Shining Girls Review: Bright (Season 1 Episode 6)

Good news: Shining Girls Season 1 Episode 6, “Bright,” finally gives us something that feels like real answers to some of its biggest mysteries. Bad news: It does so by way of an hour that is basically entirely focused on Harper, an origin story not just for how he discovered the mysterious time-traveling house and his relationship with Leo, but how he became a violent murderer of women.

And since this show is called Shining Girls, that’s sort of depressing. I can’t be the only viewer who isn’t particularly interesting in understanding why Harper does the things he does or what precisely it is that makes him a monster. He just is one, and he hurts women and that’s all the knowledge I need.

And while I’m not surprised that his years-long murder spree began with a woman he claimed to love, and that he’s been a stalker for much longer than he was ever a time traveler, but with so little time left in this series, the fact that we spend an episode on this…well, it feels like a “prestige TV” sort of move that’s not really driven by any kind of key character need. 

We learn that Harper, originally, is a soldier from World War I and not a particularly good one. After all, he literally ran from battle, essentially killed someone for their gas mask, and robbed the dead bodies of his fallen brothers in arms. (Also he’s an inveterate liar, but that would have probably been true whether or not he fought in the war.)

When he comes home to America, he reunites with his childhood friend/crush Klara, now a weird interpretive dancer who may also be a sort of stripper, the show’s not super clear on what it is exactly she does, and they return to their favorite hobby, stalking rich old ladies and robbing their homes.

For what it’s worth, Klara is by far the most interesting part of this episode, despite the introduction of the time travel house and all its secrets. Much more than Harper himself, she feels like a character out of time and is a fascinating figure in her own right that I wish we got to spend more time with on her own terms.

(Also she SUPER has Harper’s number, cold. She knows that there’s something wrong with him, even if she can’t entirely acknowledge it. There’s a reason she tried to lie about all those letters he sent her from the front.)

Klara, for her part, seems to approach visiting different times from a sense of wonder rather than personal gain, and though I wish she displayed a little more curious about how any of this was/is possible, she at least seems to have the right spirit of adventure about things. (The scene where she dances with a past version of Sharon/Kirby is a great example of this.)

“Bright” also shows us that Harper’s obsession with Kirby is extremely longstanding and may actually predate when he started murdering all these other women. (And despite all the answers this episode does hint at, we still don’t know how or when that happened, or how he transitioned from a man who thinks he is owed something from/by women to one who is meticulously planting items from different times inside their bodies.) 

We also get to see a slightly different side of Leo here—though he’s not a great person (he’s a cheat and a thief himself), he’s also not a misogynist in the same way Harper is (and, as far as we can tell, not a murderer either.) He’s there when Harper first discovers the house, full of its out-of-time belongings, piles of cash from different eras, and the weird guy from the future living in the closet whose death they sort of cause.

But why does house “chosen” Harper, then, so to speak? Is it because he stole the address in the first place? Or can it somehow tell that of the two of them he is definitely the more monstrous? (And if so, why does that matter? I still have so many questions.)

With just two episodes to go—and no movement this week on anything to do with Kirby and Dan’s investigation into Harper and his string of serial murders, I am starting to wonder whether Shining Girls is really as much of a limited series as we were initially lead to believe.

There’s still so much we don’t know about how the most basic rules of this series’ universe work. how Harper can do what he does, why he targeted specific women (or decided to kill them in the first place), how Kirby survived him, and if that’s somehow connected to her own shifting reality.

Is it at all possible this story can even wrap itself up satisfactorily in that short amount of time? I don’t know, but I’m staring to have my doubts.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• It’s so nice to see Madeline Brewer and Elisabeth Moss in scenes together that are at least vaguely fun and not The Handmaid’s Tale level abuse.
• Though “Bright” does give us some answers about the specifics of how the house itself works—go out the front door, go to the future, go out the back and relive the past—it doesn’t quite explain how Harper is both making Klara part of his time travel adventures and forcing her to live them over repeatedly. Particularly when he’s brought her into the house multiple times—why doesn’t she remember?
• Though, relatedly, it sort of does explain how he can keep visiting Jinny even if he’s already killed her. (Which I *think* he has?)
• How did Harper and Leo discover they can’t be away from the house for extended periods of time?
• The glowing outline we saw on Harper’s bed previously—that’s where Klara died, isn’t it?
• “It’s not your house.” Props to Jamie Bell for what is truly the most chilling reading of this line.

What did you think of this episode of Shining Girls? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of Shining Girls stream Fridays on Apple TV+. 

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