The Village Episode 7: Couldn’t Not Love You
Hold on tight, The Village fans, this week was a doozy. I am still recovering after watching the episode, but I have many thoughts (and some recaps) to share… so let’s get started.
After that cliffhanger of an ending last week, we catch back up with the Village residents a week later as well. Katie has shacked up in Patricia and Ron’s apartment, having ignored both Sarah and Nick for the week. While Patricia has been trying to play peacekeeper, she wants Katie to talk to her mother. This is further complicated when Ron enters the room with Olivia (the granddaughter) who tells the woman her father kicked her out.
The Fall Out
On another floor, Sarah and Nick chat. She admits to him she received a note from Katie saying they were going to meet with potential adoptive parents that day. He asks what Patricia has told Sarah that Katie has said. Sarah admits Katie thinks Nick left after finding out she was pregnant and doesn’t realize she never told him. Oddly, Nick doesn’t seem furious by this? I mean, I would think he should be. He tells her he’d take the hit… but really? If it were me, I would assume my parent didn’t care. Interesting dynamic, but I guess we’ll see how it plays out.
Katie enters the apartment, condemning Sarah’s outfit as she walks by. The teenage angst is in full swing.
Meanwhile, Gabe and Enzo prepare for their mornings. It is Gabe’s first day back at his internship since his father’s angry outburst, and Enzo plans on Romeo-ing it up outside Gwendolina’s place with Ben. As usual, Enzo is hilarious and the perfect dash of sweet in the show.
“I hate you.”
Across the city, Katie and Sarah prepare for their adoption meeting with Claire and Max. Sarah attempts to talk to Katie, who gives her the cold shoulder. She drops the bombshell on her daughter—Nick didn’t know she was pregnant. In a scathing moment, Katie tells her she hates her. The couple comes up, making an already tense moment worse and they embrace, while Katie shoots Sarah a look that could kill. (Note: never make Katie angry. Geez.) The group discusses the idea of adoption, while Katie and Sarah hold up a façade.
“Can I see your gun? Absolutely not.”
Enzo meets with Ben, while they discuss Ava and the case. Ben admits others with the same charge as Ava had their hearings last week and almost all of them were deported, except for the ones married to citizens. Enzo suggests proposing, but Ben’s little secret about not actually being divorced leaves them both speechless. Eventually, Ben lets Enzo wear his hat.
At Smalls, Nick is cleaning the bar. A chair hits the table and it sends him into a flashback, where he sees the man he spoke about at group. Oddly, this man does not seem to be of Afghani descent, at least not traditionally. He is of a darker skin tone, but dressed in a plain long sleeve shirt, with a clipped beard and sad eyes. What on earth does this mean? The way Nick made it sound during the meeting, it was someone from a local town there, but this makes me think otherwise. Someone calling out for Ron breaks him out of his trance.
“Of all the things you could’ve said to keep me…”
In one of my favorite scenes of Gabe’s in the show so far, his father sits him down with Sofia in a meeting. He is trying to teach him a lesson, as if to humiliate them both, but to the surprise of everyone, Gabe says he quits. His father doesn’t seem shocked, but he’s hardly begging him to stay. Gabe stands his ground and walks out of the room. This was great… Gabe has probably spent his entire life trying to stand out and make his father proud, even if he doesn’t want to admit it. But the truth is, what he did here was for what was right. He’s his own person finally, he knows why he’s where he is, and he doesn’t care if his father feels otherwise. Nice job!
Katie and Sarah are now on the street, where Sarah suggests obtaining a lawyer if she really wants Claire and Max to adopt her baby. I have to say, Katie is a ruthless teenager. I know she’s hurt, and I know she’s angry, but the things she says are such low blows, you really feel for Sarah. Sarah tells her that she wanted Nick to stay, but he broke up with her and enlisted. It makes her daughter tell her that he didn’t want Sarah, but he didn’t know about Katie. Ouch. This is the second time this episode that she’s this harsh. Sarah looks heartbroken, as she should be…
Enzo: 1 Everyone else: 0
On a positive, Enzo scores a date with Gwendolina… and its caaaahute! Our boy’s still got game.
Ron has a tense meeting with his son, but no progress is made. What happened between these two? Its like they’re circling each other with boxing gloves, but we haven’t gotten any answers. One of you, spill!
“I feel like someone dropped a bowling ball on my bladder, so suck it up.”
Katie meets up with Liam who plays devil’s advocate, saying that everyone lies. He’s not wrong—just about everyone on this show is lying about something. Maybe he is too? I mean, he asks if she’s okay with just being friends, but the look on his face every time he talks to her says otherwise… so I guess we’ll see. Meanwhile, Sarah knocks on Nick’s door. In an OMG YES moment, she admits she can’t not love him and it’s Nick that embraces her. Cue amazing hot makeout sesh in a bed naked… and dang it, we don’t get anymore because this is network TV. (Also, great music choice here.)
“Crazy people don’t usually know they’re crazy.”
Afterward, Nick admits he saw “Rashad” again. He is starting to think he’s crazy. The doorbell rings, breaking up their moment—and its Katie… oh, shit. Ironically, Sarah leaves via fire escape (like mother like daughter, y’know?) and Nick lets Katie in. They sit on the couch—distance between them. Not sure if this was what the showrunners were going for, but the literal and metaphorical distance here is stunning.
Katie asks questions, some I’m sure she’s been wondering for years. Nick answers them the best he can and then suggests they have dinner. A great moment. It is clear both of them feel very awkward by all of this, as anyone would be, but it’s nice to see Nick trying his best to get to know her.
Ron comes home as Patricia hears from Olivia her father kicked her out because she’s dating a girl. Ron counters that, unaware that Olivia is still listening when they go to another room, saying that she left in a huff. The girl is ten years older, has his daughter drinking and smoking pot, and they believe she stole money from them. Their granddaughter asks if they’re taking his side and storms out.
“Are you here to say goodbye?”
In his patrol car, Ben sits outside a house. A woman walks out, and Ben calls out to her. It’s his …, not ex-wife? Their conversation is insanely awkward, but Dana asks if he wants to grab a coffee. My initial thought? This is trouble, but now that I’m thinking of it, I wonder if Ben wants to ask her for an official divorce so that he can marry Ava and keep her in the country. Hopefully, it turns out that simple…
At the coffee shop, the two reminisce about their late son and the happy memories they have of him. And then Dana asks if he is here to say goodbye, but he doesn’t say that. Uh oh… I don’t like this. I know they have history and there are probably wounds that aren’t healed, but this seems like trouble. Ben, either let her go or don’t. But you can’t have both women…
At the park, Ron finds Olivia on the bench and explains why his son doesn’t talk to him. His wife was in an accident and the doctor said she didn’t have a chance. She remained on life support for nine months and his pastor told him to leave it up to God. Ron turned the machine off, after the assistance of a social worker… you guessed it… named Patricia. His son resents him for that. He tells his granddaughter he’ll help her talk to her father, as he doesn’t want her to lose him as he did.
“It’s genetically predisposed to be a liar.”
Nick and Katie bond, talking about favorite movies and what they love as they cook dinner. This starts out as such a high scene, cute and packed full of what probably many viewers were waiting for. Katie accidentally cuts herself and goes to grab a Band-Aid from the bathroom. On her way out, she notices Nick’s helmet from the service. She puts it on and stares into the mirror. The look in her eye is haunted as if she has seen war differently for the first time.
She takes it off, noticing something folded inside. There, she finds the photograph from the earlier episode where it shows her and her mother when she was young. Distraught, she storms out of the apartment and into her own, ignoring her mother’s pleas as she rushes to her room. She tosses the picture at her mother who is equally horrified and goes to storm out when she’s stopped by Claire, visiting to talk about the baby with her mom. Excellent acting by Grace Van Dien here; you feel every emotion that Katie is.
“You don’t deserve her.”
Minutes later, Nick is hoping that Patricia can get a hold of Katie when Sarah comes into the room, confronting him about the picture. He tells her he’s had it for years, and that he wasn’t sure she was his, or that Sarah didn’t want him to know. Sarah does not accept this and says he doesn’t deserve her. There are is a lot of blame going around here, some of which I think is more anger than anything. No one in this show is innocent. Nick has lied, Sarah has lied. Katie has lied. I think its time the three of them sit down in a room together and work their crap out. All of them are being unfair, giant jerks, put simply.
All of them are hurt, but the past is just that. How else do they all move forward in life?
Well, at least SOMEONE is having a good night. Sofia and Gabe take all that pent-up frustration and weird flirting up to his apartment, where we see flashes of HOT skin on skin action. Wowza. Can I get a show of hands to how many were waiting for that?
Our end music montage has started…
Sarah drinks at a bar, Ron brings his granddaughter to her father, Ben sits at his child’s grave. Sofia and Gabe are basically rabbits (daaaaaaamn) and Katie visits Liam. Gwendolina and Enzo make the best of being stuck on the subway, dancing together in front of the crowd. Make your own luck, kids. Adorable.
Meanwhile, Nick heads to the roof, upset. He begins to box when Sarah calls out to him. She tells him he should leave, and we fade to black.
WOW.
First, okay that last song was incredible and set the mood for an action-packed episode ending with despair. “Have you been holding back so long, so long? That’s the human way.” I truly think this may have been the best episode of the show thus far. Everyone’s acting was phenomenal and gutting. The music choices were stellar, and every scene set up for what I’m sure will be a fantastic last three episodes.
There is serious hurt going on for all of the characters right now (unless you’re Gabe and Sofia… rumor has it, those two are still having fun) and I’m curious to how they plan to resolve it in the next few episodes. Things are heating up…
I have my theories:
- Ben will ask Dana for a divorce and marry Ava.
- Nick will find out who this mystery man is and a secret from his past that I bet only Deacon knows. (Deacon is a shady mofo.)
- Katie keeps the baby, but how does her story change?
- Someone dies. I feel like that is a given, but I don’t think it’s going to be the most obvious character. I think our showrunners are too sneaky for that.
- Enzo continues to be the most amazing character, ever. (Okay, that’s not a theory. That’s the truth.)
What are your theories? Tune in Tuesday, as we’re down to the last three episodes of season one and you aren’t going to want to miss it!
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