The Mosquito Coast Review: Bus Stop (Season 1 Episode 4)

The Mosquito Coast Season 1 Episode 4, “Bus Stop,” proves once again that this show desperately wants to have it both ways, attempting to make Allie and his family sympathetic victims of forces larger than themselves, even as it keeps right on refusing to really tell us anything about who they are or what they’re running from.

This is the fourth episode of a seven-episode series in case anyone has forgotten. Truly, this show is a singularly frustrating viewing experience. Sure, we find out that Allie “used to work for the NSA” and they “didn’t see eye to eye on some things” and somehow that’s supposed to be reason enough to keep rooting for him.

Excuse me? I guess we’re supposed to assume Allie somehow sold state secrets or is something else in the sort of Edward Snowden vein, but this far into the story, that revelation feels pretty weak. Yay, I guess he’s doing the right thing for once while his kids are being threatened with imminent death?

The episode opens with the Fox family’s long-awaited arrival in Mexico, set to a song that simply repeats the name of the country over and over, in case someone, for some reason, totally blanked out and forgot what the entire premise of the show to date happens to be. 

The mansion where they’re taken by their new friends (who are clearly a drug cartel in the same subtle way the song earlier was about Mexico) live in an estate so palatial and ridiculous that it feels like we’re a couple of minutes from a full-on “Greatest Game” horror situation breaking out. (The number of dead animals displayed on stands is not small, is what I’m saying.)

It’s clear that Allie and his family are in danger in Mexico, their rooms are surrounded by people toting large guns, Enrique and his generally nameless goods won’t let them leave, and everyone talks to the Foxes in the overbearingly polite way (I’m afraid that won’t be possible!) that generally characterizes Bond villains. 

Allie, of course, takes it all in stride, like this is all extremely normal, telling his kids this trip is an “adventure” like he promised them because he is honestly the worst father in the world. Though, after this episode, I’m pretty sure neither of the Foxes are winning parent — or person — of the year anytime soon.

The best part of “Bus Stop” is the introduction of cartel queen Lucrezia, whose character is so over the top that it borders on caricature. She wears dramatic furs, threatens to cut people’s tongues out, casually quizzes Dina about her recreational drug habits over dinner, and generally exudes the sort of chaotic energy this show is lacking almost everywhere else.

Don’t get me wrong: She doesn’t make any more sense as a character than anyone else on this show does, but at least she’s fun. 

It feels as though we’re meant to be punching the air during Margot’s face-off with Lucrezia, and Lord knows Melissa George sells the crap out of the mama bear act, but it’s a sequence that shows us she’s capable of being as monstrous as her husband is if threatened.

I wish we knew literally anything about her life and/or past with Allie. It would go a long way to understanding why she’s willing to sacrifice and endure so much — if, perhaps, this isn’t the first time she’s shot a gun or threatened a life. (It certainly didn’t seem like it.)

For what it’s worth, I am pretty sure I’m more invested in Chuy’s story than I am in any of the Foxes. (Save maybe Margot, but I don’t know if she’s a character who actually has hidden depths or if I just really want her to and am projecting.)

But at least Chuy feels like he has actual motivations and a genuine arc going on, and I would rather watch a show about his journey to get his daughter back and start over…than whatever this show actually is.

The sequence where Allie admits that he didn’t realize Chuy even had a daughter is just the perfect distillation of why he sucks as a character and a person — he doesn’t listen, he doesn’t care about anyone else, he has no interest in anyone else’s needs or concerns outside of his own yet expects everyone else to cater to his.

I wish I thought being left on the side of the road by a former friend at gunpoint would be a humbling experience for him, or might somehow transform this man into a character whose story I could care about.

But mostly I’m just hoping he gets hit by a bus.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• I have a lot of questions about the wisdom of fleeing with your whole family to a foreign country when only one member of said family — and a child at that! — speaks the language of that country.
• The subplot of Charlie calmly going off hunting with a weirdo gun enthusiast he’s just met is…. a choice I guess? The idea that this supposed genius kid would just wander off to hunt the local wildlife with Hugo, well. On a show that stretches the bounds of credulity a lot, this is a big dose.
• Loved the cover of “Gold Dust Woman” they used here though.

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

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New episodes of The Mosquito Coast stream Fridays on Apple TV+.

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