Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episode 3 Review: Living Dead Things
This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episode 3, “Living Dead Things,” delicately navigates beginnings and endings through the framing of Six-Thirty’s unique perspective.
It’s one of the elements from Bonnie Garmus’s books that seemingly won’t translate well from page to screen, but the Apple TV+ limited series quells those worries with the poignancy of Six-Thirty’s monologues voiced by B.J. Novak.
With a teleplay written by Lee Eisenberg & Emily Jane Fox and directed by Bert & Bertie, “Living Dead Things” takes a slow pace through the aftermath of Calvin’s death and marinates in the characters’ complex reactions to it.
Only then does the third Lessons in Chemistry episode rediscover its stride.
“Living Dead Things” sits in uncomfortable silence with Elizabeth, Harriet, and Six-Thirty, and it approaches the stickiness of death from different angles, including that of Fran Frask, Boryweitz, and a journalist named Ralph Bailey.
Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2, “Little Miss Hastings / Her and Him,” get to know Calvin Evans on a molecular level through the people who know him most intimately. That depth of character explored in those first two episodes makes its absence on “Living Dead Things” all the harsher.
Coincidentally, that jarring shift aligns the viewer even closer with the living.
“Living Dead Things” rightfully dedicates most of its energy and time to Elizabeth, Harriet, and Six-Thirty. However, of course, supporting characters are allowed and expected to grieve a man they knew, even superficially. Still, Lessons in Chemistry distinguishes between Fran’s more genuine tears and Donatti’s false sympathies.
His egregious efforts to steal Calvin and Elizabeth’s work and weaponize Elizabeth’s grief and pregnancy are infuriating at the very least and cement him as one of the most prominent villains on Lessons in Chemistry
“Living Dead Things” makes Fran and Boryweitz more morally gray players.
The constant tension between their evolving ethics in a patriarchal society and workplace makes for entertaining TV that commentates on gender bias and stereotypes through confrontation and subtlety. For instance, Boryweitz voices how wrong it is to steal Elizabeth and Calvin’s work, yet he still does it.
Fran’s most telling beat of reflection comes in the episode’s final act when the camera pointedly catches her reactions to Donatti’s cruel sex discrimination. Lessons in Chemistry could write Fran and Elizabeth on opposing sides of this systemic battle, but that quick acknowledgment from Fran speaks volumes.
It instills hope that “Living Dead Things” is another step in evolving their dynamic. Like when Fran explains to Elizabeth that some women (including herself) enjoy the Little Miss Hastings competition, this awareness feels like a gradual breaking down of the walls that wish for them to be adversaries.
Ultimately, death is so isolating yet universal. Lessons in Chemistry weaves that truth through the bolstering and fracturing of different relationships, chronicling various ranges of emotions and reactions — the stings and their salves.
Brie Larson embodies that inner complexity while Elizabeth sutures herself together until the final minutes of “Living Dead Things.” Critiques that Larson doesn’t send Elizabeth on an emotional journey over the episode misses the nuances in her most minute facial expressions and intentioned line deliveries.
The beating heart of “Living Dead Things” is Larson and Aja Naomi King. Six-Thirty comes in at a very close second, though. That dog is a star!
That trio represents a different stage of grief at respective points in the episode. Together and in the most in-character ways, Elizabeth, Harriet, and Six-Thirty work through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Of course, Six-Thirty’s flight instincts take over after witnessing the trauma of Calvin’s death. It tracks that Elizabeth turns to work to cope and an experiment on frogs to determine if she is pregnant. It’s in character for Harriet to use the law to confront that journalist writing a one-sided perception of Calvin.
How those three acts of grief culminate in a beautiful collection of persevering with love after loss is a testament to Lessons in Chemistry‘s overall excellence. Not to mention, they all further the overarching plots and lead with character.
Lessons in Chemistry‘s first two episodes leave viewers wondering if and how Elizabeth and Harriet will cross paths and forge a friendship, and “Living Dead Things” steadily builds their relationship up to a pivotal conversation.
During which, Larson and King turn in believable and present performances. There’s a candidness to their interactions that doesn’t exist elsewhere.
Calvin’s music sets the scene, elevating the emotion in the space that unites two influential women in his life. As Harriet mentions later in a different context, his energy is palpable, especially when Elizabeth and Harriet mimic his dancing.
Nevertheless, the conversation in the unsaid and the eventual naming of Elizabeth’s pregnancy pivots this scene and forges a lasting relationship between the two women. Calvin brings Elizabeth and Harriet together, but their independent turn to support each other will keep them that way.
Elizabeth begins this episode hollow and stunned, and Harriet has to steal quiet moments to grieve loudly in the lobby of her church. The two women can laugh and smile together about Calvin by the end of “Living Dead Things.” That small step is full of momentum on their grief journeys and their series’ arcs.
That concept eloquently ties into when Elizabeth gives herself the space to feel (Not just the ring in Calvin’s lab coat pocket!) and let Six-Thirty back into her heart — a breakthrough that is undeniably ordinary yet recognizingly powerful.
Lessons in Chemistry wades — or rows — through the sticky uncertainty that clouds the days after an unbearable loss with sincerity and sensitivity.
“Living Dead Things” begins on a discouraging note but builds to find hope within the characters’ renewed purpose — one step at a time.
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Lessons in Chemistry streams Fridays on Apple TV+.
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Shelby Elpers
Shelby is a TV enthusiast and pop culture writer. She's an avid podcast listener, green tea drinker, and soccer fan. Her brand can be summarized in rom-coms, superheroes, teen dramas, and workplace comedies.