The Mosquito Coast Review: The Glass Sandwich (Season 1 Episode 7)

The Mosquito Coast Season 1 Episode 7, “The Glass Sandwich,” brings the AppleTV+ thriller to an uneven conclusion that basically requires viewers to wait for the series’s second season for even the most basic answers to the questions its raised.

Truthfully, I’m not sure when or why I personally started assuming this was a limited series that told a complete story. Watching “The Glass Sandwich,” it’s clear it was never actually envisioned as one. 

In some ways, I guess you could read this episode as a true finale if you wanted to, but since we know there’s a Season 2 coming, there’s precious little satisfaction to be found here and tons of lingering questions that still feel like they’ll probably always go unanswered. The Fox family, sullen and miserable, stuck with each other in a web of secrets and resentments, sailing off into the unknown on a crappy boat is, at least, the ending that Allie Fox probably deserves.

But it’s not an ending so much as an ellipsis, a hint that the story will certainly continue once the Fox family’s broken-down boat gets the family to wherever they’re headed next. It feels like these are people who are doomed to keep running forever in some form or other, whether that’s physically or metaphorically speaking. It’s just whether we’ll watch them do it or not, is the question.

It’s honestly laughable that we’ve made it through seven episodes of this show and still have no idea what Allie Fox did, why the government is chasing him, or how he convinced his clearly fed-up wife to acquiesce to the life that they’re currently living. 

It’s truly hard to feel invested in this family’s future — Margot’s threat to leave Allie behind should feel like a gut punch, not a victory dance — when we have precious little idea who any of them really are. What’s true about this family and their history? Who are they, really, to one another? And when will the show ever tell us?

At least we understand why Wannabe Walter White is after the Fox family, and the life-or-death stakes of this chase feel propulsive and compelling. If the idea that Allie would be able to so easily stage a jailbreak through the water drainage system of a small Mexican town strains the boundaries of credulity, well. What part of this show doesn’t?

“The Glass Sandwich” frequently comes right up to the edge of true revelation and meaningful action — Margot tries to take her kids and run for America, Dina tries to push back against the father that refuses to consider anyone’s needs beyond his own, Charlie shoots a man in the face — and yet, the hour ends with many of its pieces still pretty much exactly where they started.

Dina questions her father about the U.S. Marshals who showed up last week, and he spins a fairytale for her about how they’ve gone back to their cushy desk jobs instead of admitting the truth that they died violently at the hands of a drug cartel.

Margot refuses to tell her daughter the truth about her past, even in the face of direct questioning and increasingly dire straits. The family has literally had to flee for their lives on multiple occasions and yet somehow that’s all fine because of Allie’s stringent anti-capitalist beliefs? I don’t know!

There’s a lot, admittedly, I don’t know. Such as, what the point of this show was ever supposed to be. 

The thing is, “The Glass Sandwich,” taken on its own terms, is a pretty solid episode. It’s wildly tense, with multiple genuine shocks — Charlie ending up in jail, Margot attempting to leave her husband behind, Dina finally telling her father what we’ve all been yelling at our televisions for weeks. 

There are moments of genuine catharsis to be found here, even if the scenes never move much beyond that point. There are also moments where, no matter how much you (read: me) genuinely may dislike the Fox family, you’ll still be glued to the screen hoping for their successful escape from another round of over-the-top danger.

Is Allie’s The Shawshank Redemption-style journey through a Mexican drainage system logical? Not really. But it’s great fun to watch. 

I’d love to know how an environmental activist or however he described himself a few episodes back basically became Macgyver, but that’s probably another secret that The Mosquito Coast has no plans to ever reveal. 

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Margot’s mutinous expression through the last third of this episode does make one wonder whether Allie’s just going to straight get murdered by his wife whenever they get where they’re going.
• One of the most annoying aspects of this hour is the fact that it never truly lets Margo speak. Not really. There are hints that she considers her family situation her fault, that she finally wants out, that she’d at least like to send her kids back to America to live with her parents. But she never gets to truly unload on Allie, as much as he deserves it.
• That said, at least Melissa George’s solid right hook reappears! 
• So, is one of the Fox kids stolen? That thread got dropped with the dead U.S. agents and I’m still not sure if that was meant to be an obvious trick/lie.
• I repeat: Charlie KILLED A DUDE and it feels like the show just glossed right over it.
• Where does this show go from here? How many more near-misses and tricky escapes can the Foxes possibly pull off? What on earth will Season 2 possibly look like?
• The real star of The Mosquito Coast is its scenery. If you ignore the roving gangs of random would-be murderers, this is practically a tourist ad. Mexico looks colorful and gorgeous throughout.

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

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All episodes of The Mosquito Coast are now streaming on AppleTV+.

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