Lucky Season 1 Episode 4 Review: Too Close to See It
Even the most clever and perceptive people can have their blind spots. That includes Lucky on Lucky Season 1, Episode 4, “Too Close to See It.”
Her reunion with Cary goes about as well as you would expect after he drugged her, robbed her, and left her for all but dead. After a few episodes of not really getting to learn much about Cary, we finally meet him and… well, he’s not really the brightest.
His litany of questionable offenses includes: not realizing Lucky was an informant to the FBI, thinking his mother would spare Lucky if he turned over the money to her, and then taking the money anyway and abandoning Lucky while thinking his mother would come after him and not her.
So while not all her problems are his fault (Agent Rand betrayed her on the FBI deal by not giving her father immunity), but an awful lot are. As a result, watching Anya Taylor-Joy get to explode as an angry Lucky is extremely satisfying to watch.
She’s been through hell, and her bumbling husband just tries to make excuses! You really do believe Lucky would shoot him if they weren’t interrupted by the FBI.
The rest of the episode is a whiplash escape mixed with flashbacks, which seems to be the template for this series. Here’s how Lucky got herself into this, here’s how she gets herself out.
Sometimes this template works better than others. The problem is that the past Lucky who is willing to work with the FBI and the current Lucky who is constantly on the run feel like completely different people.
It’s hard to believe Lucky, or Cary of that matter, ever settled into a normal domestic life while their parents were in jail and the series doesn’t show us that either. Lucky wants its protagonist to be a down-on-her-luck sympathetic victim of circumstance one minute and an action hero speeding through San Diego like a stunt driver the next.
There isn’t really a character you’re rooting for. Some, like Priscilla and Agent Rand, are definitely less likable than others but you’re not 100% on Lucky’s side either.
As Cary points out, she has a blind spot when it comes to her father and she can tell herself she stole the money because it was the only option but that may not be entirely true. She also spent years lying by omission by not telling Cary, even after they got married, that she was the reason his mom went to jail.
The show’s decision to kill Cary during the FBI showdown is one of the most shocking choices yet. Although you don’t expect a full reconciliation between him and Lucky, it’s the first time in the season she’s actually had someone helping her.
Her telling him, “I don’t regret us,” is a surprisingly romantic moment and sells the relationship more than anything else this season. Maybe we’ll get more flashbacks, but if this is all we get of Cary and Lucky it’s a bit anticlimactic.
Now she’s on her own again and worse off than before. Not just because her husband died, but because the access codes to the money he converted into crypto died with him.
With only three episodes left, I cannot begin to guess how this series is going to end. If history is any indicator, Lucky will get herself out of this situation… somehow.
What did you think of this episode of Lucky? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!
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Lucky airs Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.