Landscapers Review: Episode 3 (Season 1 Episode 3)
A moment in the spotlight looks much better in the movies than in reality. On Landscapers Season 1 Episode 3, “Episode 3,” Chris begins to learn that lesson the hard way.
If Episode 2 is all about understanding Susan, Episode 3 gives Chris his turn. In flashbacks crosscut with the interrogation, we see what his life with Susan and her manipulative parents is really like.
It’s obvious he cares for Susan, but several revelations put his motivation into question. At one point he lashes out at Susan for being just like her parents.
In another scene, his stepmother notes that Chris has spent his whole life trying to save other people and failing. It makes you wonder how much of his attachment to Susan is some sort of savior complex rather than true love.
It’s fitting that when Susan shares with Chris her daydream of her galloping off across the plains, she adds him into it. Instead of his love pulling her out of the fantasy, she just pulls him in with her.
Chris’ stepmother also says that the two weren’t made for this world. The whole series has been about that world catching up with them.
This idea is emphasized as the film tropes, once a symbol of Susan’s delusion and her safety net, start to turn against her.
Landscapers breaks the fourth wall as Lancing takes Susan onto a set where she reconstructs what she thinks happened. She directs the “actors” of the scene while Susan denies the series of events.
The show deconstructs Susan’s use of fantasy to turn it against her, showing her how it can twist reality for the worse. Even if Lancing’s scene is closer to the truth and based on evidence, it still feels nightmarish with the saturated red lighting.
Susan’s reality, regardless of her guilt in the murders, is much more like this scene than the dreamy black and white romances or melodramatic Western showdowns.
If there’s one thing that’s not a lie about these characters, it’s their pain. David Thewlis no longer seems smug as Chris, and instead, he lets the cracks show in his well-practiced veneer.
Olivia Colman bursts with emotion as Susan allows her rage to replace her timidness and fear. It’s another addition to Colman’s repertoire of controlled characters who descend into a breakdown.
You simultaneously feel bad for her while also starting to believe she is capable of a crime of passion.
It makes sense then that Lancing’s reaction to them finally nailing the Edwards for murder is not jubilation. Instead, she calls her alcoholic father, calling back to her earlier conversation with Chris about the toll it takes to be around people who can’t change.
So many of the interrogation room scenes are played like a crime drama, but there are no triumphant winners here. Just people hurting.
This somewhat sympathetic portrayal of the Edwards contrasts significantly with the news footage at the end that says the police described them as “heartless.”
Is one version of the story less biased than the other? It’s hard to tell with what we are given. The fourth episode will focus on the actual trial but it feels a bit like the entire series has been a trial of public opinion via a very bizarre recreation.
As a result, the sheen of the show’s artistry and performances is sometimes dulled by the bleak reality of the story it portrays. We already know the Edwards won’t be riding off into the sunset like Susan always imagined.
What did you think of this episode of Landscapers? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Landscapers airs Mondays at 9/8c on HBO.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.