Cliffhanger
Carla and Tracy at the edge of the cliff, both metaphorically and actually. Carla is flirting with jumping, Tracy desperate to stop her. A long and beautiful scene that stretched over two episodes.
Wednesday’s episode ended with the cliffhanger, and Thursday’s began with it. The two of them, on the edge. Carla may jump, may just sit and drink. She may accidentally fall, and so be it. She just doesn’t care anymore. Let the fates decide.
In Carla’s mind, Tracy is just along for the ride. She’s insignificant except as a convenient sounding board. Tracy, however, has been eaten up by guilt ever since seeing Carla spiral downhill after the fire that Carla, and everyone else, believes she carelessly and drunkenly started. The fire that took two lives and endangered Amy’s.
Truth without consequences
Tracy has wanted to tell the truth. She finally told Robert, and he insists she must tell Carla. She wants to for Carla’s sake, but she does not want to face the consequences for herself if she does. On the cliff top, she is more desperate to stop Carla from suicide. She tells her, and also tells her she will deny every word if Carla repeats what she says.
The moment outside Victoria Court when Tracy jumped in Carla’s car to stop her from driving off drunk. The emotional drive through town, the cliff top confessions, and the mad return home by car for Carla and motorbike for Tracy. Intense, and perfectly timed and pitched off each other.
Tracy is so often a one-note character, brilliantly played, yes, but predictable. It is such a treat to see deeper than the brittle surface. This week, we’ve seen the Tracy we know and love or loathe, but she’s shown her complexity as well. Quicksilver change is Carla’s stock in trade. Seeing them together, matching sorrow, fear, anger and flippancy in an extended two-hander, has been just brilliant.