The Purge S01E08 Review: The Giving Time is Here – What do y'all think he's up to?

I know that some of you have been very interested in learning more about Good Leader Tavis’s Bad Times Cult. Well, good news, everyone–Pete the Cop is here this week to give you what you want to know in an exposition dump.

If you were wondering how Tavis went from social worker to cult leader, then the answer is as inelegant as it is unsurprising. According to Pete, it’s money. She’s paid by the NFFA to recruit cult members from rehabs and jails. The members aren’t sought out because they’re pure of heart or whatever. They’re just good fodder.

Upon hearing this news, of course Penelope’s immediate reaction is “we have to save them!” to which my immediate reaction was “Girl, sit down.” Miguel damn near gave himself a heart attack chasing her across the city and now she wants to put herself in danger again? Penelope, please.

At least she has enough sense, though, to call Tavis to her, instead of rushing out and trying to find her. As you might expect, Penelope’s words do not have the effect she was probably hoping for. The other cult members stand in the front of the bus, meek as lambs, while Tavis answers her with benevolent leader gibberish. So Penelope punches her in the face.

That finally gets the bus driver up and moving, but whatever he was planning to do to her will go unknown, as Joe breaks up their skirmish. It seems that he too hangs out at the cantina during the quiet moments. But instead of returning her to the bar, he takes her to his truck.

Before I finish that story, let’s get back to the Betancourts, since their story will ultimately dovetail with the Guerreros, whose last name I did not not just learn ten seconds ago. Anyway, despite the fragile peace of last week, things are still tense with them. Rick makes grilled cheese sandwiches for the ladies and then he and Lila can’t help but bicker. Our flashbacks this week take us to Lila’s past, when she turned 18 and was expected to participate in the NFFA’s version of a cotillion, except instead of being presented to society, she was supposed to kill someone. And she did.

If you’ve been watching Netflix’s excellent adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House, then you know it’s ultimately about how our childhood traumas can follow us into adulthood. And while Lila was literally a legal adult when this happened, I think it still affects her in a lot of ways. While I think she loves her parents, especially her dad, his world and his world view are so alien to her that she’s desperate to create her own family.

So when Jenna rejects her, Lila lashes out. She knows (or she can guess, because he wears them on his sleeve) Rick’s weak points and she goes right for them. I really feel for both of them in this scene, because while Rick is absolutely in the right here, Lila’s just so damaged.

She may, in fact, be broken. When the Betancourts’ late neighbor’s wife shows up looking for him, her response to the frantic woman is essentially, “He’s dead, ma–try to move on.” I think we’re all with Rick when he asks, “What the hell was that?” afterward.

Last week, I jokingly asked whether a gal like Jenna would really use Softsoap. Another question I had at the time, although I didn’t ask it, was why she would be cool with Rick’s old frat paddle hanging in her home. The answer is, it’s Chekhov’s paddle because Lila uses it to beat Rick this week. She then gets her hands on the dead neighbor’s gun, so she can force an ultimatum–an “If I can’t have her, you definitely won’t” kind of thing. This is after she basically tries to buy Jenna from Rick.

Jenna ends up stabbing her with an NFFA dagger Rick pocketed–poetic irony–and she must really want Lila to die because she yanks it out immediately. And if two dead bodies–provided that Lila’s actually dead–in their home wasn’t bad enough, Rick and Jenna have barely caught their breath before the security system announces that it’s unlocking. Both of them are then dragged out by Joe and it’s revealed that he has everyone else–Jane, Penelope, that woman and that one guy he saved, etc.–all sitting in the back of his truck with their mouths duct-taped. Hey, last week? When I said it would be wild if he was saving people just to kill them? I didn’t mean it!

9/10 – While there were no huge surprises in the Betancourt love triangle, I thought it was handled particularly well, in a way that let us empathize with each person. On the other side of town, Joe insists he’s taking Penelope somewhere safe and while the cantina isn’t as safe as people would like to believe–witness that vengeful fellow sneaking in a plastic gun–at least you don’t have to be restrained while going there. So what do y’all think he’s up to?

Over on the forum, we took this quiz and I think we learned a lot about ourselves. I’m a cantina patron! [Pictured: Me, during the Purge.]

COMMENTS

Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

10 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

MidNight

2 years ago

I actually enjoyed the love triangle. At least I was constantly wondering about who would win at the end which I didn’t do with the other storylines. I thought Lila would win, though. Her sad history shapes her personality, but she’s probably the strongest character in this season thanks to that.

Can she stay until the last episode, please?

Rouge

Reply to MidNight

That’s an idea I can support though we both know that is unlikely. I really thought Rick would give up his wife for money. I was both happy and disappointed that he didn’t. Ultimately, I didn’t think Lila could win anything. The couple had something bigger to protect than an old flame.

Salome G

Yes, I wish they’d given Lila more to do than just be sad and die.

Reply to Salome G

It also feels like a wasted chance that they set romance as Lila’s main motivation. It doesn’t exactly go against the concept of the show, though I do expect more depth from her story. For example, how would she carry the Stanton duty after her parents’ death? She is way more interesting alive than dead.

Maybe less characters next season?

Do you think it will be better that way? I don’t dislike the format we have as it makes sense given the concept of the Purge night. Unfortunately, only one storyline engages me deep enough with the characters. That’s probably the team’s biggest homework for the new season.

Perhaps characters could interact earlier in the season.

That’s an interesting idea. I think it’s going to be fine even if we don’t have Joe to bring the characters together. Each storyline can be explored more freely to reach their own conclusions.

Arabella

Rick hesitated for so long on that last money offer that I began to think he’d go for it. If this programme is taking place soon after the The First Purge then wouldn’t it be too early for all of these psychological affects to take place?

Reply to Arabella

Well, it’s been at least a decade, I’d say, since Penelope and Miguel were little.

Cookie	Description
_pxvid	This cookie is used for detection of the browser and distinguishing whether it is a real user or malicious bot.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	This cookie is used to keep track of which cookies the user have approved for this site.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-preferences	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Preferences".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-uncategorized	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Uncategorized".
CraftSessionId	This cookie name is associated with the Craft web content management system, where is functions as an anonymous session identifier.
csrftoken	This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
DSID	To note specific user identity. Contains hashed/encrypted unique ID.
JSESSIONID	Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests.
PHPSESSID	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
viewed_cookie_policy	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Description
b30msc
btc
CMST
cref
d
gpl
i
icts
ig_did
mdata
na_rn
na_sc_e
na_sr
na_srp
session_depth
visitor-id

Cookie	Description
__gads	This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites.
__stid	The cookie is set by ShareThis. The cookie is used for site analytics to determine the pages visited, the amount of time spent, etc.
_ga	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_60765351_1	Google uses this cookie to distinguish users.
_gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
ad-id	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content
demdex	This cookie is set under the domain demdex.net and is used by Adobe Audience Manager to help identify a unique visitor across domains.
DigiTrust.v1.identity	Registers data on visitors’ website-behaviour. This is used for internal analysis and website optimization.
dmvk	This cookie is set by DailyMotion who display videos, it registers statistical data of visitors' behaviour on the website.
gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
GPS	This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location
is_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
sc_is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
v1st	This is set by DailyMotion to display videos.

Cookie	Description
__asc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__auc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__qca	This cookie is associated with Quantcast and is used for collecting anonymized data to analyze log data from different websites to create reports that enables the website owners and advertisers provide ads for the appropriate audience segments.
_cc_aud	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_cc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_dc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_id	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_kuid_	The cookie is set by Krux Digital under the domain krxd.net. The cookie stores a unique ID to identify a returning user for the purpose of targeted advertising.
_px2	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxff_tm	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxhd	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
ab	This cookie is generally provided by agkn.com and is used for advertising purposes.
ad-privacy	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content to the users.
ayl_visitor	This cookie registers data on the visitor. The information is used to optimize advertisement relevance.
bafp	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bafp_t	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_pl	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rf_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rt_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_t_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_td_2d31c94105a0aa6d1ceaea0c86c6b656	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bito	This cookie is generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bitoIsSecure	This cookies are generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bsc	The cookies is set by ownerIQ for the purpose of providing relevant advertisement
CMID	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPRO	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPS	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
dc_id	This cookie is used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator's permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers.
did	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
didts	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
dpm	The cookie is set by demdex.net. This cookie assigns a unique ID to each visiting user that allows third-party advertisers target that users with relevant ads.
eud	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
euds	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
everest_g_v2	The cookie is set under eversttech.net domain. The purpose of the cookie is to map clicks to other events on the client's website.
evo5_popin_instance	Prevents an interaction from reoccurring for visitors not accepting 3rd party cookies.
id	This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to build a profile of the website visitor's interests and show relevant ads on other sites.
IDE	Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
io.narrative.guid.v2	This cookie is generally provided by io.narrative.io and is used for advertising purposes.
KADUSERCOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
KTPCACOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
matchliveramp	This cookie is provided by w55c.net and is used for advertising purposes.
mc	This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
mxpim	This cookie is generally provided by mxptint.net for advertising purposes.
na_tc	This is a Social Media sharing tracking cookie.
NID	This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.
nnls	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxrc	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxvid	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
rlas3	The cookie is set by rlcdn.com. The cookie is used to serve relevant ads to the visitor as well as limit the time the visitor sees an and also measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Cookie	Description
__jid	Cookies set on the website by the third-party commenting platform Disqus.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
disqus_unique	These cookies are set by Disqus so that users can comment on website/platform.
G_ENABLED_IDPS	The cookie is used by Google and is used for Google Single Sign On.
mid	The cookie is set by Instagram. The cookie is used to distinguish users and to show relevant content, for better user experience and security.
na_id	This cookie is set by Addthis.com to enable sharing of links on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
ouid	The cookie is set by Addthis which enables the content of the website to be shared across different networking and social sharing websites.
ov	This is a generic functional cookie that provides enhanced functionality and personalisation.
ts	This cookie is generally provided by PayPal and supports payment services in the website.
vuid	These cookies are used by the Vimeo video player on websites.

The Purge S01E08 Review: The Giving Time is Here – What do y’all think he’s up to?

You might also like

FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

Recommended for you