'Sorry for your loss' Season 2 Episode 5 'Norway' sees Leigh and Danny connect on an all-night walk
After last week's meltdown, it is no surprise that we find Leigh (Elizabeth Olsen) in a bad place in this week's episode. Danny (Jovan Adepo), after not receiving emojis back from her for a while, turns ups, first at the grief counseling group Leigh goes to, and then to the Shaw residence to get some answers.
There, he finds Jules (Kelly Marie Tran) in a leg brace, recovering from an injury. Turns out with Amy (Janet McTeer) gone, Jules is running the studio alone, even as she waits to get mobile again, while Leigh is bailing on classes.
Utterly overwhelmed, Jules hasn't been able to dig her sister out of her room, which Leigh only leaves to get bowls of cereal. Danny is accurately able to gauge her level of depression based on the number of dirty bowls in her room (10). Leigh is finding out that grieving is often a one step forward, two-step backward process and thankfully Danny is there to stop her from backsliding too far.
When Danny suggests bowling or the movies just to get her out of her room, Leigh asks him angrily why she would go out in the world where other people are having fun. Danny promises a no-fun outing and takes her on a "Suicide Walk" -- an all-night walk for people walking in the memory of the ones they have lost.
After an initial struggle, because Leigh still doesn't believe Matt killed himself, she joins the 16-mile walk. As the night stretches out in front of them, Danny and Leigh have the first real conversation since Danny told her he couldn't hang out with her in the last season. Leigh finds out Danny can't forgive Matt for "abandoning" him and how being with Leigh makes him realize Matt is gone even more acutely since Leigh and he didn't hang out when Matt was alive.
He also asks her pointed questions about their "friendship". Will it survive after Leigh finds someone else, has kids? What would the brother of a dead husband mean in her life then? Leigh responds that he will always be in her life.
Danny, in turn, finds out how bad the Leigh's meltdown was as he browses through her "make-up review" article she wrote after the "Pickle" revelation last week. As they fight, laugh, share memories of Matt like his "Norway" excuse and walk despite Danny's "ass swamp" and Leigh's "blisters", the finish line is cathartic for Leigh. Danny, however, retreats back into his shell that frustrates Leigh who rants at him till Danny finally says what has been in the air since the last season's finale -- that he is falling in love with her.
As Danny leaves, Leigh is left astounded at his confession, sad at the circumstances and strangely euphoric -- the emotions flitting across her face as she finally turns to face the LA skyline. Jules also makes her own connection with now ex-employee Lacey. After the initial hostility, Lacey's assumptions about Jules being a stay-at-home lay about with "no problems" is cleared as Jules opens up in a moment of vulnerability. After food, and a makeout session, Jules is far more prepared to take on the problems life is throwing at her.
In next week's episode, we'll see Danny lapsing into moroseness with his mother questioning him about how he is doing. But the Shaw sisters will be up and about. Jules has a meet-cute with another woman, Tommy, at her AA meeting, while Leigh is taking a stab at dating again.
