Run Review: Kiss (Season 1 Episode 2)

Everyone has their buttons, and intentionally or not, on Run Season 1 Episode 2, “Kiss,” they are being pushed. There is intention behind some of the button-pushing, to be sure, but there’s a disconnect starting to form as the realization of what both Billy and Ruby have done starts to become clearer to them.

For now, even still, Ruby is a little more defined out of the two leads. This episode does help fill in some pieces for Billy’s plight, but it still comes across as slight or misleading, as though there’s more to the story we still need to see for the bigger picture.

We still don’t know how Fiona (his personal assistant) fits into his life, and how she’s able to track him to the train so easily. We still don’t know what he’s done during that session that leaves him a wreck and looking for the first exit. But all the same, the show cleverly makes us feel like we know enough based on how Billy is with Ruby and in those self-loathing moments where he’s alone.

The episode feels like a flip on the previous, where everything has been a sexy game of reacquaintance and pushing buttons longing for pushing; here, every word carries weight and is inflicted like a jab, intentional or otherwise. There’s consequence and regret settling in, not entirely out of the act of running, but what it means for their lives from now on.

Billy is tortured by Ruby having a full life she’s leaving behind, while Ruby is tortured by reminders of it. Ruby self-consciousness about her image leaves an impression that this could potentially be about rekindling that feeling of being wanted by someone. But knowing that there’s a family in the balance, Billy is not exactly in performance shape, the guilt of that sitting on his conscience despite wanting the same thing.

The stranger on the train does provide that moment of being wanted, even if Ruby withholds her own sexy talk. Her reasoning comes before with Billy, that she’s simply not good at it, but that moment of hesitation with the stranger has the feel of deeper connotation, as though she doesn’t want to go through with it after all.

There’s this feeling that his dirty talk is an attempt to see if she’s willing to go through with it, but that her refusal is a confirmation that it’s all just talk at the moment. But what’s interesting is that earlier with Billy feels like it could have gone all the way. It could be an attempt to make Billy jealous enough to act on their impulses, but the sore spot of image and guilt is a tough one to crack.

But Billy and Ruby do end up sharing the titular kiss, which is certainly progress. But it comes before the touchy subjects of image come up, which are an innocent mistake that doesn’t end up getting corrected too well.

One aspect the episode absolutely nails is the messiness. Ruby and Billy awkwardly crashing into and activating everything in their roomette is reality in all of its glory, a complete one-eighty to the perfect romantic setting that some train encounters enticingly promise. There’s the usual off-handed comments and exclamations that largely go unnoticed by passersby, too; here, they are loud, they are heard, and they are frowned at.

Billy’s outbursts at the bar are a perfect example of this, as is the odd look he’s given when he’s spying on Ruby’s husband Laurence (Rich Sommer, who hopefully appears at some point, though if it’s left as the model citizen joke, that’s also perfectly fine). They’re both making an impression on the other train riders, and their constant running and interruptions are probably not doing them much favors.

The ending reveals that Laurence has indeed heard the conductor’s call about Chicago over the intercom, and Ruby’s life, as she knows it, is blown up; an irony, really, since Billy’s initial reason for running is because his own life has blown up.

They are both on equal footing now, though Ruby’s is more tragic. Run is smartly playing with our expectations, loading up all of the responsibility on Ruby, but if the show manages to spin that around and make Billy’s just as tragic, that could be a clever way of changing the dynamic between them and leaving them as potentially picking up the pieces together or apart.

Despite the complications that Run Season 1 Episode 2, “Kiss,” set up, the episode still manages to be a lot of fun. Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson are incredibly likable performers and add so much to their characters with their presence, but it’s in their quick, direct interactions as they try and seduce each other, and ultimately look to push one another out of their comfort zones, that speak volumes about their characters.

Now that Ruby’s life is potentially shattered, and Billy’s is starting to catch up to him, it’s a great point of no return where damage control is the obvious scenario. But if they both choose to keep going, that says so much about how they view the lives they’re leaving behind. Perfect pictures are not always perfect, and there’s a lot of fantastic avenues that can be explored there.

 

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

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Run airs Sundays at 10:30/9:30c on HBO.

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