Lucky Season 1 Episode 3 Review: Read the Room

After an exciting start, Lucky Season 1 Episode 3, “Read the Room,” slows down the pace.

Lucky is still on the run, but she decides to keep her enemies closer when sneaking into Priscilla’s stables after secretly hitching a ride with Dutch. Any confidence she has is short-lived when she witnesses Dutch shoot the man they think helped Cary.

When I say this episode is slower, I do not mean any less menacing. Lucky is still very much on the run, and not even dear old dad can calm her down.

Lucky and John’s relationship is one of the more interesting aspects of the show since it’s made clear Lucky was trying to get away from the life of crime, yet she still relies so heavily on her dad. Casting the extremely likeable Timothy Olyphant makes you sympathetic to the character, but you also wonder about his motivations.

In this episode’s flashback, John takes her to a birthday party and essentially teaches her how to rob the present table by pretending to be a guest, a handy trick she uses in the present. The scene isn’t the most interesting, but I do respect her commitment to always getting a change of clothes.​

While it’s nice John taught her to survive, he doesn’t exactly get a “dad-of-the-year” award for her upbringing.

Cary isn’t getting husband of the year either. Or son. Or anything for that matter. We really don’t know much about this guy other than he took the cash and ran.

It would be nice to see Anya Taylor-Joy get a worthy scene partner for Lucky aside from her phone calls with dad. Her scenes at the birthday party and with the real estate guy fall flat because there’s no challenge there, it’s just Lucky running scams on easy marks and barely lifting a finger.

With her survival skills and some luck, she tracks down the real fake ID vendor he met with (yeah, the guy Priscilla killed wasn’t even the right person…oops). As soon as John warns her not to get emotional, you know it’s going to be impossible for Lucky to not be emotional when she finds Cary. 

Snippets of memories and flashbacks show that she really did love him, but the audience is left to wonder how much he reciprocated. Was he always just using her, like her dad does?

The problem is so much of the plot hinges on him. He’s ruined Lucky and Priscilla’s lives, but we don’t know hardly anything about him.

Is he supposed to be filling the femme fatale role? If so, it’s not successfully done even if we do get some scenes of Drew Starkey shirtless. 

His first instinct after stealing millions of dollars is to stay in America and rent a house by the beach! The beach part is fair, but why not leave the country like planned?

My biggest concern is we’re going to learn Cary’s motivations, and he’s just going to end up being dull and disappointing. The man who conned a con artist should be interesting. 

The FBI plot slowly plods along, and aside from Agent Rand’s apparent beef with Priscilla for not getting previous charges to stick, there isn’t much there to keep your interest. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has done great work in other roles, but unfortunately this is a one-dimensional character.

By the end of the episode, the FBI and Priscilla are converging on Cary’s location, which means Lucky’s luck is about to run out again.

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Lucky airs Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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