Patience Season 1 Episode 2 Review: Paper Mountain Girl, Part 2

By the end of Patience Season 1 Episode 2, “Paper Mountain Girl, Part 2,” three men are dead and another nearly so  at the hands of a young woman, but all four are hardly innocent.

The matter of Patience being hauled into custody is dealt with almost immediately as there is nothing beyond one of the victims being her former corrupt psychiatrist to use. Still, Bea’s fellow detectives are dubious of receiving her help.

Bea persists, soothing Patience’s frazzled nerves and drawing her back into the case by playing on her fascination with puzzles. She quickly notices connections all the officials missed, including stubbed-out cigars left at each scene.

After reluctantly receiving more support from the head of Patience’s support group, Bea is able to track down a young woman connected to all four men. She sought them out in revenge for the rape and murder of teenage sister.

There’s not much satisfaction to be felt in seeing her brought to “justice”, which may be why most of that happens offscreen. Instead, the hour’s conclusion focuses more on building this budding female friendship and making Patience a part of the team.

Though it’s still early to say, my impression is that this friendship and its effect on their personal and professional relationship will be the primary focus of the series—more so than on the cases of a typical episodic crime drama.

That makes sense, given that they must also navigate complexities of a friendship between a neurotypical person like Bea whose job relies on straightforward processing and Bea, who both literally and figuratively thinks “outside the box”

As in the first episode, the effort so far seems successful. Metcalf’s genuine appreciation of Patience’s skills is a welcome change to the condescension autistic characters often face (and the attitude still held by some others on the force)

The case itself then does feel a little rushed, especially with another almost successful forced suicide to throw into the mix. Once Patience and Bea solve their puzzle, there’s barely time to catch the young woman responsible and learn her tragic motive.

While I’m not too upset that we don’t linger on pressing a case against someone who lost a sister to utter brutality, I do wish we had gotten more time with our main character’s reactions, especially given Patience’s adherence to rules and order.

A couple other points that started in the pilot also fall to the side here, most notably Bea’s own son. As his potential diagnosis is likely a major factor in how hard she works to understand Patience, I hope it’s something we come back to soon.

That said, I like the balance the show strikes so far and how it manages to take a unique approach to a packed genre.  Shows that focus on woman are still rare and those with autistic women even scarcer. In its first outing, Patience rises to those responsibilities well.

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Patience airs Sundays at 8/7c on PBS

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