'Back to Life': Miri and Billy were both dishonest with each other to gain semblance of normalcy and he shouldn’t judge her
A lot of things that happen to Miri Matteson (Daisy Haggard) on Showtime’s ‘Back to Life’ feel wrong -- sometimes downright unfair. Here’s a person trying to get the hang of living in society after 18 years of incarceration.
Miri was convicted of murder although she claims it was an accident. Irrespective of what the real story is, she has been legally rehabilitated. She shouldn’t have to deal with vandalism -- someone spray-painted painted “Psycho b***h” on her fence. She shouldn’t have to dodge bricks thrown at her. She shouldn’t have to be perpetually afraid of people finding out who she is and what she was accused of doing.
To the viewers of the show, it is more than apparent Miri is neither dangerous nor malicious. Of course, the townspeople aren’t expected to know that. All the same, it is not right for them to ostracize her or treat her like she’s a rabid animal.
But what of the people who know her? This brings us to the way two different men treated Miri over the course of the show so far: Nathan and Billy. Nathan (Liam Williams), her boss at the fish and chips store has had the most acceptable and understandable reactions to Miri’s past.
When he realized who she was, he was visibly taken aback. But he shrugged it off soon enough. Yes, he is usually awkward when he’s conversing with Miri. He’s also skeptical of her behavior. But that doesn’t stop him from giving her a second chance at life.
That doesn’t stop him from being empathetic and understanding of her struggles. And it definitely doesn’t make him fire Miri, despite the fact that her mere presence meant the business would suffer.
At the opposite end of that spectrum is Billy (Adeel Akhtar) her neighbor’s caretaker and (we learned in the last episode) husband. Billy clearly was attracted to Miri. He enjoyed spending time with her. He connected with her. He liked her. But the moment he learned her truth in episode 3, he was so overcome with revulsion, he couldn’t even bear to let her touch him.
He judged her based on hearsay and he pushed her away. Even after finding out it may have been an accident and not a murder, he wasn’t ready to get back into what he and Miri shared merely hours ago.
And it’s not like Miri was the only one being dishonest. Billy had not told Miri he was a married man. Did her lie trump his? In a sense, it did and it did not. Yes, Miri’s past was a lot graver than anything else. But Billy lied not just about his past, but also his present.
Miri lied to steal some normalcy she had so far only enjoyed in his company. Billy may have lied exactly for the same reasons, for we see that his wife -- Miri’s batty old neighbor -- is not in the pink of health; neither mentally, nor physically. In that sense, their lies were just the same.
In behaving like this, Billy proved to be almost as bad as Miri’s ex Dom (Jamie Michie), who pretended to not know her at all in front of his wife. Perhaps Billy doesn’t deserve the affection of Miri at all. Because while his shock is understandable, his judgment is not.
‘Back to Life’ airs every Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.