays at 9/8c on AMC.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.