"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Sunday, May 23, 2021

The Mosquito Coast 1.5: Charlie and the Gun, Part II


So, I thought the most significant scene in The Mosquito Coast 1.5 was, again, Charlie and the gun.  This time he does pull out his gun, and points it at the Mexican guy who is making fun of him, and all Americans, in the room with the other Mexican guy and girl, and Charlie's sister Dina.   He doesn't fire it, but pulling out the gun and pointing it is a significant evolution in his relationship with this weapon.  It signifies Charlie's coming of age, and points to that being achieved when Charlie in fact finally fires that gun, and maybe kills someone.

The comparison between Charlie and the hitman who's stalking the adult Foxes in Mexico City is also worth noting.   The hitman uses a silent knife as his weapon, and as we see in the first scene, he's quiet and deadly.  He doesn't intimidate.  He just kills.   In contrast to Charlie, who so far has brandished his weapon just to impress and intimidate.

As I said in a review of an earlier episode, the kids in this narrative are in many ways more important than the adults.  And with the ending of this episode, they'll have to fare at least a bit on their own.  Alli and Margot are bound and hooded in the back of a truck, prisoners of some Mexican gang.

Margot, by the way, is becoming increasingly enigmatic.   She tries to check Allie's wilder ideas and impulses, but almost always offers that smile of agreement at the end.  Why is that?  Does she know something that we the audience and Dina and Charlie don't yet know?   We've seen Allie get out of all kinds of perilous predicaments, but those escapes have usually been due just as much to luck as to cunning.  Surely, Margot's confidence in Allie is based on more than she thinks he's and in turn the Foxes are just incredibly lucky.

But The Mosquito Coast continues to be a lot of fun to watch, with the locale changing in just about every episode, and Dina edging ever closer to learning just what her parents have been really up to.

See also The Mosquito Coast 1.1-2: Edgy, Attractive, Enlightened, and Important ... The Mosquito Coast 1.3: Broadening Horizons ... The Mosquito Coast 1.4: Charlie and the Gun






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