The Third Day Review: Tuesday – The Daughter (Season 1 Episode 5)
All things must balance, but it’s the lengths people will go to in order to keep that balance that is endlessly dangerous. On The Third Day Season 1 Episode 5, “Tuesday – The Daughter,” we learn what some will do while the truth slowly seeps to the surface.
While none of the revelations of the episode are necessarily shocking, as they are quite telegraphed, it’s the level of dedication and fearsome hell that some on Osea will go to in order to protect their island.
Jess, when we last see her with Sam, definitely makes a choice of the island over him, though in the end he is saved by it in his own way. Now she’s willing to hurt or at least threaten his very own child in order to keep that same island safe from change.
But in doing so, she does let slip that Nathan is missing. Perhaps that’s why Sam is out on the deck at the end of the episode, waiting for his son to return but instead finding Helen standing there behind him. Family has an odd way of reappearing on The Third Day, and it’s curious where the finale will go now.
Naomie Harris plays Helen with such careful consideration on the episode, from the nurturing moments of helping Jess move the baby and the delivery, to the hardening realization that this child she helped deliver is her husband’s and trying not to break.
Those moments land with such forceful impact and keeps Harris as a compelling performer as her world is turned upside down. We still have yet to see where these feelings will go on the next episode, but it’s fascinating how composed she can keep herself under mind-shattering news.
There are parallels to Sam’s journey, with Paul Kaye’s character (mysteriously called “The Cowboy”) becoming Helen’s version of Mrs. Martin from the initial batch. They both try to dig deep into Sam and Helen’s psyche by appealing to their grief, and both do so with aggressive means.
The Cowboy is doing so with seemingly good intentions, using something he has seen as a way of pushing Helen to grieve; but there’s this odd feeling behind it, that the people of Osea are a little too pushy with getting emotions out and into the forefront.
The young girl speaking with Ellie (who still hasn’t been revealed to Jess’ daughter but must be) speaks of Osea running on a balance, of the good and the bad, and how they must be put right. Maybe all of this grief is that balance, and the townspeople are trying to excise it by any means necessary.
All the same, it’s not yet clear why the townspeople are still being so secretive. They don’t want to mess with the balance by removing Sam and Nathan, to be sure, but this new child seems to have split the town down the middle. Is it because the child poses a threat to Nathan’s standing, or because of something else?
The Cowboy has a lot of questions about Nathan’s temperament, after all. Maybe he is looking for an excuse to install Jess’ child as the heir apparent, and to remove Nathan entirely. There’s still a lot of questions where this is all heading.
We know Nathan is alive, as we see Sam embrace him at the end of The Third Day Season 1 Episode 3, “Sunday – The Ghost,” but will it be the same sort of reunion once Helen finds out? She may not be so accepting of the lie, after being told so many in such a short time.
He is missing, as mentioned earlier, and so perhaps this will be a blow-up in the confrontation between Sam and Helen. Maybe she will take it as the last lie she’s willing to hear out of this place, that her son is alive all this time.
But that’s if things turn out okay. Her two daughters are in dangerous predicaments of their own, as Ellie deals with these tombs (and it has a real “you’re being locked down here” vibe as it goes on), and Taluluah saying too much and potentially being tracked down by townspeople.
For the episode itself, it’s still a little too meandering for its own good, much like its predecessor. It feels as though there isn’t enough story to dole out over these three, and so it’s taking a leisurely approach to two episodes worth of story.
The search for Jess, and for her to be exactly in the place where Helen wants to leave, makes a lot of that search come across as a little redundant, apart from the conversation with The Cowboy.
While the episode does provide a lot of answers, it still does so while feeling like it’s spinning its wheels a bit. It’s a given Sam and Helen wouldn’t meet up until the final episode, if at all, and so while it’s good to see it happen now rather than later, there’s still too much meandering.
But when it isn’t meandering, The Third Day has some rather triumphant moments in its characters. Helen, by way of Naomie Harris, is a compelling character through just as much as she doesn’t say as she does, as that scene between her and Jess shows.
Who can say what the finale holds, but as we go into it, Helen and her two daughters are likely in great peril. When there’s a balance to keep, asking too many questions and then finding the exact answers you’re looking for will not end well.
Some stray thoughts on the episode:
- Helen appears to recognize the song Jess is listening to, which may be her first clue before the reveal of Sam being the father of Jess’ child. It’s the return of Florence + the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over,” the same song Sam listens to at the start of The Third Day Season 1 Episode 1, “Friday – The Father,” and maybe the song holds meaning for them.
What did you think of this episode of The Third Day? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Third Day airs Mondays at 9/8c on HBO.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.