'Dare Me' Episode 5: Overconfidence among the team leads to a harsh lesson for Coach's tumbling pyramid
This article contains spoilers for 'Dare me' Episodes 1 to 5
Episode 5 had views of one incident — the fall of one of the squad members — from the perspectives of Addy, Beth, and Collete.
With the Coach calling for a perfect squad, the fierce competition that each character faces internally regardless of the outcomes has caused a dent in the "perfect" formation.
Teenagers with their hormones and expected freedom are not always to blame for actions caused towards them, but "how to deal with mental health" isn't a part of a highschool syllabus.
'Parallel Trenches' took a deep dive into how each of the characters perceives a dire situation, each holding themselves accountable for too much too soon.
With this episode focusing on Beth's incident with Kurtz during a rather obnoxious party with the marines, the mental trauma at play in 'Dare Me' has become a battle of wits.
The current millennial world we live in, the idea of mental health has been broadly materialized — with more emphasis put on the fact that mental health is an issue to be talked about. What about the solutions though?
The animosity faced by young girls has portrayed a vile sense of achievement — when one falls and someone gains something from it.
On one end you have Coach's cheating scandal, still under wraps with Addy and Beth being tight-lipped, and then you have Addy, with a fairly substantial amount of calmness at home yet Beth's "too much" to deal with.
The need to please the older crowd has taken over even the youngest on the squad with Beth's half-sister Tacy taking down a show with a move to show off more than she was capable of.
In order to prove that she can be better than Beth's best, Tacy pulled off a move during a rally resulting in the "crushed face" of Riri, whose mother tells Coach that the accident is something the "adult and mother" should be responsible for.
The gruesome shock of having one of their squad members fall because of a "fetus" trying to mark her territory, the intensity of blame pushes through when the cheerleaders now realize that losing is part of the equation.
When Addy brings drunk Beth over to Coach's house, Coach finds herself in a position where too much of her three worlds are interacting with one another — how much of her is she expected to give to her girls?
In some moments, Coach seems desperate to help the girls "that think they can get away with anything" and at other times, she comes off as someone who's only looking out for herself using her girls as crutches.
Guilt-ridden to a certain extent and a title to uphold her affair and suffering marriage have Coach out of control.
Beth, who feels much more lonely than before finds herself losing her mind, with her mother still on a pill escape trance, a father who's more interested in his second family and a best friend trying to make it out of town on the heels of a regional win.
The scenes with Beth's panic attacks and shocking PTSD has us wondering, what happened at the party with Kurtz and why is it worth hiding?
Although we know it's hard for victims of abuse to speak about trauma, especially recent ones, is there anyone Beth can actually go to? The scratches on her neck and teeth marks on her tongue bring about the scary thought that helps needs to find Beth now.
With the squad's top girl quivering as she gasps for air, what are the ones that look up to her supposed to imitate? With hidden meaning in everything that Beth says, there's one thing for sure, she's coping with her trauma "like it never happened".
Her behavior changing has two people — Addy and Kurtz — asking her questions that she'd rather not answer. Is it an unneeded feel of shame or is she unable to come to terms with the consequences of what might have happened?
There is more than a dent in the squad's need for perfection, with each of the main characters having to sort out personal struggles before maintaining their balance on the shoulders of their peers.