'The Purge' Season 2 Premiere review: Flashbacks from Purge night haunt traumatized citizens as they face a New America
This article contains spoilers for season 2, episode 1.
The second season of 'The Purge' is here with answers about what exactly happens in new America - a nation reborn, thanks to the New Founding Fathers who have legalized crime for an annual consecutive 12-hour stretch in the dystopian world.
With a system that believes that the only way to tackle ever-soaring crime rates in the country is to legalize all crimes - including murder - for one fateful night of the year, we see the story bring together people from all walks of life. There are the well to do family men, the crooks trying to ace a money heist with other crooks butting in, the dilemma of being a government official and losing your close one to the night, and the young adult college-goers' plight as they navigate the realization of what's right and what's not on Purge night.
James deMonaco makes an excellent decision to establish the gravity of horrors we are about to witness in a timeline set between two consecutive purges but painting a story of brainwashed ignorance among the common masses right at the beginning of season 2. The episode opens with a woman auditioning to be the voice of the alarm that goes off ahead of the commencement of the annual purge.
It's obvious that the authorities have the public fooled, as the woman takes a second to register that the warning mentions "all crime including murder is legal." When she expresses a sliver of concern, the casting director explains to her it all comes from a place of protection, to save her fellow citizens from a year full of violence, thus giving us a clear picture of what the situation really is like.
But while the audition is a clear reminder of how the government has its people blind-sighted, the common masses aren't the only ones getting fooled. The story opens on the purge night from season 1, with just two hours remaining for the deadly horrors to be over for the rest of the year; or so the NFFA will have you believe. Paola Nunez's Esme Carmona is your stereotypical procedural badass with a face of an angel and a heart of gold shoved deep down her stoic exterior. But as she navigates through yet another Purge night tracking the violence on the streets courtesy government security surveillance, her poise crumble once she spots a close one suffering the consequences of the system.
Esme's story runs parallel to that of Marcus and Michelle Moore - a well to do suburban couple who suddenly find themselves hostages at their own home when a random man decides to break in and purge on them for reasons unknown. The couple who were making love just an hour ago, get separated amidst the chase and attack as Marcus goes out to seek help from his neighbors, while Michelle stays back, hiding in the safety closet of their home. As the tension builds up, we come across Ben - a fratboy who must go out on Purge night as part of a fraternity ritual, but that's not all. Ben and his friend - both pledges - have to walk a couple of walks to a 'suicide bridge' and snap photos of dead bodies hanging from there which paints the twisted dark humor common in DeMonaco's Purge franchise.
Ben's tragedy begins just moments from successfully completing the task, as he gets drawn in by a woman's cry for help. When he ventures into the remote alleyway's garage where the cries were coming from, his foot gets caught in a trap that was laying there all along. Inside is a deviant murderer who first murders the woman who was crying for help, by slicing her across the stomach, before proceeding to force Ben to strip to his underwear.
The masked man makes Ben lie down facing the ground, and begins unbuckling his belt with the clear intention of raping the young boy, but Ben is fast; he pulls out the knife from the other woman's body and stabs his attacker repeatedly - thus losing his innocence as he commits his first murder.
In another part of the city, a totally different story unfolds, which somehow isn't as tragic as the other three. Max Martini's vicious Ryan Grant is a mastermind when it comes to planning the Purge night heists, and his mission to bag some heavy cash for an undisclosed purpose gets busted when 'jackals' interfere. These jackals are thieves that steal from other thieves on Purge night and murderous as they might be, are still remotely less terrifying than the people who kill just about anyone, for fun. When the next morning finally arrives, that's where the current timeline begins and the striking contrast of the supposedly composed and tame America in the wake of the Purge is pretty haunting, leaving us shaken with the same state of dubiousness that turns into violent rage at the thought of facing it again, in just a year.
'The Purge' season 2 airs on Tuesdays at 9 pm only on USA Network.