Loot Season 3 Episode 6 Review: What’s Up With Us?

On Loot Season 3 Episode 6, “What’s Up With Us?,” Molly and Arthur celebrate their six month anniversary with a weekend getaway. Meanwhile, Howard tries to calm Sofia’s concerns about Destiny breaking his heart.

Molly and Arthur’s honeymoon phase comes to a screeching halt. While their vastly different ways of life often play a big part of their attraction to each other, they also are a breeding ground for friction.

“What’s Up With Us?” forces them to confront this friction in a very real and uncomfortable way.

Dropping Molly in Arthur’s territory flip creates a nice dynamic switch; typically Arthur comedically flounders in Molly’s world. Arthur taking the lead on the weekend feels refreshing.

Loot consistently paints him as a lovable dork with goofy hobbies, but seeing him in his element, activated and fulfilled, humanizes him beyond a silly caricature.

While she sticks out like a sore thumb, Molly earnestly attempts bird watching, and the club mostly embraces her. However, she retreats into old habits where she shuts down and decides it’s not worth exploring anymore when she meets opposition (this time in the form of Paula Pell).

Molly’s overcome this professionally, but has let it go largely unaddressed in her personal life.

The inevitable confrontation between these two feels like an exhale for the audience since the show expertly laid the bread crumbs all season long. “What’s Up With Us?” makes a beautiful choice with this confrontation, though. They don’t place the blame on one or the other; tension in the relationship comes from both their shortcomings.

Molly has no interest in being challenged in her personal life and constantly reverts to her own comfortable way. She repeatedly assumes that everyone else prefers her way as well, because why wouldn’t they?

Meanwhile, Arthur doesn’t stick up for Molly. He may take the lead when it comes to the planning of the trip, but ultimately, his desire to avoid conflict leaves him in his typical passive lane.

His inherent passive nature comes to a head with his desire to have more agency in the relationship; he doesn’t help Molly feel like this is a place she wants to be but is frustrated that she doesn’t want to stay.

With all this out in the open, there’s no going back. This is where the real work in the relationship begins, and it will be interesting to see how they navigate it.

Another highlight of Loot Season 3 is how they make all storylines feel connected thematically. As Molly and Arthur address issues that have lingered just under the surface, Sofia continues to grapple with her Destiny’s reappearance in her life while watching her sister and Howard get more serious.

Sofia is not a warm and fuzzy character, so any moment of her showing a modicum of affection for anyone is welcomed. Her relationship with Howard in particular has always been a fascinating piece of the show. She does not love his shenanigans, but she goes out of her way to protect him.

“What’s Up With Us?” further develops an interesting point of conflict for Sofia.

Her loyalty to Howard collides with her fraught relationship with Destiny, who claims to want a real relationship with her. Not only is she caught between these two people, but she’s caught between the Destiny she knew and the new version of Destiny.

It’s still uncertain if Destiny is actually capable of changing, though. Making Sofia breakup with her old boyfriend for her feels like a major red flag, especially coupled with Howard’s intense optimism in regards to the relationship.

Micaela Jaé Rodriguez masterfully conveys Sofia’s internal struggle with mere glances. We can feel Sofia desperately wanting to believe this version of Destiny is different, but her own data driven mind can recognize a pattern.

“What’s Up With Us?” nicely takes conflict that was teased so far and lays everything out on the table for the backend of the season. Hopefully, the show is able to explore this satisfactorily in four more episodes.

Stray Thoughts

• Paula Pell may be one of the funniest people in existence. Her confrontation with Molly is amazing.
• The shrike getting sucked into the trailer engine, despite being predictable, made me scream.
• “She taught me what boots means” is an excellent niche joke specifically designed for me.

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Loot airs Wednesday on AppleTV+.

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