The Great Review: Mommy Issues (Season 2 Episodes 6-10)

The second half of The Great Season 2 turns the volume way up on the emotion, the heat, and the hilarity, finishing its sophomore romp stronger than ever.

Feelings are further complicated, the death toll climbs, there’s a wedding, a public birth, and a literal rollercoaster. The Great Season 2 is fun and macabre, and, at times, heartbreaking or stunningly poignant, which is great storytelling and, altogether, really rather Russian.

Note: This review contains spoilers for The Great Seasons 1 and 2.

This is Russia

“I finally understand what that means.”

Like the Empress tells her mother that “Huzzah” is kind of a catch-all phrase, “This is Russia” is ubiquitously useful in explaining anything dark, stalwart, or contradictory. And I, too, am now understanding its meaning in all of its beautifully complex glory.

This satire-rich story takes many turns, especially in the back half of Season 2. Tragic turns, shocking turns, U-turns, and backtracking are all on the map of The Great, making it a well-rounded tale as well as a singular interpretation of Mother Russia in the 18th century. 

On Season 2 Episode 7, “Stapler,” a serf takes an inventor’s deadly thrill ride and modifies it to be what we now know as a rollercoaster. A model of it is made, but they go further than that and build an actual working “Roll and Coast” for Russia’s entry in the science competition.

Orlo: It’s still only a model though, so why don’t we just build the whole thing?
Catherine: By tomorrow afternoon? I think not.
Science-savvy Serf: This is Russia.
Catherine: I’ve never heard that saying said as a good thing. 

This display of mettle restores Catherine’s faith in her people which had all but vanished after her attempt at freeing the serfs turned into a violent civil unrest between the court and its servants on Season 2 Episode 6, “A Simple Jape.”

Within that episode, “A Simple Jape,” the season takes one of its bigger turns, leaning into the dramatic in brutal and brilliant ways.

The callous murder of Shakey, the serf turned noble, is nothing short of heart-shattering. Joanna’s death and the, erm, circumstances surrounding it send the story into an exciting and unpredictable tailspin. 

Elizabeth: This is Russia. We hope for the best, expect the worst, and don’t get too exercised about either eventuality.

Mommie Dearest

The great Gillian Anderson has come to The Great as Joanna, mother to Elle Fanning’s Catherine. It’s a casting coup to have Anderson in this role—the actor’s own sense of humor is akin to the comedy of the show—and she fits right in.

Joanna runs hot and cold; doting on Catherine one minute and chastising her the next, showing disdain for Peter at their first meeting and then hunting him down immediately after and trying to seduce him. She can comfort her restless daughter in the middle of the night in one scene and crush an innocent butterfly in her hand in another.

RIP Sergei.

Throughout Seasons 1 and 2, Peter’s toxic relationship with his deceased parents—both while they were alive and after—is examined.

Catherine has his dead mother’s desiccated corpse put in the room with Peter when he is serving his solitary confinement on Season 2 Episode 3, “Alone at Last,” and he gets a visit from his father’s ghost while digging graves as part of a preparatory and morbid birthing ritual on Season 2 Episode 8, “Five Days.”

It’s only fair that we get the same kind of background with Catherine, and Joanna’s arrival at the palace does just that and then some. 

Joanna brings out sides of Catherine that the others haven’t seen. The effect her mother has on her is evident in the way Catherine acts as well as physically, in the form of a rash that has long since flared up.

Catherine’s team quickly learns that Joanna will be a problem. It takes Catherine much longer to see that her mother has come with a self-serving agenda.

Catherine: I’m just a piece in your perfect tableau.

Once she realizes, she orders Joanna to leave. Determined to get one of the things she’s after on this trip, Joanna goes to Peter, whose resolve she has successfully weakened, to get it.

Poor Peter. He did try to resist Joanna’s advances, but fired up from her argument with Catherine mixed with their built-up steamy sexual tension, she is just too hot for him to handle. Figuratively speaking, that is.

And she goes right out the window.  

Alchemy

The chaotic events and the twists and turns lead Catherine and Peter to realize the power their love for each other has over them. Things bring them together and then something happens to break them up again—a rollercoaster, indeed.

In fact, Peter even uses the rollercoaster as a metaphor in his heartfelt speech to Catherine at Marial’s nuptials on Season 2 Episode 10, “Wedding,” along with making some pretty good points.

However, the Empress counters with five very valid points of her own. She does follow it up with poignant perspective, though, that speaks to the country’s formidableness and the emotional strength of its people:

“Maybe what makes it great is its embracing of our failings, our scars, our fucked-upness. As long as we are questing always for better, knowing that we will bring ourselves down as often as we set ourselves free. Maybe a great marriage is simply to hold all that in one tender, yearning heart.”

The final moments of the final episode of Season 2 bring questions that deserve answers. But also another layer of complexity is added to Catherine and Peter’s relationship that needs to be explored.

Ponder This and That:

• “Fathers are overrated.”
• Joanna recounting Catherine’s birth is intense.
• Joanna licking a fig is intense.
• “Bring me my dead grandchild when it falls out of you.”

What did you think of the second half of The Great Season 2? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Great Season 2 is now streaming on Hulu.

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