Storm – As the third episode of Plum begins, Peter Lum (Brendan Cowell) works at Lost for Words. He goes inside and finds Tatiana (Janet Anderson) speaking on stage. He sees Charles in the corner. At one point, a man speaks about the police and Peter curses them. Bridget (Crystal Nguyen) speaks next. Peter steps out. Bridget follows him out and asks if he knows where to get any drugs. Peter asks how she writes like that. Bridget says she just looks inside herself. She urges him to write a poem. Next, Peter meets Renee (Asher Keddie), Ainslee (Talijah Blackman-Corowa), and Gavin (Vincent Miller). When they’re alone, Renee pressures Peter to tell Gavin.

Peter finds out that she is taking pills and drinking. Renee tells him to piss off. Brick (John Tui) and Charmayne (Maria Duplaa) work on the café. Once she picks out a piece of equipment, she’s told it’ll be delivered on Friday. However, Charmayne finds out that her card has been declined. She can’t believe it. Charmayne says she’ll have to come back. She immediately blames Plum. Peter and the others arrive at The Royal Grande Hotel. They check out their rooms. Peter goes to the pool alone. He calls Gavin to see if he wants to join him but Gavin doesn’t answer. Gavin tells Ains he’s not going to pretend like nothing happened. Peter ends up joining them while Gavin is ordering food. He sits down to watch television with them. Peter tells Gavin he’s going to smash the meeting tomorrow. Renee comes in and asks why no one is answering her calls. Charmayne goes home and looks at the holes in her walls. Peter begins experiencing issues so he leaves.

He walks into the hallway and has to lie on the floor. Peter eventually makes it back to his room. Brick manages to get the stuff for Charmayne. Peter gives Gavin advice before the big meeting. He says they’ll take their offer and explore it with the sharks. Brad Malifa and Lauren greet them outside. Plum is told that Coach Simmo wants to catch up with him. Brad tells Gavin they were the outcasts of the rugby league when they first started. Now, everyone wishes they could play there. Renee points out it wasn’t like this when Peter was playing. Midway through the tour, Renee pulls Peter to the side to see if he’s told Gavin yet. Peter isn’t going to tell him where they’re going after the tour. He’ll only tell Gavin if he knows something more. Simmo and Brad offer Gavin a full-back spot with full-back money. Peter says he’d love it. The contract is rookie on a sliding scale. Gavin gets upset and says it’s a whatever.

They end up arguing about it outside. Peter asks Gavin if has any idea what they were offering him in there. Renee and Peter leave so they won’t be late. At the hotel, Gavin says he’s sick of Peter just taking over. Ains comforts him. Gavin admits he doesn’t even know who Peter is anymore. Peter and Renee meet Liz Lombardo (Sara Zwangobani) who wants to get an idea of what is going on. Peter goes with Liz so they can talk. He tells Liz that he got knocked out cold once. Renee was ticked off because nothing was making sense to him. Peter admits he’s been feeling like this for a while. It seems to be getting worse. Peter says he’s never been an angry person. They talk about Peter’s outbursts. He doesn’t want to meet new people or do new things because he might not remember stuff. Liz suspects he has friends with the same symptoms although no one is admitting to it. She can give him pills to stop the seizures, but he has to find a reason to fight for himself.

When he says he has a kid and a girlfriend, Liz tells him to not forget about himself. Dana Hanlon (Jenni Baird) receives the video of Peter’s plane incident. Brick surprises Charmayne with her own café. Peter goes out with Renee, Ains, and Gavin. Renee thinks this would be a nice time to have a chat. Gavin learns the Storm wants to offer him the rookie contract after a little damage control. Peter asks what he’d do if he didn’t play. He suggests taking a year off to travel the world. Peter thinks he might want to weigh up his options. When Peter leaves, Gavin says he wants to go to the hotel. Peter tries to get in touch with Charmayne who ignores his call. Gavin finds something that Peter dropped. Peter tells him it’s none of his business. Renee tells Peter now is the time to tell him. Peter tries to calm him down. Gavin gets upset and claims Peter is only there because of what it gives him. He leaves with Ainslee.

Peter complains in his room. Sylvia shows up and begins speaking to him. She introduces herself as Sylvia Plath. Sylvia says someone was about to take her picture yesterday. She didn’t want them to because she knew she was about to cry although she didn’t know why. Peter claims he could never speak like that. Sylvia says he can speak about the game like that. They talk about words being so magical. Brick hangs out with Charmayne. She tries to get him to dance with her. They begin making out. Sylvia tells Peter to open the book and the words will come. She says she has to go because Ted is sleeping next door. Renee arrives moments later. She claims Gavin hates them and she blames Peter. Renee says he’s going to move back in with them. They agree they still love each other before having sex. As Renee sleeps, Peter talks about what she is. He opens the notebook.

In the morning, Gavin sees Renee going back to her room. Charmayne has slept at the gym again as well. Dana meets Dave (Matt Nable) and says she has the story. She claims it’s a father-daughter story from her point of view. Dana says he’ll be interested once all the players start realizing. She says there have been two suicides in the last 12 months. Dana believes Peter has it. She shows Dave the video. He tells her she’ll delete it if she’s smart. Dave asks her to move on because it’s a contact sport and they’re going to get hit in the head. Dana asks about his wife. She insists it’s going to come out and it’s going to be difficult whether it’s in his paper or not. Peter has another incident and asks a worker where he is. He insists he’s fine.

 

Plum Review

The third episode of Plum was okay, but the story is really just kicking the can further down the road. The story and Plum’s issues are obviously very compelling, but the series is barely about that. Instead, much of the episode was about poems, imaginary characters, and infidelity.

It definitely feels like Plum is never going to get to the point, confront the issue, and reach an emotional peak. On the contrary, this is starting to resemble another series about characters stuck in self-sabotage and downward spirals. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to sympathize with a character who continually makes things worse for himself.

All the side stories and progressive ideas certainly don’t add anything to the story. Today, it’s like any story can just incorporate these things and immediately get made regardless of the quality of the underlying content. Adding them here is just adding another thing to detract from Plum’s real issues.

Will the show ever address those problems? It might, but it’s already gotten to the point where it’s harder to care. This episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Plum can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.