Chance Season 2 Episode 8 Review: An Infant, A Brute or A Wild Beast
Kassie King
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On Chance Season 2 Episode 8 motivations are exposed, actions defended, and justice sought.
Everyone's standing their ground and no one is winning.
After Winter's bombshell confession, Frank found a way to manipulate the situation to his benefit. Instead of steering clear of the whole case, he immersed himself in it -- convincing his boss to choose him as the prosecutor.
At first I was unsure if Frank's intentions were to help Winter or to put him down for good, but either way, he was sure to be covering his own ass.
Frank's ability to play multiple roles is uncanny, whether it be convincing his boss that he was a friend of Hynes, "helping" Chance try to take Winter down, or sitting in a room with Winter and his lawyer acting as if he knows nothing.
It's seriously impressive, definitely creepy, and totally deserving of his own psychiatric care.
The way that Chance discovered that Frank was Winter's accomplice by happening upon the old baseball photo of him and Stevie was a little on the nose for me, as was stealing the fork for the DNA test.
Frank seems too smart to leave an incriminating picture like that hanging around his office, and I highly doubt he would leave someone alone in there -- especially Chance.
I thought when Chance finally had the big revelation that Frank was the guy it would have been a bit of a more significant moment than this scene allowed.
Even if Chance can prove that it's Frank's DNA under Stevie's fingernails, what exactly does he think he's going to do about it? He tried to take down Winter, and we can see how that has worked out. Chance seems to be all about jumping in with both feet and worrying about the fallout later.
Frank, as much as I dislike the guy, is incredibly smart. By faking Winter's suicide, he's managed to cover his own back, please the higher-ups, and in the public's eye take down a serial murderer. Even D had to admit it was a pretty decent plan.
The moment that Winter got killed was somehow anticlimactic but still satisfying. That's the thing I love about this show -- the big things happen suddenly and with no fanfare. Oh, the main villain of the season just drops dead in the middle of an episode? Oh, okay, cool.
The events that you think will make the whole season -- Winter getting caught for his crimes, for example -- turn out to be pretty minor by the time they come around. When Winter dies, we don't care as much because we already have other fish to fry -- Frank.
I just want you to know, Mr. Winter, that you're going to have to prove that at the time you committed all those murders, that you were laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act. Basically that you didn't understand your actions any more than would an infant, a brute, or a wild beast.
Frank [to Winter]
There's no question who has the upper hand in this new battle between Chance and Frank. It seems that our well-intentioned Doctor is always one step behind. Lambert has ridden himself of his Winter problem and now with some unintentional help from Clayton has Chance in custody for assault.
When Clayton first distributed the picture of D to her team as the assault suspect, Chance understandably panicked.
D's response was much more nonchalant, but he made sure to ask Chance if he regretted their actions before he felt they were in danger. The answer was a definitive no. Now that he's been found out by the police I wonder if he'll be singing a different tune.
I thoroughly appreciated the total overtness and badassery that Clayton displayed when she confronted Chance about the assaults.
Instead of beating around the bush or putting together a plan of attack like others might, she just called Chance out directly. She has no moral gray area. There's right, there's wrong, and she's not willing to compromise.
Chance: What about us? Who helps us when we sit in so much misery that it starts to leak out around the edges? Don't tell me you haven't felt the weight of that.
Clayton: Of course I do. That's when I go somewhere and sit on a beach and thank my lucky fucking stars.
Chance: I'm not talking about burnout. I'm talking about a fundamental shift in psyche. There are no excuses, there's only reasons. It's only a threshold, after which I cannot sit and inhale my patients' pain without doing something, without at least breathing it out. So yeah, I breathed it out. And in that breath was fire. And I liked it.
This scene proved Clayton to be a voice of reason and resonated with me as a viewer. With this show, it's easy to become immersed in the stories and motivations of these characters, but she reminds us of the reality of what's going on -- a reminder that, hey, EVERYTHING THAT CHANCE HAS DONE IS TOTALLY BANANAS CRAZY.
I was slightly surprised by how vigorously Chance defended himself to Clayton. I expected him to be overcome with remorse and not vehemently try to justify his actions to the woman whose whole career he's put in jeopardy. It wasn't his most shining moment.
There were undoubtedly parallels to be drawn between Clayton firing Chance and when Chance was forced to close down his practice last season. Then he was two steps away from committing murder, and now he's being questioned by police about an assault.
Chance puts his whole life on the line for these crazy people and repeatedly loses everything that's important to him. And for what? There are just going to be more psychos out there.
He'd be helping far more people if he just stuck to his actual job than he ever could by ridding the world of Blackstone and Winter.
I just wanted to believe that someone wanted to save me, that you wanted to, more than I wanted to know you were lying. And I was right to do that, because you... you did save me. You hurt me to save me, and now here we are.
Winter [to Chance]
Chance wasn't the only person to defend their questionable actions this episode.
Christine attempted to explain her reasoning behind sending Nicole off to Clearview. It's obvious she's trying to do what's best for her daughter, but it doesn't mean that the way she goes about it isn't a little off the mark.
Shipping her kid off to a nature therapy program isn't as bad as some of the things other characters have done, but doing it behind Chance's back and without his permission wasn't the best move.
After arriving at Clearview, Nicole holds her ground as well. When questioned by counselor Bruce, she defends her reasons behind assaulting Pepper, claiming that she needed to "make things right."
The desire to achieve justice through violence is eerily similar to the tactic used Chance and D used with their victims as well.
Nicole: There was this girl. I thought she was my friend. And I found out she was spreading shit about me all over the internet, so I broke her nose with a book. I'm not sorry. And I don't like this game. Or this place. I'm a straight-A student, not a drug addict. But I would do what put me here again in a hot minute.
Bruce: Okay, so you believe the punishment fit her crime? Your former friend?
Nicole: Yep.
Bruce: So, violence was the answer? Is the answer?
Nicole: Well, if it means making things right...
Bruce: Making things right. What does that mean to you, making things right? Does that mean she should apologize? Take everything back, promise she'll never do it again? So, is that what happened after you broke her nose? Did she make things right?
Nicole: Well, you tell me what you think I should have done then. Just eat it? What about what she did?
Bruce: What about it? This is not the last time something like this is going to happen to you or to any of us. Terrible, painful, unjust shit will happen again and again and again. And the only part of any of it that you'll ever be able to control is how you react. You'd do what you did again in a hot minute, that's what you said. But you said it to me here, in this place. And that girl, whatever her name is? She's at home, eating hot food and sleeping in a bed. You're here.
Although I did feel awful for Nicole being sent here, at first, the lecture she got from Bruce made a lot of sense. Nicole isn't always going to be able to control the bad things that happen to her -- only her response to them.
It was a lesson that Nicole needed to learn, and it seemed like she was making progress when she made her apology to Bruce. I felt hopeful for her -- but then she took off. So, no, not quite there yet.
I'm torn between my love of Nicole and how she's learned to stick to her guns no matter what, and wanting her to see the bigger picture. There's no telling where she's going to end up next.
D also made some shady moves this hour -- it's not that he hasn't always done morally ambiguous things before, but usually, he goes after everything he does with gusto. In this situation with Lorena, D was determined but not as confident as usual.
Going after a gang leader to protect Lorena from her baby daddy isn't the smartest move, and even she warned him: Don't get yourself mixed up in a war that you can't win. Better just to stay out of the line of fire.
D: I can take care of Hector.
Lorena: I know that you think that you can. But even if you did, it doesn't work like that.
D: I don't care how it works.
Lorena: Loz Cazadores, they make people pay, okay? But they pay, too. There's always somebody getting paid. Here or there or -- it doesn't matter, and you can't change it. You can't stop it, so you better not get in the way of it. Not by killing Hector. Not at all. You're a good man. But I'll be okay, okay? Just have to hide again. This time long enough for Hector to get tired.
D: I know you think so, but even if you could, that's not how it works.
I always thought D and Lorena might end up together (I still have hope!) but it seems more likely that D's willing to die for her instead.
At the end of the day it seems that despite any amount of risk, warning signs, or confrontation, everyone is just going to do what they're going to do and damn the consequences.
How do you think Chance is going to handle the police questioning? is D going to be okay? And where the hell does Nicole think she's going? Comment your thoughts below!
Kassie King was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in December 2017. Follow her on Twitter.
