When last we left our healthy twin and angry rebel, our twin became curious about what was driving our angry rebel.
White also became suspicious that Gram and Black’s Ex (?) betrayed him
He reports this to Todd, but also feels Gram wasn’t surprised when he reappeared as Black. They agree to look into it further.
White returns to the garage and finds Sean with his mural painter friend in their bed. After she’s gone, White fusses about body fluids. It sounds like nothing sexy happened but Sean pretends something did and threatens to pee on their bed. How territorial. He shoves White into the sheets and smothers him with blankets. Sean is bad at flirting.
White gets upset and teary-eyed before stomping off. Sean looks surprised and confused.
White’s fine at school later. Gram gets a call from Eugene and steps away to take it. White worries they are onto him.
It’s time for them to train body and soul
White doesn’t know what’s happening, but does painful stretches with Sean and runs across roofs. Everyone hero-slow-mo jumps over a big gap between buildings but he hangs back. Gumpa says it’s about fighting fear and YOLO, then does his own slow-mo jump.
White does a magnificent screaming flail across the gap. He voice-overs that fear and bravery are opposites that go hand in hand. Sean is bravery and he is fear, and they’ll accomplish things together.
Sean wants to run around more but no one else does. White drags Gram away to study but meets eyes with Sean. He’s determined to earn Sean’s trust.
After White is gone, Sean talks about how Black has changed. Gumpa thinks Sean is overly interested in White.
White wants help studying… Sean?
He keeps asking Gram about Sean’s mission plan. Gram tells him to wait. They switch to studying for school, but it all goes back to Tawi and how he stays above the law. White keeps playing devil’s advocate to get Gram to articulate his views. Gram gets frustrated, thinking White is against their cause.
Gram escapes to make food and White searches his stuff. He finds a keepsake that makes him wonder if Gram liked Black. White suddenly leaves and Gram calls Sean.
He goes to meet with Todd and check on Black. Black’s looking better but still in a coma. White thinks Black wouldn’t have told anyone about him, so no one would guess he’s Black’s twin.
Yok continues to literally pursue UNAR until the cops show up and they run away together. UNAR plays hard to get, punching him and running again. Yok got his wallet, but this reveals that UNAR is a cop!
White gets a strange, cut-off call from Sean
He runs to the garage and is grabbed, knocked out, and tied up. He wakes up on the ground next to Sean, who is also tied up. They try to untie each other but are caught, and menacing men with guns demand to know who they are working with.
When they threaten to kill Sean, White gives everyone up.
But it’s another test! This time from Sean. White failed! Who were those men? They just vanish.
White is pissed and unapologetic. He argues that namelessly dying is pointless and that having no clear principles will set people against them. This is what he was trying to get across to Gram earlier. But now they think he’s working against them.
We learn the plan and it’s juvenile
They’re going to break into Tawi’s soda factory and add something to make it bitter. White thinks this will make people hate them. Sean doesn’t care.
White tries to reason with Sean, but Sean focuses on how different he’s behaving. White says time changes people and he sees things differently now, which is true — about White.
Sean won’t let go of Black’s personality change. White keeps trying to argue for a safer, more focused plan. But Sean is drinking and eventually grabs White’s neck, messes with his hair, and collapses on him.
We see Sean’s nightmares, White doesn’t
Sean’s father was killed by the police. They claim he was involved in the drug trade. Sean demanded to know who killed his father, but they wouldn’t tell him.
White gets whimpering Sean snuggles again, only to be shoved away in the morning again. He has a sense of humor about it. Sean wants to know if he’s curious about his dreams, White says he’d tell him if he wants to know. Sean says to kick him awake next time.
They have a pre-mission meeting. White tastes the bitter stuff they’re using and it’s so awful he objects even more to using it. Sean shoves something sweet in his mouth and makes him swear not to interfere with the plan.
But he interferes a lot
First, he gets caught by a guard and tries to talk his way out of it. Sean takes the guy down, having already knocked several other guys out. White is horrified and asks him how far he’d go. Sean gets indignant, pointing out he’s not enjoying it and could use encouragement. It’s kind of cute.
White apologizes, he’s trying to get Sean what he wants, support. Sean doesn’t care.
Meanwhile, Yok is working out his UNAR feelings at Gram. Gram thinks Yok is a sucker for love. Yok thinks Gram isn’t. Gram admits he’s in a one-sided love (for Black?) and Yok says Gram is worse than him. It’s a nice quiet moment during their tense mission.
And then White interferes more
Yok and Gram provide distraction and White goes to the soda tanks. Instead of adding the bitter stuff, he sits it near the tanks and takes a picture.
Sean is super angry but they get discovered and have to run. White gets caught and beaten up. Sean saves him, but it’s so that once they escape he can whack him with a helmet and strangle him.
Sean says he trusted him and tells him his Dad died because of Tawi. White monologues that as he started to lose consciousness he worried he’d done the wrong thing and Sean might kill him if what he did didn’t work. White, he might kill you right now.
It’s a Love Strangle
White’s character arc so far is great. He’s gone from being against what they are doing because of naivety, to seeing their point. Now he wants to help, but how he wants them to achieve their goals clashes with Sean’s intense passion and beliefs. I like that White understands this, he admires Sean’s vision and ferocity and doesn’t want to change him, but he wants to help. He’s very forgiving about being strangled.
How much of this admiration is also romantic? I think it’s this episode where it really starts, with him getting so upset about mural friend and getting smothered in blankets.
I don’t think Sean gets it, which is why he was so startled by White’s reaction to being smothered. Sean also has all his memories of Black to confuse him further. I can understand why he’s more on guard, expecting White to turn back into a jerk like Black and suspicious about why he’s behaving differently. I think expecting him to feel romantic right now is too much, but curious and interested? Yes, he’s there.
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