Fantasy Island Season 2 Episode 5 Review: The Urn
Diana Keng
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If there's one message Fantasy Island Season 2 Episode 5 delivers loud and clear, it's that both kindness and cruelty leave long-lasting effects on people.
Ruby, Roarke, and Javier. We've learned over the series how the past has affected all of them and shaped how they approach their future. Here, we see what it looks like when a vision of the future inspires a choice of path in the present.
While the Summers siblings hash out the many damaging elements of their dysfunctional relationships, we witness how their late mother, Joy, provided Roarke with incredible support in her first attempt at hosting a guest.
Joely Fisher, as Joy Summers, is a beautifully multi-faceted character, conveying hope for her future and that of her children even as she unconsciously sets limits on herself.
Her potential is apparent to everyone but herself, and watching her realize just how vast her horizons actually are is to see a person literally unfurl.
Joy arrives on the Island ready to embrace a better life for herself. She just lacks the confidence to reach for it, possibly not knowing what it looks like.
She knows she's lost her zest for life. She recognizes it's a result of pouring her energies into raising her children. But being who she is, she never sees them as a burden.
She thinks she knows what her options are. She's factored in her age, her weariness, and her inexperience and comes up with a set of low expectations.
Roarke: Now tell me what do you feel exactly. And don’t say irritated.
Joy: I guess I do feel powerful. Fierce.
Roarke: Yes, I can see that. What else?
Joy: Maybe a little triumphant?
Roarke: You are. In other words?
Joy: Joy. I’m Joy of the Jungle.
Enter Island Magic and the chance to walk -- or forge -- the road not taken. When she picks up that machete and proves to herself that she is a warrior as much as a mother, a builder as much as a mender, she finds herself and sees her goals clearly.
To me, this is the quintessential Island journey. The guest wants an itch scratched, and the Island not only provides the means to satisfy that need but also shows them why they're itchy, to begin with.
For Joy, the itch is twofold. She wants that empire she's always dreamed of building, but she wants it grounded in family, her family, her children.
Standing there in the cacao grove, holding the pods, and seeing her grown children embrace each other in love and respect in the future, she feels like everything is right with her world. Or at least, everything will be.
Arguments come and go, but love doesn’t.
Joy
The Summers siblings may have been written as the comedic relief of the narrative, but their problems are a lot darker than some familial bickering.
Rooted in their parents' divorce, Ross, Frank, and Bridget's lists of personal grievances are long and not trivial squabbles by any means.
Bridget's nickname "Bridge" is almost as weighty as Ross's awful "N.C.E." acronym for her.
No child should be expected to bridge the divide between two people who no longer love each other.
Frank: Hey, where are you going?
Bridge: To get away from you two.
Ross: Wait! No, no, no, wait. We gotta be miserable together!
It's heartening to know she didn't let her brothers' nastiness or her parents' hopes break her, but it can be assumed that she found her non-traditional lifestyle while trying to escape those millstones.
Ross the Boss's leadership style and his effortless disdain for everything his siblings do were obviously born of the responsibility he shouldered when their father left.
Typically, in times of crisis, oldest children either divest themselves of all responsibility or take it all on.
Bridge: When Mom got sick, you left us to handle everything. You came home two days before she died.
Ross: And you’re one to talk. You’re off the grid for what, two years? What was the name of that commune?
Bridge: It was a utopian community and its name was Bite Me, You Self-Righteous Douche-Canoe.
In Ross's case, he somehow managed to do both. While he made himself the image of the successful, wealthy, and accomplished man of status, he was terrified to face their mother's decline and death, leaving her care to Frank and Bridget.
Frank's resentment is understandable. Once Ross had left home to pursue his career and Bridget had run to find a room of her own, Frank couldn't be the one to abandon their mother.
Ross: Do either of you have a better idea?
Frank: No! But I can still hate it because you came up with it.
While Joy tells him there was no one more suited to caring for her in her illness, Frank's perception is that he was the only choice because he was given no choice in the matter.
The siblings are a mess of old wounds and festering bitterness.
The Island has to trap them in their childhood rec room basement before they can find any common ground. And Elena has to turn it into actual lava before they work together.
Even then, it takes a fistfight for the brothers to clear the air.
Ross: Oh, Frank. I think you broke my nose.
Frank: Nose? Try my knuckles. Your head is like a rock.
Their acknowledgment of how they traumatized Bridget throughout her childhood is the final reconciliation piece.
Joy saw Bridget's love for her brothers and named it truly because Bridge is far more willing to forgive them than many would be.
The juxtaposition of the siblings' odyssey with Joy's first visit shows how far Roarke has come from the day she assumed stewardship of the Island.
I love that Segundo is the eternal advisor, always there to pep her up or listen to her fears. (Also, his pointing out "the plane" was an adorable homage to the O.G., Tattoo.)
Segundo: How do you feel, Elena?
Roarke: Like I’ve been pushed to the center of a stage, and nobody has told me what the play is.
It's fascinating seeing an unsure Elena. Wearing blue, no less.
She and Joy are an elegant balance of supports.
Joy reassures Elena in the moment, expressing every confidence in her abilities to administer the fantasy she's asked for.
Elena encourages Joy to see the possibilities in her future.
While the Island gave Joy the vision and conviction she needed to move forward, it also gave Elena the perfect first guest for her, someone who would prove to be a friend long after Cora flew her back to the mainland.
I suspect in Joy, the Island fulfilled Elena's unspoken fantasy, one that stoked the faith she was lacking in herself.
Speaking of faith, Ruby's relationship with Isla doesn't get a lot of screentime, but what we see feels kind of sketchy.
First, Isla deflects when Ruby wants to know more about her.
Then, Ruby admits to Javier that she hasn't told Elena about this relationship.
Finally, after Isla stands Ruby up, she suddenly shows up on the beach, and Ruby's okay with that as long as they keep kissing. Something feels off.
So maybe not a mermaid, after all. Perhaps Isla is an enchantress?
Is she connected with Roarke's missing cousin? Is Ruby a pawn in his revenge plan?
As you watch Fantasy Island online, what do you think the long game is? Will Ruby's kindness be met with some deception on Isla's part?
Hit our comments with your thoughts and theories!
Diana Keng was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on X.
