'Mrs Fletcher' Episode 2 'Free Sample' sees an anxious Eve explore girl-on-girl action while Brendan grapples with consent
Spoilers ahead for 'Mrs. Fletcher' Episode 2 'Free Sample'
The idea of female curiosity has always been a threat in a patriarchal society because curiosity implies seeking something else, something new from the established order. So you have Pandora and her box, and Eve and her apple in the Garden of Eden.
Mythology embedded into our psyches that the curious female leaves devastation in her wake. Women are all programmed, subtly, systematically and soundly, by societal narratives to curb their curiosity and follow the rules.
Trained not to be curious and follow the deeply embedded societal expectations around sex, love, marriage, reproduction and motherhood, what is the common woman aka Mrs. Fletcher (Kathryn Hahn) to do? What does "being herself" mean if she has no idea who she is?
In episode 2, 'Free Sample', her writing class instructor asks her what she is scared of. She says she has been having a feeling, comparing it to the one you have when you've gone out and think "you've left the oven on".
Not knowing why she's feeling that way scares her. Stuck in the programmed "caretaker" role for so long, she no longer knows what she wants after having put everyone's needs over her own. Even her job, as the administrator of a senior center, delineates this main caregiver role in her life.
And yet, there is a safety, comfort even, in never having opened the box, never bitten the apple, and in Eve Fletcher's case never stepped out of her caregiver role to explore her own desires. For the first time, she has the freedom to do so but with it comes the anxiety. That feeling of "leaving the oven on". It is deeply unsettling in itself.
Then comes how this freedom has chosen to reveal itself to her -- through porn. Tom Perrotta has spoken about how he has featured real internet porn because it is "a huge cultural force that we don’t like to talk about".
But with Eve, as a woman, porn has another layer of significance. With society's fear and fascination (in equal parts) with anything remotely resembling unbridled female sexuality that is not deeply bound with pleasuring a man or reproduction, Eve's exploration, solely devoted to satisfying her curiosity, is a societal taboo as much as porn is.
Even in this day and age of visual, verbal and virtual sexual excess, we still know little about female sexuality. For instance, why do so many lesbians or bisexual women come out so late in life after years of being married?
It is the act of defining her sexuality, free of all expectations and responsibilities, that is anxiety-inducing for empty-nester Eve. So when she imagines a sexy encounter with the 'Free Sample' popsicle lady, recreating in her mind the girl-on-girl action she has watched the night before, she knows she is veering off the straight and narrow.
She immediately sets up a date a man who is described as a "cake topper" on a wedding cake by a colleague -- everything normal, safe and known. Only, on the date, as she sees other middle-aged men and women around them, comfortable and bored, she leaves in a panic because it feels like a prison.
She doesn't want to let go of that butterfly in her stomach, marching to the senior center to go skinny-dipping to reclaim that feeling of anxious excitement. She emerges from the pool in shock when she sees two hairy legs in front of her.
She discovers Roy, the porn-loving senior from episode 1, in the pool with her. The same Roy, she booted out of the senior center, just that day, for masturbating to a Cary Grant film during the center's movie event.
She first covers herself, instinctively and then, as if recognizing a fellow prison mate yearning for freedom, uncovers her breasts and then hugs him in the least sexual naked hug in recent TV. Brendan (Jackson White) is on a journey of self-discovery himself. But rather than feeling anxious, he finds the new politically correct and inclusive language strange and funny.
Latinx gets a downvote from him and he cracks jokes about consent during a college seminar about teaching students healthy consensual sex. He learns nothing. The girl he roleplays consent with ends up in his dorm later and they have sex, doggy style, with her calling him "daddy" and him talking about his "fat c**k".
The dialogue is so pornified it is funny until you think this has become the new normal for Gen Z. But Brendan also hits a few barriers. The girl manning the vegan counter takes one look at him and says "No" in a way that is experienced.
She senses douchebag in his grin and his artfully posed "hi". Chloe, the girl manning the autism booth next to her, is still susceptible to his brand of masculinity. She picks him up while he shifts his eyes around trying to decide if she is worth his time -- a fact she totally calls him on. For a girl that perceptive, you wonder why she doesn’t have the instincts the vegan girl seems to have.
'Mrs. Fletcher' airs every Sunday at 10:30 p.m. on HBO.