'The Purge' Season 2, Episode 6: Marcus spiraling further into darkness evaluates racism's significance in pro-violence system
This article contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 6: 'Happy Holidays.'
Edging further with the whole Michelle is behind the bounty on Marcus theory, tonight's episode 6 of 'The Purge' season 2 finally gives us the infamous, audacious Sam Tucker who tried purging Marcus on the annual night of legalized crime. But in all of that revelation, despite the expected suspicion building up against Michelle, the scariest aspect of this episode is the possibility of Marcus getting purged actually being a race thing while we were busy doubting his wife.
Marcus, after finally being able to find some level of forgiveness for Michelle, decides to ambush her by inviting Sam and his wife to their house. Eventually, the whole affair comes out and even though Sam's wife was fully aware of the extent of their fling, she wasn't aware of the levels Sam had stooped to, to ruin Marcus' life. With both the Tuckers hysterical about the recent discovery, it is finally out in the open that Michelle was the one who put the idea of purging Marcus in Sam's head. Sam claims one random time in bed, as he was complaining about Marcus to Michelle, she suggested he purge Marcus if he annoys Sam so much. Michelle claims it was a joke, but Sam insists otherwise.
At this point, it is pretty difficult to trust Michelle, given the recent developments and steady suspicion viewers have been able to overcast her with right from the start. But even as the Moores are able to get Sam to take off the bounty raised on Marcus' head from the dark web, newer threats endanger their lives on a whole different level. Sam deducts just $10,000 off the bounty which agitates Marcus further. And as the Tuckers are leaving the Moore household, Sam leaves with a warning for Marcus, where he asks him to look around for himself to find his attackers.
Followed by a montage of Marcus' neighbors in the predominantly white neighborhood going about their days with a grim look on their face as their eyes meet Marcus', the setting of this idea is pretty menacing. Suddenly, from a lousy affair, Marcus getting purged becomes a race thing which we had significantly missed right from the start thanks to the show's extremely crafty development of a story that cites Michelle as the prime suspect. And even though Sam still insists Michelle is every bit involved in purging Marcus, it's difficult to overlook the racism angle anymore. Young black guy from a small neighborhood makes it big as a respectable doctor and moves into a white locality - there's nothing not suspicious about this, but the extent to which the community can go just to act on racism is terrifying. They are everywhere, and they are constantly watching. Marcus spiraling further into darkness is pretty much inevitable.
'The Purge' season 2 airs on Tuesdays at 9 pm only on USA network.