On Becoming a God in Central Florida Review: Go Getters Gonna Go Getcha (Season 1 Episode 10)
The pursuit of happiness can be a deeply miserable occupation, and On Becoming a God in Central Florida Season 1 Episode 10, “Go Getters Gonna Go Getcha,” is a study in how that chase often leads people to become the worst version of themselves.
I keep expecting Krystal to express some kind of remorse about her selfishness or to have enough self-awareness to at least acknowledge it when confronted by Bets and Rhonda. The closest she comes is in her speech to Cody:
Krystal: People treat me like crap all the time, because they can, and I don’t know how to stop them. And I get mad, and that just makes things worse. I can’t do this alone. I need you, Cody. And if you’ll let me, I’ll treat you like someone I need.
There’s a pretty big distinction between saying you need someone and saying you care about them, and Krystal has once again made it clear that she really only sees Cody as a pawn in her chess game against Obie.
It’s hard to hold this against her, though.
She can’t be blamed for doing what’s best for herself and her child, and that’s what On Becoming a God in Central Florida forces the audience to face: how willing we are to excuse Krystal’s behavior as a justifiable byproduct of a corrupt system; how accepting we are of this negative feedback loop in which doing what’s best for oneself leads to misfortune and misery for other people.
Krystal steps over Ernie, Bets, and Cody on her way to success, and in doing so, she becomes a more dangerous version of Obie.
The man she has spent the entire season fighting against is also, on some level, the person she has always desperately wanted to be.
It feels like Krystal was always destined to end up here, as the quasi-villain of her own story, but I found myself wishing the show had taken her character in a less predictable direction — perhaps one that feels less stiflingly cynical.
Even the rare moments of sweetness in this episode end up feeling tragic and pointless.
When Ernie buys Bets a peacock, thereby fulfilling a desire she expressed earlier in the season, the gesture is just a sad attempt to distract from the painful brokenness of their marriage.
For all of its trippy detours and visual flourishes along the way, On Becoming a God in Central Florida‘s first season concludes with the same grim political realism often brandished by shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.
There are brilliant performances on display here, but after ten episodes, the characters’ individual hopes and motives have begun to feel overwhelmed by the show’s inescapable cycle of ruin.
On Becoming a God in Central Florida is creeping doom disguised as comedy, a horror show that swathes its depiction of monstrosity in pastels and denim so it can creep up and surprise us. But rather than inspiring me to reckon with the system of injustice we’ve created, the season finale mostly left me feeling cold.
What did you think of this episode of On Becoming a God in Central Florida? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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On Becoming a God in Central Florida airs Sundays at 10/9c on Showtime.
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Ariel Udel
Ariel fell in love with storytelling on the night Flight 815 crashed on a mysterious island, and has been blogging about television ever since. She has an affinity for messy female anti-heroes and an enduring love of Battlestar Galactica, Xena: Warrior Princess, Lost, and Halt and Catch Fire.