Mr. Mercedes Season 1 Episode 3 Review: Cloudy, With a Chance of Mayhem
Carissa Pavlica
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Bill Hodges said goodbye to his old way of life on Mr. Mercedes Season 1 Episode 3.
He did it reluctantly unexpectedly, but he's ready to move forward with his eyes wide open now.
Congratulations on becoming a bona fide (and paid) private investigator, Bill!!
With each new video from Mr. Mercedes or each new piece of evidence that might be used in any way to connect the communication Hodges' is receiving to what Janey's sister received and drove her to suicide, Hodges recalls his time working the original crime.
It's not a surprise the killer was never caught, even if Brady must have been in high school around the time it was committed.
Did you see where the Mercedes was kept right after the incident? It was pouring down rain, and the water was washing away evidence right into the stream and down the street. The outside of the car was a horror show.
Three or four gallons of bleach were used inside the vehicle to clean it, but nothing on the outside. That gives me even more ammunition to dislike Brady. He was taunting police from the very beginning.
Anybody who intentionally mows down a bunch of people is a suck fuck but...this guy is so much worse.
Janey
With everything he remembered and everything he knows today to be true, it's shocking when Hodges wanted to take the letter Mr. Mercedes sent to Olivia to the police because he's concerned with the rules.
With what he's been through recently with Peter and the cops, you'd think he'd be as skeptical of their intentions as Janey, but he's not.
In his heart of hearts, he's still a cop and wanted to believe everyone cared as much as he always has.
He gave it a try. He went the route his heart told him to, and now he'll be going the route his mind knows is right for the case by being a private investigator. His old friends won't be able to give him any flack for that, as much as they'll want to try.
When Hodges went off on the bartender using inappropriate language, he deserved a standing ovation. He was, of course, speaking about his former coworkers, but the garbage he had to sit through with that young man was as good a place to get it off his chest as any other.
No problem implies that serving a customer what he pays for could be a problem. It shouldn't be a problem unless you're a fuckin' problem.
Bill
What kind of response is "no problem" anyway? We sure have come a long way from the customer is always right, and someone behind Mr. Mercedes wants us to recognize that fact. It's become a running theme of the show.
While it's disappointing his old friends let him down, going to the station to deliver the letter into what will become another notch on their dead letter pile, it gave Hodges some ammunition to toss back at Brady.
Seeing him fall apart at being called "Mr. Nothing" almost made me feel sorry for Brady. Nah. It didn't quite reach that level. In fact, I ultimately laughed at the amount the insult hurt him. It made me happy. But if he were someone else, I could have felt sorry for him.
And if ever I was going to feel for Brady, this would have been the time. When he was a child, he watched his brother choke on a snack while Brady sat there drawing clowns. Now we know why he has a clown fetish.
Brady was traumatized by sex with his mom because he didn't much like watching her have it with men on their couch. He didn't run away when he saw her doing it, either, so there's that.
It didn't escape me that Hodges was having one of his best moments in a long time dancing with Janey while Brady was being molested by his mother to relieve his migraine pain.
While it's true orgasms can help reduce a migraine's hold on someone who is suffering, I'm going to have use my expert opinion here and say if it's coming from your mom, the opposite must be true. Certainly, it would only prolong the underlying cause of the migraines and make you a sicker individual overall.
The place where Brady works, meanwhile, continues to be nothing but a farce. A company would be shut down if a department had employees like the three manning the IT desk at Extreme Supreme or whatever the hell it's called. The three of them are such a mess.
It was ridiculous Boss Man asked Brady if he was responsible for rigging his computer to blow, but I had the same question, so who could blame him?
After all, Brady can't even do his job as an ice cream man right. He blew right by two paying customers!
That was a great moment. What the f*ck indeed. It's pretty cool Jerome's dad cares enough about his son to speak with Hodges about working with him on potentially dangerous cases, but I would have felt better about it if the two men had bonded a little.
Hodges wasn't completely disrespectful when it came to another man's son. He shouldn't have come right out and said, 'Hey, your son is the one who keeps coming over here to see me,' but he could have let the man know he is aware he was potentially putting Jerome at risk and already had the conversation.
I feel protective of Hodges. Perhaps because he doesn't have any close family left at his side and finally getting into the swing of things professionally means also losing some of the people he has, in the meantime, held most dear. People like Jerome.
I don't think I'm going to have to feel protective much longer. It's not taking long for him to grow closer to Janey. They even had their first fight. The business about her sister wasn't at all amusing, and it's hard not to feel for what Olivia must have gone through. But the stuff with Janey's mom looking dead was funny.
I've got some condition. It's not post traumatic, but seeing dead people puts me on the tilt. I realize your mother isn't dead, but she was lookin' the part pretty good.
Bill
It looked like Hodges was going to vomit into his tissue out in the hallway, and it was only because he was in the room with Janey's sleeping mother. The two sides of this show blend together very well.
The humor and horror are a stronger match than on The Mist, although both are doing their best to showcase the style of Stephen King's writing in their shows. Which to do you think is doing the better job?
I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.
