The Mosquito Coast Season 2 Episode 1 Review: The Damage Done

The Mosquito Coast kicks off its second season by finally giving us some of the answers it spends its entire first keeping from us, but at this point, it’s fair to question whether it’s too little too late. 

It’s true, The Mosquito Coast Season 2 Episode 1, “The Damage Done,” fills in many of the gaps about what the Foxes did that made them targets of the federal government in the first place and ultimately prompted the family’s decision to flee the country. The problem is, is that even in doing so, the episode doesn’t make any of these characters any easier to root for or like.

“The Damage Done” begins where Season 1 finale “The Glass Sandwich” left off, following the Foxes down a river deep into the Guatemalan jungle. But when Margot declares it’s time to finally tell the kids the truth, the episode flashes back to thirteen years in the past.

Allie and Margot are married, but estranged, with two small children—a fact which raises some interesting questions about whether one of the kids was somehow stolen as the series sort of implied last year. (Not for nothing that would actually be more interesting than some of the choices this episode does make.) She’s already dating a new man named Richard and Allie’s taking it about as well as you’d expect, tracking Margot’s phone (presumably without her consent) and essentially stalking her on dates. Lovely guy! 

Professionally, Allie seems to be trying to go legit, working for a big tech company making the sort of statistical prediction and surveillance software that he claims will be useful for climate change but that his corporate overlords want to sell to the government to be used as part of its seemingly unending war machine. He’s extremely not cool with this but his arguments would probably have more weight if he didn’t use that same software at the first chance he had to dig up dirt on Margot’s new boyfriend.

 

For her part, Margot is an English professor and part-time environmental activist who’s apparently seeking to recapture the thrill of her youth spent protesting by indulging in a little bit of eco-terrorism on the side. She and her new boyfriend (whose name I’m not sure the show ever even bothers to tell us) are building a bomb to destroy a local laboratory that conducts genetic experiments on various animals and engages in all other manner of other shady dealings. 

Talk about escalating quickly, is what I’m saying. (How these  two upper-class educators know how to build a bomb or came up with this elaborate plan to infiltrate this building and plant it are questions the episode doesn’t concern itself with.) 

What is apparent, however, is that the Foxes’ marriage is not in a good place. Despite Allie’s obsessive tendencies, Margot seems very done with him. She’s moving on. She’s dating. She’s letting him see the kids on designated weekends but doesn’t seem to have much interest in allowing him back into her life. Apparently, Alile’s decision to turn capitalist and go “work for the man” was her breaking point, and if you’re surprised that it was secretly Margot all along who was the hardcore anticapitalist anarchist, just trust me—you aren’t alone. 

To be fair, I’m not sure that some of these revelations entirely jive with the version of Margot we saw back in Season 1, who grew increasingly resistant toward and resentful of the life she and her family were living. (I’m also not sure anything about that character  But, since this twist gives Melissa George more to do and makes Margot more than a pretty cipher, I’m willing to go with it.)

Anyway, Allie figures out what Margot’s up to—thanks to going through her personal belongings while waiting to pick the kids up–and races to try and stop her. He’s too late, of course, the lab explodes and Margot can’t save the nightshift worker who went back to get her phone, so now she’s a murderer on top of everything else. But Allie has the answer—they’ll pack up the kids and run together.  

Truly, one of the biggest problems with The Mosquito Coast is that the show seems to be operating under some kind of delusion that audiences are meant to like Allie and not find his overbearing behavior boorish and creepy. Are we meant to think this action is noble? Selfless? Not a last-ditch attempt to save a failing relationship when one-half of it suddenly runs out of options?

Granted, the twist that Margot is really the reason the family had to flee the country is surprising and well-handled, but I wish I felt more confident that the show would truly deal with the fact that Allie essentially strong-armed her into running away with him “for the sake of the kids” and she spent the next dozen years with a man she didn’t really want to be with anymore. 

“The Damage Done” is a season premiere that doesn’t actually tell us much about the season we’re about to watch, and plenty of questions remain. Where are the Foxes going? How will they survive when they get there? Are the cartels still chasing them? And what about that whole thing where Charlie shot a dude in the face last season??  

Given that The Mosquito Coast has finally deigned to give us some answers, maybe it’s okay to hope it might give us more. Fingers crossed anyway.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Dina just stays speaking for the audience, though. (“Is that it?” made me laugh out loud.) 
• Allie Fox may be an awful person but whew Justin Theroux looks great. 
• Poor Melissa George’s wig as Past Margo was as bad as some of those seen during her Alias days.

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

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New episodes of The Mosquito Coast stream Fridays on Apple TV+. 

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