'Love Life' Episode 6 Review: Darby finally breaks free from her unhappy marriage, but what comes next?
Spoilers for 'Love Life' Episode 6
In Episode 5 we met Luke Ducharme as a high schooler where he broke Darby Carter's (Anna Kendrick) heart giving Darby her first experience with rejection. In this episode titled 'Magnus Lund Part 2," we were served a twist as Darby reconnects with Luke (John Gallagher Jr.) as she tries to break free from a prison-like marriage home.
It is now 2016, a year since Magnus Lund (Nick Thune) proposed to Darby and eight months into their marriage; Darby had gone all in "hoping for the best." Lund, who has yet to get a job continues to be lazy as Darby works for their living. Even though Darby is extremely mad, she is unable to let Lund know that she is done with his s***, instead, she tells him "No, it's okay" and hands over her credit card. Lund has placed his focus on trying to get money back from Chip, the man that "wrongfully" fired him from his previous job without showing any interest in caring for his marriage. Using statements like "I want to make you proud babe", Lund gets anything he wants out of Darby who's submissive and caring nature allows her to be taken advantage of.
In the midst of a marriage already on its last legs, Darby continues to blossom at work until of course the curse of social media is bestowed upon her. Her high school, Cornella Academy added a throwback picture of the cast of CATS, a play Darby had taken part in just to be close to Luke. The chapter of her life that made her lie about having cancer so she didn't have to admit she was heartbroken by Luke, had been "neatly compartmentalized in her memory bank." Now, she was presented with Luke's face, decades later - ah, the dilemma.
After getting her first big commission, she also got a ring from the past as Luke messages her "Carbuckety? I'm in NY! Let's catch up!." Ignoring the message, she had tried to share her work news with Lund who seemed hellbent on being sad about not finding a lawyer on a case that we all know was a lost cause. Darby then decides to accept Luke's request on Messenger and even boldly ended up meeting him at a bar. Knowing Darby, the highschool incident was brought up and Luke apologized for being a "d***" to her in high school. "I know I was at least a component in the cancer thing. Please let me apologize," Luke had said. As they stayed connected, the conversations got longer and deeper with plans to meet up. Referring to Luke as her "friend from high school" when Lund asked where she was going, Darby went on to see Hamilton with Luke.
The juvenile aspect was again brought up in Darby's character as we see her regressing to her younger days, so as to get through her adult life with her feelings neatly piled away. They ended up kissing after the date and we're shown Darby's frustration when she vents to Luke about Lund admitting, "I want to f**king come up but I can't because I'm married." Hearing about Lund's problems, Luke, now a lawyer, offers to help Lund which only leads to a disaster when Lund walked out with a stubborn attitude and sent Darby straight into Luke's bed. The irony still rings true though as Luke and Darby weren't going to be a "thing" - he had only been a distraction and " represented the possibility of something better than Magnus Lund" - just like high school, she hadn't walked into the sunset with Luke.
As guilt ate her up, she didn't admit to Magnus that she had been unfaithful as he continued to carry on being a baseless uncooperative uncaring husband. It took Darby all that struggle to finally break up with a man that has given her a reason to break up with him every day since they've been married. The flight was an explosive one with Lund gaslighting Darby as he threatened to kill himself while she ate an egg with hot sauce and stared into space. "Your dreams are NOT my dreams," she had yelled at Lund affirming that Darby had finally broken free of a marriage that was weighing on her self-esteem and growth.
This episode had the darkest narrative so far and brought to light important topics such as mental and emotional abuse, gaslighting, depression and anxiety. The illusion that married couples are perfect was shattered giving this episode the best rating than all the ones before it. Thune's Magnus Lund never did once compliment Darby and now we know why as they were set up to fail in future episodes but the cheating scandal, although unnecessary, did add a level of humanity to Darby's character. Her submissive nature resulted in her digging herself a dark hole when she cheated, which forced her to make a choice she knew she had to all along. She had to walk away from men, or in this case, Lund because nothing of hers HAD to be tied to him. It was an easier episode to watch as the storyline finally jumped up a level, we hope they continue this streak of scathing twists.
New episodes of 'Love Life' will be released every Thursday on HBO Max.