'The Purge' Season 2 Episode 6: Esme becoming Ryan's fourth man might be the deadliest thing for the NFFA
This article contains spoilers for season 2, episode 6: 'Happy Holidays'
The profound believer in all of NFFA's morbid, twisted pro-violence ideals - the treasured precious NFFA security surveillance official Esme Carmona - is a wanted fugitive now. And if you're already stuck with the 'Who would have thought!?' question, get this: Esme ran off from the NFFA to join Ryan's crew of heist-thieves and this already sounds like an epic dynamic power duo that the NFFA will not be able to withstand in the near future.
As it had been teased ahead of the episode, we see Esme running around the vicinity of Olivia Hughes' house. Esme is clearly investigating the locality, taking photos and hiding behind vehicles as she goes about it. When she finally feels like she has enough evidence, we see her call Darren, who asks her for a meeting in person as phone isn't safe. When the two meet, Darren very carefully looks for cameras and chords tapped on Esme and is able to spot a mic too. From thereon, the two communicate by mouthing words at each other but right when you think they might have gotten away with it, we see Esme's boss follow her from the lanes.
In a flashback we are shown that everybody at Esme's workplace is accusing her of treason, thus laying down how terrible things already are for her given the circumstances. So Esme does what she can think of at that moment and reaches out to the only other known fugitive who was caught committing a crime off-purge - Ryan. Currently being held accountable for trying to rob an affluent couple's home off-Purge, Ryan and his team got away with the crime only because his former captain from his time in the force was able to rescue him right on time. Ever since he, Sarah, and Doug have been planning for their heist on the next annual purge, only this time, the plan is being supervised by the Captain.
Not that they had much of a choice there, but Ryan calling all of these shots is beginning to worry his teammates who are already suffering the loss of their trusted fourth man - Tommy Ortiz. Tommy might have been impulsive, but he was a connected man. He knew all the right people at all the right places, as we have learned through the season - a character trait that mirrors Esme's reach as someone who has been at the NFFA core for years now.
With Esme and Ryan coming together to embark on Purge night heists, it's no secret that their agenda will turn more personal from being strictly professional as it is now. Until the latest purge, all Esme cared about was doing her job and adhering to and abiding by the NFFA's rules. For Ryan and his crew, it was about earning a bomb through these heists which would allow them to sustain their living standards until the next year. With this purge, however, things have gotten a lot more personal for the two after they lost a loved one to the system. For Esme, it was about the sudden purging of Drew, and for Ryan and co., it was Tommy getting arrested and being sent off to be executed on the next purge.
While Ryan and his team have known of the NFFA's gritty intent and abhorred them for years now, Esme is new to the other side - something that also makes her passionate distaste for the government's reality all that more burning. As Esme points out, she and Ryan need each other as outcast fugitives running from the law. But this only makes their joint team all the more deadly for the NFFA because she has been on the inside and there's no one better versed than Ryan when it comes to taking care of things on the outside. In short, there's a big storm coming for the NFFA soon. Or so we hope!
'The Purge' season 2 airs on Tuesdays at 9 pm only on USA Network.
