The Mosquito Coast Season 2 Episode 9 Review: The Counterfeiters
Technically, The Mosquito Coast Season 2 Episode 9, “The Counterfeiters,” is the penultimate episode of this season, yet it’s still frustratingly difficult to figure out what the larger point of this run of episodes is or who we’re supposed to be rooting for.
It doesn’t help that so much of Season 2 has featured the sort of frustrating two-steps forward, one-step-back kind of narrative storytelling that often makes it seem as though nothing much of consequence is ever actually happening. When every “twist” eventually just seems to revert back to the status quo, what’s the point of any of it?
Perhaps I’m frustrated because we’ve reached the penultimate episode of The Mosquito Coast’s second season and I honestly can’t tell you what the arc of any of these characters are. Yes, the Foxes are still alive (somehow), but, to what end?
Every so often, the show makes anti-capitalist noises, environmentalist gestures, or attempts to critique the shallow disregard that many white people (usually Americans) have for the world around them. But when the show’s avatars of a different sort of life are such objectively terrible people who are not just miserable but seem to bring suffering wherever they go—what does any of this mean?
The Mosquito Coast displays almost no self-awareness about how unsympathetic its leads are–this isn’t a Breaking Bad, for instance where it’s clear the show you’re watching realizes that it’s not a story about heroes or even strictly likable people. One gets the sense that the show believes we should be deeply invested in the Fox family’s survival, that despite their flaws they’re still the heroes of this story. Only…at what point do we stop believing that’s true?
Allie’s blackmailing Guillermo into giving him a patch of land for the family to call its own, but is there any hint that the Foxes will be any happier there than they are now? Charlie basically gets Silvia killed, because he can’t stop white knighting for people. And Margot utterly fails at her plan to get Richard arrested, probably gets some of her Casa Roja neighbors picked up by the feds instead, and doesn’t stop the bomb plot.
Dina escapes her family and even successfully scams her way into a The White Lotus-style resort with no money or identification, but despite her anger at her parents and her determination to live her family’s life behind, all it takes to convince her to return to them is basically some snotty tourists.
Look, I get it, Dina’s not a “normal girl” and she doesn’t want a “normal life”. But shouldn’t there be…I don’t know, some kind of middle ground between living off the grid with her insane family in a Central American activist camp and hustling for money at a luxe hotel full of the kind of rich white people she hates?
What does a happy—or heck, just a satisfying—ending for this season even look like after all this?
Even in a best-case scenario—what’s the outcome? So much of this season has been about how miserable these people are with one another: They don’t trust one another (no one has told Margot her daughter is missing!!). They lie to each other all the time. They don’t even seem to like each other. The kids are deeply messed up, and no one seems that interested in figuring out the various flavors of why.
Even if they get their parcel of beachfront property by blackmailing a man who will definitely hold a grudge about it forever, what kind of life is waiting for them there? Is that the life we should want for any of them??
Of course, The Mosquito Coast is telegraphing pretty heavily that Dina’s about to get kidnapped or held hostage in order to punish Allie and/or get him to do Guillermo’s bidding, so I suspect none of us should expect the finale to be introspective enough to confront any of those issues.
Stray Thoughts and Observations:
- Allie’s decision to simply not tell Margot that a.) her daughter has run away or b.) he encouraged her to leave and never come back is just…so perfectly toxic and on brand. This guy sucks so much.
- Suddenly Margot cares about explosives I guess!!
- I hate that this episode undid so much of my appreciation for Dina. Sure, you met some terrible Americans. That…doesn’t make what your family does ok??
- The choices this show makes baffle me sometimes. What was the point of the extended montage of Dina at her swanky new hotel showering and discovering the magic of hands-free sinks? Is this meant to illustrate just how much she’s missed out on living off the grid? Her rediscovering the concept of real plumbing? I have no idea.
- That cover of “Who’s Gonna Drive You Home?” sure was a banger, though.
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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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.