Back at It Again with the End of the F***ing World

Following my last blog post, I decided to continue on with the series The End Of The F***ing World. “Episode 2” was the same length as “Episode 1” and I was still amazed at how much stress the writers could bundle into a short 18 minute episode.

This episode starts off with Alyssa and James standing outside of their crashed car, which was confusing because the last episode did not end with a crashed car. The writers used a flash forward and flash back to explain the situation and I thought it was an interesting add to the episode instead of everything being in chronological order.

After the scene flashes to present time, James is still having visions of killing Alyssa which I do not think will go away until he either kills her or someone else. At this time, Alyssa is feeling free and says they can do anything now, so of course they go play laser tag. I thought it was something fun that they would do to take their mind’s off of things. Instead, James had zero fun and Alyssa got them kicked out of another place, yet again. After getting kicked out, they go to another diner which does not seem too promising as Alyssa got them kicked out of one already.

While eating, Alyssa brings up a very good point that I was not thinking about previously -- when James’s dad was going to call the police. James’s said his dad would not call the police. That response shocked me because his home life was not like Alyssa’s; his dad actually cared about him. Alyssa took his word and asked if he had any money to which James responded no. Alyssa did not have any money either, so of course they dined and dashed. She explains that her dad told her “if it’s a chain, it’s free reign,” which she says is like Robin Hood but I do not personally agree.

At this time, they are back in the car and Alyssa distracts James by saying they should have sex in the car without stopping. This causes James to drive into a tree trying to get his shirt off. Without a car, they are forced to hitch hike with an odd man who is trying to buy a dog for dog fighting. This whole scene stressed me out because I was waiting for the driver or even James to kill someone. James was still having visions of killing Alyssa and the driver was giving off really weird vibes.

The driver takes them to another diner and Alyssa agrees with me by thinking he is a murderer. She ends up being pretty rude about it and abruptly leaves. James and the driver end up going to the bathroom and this is where things got weird for me. Alyssa decides she needs to apologize (Note: this is a first) so she goes back into the diner, the bathroom more specifically, and finds the driver has put James’s hand over his genitals. Alyssa ended up threatening the man by saying she’d call his family and tell them about his weird fetish if he did not give her his wallet. I was happy she did this because it shows that she does care about James.

Afterwards, they end up at a motel and Alyssa goes into the bathroom to cry. James, being James, pulls out his knife and invisions killing her again, until he could hear her crying through the door. She comes out and makes a call to her home and my heart broke during this scene. Her step dad answered and she asked to talk to her mom and he goes on to say that she does not want to speak to her. This whole time the mother was listening and did not do anything to talk to Alyssa. I totally feel for her when Alyssa said she does not want to go home ever again. The episode ends with Alyssa and James cuddling in bed, with James still picturing murdering her.

In the end, this whole episode was a circle of me hating and then feeling bad for the characters. This episode was not as stressful as the first one was, but I still was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I do enjoy this show but it is one of those love-hate relationships where I go from being entertained to wanting to completely stop watching. I probably will continue watching the series, and I hope to continue writing about how it goes.