'See' Episode 7 review: Jason Momoa's Baba Voss wins #BestDadEver title by giving twins their space and loving them from afar
Spoilers ahead for 'See' Episode 7 'The Lavender Road'
If you want parenting tips, watch episode 7 of 'See'. Baba Voss (Jason Momoa), wounded after his battle with the underground tribe and mourning the loss of his beloved Maghra (Hera Hilmar), has plenty of reason to lash out at Haniwa (Nesta Cooper). Yet, he keeps his cool, giving Haniwa and Kofun (Archie Madekwe) their space, and accepts the fact that Jerlamarel (Joshua Henry) has something to offer that he can't give to them.
In an action-packed episode, Baba Voss and company follow the "Lavender Road", the path that is lined with lavender bushes, which cuts across the landscape and leads to Jerlamarel's kingdom for the sighted.
The path ends in a gruesome monument of dead human bodies, buzzing with flies, with a knotted-rope message hung from it that reads as both an invitation and a threat.
It soon becomes clear what the monument's message is. They reach a mountain pass with blind archers guarding the final entrance to Jerlamarel's kingdom with shoot-to-kill orders. The weary travelers are told that only the sighted can pass through but not the unsighted like Baba Voss, Paris (Alfre Woodard) and Bow-Lion (Yadira Guevara-Prip).
Before this Paris has already spoken to Baba Voss about "something terrible" Haniwa is holding on to and not speaking about. To which Baba replies that he will do what Paris once did for him -- give Haniwa her space while making sure she knows she is not alone.
Haniwa has grown increasingly dismissive of the sightless, including Baba Voss. Her hero-worship is, instead, centered around Jerlamarel, the father she has never met. Distancing herself from her step-father, she tells Kofun, "He doesn't share our world. He can't." She is ok with parting ways with Baba Voss, Paris and Bow-Lion if that is what it takes to secure her place in the kingdom of the sighted beside her father, Jerlamarel.
Baba Voss after agreeing with Haniwa, says that there is a time in every parent's life that they have to let their children go so that they can walk their own path. No guilt trips are laid and he doesn't remonstrate with Haniwa about her selfish behavior.
Then, once the children start walking toward Jerlamarel's lair/kingdom, he takes Paris and Bow-Lion to hide near the mountain pass. "Those children are my world," he tells Paris before explaining that they will stick around in the area just in case all is not right in Jerlamarel's kingdom and the twins need help.
Even while giving them their space, Baba Voss continues to love and support them from afar. Those are #dadgoals for 2019 and beyond.
Meanwhile, after Boots helps Tamacti Jun (Christian Camargo) capture the merchant's ghosts, they -- Tamacti Jun and his army -- leave to rescue Queen Kane, leaving behind a contingent of eight men to keep looking for Maghra's family. Once they reach the silk work factory, where the master is confronting Queen Kane (Sylvia Hoeks) about the horrors and cruelties she is responsible for, Tamacti Jun sneaks in and kills all the guards.
Once Queen Kane is rescued and revived, Maghra goes to her as "the healer", her eyes filling with tears, as she touches the palm of her sister who she hasn't met in years. Queen Kane is similarly affected and recognizes her younger sibling. She reaches out and says "Don't go Maghra" -- showing that the sisters might have fought over a kingdom and a man but their connection remains a strong one.
Maghra even says earlier in the episode that Queen Kane reminds her so much of her mother that being around her is like "mourning my mother" all over again. But this temporary ceasefire is broken minutes later when Queen Kane reveals she has destroyed the kingdom and she is the only survivor. She tells Tamacti Jun that they have to create a narrative for the soldiers that the gods destroyed the city of "heretics" and only left her alive.
Tamacti Jun finally loses his cool and says that it is time to reconsider who should be Queen, the camera panning to Maghra's stiff, grimacing face as she realizes that power has driven her sister mad and what Tamacti Jun's words mean for both her and Queen Kane's future.
It is ironic that just when Jerlamarel is finally meeting their children in his kingdom of the sighted, Maghra is poised to become the Queen of the unsighted.
'See' airs on Fridays on Apple TV+
