'We Are Who We Are' Episode 7: Paradise turns to grief as Fraser 'almost' has threesome with Jonathan and Martha
In the penultimate episode, we wake up with the shock of death. It instantly turns the sun-dappled dreamy show into the dreary rain-drenched landscape of grief and madness. Craig (Corey Knight), brother, mentor and friend to the younger kids, dies in far-away Afghanistan after he and two other soldiers are blown up by an IED. More than any other community, an army base is where the death of a soldier is felt most immediately and convulsively.
Everyone stands still, the flags come down and so do the decorations for Thanksgiving. At school, Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón) and Britney (Francesca Scorsese) break down crying as Danny (Spence Moore II) breaks a pencil in rage.
In all this, the trio of Col Sarah Wilson (Chloe Sevigny), her wife Maggie (Alice Braga) and their son Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer) are the outsiders. They are too new to the base to have known Craig and the others well enough to mourn them. Plus, everyone on base blames Sarah for shipping these heart-breakingly young soldiers out before their 90 days of "ramp up" (where they get ready mentally to operate in hostile territory) was up.
Sarah calls it a "tough decision", the others see it as a betrayal of the "kids" — especially Richard (Kid Cudi) and Caitlin's old gang who have several violent breakdowns between them.
It doesn't help that Fraser, who is hypersensitive otherwise, is uncharacteristically unfeeling when he tells his "grief group", which includes Caitlin, that a soldier's body bag is sometimes filled with rocks to make up for missing body parts. It earns him a well-deserved slap from Caitlin. Caitlin also steps away from Sarah's influence, tearing up the pamphlet for the counseling center deciding that her self-journey around gender can wait.
Richard has a drunk meltdown at the Thanksgiving dinner-turned-funeral reception turning on Sarah, publicly, embarrassing her and calling into question her leadership abilities. Jenny (Faith Alabi) pushes away Maggie with the only words that can hurt her — that she is "not a mother". Jenny's son, Danny, has his meltdown in the former Eden — the remote mansion where the gang was last with Craig.
We see the inverse of that joyful hedonistic day as the kids again dance, do drugs and drink. But this time it is to cope with overwhelming grief. Paradise is lost, and brutally at that, as the youngsters realize that youth doesn't protect from death. Craig's Italian wife says as much — she is only 19 and now will be his widow forever.
Danny goes absolutely mental — thinking that a giant spider is Craig reincarnated and attacking furniture screaming if Craig was hiding in any of them. Spence Moore II, who plays Danny, is a good actor, but he isn't a great actor. Till now, he has had to show bursts of rage and confusion which he has pulled off. But in this episode, even though he pours his heart into this portrait of grief, he falls short of pulling it off.
We are never immersed in his grief. We also don't see the transition to him being "grounded" by his Islamic prayer ritual later — instead it feels like a somber continuation of his hectic performance of grief.
In comparison, Jordan Kristine Seamón who is a better actress by a mile and a half than the other kids on this show makes her Caitlin believable in her near-silent stoic grief as she lets Sam (Ben Taylor) paw her, understanding that he needs the bodily comfort. Fraser is notably missing, excluded from this mourning party by Sam who demands he be left behind.
Fraser ends up at Jonathan's place who is also grieving in his own way with a clothes-optional drink and sex party with Martha, his "friend" from the last episode. Fraser is at first crushed to see her but Martha pulls him into the apartment. Soon, she is giving him her best come-hither dance moves.
With Jonathan plying him with drinks and watching them, Fraser dances with her. Seconds later Jonathan joins them, pulling Martha into a kiss over Fraser's shoulder. When Fraser leans back into him, Jonathan unzips his pants. Fraser is both shocked and excited. But as he turns and nuzzles Jonathan, the bravado seeps out of him. He is after all just a kid and the situation is just too "adult" for him to handle.
Even Jonathan seems to realize this and his embrace turns from sexual to comforting. Fraser however doesn't want to be babied at that moment either and he pushes Martha and Jonathan away, running away overwhelmed at the prospect of a threesome. Back home he gets drunk and when his mommies come home, he clings to Maggie for the first time instead of Sarah for comfort.
But when Caitlin calls, needing help to get Danny back home, he responds like a true friend. He gets Maggie and Sarah to drive and fetch Caitlin and Danny and deposit them in Jenny's care. Sarah takes this chance to let Jenny know that she knows about the affair and wants it to end. She tells the same to Maggie back home. Maggie replies cooly — "it's already over".
We find out that Maggie has cheated before and Sarah has forgiven her before this too — it adds another layer of dysfunction to the bio-politics of this little family unit. We also see Maggie taking charge and providing the perfect solution to her mismanaged affair, Richard's insubordination and Caitlin's proximity to their son, Fraser.
She suggests transferring the family out of the base by pulling some strings. It's a cold calculative move — much more calculated than anything Sarah has done till now. And while Sarah will be the 'face' of their decision, she is the one in charge. ''We Are Who We Are' airs on Mondays on HBO at 10 pm ET.