The OA: New Colossus
December 17, 2016 8:24 AM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe
The OA retraces the dramatic twists and turns in her life after a childhood accident, leading up to a fateful encounter far away from home many years later.
The flashback storyline:
*Nina's father sneaks her out of Russia to an American school for the blind. They speak on the phone every Sunday, and she plays the violin for him. He tells her she must stop speaking Russian, that they must both stay in hiding from the Voi. But later her aunt comes to the school with news that her father has been killed in an accident, and that Nina must come live with her.
*Her aunt is running a sketchy adoption service. Abel and Nancy have come to adopt a baby boy, but after Nancy meets Nina, she and Abel adopt her instead. They name her Prairie, for her prairie-sky blue eyes.
*Abel and Nancy are a shoes-off house; little Prairie flexes her bare feet on the carpet (just as The OA did in the first episode).
*Prairie begins sleepwalking, and having vivid dreams that she says are premonitions/communications from her father, and has nosebleeds. Nancy and Abel put her on medication, for the next 13 years, at a doctor's insistence.
*Despite the medication, Prairie dreams of seeing her father in the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Her father is holding 21 candles, which she believes means he wants to meet her there on her 21st birthday, so she convinces someone to drop her at the bus station and runs away to Ellis Island.
*She waits all day, but her father doesn't come. She starts playing violin in the subway, and attracts the attention of Dr. Hap. He takes her for oysters in Grand Central, and tells her about his experience witnessing someone's near-death experience while working in the E.R., and how he's now studying it and has found others like her, who have gained extraordinary abilities after their NDE. He shows her a heartbeat-sensor device he's made, and Prairie asks him to take her with him back to the study.
*Hap flies her back in his two-seater plane. Once there, Prairie calls home to let Nancy and Abel know she's ok, but there is no answer. Hap takes her to her room in the lab downstairs, which turns out to be a glass prison. As Prairie panics, she hears the voice of a fellow-prisoner, who tells her his name is Homer.
In the present:
*French gets word that he has won a scholarship for a full ride at a state university. We see him taking care of his two younger brothers, and his mother, who seems to be a shut-in. (And we see him snorting some kind of drug.)
*Nancy sees OA returning home after the first night of storytelling, she tells Nancy and Abel that she was just out walking, and needs her alone-time. After some discussion, Abel and Nancy agree to let OA have one hour's walk alone at night.
*Steve, Jesse, and Buck try to research OA's story about the Voi and her father. They find pictures of the bus wreck, but nothing about Nina and her father specifically.
*French isn't interested in helping with the internet search, and when Buck runs into him in a store parking lot he says he's not going back because it could jeopardize his scholarship, but Buck convinces him that they need to see how the story ends, and find out what it means that The OA chose them.
*Buck used to be Christine.
*Buck tells Steve that he has to stop dealing from the abandoned house while they're having these meetings; he says fine but that means he won't be selling Buck testosterone.
The flashback storyline:
*Nina's father sneaks her out of Russia to an American school for the blind. They speak on the phone every Sunday, and she plays the violin for him. He tells her she must stop speaking Russian, that they must both stay in hiding from the Voi. But later her aunt comes to the school with news that her father has been killed in an accident, and that Nina must come live with her.
*Her aunt is running a sketchy adoption service. Abel and Nancy have come to adopt a baby boy, but after Nancy meets Nina, she and Abel adopt her instead. They name her Prairie, for her prairie-sky blue eyes.
*Abel and Nancy are a shoes-off house; little Prairie flexes her bare feet on the carpet (just as The OA did in the first episode).
*Prairie begins sleepwalking, and having vivid dreams that she says are premonitions/communications from her father, and has nosebleeds. Nancy and Abel put her on medication, for the next 13 years, at a doctor's insistence.
*Despite the medication, Prairie dreams of seeing her father in the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Her father is holding 21 candles, which she believes means he wants to meet her there on her 21st birthday, so she convinces someone to drop her at the bus station and runs away to Ellis Island.
*She waits all day, but her father doesn't come. She starts playing violin in the subway, and attracts the attention of Dr. Hap. He takes her for oysters in Grand Central, and tells her about his experience witnessing someone's near-death experience while working in the E.R., and how he's now studying it and has found others like her, who have gained extraordinary abilities after their NDE. He shows her a heartbeat-sensor device he's made, and Prairie asks him to take her with him back to the study.
*Hap flies her back in his two-seater plane. Once there, Prairie calls home to let Nancy and Abel know she's ok, but there is no answer. Hap takes her to her room in the lab downstairs, which turns out to be a glass prison. As Prairie panics, she hears the voice of a fellow-prisoner, who tells her his name is Homer.
In the present:
*French gets word that he has won a scholarship for a full ride at a state university. We see him taking care of his two younger brothers, and his mother, who seems to be a shut-in. (And we see him snorting some kind of drug.)
*Nancy sees OA returning home after the first night of storytelling, she tells Nancy and Abel that she was just out walking, and needs her alone-time. After some discussion, Abel and Nancy agree to let OA have one hour's walk alone at night.
*Steve, Jesse, and Buck try to research OA's story about the Voi and her father. They find pictures of the bus wreck, but nothing about Nina and her father specifically.
*French isn't interested in helping with the internet search, and when Buck runs into him in a store parking lot he says he's not going back because it could jeopardize his scholarship, but Buck convinces him that they need to see how the story ends, and find out what it means that The OA chose them.
*Buck used to be Christine.
*Buck tells Steve that he has to stop dealing from the abandoned house while they're having these meetings; he says fine but that means he won't be selling Buck testosterone.
As a viewer of all the CW DC superhero shows, all I could think at the end was "oh, lord - another glass-wall prison? Probably no toilet in this one either."
posted by oh yeah! at 6:50 PM on December 17, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by oh yeah! at 6:50 PM on December 17, 2016 [3 favorites]
This show is certainly impressed with itself.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:26 AM on December 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:26 AM on December 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
I'm not sure if I can continue with this show if I have to watch OA go through 7 years of abuse in a water tank where I am assuming she also gets those scars on her back.
Whatever happened to storytelling that didn't involve horrific abuse? I think I might go back to reading books about animals finding their way home.
There isn't a whole lot of a water tank scenes and the scars without being too spoilery are not there directly from an abusive action.
posted by Jalliah at 9:20 AM on December 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
Whatever happened to storytelling that didn't involve horrific abuse? I think I might go back to reading books about animals finding their way home.
There isn't a whole lot of a water tank scenes and the scars without being too spoilery are not there directly from an abusive action.
posted by Jalliah at 9:20 AM on December 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
There are a lot of baths and Costco in this so far.
posted by Bee'sWing at 7:01 PM on December 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Bee'sWing at 7:01 PM on December 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
This show is certainly impressed with itself.
That's the Brit Marling thing isn't it?
I like some of her stuff, but part of it is accepting that she like stepped out of an issue of OMNI.
posted by fleacircus at 7:08 AM on December 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
That's the Brit Marling thing isn't it?
I like some of her stuff, but part of it is accepting that she like stepped out of an issue of OMNI.
posted by fleacircus at 7:08 AM on December 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
ALSO TINY TRANS BUCK AND HIS LIL CAMARADERIE FEELINGS I CAN'T HANDLE IT I LOVE HIM.
also fuck steve for threatening to take away his hormones.
posted by FirstMateKate at 5:40 AM on December 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
also fuck steve for threatening to take away his hormones.
posted by FirstMateKate at 5:40 AM on December 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
Mod note: A few comments removed, please cool it a little.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:43 AM on December 26, 2016
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:43 AM on December 26, 2016
I was wondering about Buck, but finding out he's trans was wonderful. Steve continues his assholeness here, but I still wanted to see where they would take his story. I assume they poop/piss in that water trough like they use it for everything else. I guess there's a "drinking water" and "everything else water" system that runs through it.
posted by numaner at 8:03 AM on January 25, 2017
posted by numaner at 8:03 AM on January 25, 2017
When they are getting the family portrait taken and young Prairie isn't looking the photographer says "Prairie, the sound of my voice" and I smiled.
posted by mountmccabe at 9:04 PM on March 28, 2019
posted by mountmccabe at 9:04 PM on March 28, 2019
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Whatever happened to storytelling that didn't involve horrific abuse? I think I might go back to reading books about animals finding their way home.
posted by cairnoflore at 4:16 PM on December 17, 2016 [3 favorites]