Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail Review: White Savior (Season 3 Episode 7)
If Benny the Teen’s behavior on Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail Season 3 Episode 7, “White Savior” made you uncomfortable then the show has successfully done it’s job. Benny is thrown into the center ring as a commentary on white behavior toward people of color.
Honestly, it’s an unexpected deviation from the dog and pony show that is Zeke and Prudence. However, it’s not completely out of line.
From the beginning of this season, Benny has been the extreme negative end of the appropriate behavior scale. So it comes as no surprise when facing an indigenous tribe that he says all the most inappropriate things possible.
Benny is a testament to what we currently call the “white savior complex” despite the setting of 1844. Miraculously, the situation still fits into that time period as well. Benny thinks these individuals aren’t human when he first meets them, and then he moves on to thinking he needs to save them.
The rights of indigenous people have been really making headlines lately and so this episode comes about in a timely fashion. It calls into question the motives and “help” of white advocates who are seemingly speaking over those who really need to be heard.
There are moments in the episode when Benny doesn’t take direction from the tribe, instead he tells them that he’s there to save them, not the other way around. It’s clear that he doesn’t see what he is doing doesn’t help in the slightest.
Benny thinks he is smarter than everyone around him in this situation because in his eyes he’s “civilized.” Unfortunately, that means he turns a blind eye to what is really there — false confidence.
“White Savior” is a beautiful character study of Benny and who he represents overall. At the beginning of this season Benny’s behavior only comes across as crude and uncouth, but now we see the darker side to him.
Benny is all those people who walk among us who think they aren’t being racist or small-minded, but still subconsciously see themselves as superior. Of all the social commentary Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail has hit us with, this is by far the most impactful.
There is just so much language from Benny that makes me cringe, not because I think it’s being presented in a serious light but because I worry that I myself come across that way in my own life.
It’s a hard look in the mirror to see that even if we aren’t as racist and condescending as Benny is, we can still be more harmful than helpful in these situations. It’s time that white individuals sit down and let those whose rights and livelihoods have been called into question stand up and speak.
As Sheila tells Benny at the end, Why don’t we stop trying to put “savior” or “advocate” after our names and just try being ourselves. Benny will probably not change overnight, but it’s clear that his experience with the indigenous tribe changed his view on the world.
Sure, he goes back to his group thinking he was going to have to save them, but he didn’t make a big fuss either way. Instead, he sits down and joins them all in song. It’s a move in the right direction for him.
Which is going to be needed in the weeks ahead as Prudence and Zeke fall further into their lives of deception and adultery.
While this episode is a nice look at Benny overall and allows him room to grow, it isn’t a standout episode. There just isn’t anything too memorable about the storytelling beyond the social commentary aspect. We don’t leave this episode wanting to watch it again and again.
Stray Thoughts:
- It’s nice that we barely saw Zeke and Prudence this episode, because Benny has been due for a central episode.
- I’m not sure how we are going to proceed regarding Phaedra and Todd and the love affair between their spouses.
- They only mentioned Phaedra but we don’t actually see her…how is this going to play out? Will we ever see her again?
- I’m extremely disappointed in how underutilized Karan Soni is this season.
What did you think of this episode of Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail airs Tuesdays at 10:30/9:30c on TBS.
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Mads Misasi
Mads is a part-time entertainment journalist and full-time marketing content creator. They love any and all TV Dramas with a few sitcoms mixed in. Join in the fun talking about TV by following them on Twitter: @dorothynyc89.