Impulse Review: Mind on Fire & Fight or Flight (Season 2 Episodes 1 & 2)

Impulse Season 2 is fearless thrill-ride with a wonderfully sappy core message.

I mean, it scares us viewers out of our minds, but the show itself doesn’t hold back. 

The first five minutes of Impulse Season 2 Episode 1, “Mind on Fire,” make you want to scream, vomit, and cry, sometimes all at the same time. Bill Boone’s clean up scene takes its time, dragging every bit of disgust and emotion from our bodies. 

It is harrowing and it doesn’t let up for nearly any of the first two episodes.

Impulse Season 2 Episode 2, “Fight or Flight,” expands the universe of the show by including more details about the mysterious organization hunting Henry. 

As Impulse ‘s landscape grows, the scenes remain gripping and intense, as if they are mimicking the fear response from the title. 

It’s profusely dark and full of life. 

Like trauma itself, the reality for characters on Impulse doesn’t just automatically get brighter. It’s a battle for every inch of light.

Light the Way

Speaking of light, the lighting design on the first two episodes is practically a character itself. 

With an icy blue hue, the design is stark, frigid, insidious. 

It is not just that it is dark. There are more night or low lit scenes than your average series. But, even the scenes that are during sunny days and have light paint colors and props are filmed with pale or blanched tones.

What this creates is a setting where there is very little warmth. It’s like the whole show is encased in a block of ice. 

For me, this allows the show to portray how deeply lonely all the characters are.

At the beginning of Season 2, they are in a state of defeat that distances them from each other:

Townes and Jenna are isolated, even as they are part of the same super team.

Cleo is distant from everyone because of her injury.

Lucas is digging-grave level isolated.

Detective Anna is unwilling to sit down and shut up and this makes her separate, apart, alone. 

But, and this is a very important but, the cold isolation between all the characters, which can all be linked back to Clay’s initial sexual violence, provides a raised stage for us to see the thawing moments. 

The light parts are more visible because of the darkness. 

Indeed, the bits of warmth and brightness stand out and rock us emotionally because of the cold lighting design they occur within. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if the lighting grows warmer and includes more orange and yellow hues as the characters build trust and take the time to heal over the season. 

Then again, the action is certainly not ramping down, so we might be in for some more cold times ahead!

It’s important to note that even with the dark and frigid lighting, visibility is not an issue. We can still see what’s going on in the darkness. 

The lighting design is a tone-setting and characterizing device that enhances the storytelling, rather than obstruct it. (Yes, this is a subtweet. Get it together, other dark shows!)

Mothers

The most emotionally resonant aspect of the first two episodes is its portrayal of motherhood. 

I weep through the majority of scenes because, well, mothers are everything. 

Both “Mind on Fire,” and “Fight or Flight,” feature delicate and intimate scenes of mothering that allow us to make it through the grueling content. 

I never would have thought that spray cleaner would make me feel so darn emotional.  But, there it is.

For the characters, especially Henry, mother and home are synonymous.

Cleo is Henry’s actual mother, and we see both Detective Anna Hulce and Jenna take on a mothering role for her as well. 

It is very clear, without each of these “mothers,” in Henry’s life, she would not be surviving.

Nikolai might be guiding her towards how to control her power, but Cleo, Anna, and Jenna are helping Henry believe in herself and her worthiness to keep living. 

Jenna takes on the role of protector even before her dad explicitly asks her to do so. She is brutally empathetic as she frequently sets her own needs and desires aside for the sake of others in her life. 

Mothers do that. 

Jenna really sees Henry, which is a superpower-ful way of showing love.

JENNA: You’re a good person Henry. But, you need to believe it too or it doesn’t matter.

Detective Hulce mothers Henry differently. She provides a space for Henry to be a victim. 

It is a huge relief that Anna doesn’t try to get a confession of what Henry has done, but what has been done to her. 

It’s a relief for Henry too. You can see how in that very moment, where Detective Hulce doesn’t accuse Henry but offers support, trust grows. 

Hits right in the feels. 

There is a nice bookend to Anna and Henry’s moment in the office at the end of “Fight or Flight” when Cleo shares what Anna told her about Henry.

Henry fears that she is a terrible person who not only killed someone but left her mom instead of saving her. 

Anna told Cleo that Henry was brave and jumped out of a car to get help for her. This is the truth. That is what happened. 

There, lying in her mom’s arms and soaking in the pride and safety, knowing that her mom and Anna have her back and believe that she is a hero, not a monster, she is a child at peace.

This speaks so deeply to so many of our deepest fears and needs. To be helped, to be known, to be good is all we want and fear we’ll never have.

The mothering scenes capture all of that complexity, anguish, and humanity of being mothered. 

Hence the constant sobbing.

There is clearly something in Anna’s past that is fueling her extreme sensitivity and care for Henry. Hopefully, Season 2 allows her to unpack that mystery. 

Enuka Okuma is absolutely fabulous as Detective Hulce. She makes the show stronger and provides representation of a black woman in a white male-dominated field. 

All the actors deliver stunning performances on “Mind on Fire” and “Fight or Flight.” 

Missi Pyle is a revelation. She breaks my heart. A lot.

CLEO: It doesn’t matter where we go as long as we’re together. Isn’t that what we always say?

HENRY: That’s what YOU always say.

CLEO: Close enough.

Watching Impulse it is easy to forget that Pyle has been mostly a comedic actress. She is the beating heart of this intense drama.

The casting people on this show need some love; they get it perfectly right! (I would love to see some indigenous talent included in the series, but that’s my only complaint)

Cleo is a complex character. She is living her life with deeply ingrained insecurities, all based on a lie. She believes her husband left her. 

Her pattern with worthless men, her reticence to believe in herself, her independence as a parent, are all related to this fallacy. 

That is so tragic and so real. 

The show, again and again, captures these truths of how it is to recover from how life hurts you as a woman. It allows us intimate glimpses into the lives of women through a supernatural lense.

Impulse is doing the superhero mythology genre in an ardently feminist way simply by telling these stories so accurately. 

Mind Control

Maddie Hasson’s face is really something to behold. 

Her anguished visage as she confesses her relief at ending Bill Boone and her defiant looks when she’s dining out in a courtyard with the dubious Nikolai adds tons of storytelling weight to her character. 

And that isn’t even to mention the special effects that transform her during her hallucination scenes. 

Season 2 is focusing so much more on her power and the science behind it. It is thrilling, horrifying, and actually quite fun to see the different manifestations. 

The closeup shot of Henry’s eyeball fracturing is truly award-worthy. 

 

Action elements are used in tandem with Henry’s internal journey which maximizes their effectiveness. 

Guilt is a different kind of fear and “Mind on Fire,” thoroughly explores how Henry’s fear of her own guilt allows her power to control her. 

HENRY: I left her for nothing. 

As she comes to accept that what happened to her, her assault, Bill Boone’s death, and her mother’s injury, are not her fault, I think we are going to see her less guided by fear. 

As Maddie Hasson recently shared with us at San Diego Comic-Con, Henry is going to take her power back. 

It is admirable that the show is taking its time getting her to that empowerment.

Recovery from trauma takes time. Reframing your differences as strengths takes time. 

Life for people who are different is a great struggle. 

Impulse lets us see the struggle. We don’t just get teleported to healed. 

Impulse Season 2 is off to a definitively SUPER start.

Jumping Thoughts

• Anna deals with mansplaining like a BOSS.
• Jenna is the best friend a person could have. She needs support too, not just from old VHS tapes that make her (and all of us) cry.
• We don’t trust you, Zoe! We can smell a catfish from a mile away. 
• Lucas, bb, you are going to be okay.
• The evil mastermind at the very end of “Fight or Flight,” is peak thriller! Keep giving us those X-Files vibes. 
• The way the show highlights access to healthcare is important and heartbreaking. 
• Townes is more than a sidekick. He’s a hero too. 

What did you think of this episode of Impulse? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Impulse airs Wednesdays on Youtube. Premium Youtube members can watch all of Impulse Season 2 now.

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