Sharp Objects premiered on HBO July 8 and it’s about to be your newest TV obsession: it’s a character drama, but also a murder mystery. Each week, DIRECTV is going to break down the latest episode. We’ll examine what we know so far and what new questions arise as the story unfolds.
Disclaimer: I’m writing these as I watch each individual episode. I also haven’t read the Gillian Flynn book on which the show is based. As a result, these weekly posts are spoiler-free except for the episode they pertain to (and ones that came before).
Sharp Objects episode six (“Cherry”) puts a new obstacle in Camille’s (Amy Adams) path, even if she doesn’t know about it yet. We find her busy getting high with her sister Amma (Eliza Scanlen) in a misguided attempt to seek familial love and affection after an exhausting day with her high school cheerleading “friends.”
On the mystery front, Ann Nash’s bicycle is recovered, wrecking Ann’s father Bob (Will Chase) all over again. It’s hard to watch — as a mom, I can’t even imagine something like this happening. And it does let the cops narrow in on a suspect, though I think it’s a red herring.
Five Things We Learned
- This might not be pertinent, but we do learn that Camille’s stepdad Alan (Henry Czerny) sleeps on a fold-out couch and possibly masturbates to his record album covers that feature pin-up girls. So… that’s kinda weird and sad. I had assumed since he wasn’t sharing Adora’s (Patricia Clarkson) bedroom that he at least had his own room — the house is certainly big enough. Anyway, I still haven’t ruled him out as a suspect. I could absolutely see him having snapped and killed the girls and is now trying to frame Adora for the murders.
- However, the person who is seriously pinging my radar this week is Adora herself. Ann’s bike is found in a runoff pond behind the hog confinements at Preaker farm. A worker there fingers John Keene (Taylor John Smith) as the person who disposed of the bike, but Adora definitely could have put her employee up to that. She also wants Camille out of her house (though she asks Alan to do her dirty work for her and ask Camille to leave) and she just seems much more sinister this week than she has in the past, especially in the final frames when she’s eavesdropping on her daughters.
- We learn that Adora blames her “hardships” on her mother, Joya, whom apparently Camille is a lot like. That’s interesting. I’m sad we can’t meet Camille’s grandmother.
- In the wake of Adora trying to derail Det. Willis (Chris Messina) pursuing her daughter, the detective does a background check on Camille and ends up at her rehab facility, though he can’t get any specific information about why she was there. He does learn about her roommate’s suicide, something even Jackie O’Neele (Elizabeth Perkins) didn’t know. Oh, Det. Willis — you are playing with fire, sir. That is such a violation of Camille’s privacy and this is not going to end well for them.
- We also learn that Camille’s cutting started in high school. I had wondered about that. Was it in response to that day in the woods or did it start after Marian died?
Five Unanswered Questions
- During Camille’s horrible afternoon with her high school “friends,” she runs into Kirk Lacey (Jackson Hurst) and he apologizes for that day in the woods where the football team “ran a train” on Camille. He says now that he has daughters, that day has haunted him. Here’s my question, which will probably never be answered (and maybe doesn’t have a black-and-white answer) — was it consensual or not? I feel like we’ve gotten some conflicting information in regards to that.
- John’s girlfriend Ashley (Madison Davenport) is desperate to be quoted in one of Camille’s articles. In a moment of candor, Ashley comments that whoever killed the girls is doing it for “popularity.” Um, whoa. Wind Gap gets even more effed up with every passing episode. Why on earth would that make someone popular?
4. The Amma-Camille relationship continues to deepen (but also get weirder and weirder). Am I the only one who thinks Amma’s obsession with her sister has some sexual undertones? I don’t think I’m imagining that — she is always very touchy-feely with her, which is fine on its own, but the thing with the Xctasy was a whole other thing.
5. In the episode’s waning moments, Marian (Lulu Wilson) warns Camille that she’s not safe in Adora’s house. Now that is interesting. Was that a ghost? I feel like we’ve been given indications that Marian haunts the house, so maybe that wasn’t Camille’s imagination. Maybe her dead sister is trying to warn her about their mother. Also, what did Marian die from? Even Jackie doesn’t know — she tells Willis that Marian was “sickly.” Hmmm.
Telling Quotes
Amma: “Thank you for coming to get me last night. I get funny ideas sometimes.”
Amma: “Do you ever feel like bad things are gonna happen to you? Can’t stop ’em, can’t do anything. You just have to wait.”
I feel like Amma wants to start cutting because she so idolizes her older sister. She says she was only joking, but I don’t think she was. I also think she gets very “funny ideas” about how to get people’s attention and she has some kind of sick death wish — maybe because Adora is so hard to live with.
Dig into the drama with us; Sharp Objects airs Sundays at 9pm on HBO. Watch it on DIRECTV.
TV critic by way of law school, Andrea Reiher enjoys everything from highbrow drama to clever comedy to the best reality TV has to offer. Her work can be found at The A.V. Club, Entertainment Weekly, PopSugar, Variety and more. Her TV heroes include CJ Cregg, Spencer Hastings, Diane Lockhart, Juliet O’Hara and Buffy Summers. TV words to live by: “I’m a slayer, ask me how.”
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