The Undoing Review: The Missing (Season 1 Episode 2)
You think you know someone, and then a thing like this happens. On The Undoing Season 1 Episode 2, “The Missing,” Grace’s life is undone and she’s learning about guilt by association, but all she wants is answers.
It’s an awful situation to be in, to know nothing but to be treated like you know everything while the stakes are so high. It’s especially awful as the friends you’ve grown to love effectively stare rather than help, and you’re left to pick up the pieces while everyone looks on.
It’s a great hook for the second episode, but it’s also a dire one. We know Grace, at least we think we do, because the show is so deep into her point of view and perspective, leading us to be just as in the dark as she is. As she learns the damning news, piece by piece, it’s a gut punch that can’t be undone.
Now that we know Jonathan has treated Miguel, Elena’s son, and that he’s admitted to an affair, the extrapolation is that she has come too close to Grace and Jonathan could see no other option. That’s about where the episode leaves off, especially while Jonathan’s explanation is rather weak.
While The Undoing ends up going to a place I mention on my previous review, that Elena’s child may be Jonathan’s and a paternity test is needed, it’s the way it unfolds and is used as a punctuation mark to an already hellish scene that gives it even more power.
Grace is in the middle of watching her home be torn to pieces for evidence, and the need for hair samples and DNA is like extra salt in the wound.
That’s where the show finds its most impact: tearing down everything Grace knows. It’s an effectively cruel hour of television for her character, putting Grace through the gauntlet of fear, doubt, and paranoia, but it’s for a reason: no one is being straight with her.
There’s a wall being put up against her, and all she wants is answers. The sheer weight of the unknown is crushing, and Nicole Kidman captures those frustrating points with such emotional precision, with wide eyes and a step below panic taking over.
Even the police aren’t being forthcoming, using her state of worry against her as a form of digging. Detective Mendoza is hard to get a read on, as he can appear forthcoming at one moment, and distant and accusatory in the next. It’s what makes the scene with Grace at the station, where the editing starts to show her frustration, very important.
Emotional manipulation is on full display, and Grace can’t catch a break, not even from her friend Sylvia, who also has been keeping the Jonathan work issue a secret. If everyone is straight with Grace, half of the episode would lose its power, but it also proves she may be more alone than she realizes yet.
When Grace finally loses her temper and tosses Jonathan’s things in their beach house, it’s her way of getting back at him for the mess he’s caused, even if it is futile.
One of the most potent pieces of The Undoing is the paranoia it causes.
Susanne Bier does a wonderful job getting inside Grace’s head, and the way the camera focuses on people watching her, the sound of camera shutters outside of the school, and the phantom people on Grace’s periphery really dig into her mind more than her words are willing to do currently.
We may not know yet if those phantom people are Jonathan waiting for a chance to sneak up on her, but it’s enough to cause this sense of dread and unease, like Grace may be in danger next.
It’s why Jonathan sneaking up and covering her mouth is the most unpleasant way he could possibly re-enter her life. There’s an aggressiveness to it, the likes we have not seen her do to her, and only adds to the growing sense of guilt that surrounds him.
His explanation sounds fine enough up until discovering Elena’s body first, but as we’re in Grace’s perspective, it’s hard to believe anything he says now. Henry may run up to his father and accept him, but Grace’s reaction is more than justified.
Everything she’s known for months now has been a lie, and so why believe him now? Her response to phone the police will drive an even larger wedge between them, and it may turn Henry against her, but that’s the clever thing about the ending: what would you do in this situation?
You think you know someone, and then this happens. It undoes everything you think you know. That’s a striking thought, and one that The Undoing is smartly using to its advantage.
What did you think of this episode of The Undoing? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Undoing airs Sundays 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.