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Maniacal
Exactly like you
Season 1
Episode 5
Editor's note
Photo: Michele K. Short / Netflix
If you do not have fun watching ManiacalI do not know what to say to you. Critics of the series have been incredibly divided – and who knows how things will evolve by the end of the season – but at this point, Maniacal do not take yourself too seriously and, therefore, it is a pleasure to watch. Last episode, we watched a burglary, to shout loudly. And now, a little tamer Large Shut Eyes revamp which features spontaneous choreographed dance routines and Sally freaking Field. Stop thinking about this show and enjoy it, people.
"Exactly like you" comes back in the minds of Owen and Annie while they were sedated under the influence of "pill B". They turned into Arlie and Ollie, a separate couple, two scammers who apparently partnered and turned around. And again, their brains strive to get through the old trauma by disguising it as something more enjoyable, an elegant 1940s session for the rich and the exploiters.
The second story that runs through the episode is that of Dr. Fujita and Dr. Mantleray in the lab trying to understand why Owen and Annie continue to throw themselves into each other's unconscious. We already knew that the study posed significant problems before – and at one point, Mantleray gives the impression that at least 41 other subjects were addressed by Neberdine – so they are determined to overcome this whim. Fujita spends the rest of the episode manually separating her brain waves as a kind of Atari era ghost hunters game where you can never, never cross the streams.
But the pleasure lies here in the high camp presented in the Neberdine mansion. The exaggerated accents, the theatrical of Neberdine the butler who opens the door and scrolls around the house with a fiery sage, and did I mention the routine of spontaneous choreographic dance?
As in the last episode, there are of course more chains of connection to the psyche of Annie and Owen. The woman who asks Ollie about her card trick is AdBuddy, who confessed with disgust that she would accompany Annie a lot on her bus trip across the country. Arlie asks Ollie if he still drinks tendrils, which is exactly what the Owen's brother's engagement-day waitress offered him just before jumping off the roof. This spontaneous dance that I can not overcome has much in common with Lance and JC's "kick kick" from the previous episode. Ollie tells his driver to drive Arlie to Atlantis where he owes it – which is exactly what Dr. Mantleray said they were heading into their own thoughts. And, of course, there is the always present Don Quixote – In fact, while Ollie and Arlie go to the party, you can hear a guest who quotes Ollie and whispers, "I wonder if he's as big a fan of Cervantes as we are."
Don Quixote continues to present itself for a reason: it's the perfect novel for a show with this structure, and obviously a reference for the creators of the series. What most people remember about the epic novel of the seventeenth century are the two companions, Alonso Quijano and Sancho Panza, who seek to restore chivalry and serve their country. But the important thing is that Alonso Quijano is, in a word, delusional. He embellishes the simple travel stories and turns them into chivalric conquests.
This getaway through Neberdine's mansion, a double cross in a burglary, is like one of Quijano's visions. In this case, Ollie and Arlie are there for the same reason, in order to steal the 53rd chapter missing from Cervantes' masterpiece, which is allegedly "so powerful that whoever reads it is lost forever in his own fantasies ". This perspective seems tempting. Arlie / Annie and Ollie / Owen, both simultaneously stuck in a scenario like this, are looking for a way to permanently avoid their suffering.
Their quest to find it is labyrinthine, and maybe a little too much on the nose in this respect – we have it, we have it, your brain is a maze where you can not make your way! But it feels like a dream, with doors in foolish places, whispers from locked doors and a chase. The answer, too, that the "mirror" that the woman in Barcelona's alley pointed towards Arlie is not the mirror, it's the piece of reflective glass inside the camera shutter, looks like to a gloved face slap loaded with metaphors. (We will take any sneaky reference to Alice in WonderlandBut when Arlie and Ollie turn around and see this other couple / a nude version of themselves entwined on the bed, I confess that I was delighted.
Arlie continues to be sucked into the dream landscape with each movement of Dr. Fujita's joystick and eventually returns to Neberdine's lab without regaining Annie's sense of self. I'm not sure that her visions of a little Annie and Ellie did a lot of things in addition to showing us a situation we had already thought about.
Back in the dream landscape, Arlie turns on Ollie because of course she did it. She takes out a pistol (is it the water pistol painted by Linda Marino? Because it is certainly also the gun that Annie saw in the safe of his father) and carries with it the chapter of Cervantes. Only when Ollie goes to the door and consults Lady Neberdine do we see the double-con playing. Ollie had slipped a playing card – the ace of hearts, duh – into the box of matches containing the chapter, and informed Lady Neberdine that her safety needed to be strengthened. He never intended to steal it and he always knew that Arie was going to come across him, and nothing should be done and nobody. It's a sneaky remark about how easy it is for a group of pharmacists' smocks to hack their brains, but also a little dagger beginning I think.
Which brings us to the legendary Sally Field, who plays a simultaneous transfiguration of Greta Mantleray and Gertie's computer. As Lady Neberdine, she speaks little, but I could have watched her tremble and shout all day long. She coos as a bird that has just been stuck by a cat, a bundle of nerves and excitement. I almost wished they would adopt this principle in the 1870s and take a full interest in the history of Victorian spiritualism, corsetanting Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. I had been waiting since the first episode to see how her presence would manifest, and it was enough that I prepare my Halloween costume Lady Neberdine.
In the end, while Annie is sitting in Neberdine's labs, fully awake from her pill "B" trance, we are ready for a confession. And Mantleray asserts, when questioned, that the lie is accompanied by a penalty: the expulsion of the trial. She is getting closer and closer to the exposition of some basic truths about her psyche, but looking at it is like looking at someone being tortured. We are recomposing ourselves all the time – and oh, my boy, is this the week to question us about the efforts women make to tell their stories – but it was still cruel. And certainly, I was a little disappointed. Of course, our trauma comes from childhood wounds inflicted on us. There is nothing fascinating here. But Emma Stone's wide-eyed eyes are still so expressive – especially since they are magnified on the screens behind her, like some kind of commentary on celebrity.
Annie has "made progress" and Dr. Mantleray says so. She reached the coveted 9.2 points. But when Owen opens his eyes, his sadness is as deep as before his fall.
• "I think we have a serious problem. I think our computer is terribly depressed. Every time I get the little rainbow wheel, I think the same thing.
• There is a fun little word game with the NeverDie cult that Lady Neberdine started. Is this part of these hijackings? Some are trying to live forever?
• Seeing Annie's worst memory turned into a child's toy in the shape of this steaming little red jeep brought a sultry sob.
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