Run Review: Trick (Season 1 Episode 7)

Happy endings aren’t a necessity, but on Run Season 1 Episode 7, “Trick,” a more complete ending could go a long way, as well.

There are some great moments on the episode, mainly through Billy and Ruby finding a sense of finality to their trip once they’re back on the train. They are honest with each other after episodes of dancing around that honesty, trying to feel each other out so that neither gets hurt.

But the issue becomes a need for closure, which the episode does not entirely give. Ruby gets closure, as she chooses to return to her life and to not believe Billy. That’s a huge moment for her, and telling Laurence that the “baby” name that he uses is no longer acceptable is a sign of her taking back some standing in their relationship. This is all great stuff, but still feels temporary.

Ruby will likely have to answer for running from her family, and simply going home is not the end of that issue. There’s also the fact that it’s insinuated Ruby has pulled the emergency break so that Cloud could get on the train. It’s not spelled out, but after Laurence sends Deputy Cloud’s number, there’s not really any other way to take it, from what I can tell.

The fact that Billy manages to get out of there leaves her heading back home with an unfinished job, since Laurence’s audio message implies that helping Cloud is the only way to help herself. Billy says he is about to be arrested, and that’s probably true.

But the fact that it just closes out with Billy effectively as a fugitive is anticlimactic. We don’t get to see if he gets away or is caught only a moment later. We have Ruby’s ending, but not quite an ending for everyone else.

For Ruby’s choice, in itself it works as the conclusion to the show, but at the same time, Ruby knows how manipulative Fiona has been to not only Billy, but to her. She doesn’t let Billy explain, and outside the train station, she doesn’t want him to fix things. Perhaps Billy is right from earlier, that leaving him and returning to her family has always been the plan, and the video is that driving force to make it easier.

After everything, they stuck together, and proved that they do love each other. While that video has always been the looming threat to splinter their relationship, you have to wonder if it’s really the last straw or the reason that Ruby has been waiting for.

Ruby has this strange calm come over her rather than being upset, like a puzzle piece has finally clicked into place. Laurence is already at the station, after all, which is either because he is watching her phone (which is already established), or the choice has been made already.

We don’t get a sense of what is happening with Ruby, when Billy is essentially stripped bare. Part of that makes for interesting speculation and is a testament to Ruby’s writing and Merritt Wever’s performance, but at the same time, it leaves the choice of walking away as a little shrouded in uncertainty.

Maybe this is reading into the episode too much, but the problem is that the finale feels a little incomplete.

It’s done as a narrative choice, to make Ruby’s choice the major spot to close on, but it also leaves Deputy Cloud wandering the train, Billy free with a death hanging over his head, and Ruby’s marriage basically in shambles. There’s no closure outside of the main choice, leaving everything else feeling a little half-baked and rushed.

For the emotional arc of Run, where it’s solely about Billy and Ruby, it works, but it does leave the entire subplot about Cloud feeling like a quirky unfinished idea rather than a fully realized piece of the show’s direction.

Deputy Cloud is a fun character, certainly, but she doesn’t get the fulfillment of arresting Billy as she mentions multiple times beforehand, and Laurel is mostly there as a quipster sidekick for the drive, only to be told to go home once the journey is complete.

But the show still gets by playing around with the characters. The sprint to the potato truck, the banter in their roomette, and the general flirty nature of both relationships here add so much fun to the episode. Those moments always come across as perfectly realized, and when the show is at its best.

Where Run Season 1 Episode 7, “Trick,” ultimately fumbles is with wrapping up its story. Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson have been downright fantastic on the show, and here they continue that trend of complex performances that are worthy of dissection while they also exude charm for days.

Taken without the story, the episode is a great final ride with these two characters as they try and pick up the pieces of their lives through rediscovering each other. It doesn’t last forever, and cold reality hits them both at the end. It’s a tough ending for both of them, Ruby heading back to the familiar while Billy effectively floats in his own form of purgatory, waiting to be caught.

But with the story, there is a lot of missing pieces that leave the ending a little sour.

 

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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