Dispatches From Elsewhere Review: The Creator (Season 1 Episode 9)
Dispatches From Elsewhere Season 1 Episode 9, “The Creator,” delivers one final twist in the mystery of Clara’s identity: Clara isn’t dead, because she and Lee are actually the same person.
Lee didn’t just create the game to honor a visionary whose work she respected; she created it to do right by her younger self, the artistic idealist who got lost in her pursuit of success.
As huge a revelation as this seems it’s just one of many stories on an episode that’s all about honesty and reconciliation.
Dispatches From Elsewhere has always been a show about self-discovery, which its characters have engaged with mostly in the context of their relationships to one another.
But “The Creator” has everyone looking inward, both more deeply and more methodically than ever before.
Peter decides that Simone was right about his lack of identity and that he needs to put time and effort into learning more about himself. He starts keeping a list of his likes and dislikes, trying new hobbies, and observing his feelings so that he might get a better grasp on his personality.
Meanwhile, Simone gets a pep talk from Janice about her own commitment issues.
Janice: Is this about change, or is this about running? Running, running, running… at some point you’ve got to stop and say, all right, this is it. This is who I am. Take it or leave it.
In order to claim whatever abundance life has in store for them, both Peter and Simone need to face the parts of themselves they’ve been running from.
Like Lee, each of them has grown distant from their inner optimist. They’ve walled themselves off, preferring the safety of isolation to the anxiety of openness.
For a while, that strategy helped them cope with their most powerful fears: embarrassment, exclusion, and failure.
But as Lee’s example demonstrates, suppression of the self can lead to a perpetual state of mourning. You will ache with the loss of yourself, or the self you could have become, had you not sheared off those qualities which were emotionally inconvenient but also necessary to your sense of personal fulfillment.
Thankfully, both Peter and Simone are willing to do the hard work of excavating the parts of themselves that they’ve buried.
For Peter, it’s the impulse to follow his whims, to seek out joy, and to believe that he is deserving of it.
For Simone it’s trust and courage; being brave enough to show someone her whole self, and not run away in fear of their reaction.
The way these two stories intertwine is the absolute height of romance. They are two people who become better, independently, because of their relationship to one another.
Fredwynn’s storyline, by contrast, is deeply unsettling.
Unable to sleep or stop obsessing over the game’s dangling threads, Fredwynn enters a dissociative fugue state. His friends finally arrive to help him recover, but even then he remains dissatisfied and mentally adrift.
The episode ends without bringing much clarity for him, beyond teasing a final denouement to the game.
But overall it does a beautiful job of illuminating the fact that everyone is, at all times, in the very middle of their story. The surest means of progressing to the next chapter is to embrace those parts of yourself that you’re most afraid of it, letting them take you by the hand and lead you forward.
Stray thoughts:
- It looks like we’ll finally learn more about the sad clown boy who has appeared throughout the season.
- Wonderful choice of narrator for this episode. F to the Red to the Wynn!
- The heavy overlay of dialogue during Fredwynn’s manic episode makes for a very accurate depiction of spiralling thoughts.
- Raise your hand if you think the mural of Peter is a little scary.
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What did you think of this episode of Dispatches From Elsewhere? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Dispatches From Elsewhere airs Mondays at 10/9c on AMC.
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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.