‘You Are Like the Sun’ gave viewers an emotional, character-driven episode that explored grief and guilt and how they can turn the best of us into monsters of the human kind.
Throughout the first half of The Passage, the show has done a tremendous job in building the father-daughter relationship between Wolgast and Bellafonte. However, we never really got to know who they were as individuals. There were some teases, but the show never went beyond the surface of what exactly motivates them.
Much of 'You Are Like the Sun' was the story of Brad - a tremendously shocking and heartbreaking story as it revealed that his daughter was killed during a robbery gone wrong. Seeing him murder the culprit in revenge was very unexpected, but it certainly explains his detachment and why he continued to push Lila away, leading to their divorce, despite her support. We get the sense that the guilt was so overpowering that he could barely live with himself let alone expect his wife to do the same.
However, the show raises the selfishness of his actions - to absorb himself in all the guilt without allowing Lila to process her own grief and what ifs. Her talk to him about this was extraordinarily emotional, and for once, some chemistry is felt between actors Chriqui and Gosselaar.
The highlight of the episode though was Saniyya Sidney who we learn in a conversation with Carter that Amy’s mom overdosed after the young girl told her she hated her and ran away. Of course, Amy blames herself for her mom's death and watching her confront her guilt was an absolute tearjerker. The actress' ability to convey these raw emotions is simply incredible, and that one scene between her and Carter was quite the showcase. On a sidenote, Carter has turned into quite the bully. His intentions seem to be good, but the tough love he gave to Amy was questionable.
Going back to Amy, what was equally as affecting was watching Amy’s proper goodbye with her mom in the mindscape. It was only fitting that she would eventually be empowered by her mom to confront Fanning, which left us in quite the cliff-hanger as she and the evil vamp finally meet.
Another emotional storyline in ‘You Are Like the Sun’ was the closing of Elizabeth’s arc as we see her having to decide between Fanning and turning into a vampire, or Jonas and letting herself go. This was a very powerful scene, and one that backs up what Lear said to Fanning two episodes ago about how Elizabeth loves him and always has, while Fanning is stuck on the fantasies of a past.
Actress Jennifer Ferrin and Henry Ian Cusick had tremendous chemistry and felt like a real couple confronted with a tragedy. It has been quite harrowing to see what Lear has had to go through from the grief of his wife getting early on-set dementia, to the guilt of creating this virus for selfish reasons, only for it to be backfired and used on his wife. We feel for him, and to see him in those last moments with Elizabeth was painfully emotionally. A nice touch to these scenes was the inclusion of Sykes, which the episode made sure to show all teary-eyed outside of Elizabeth's room. The guilt is strong in this episode, especially for Sykes who continues to watch the consequences of the monsters she has brought into the world.
Elsewhere, ‘You Are the Sun’ also made strides in making Richards more empathetic. We learn that he is a man driven by the mission, and the burying of his emotions clouded him from seeing the wrongs of Project NOAH. We also learn how much he cares for Brad – being there for the grieving man after he kills his daughter’s killer in the flashback, and then in the present day when resuing Brad and Leia from their pursuer.
The character has certainly grown over the course of the series. He had not been the most likeable character over the first half of the season, to put lightly, but we now we are seeing him making strides to be a better man before going too far down the rabbit hole.
'You Are Like the Sun' felt like a necessary episode to have before the final batch of episodes. The story really honed in on the guilt that all our protagonists are feeling and has shown us the face of monsters other than the vampires contained in the cells. We care more for all the characters than we did going into the episode, and this will do well as the season inches ever closer to the finale.
9/10
