As the third episode of Station Eleven begins, Miranda Carroll (Danielle Deadwyler) walks down the road and repeats the lines from the Station Eleven book. She drifted into a stranger’s galaxy for a long time, but she found it and is safe now. It is Chicago 2005 and Miranda is going to an interview with Leon. When Leon asks her strongest quality, Miranda says listening and organizing because she remembers everything. He remembers Miranda and the fact she is from Kankakee. He checks her resume. Although she has plenty of skills, she doesn’t have much experience. She worked for her father’s company doing the books for him. They begin discussing logistics before Leon does a demonstration for her. After she is asked where she sees herself in 20 years, Miranda believes she will still be working for Leon or they’ll all be dead. He likes that answer.
We immediately jump ahead to Chicago 2020. Leon instructs Miranda to go to Malaysia although she just returned to Chicago. She needs to go because Jim Felps has somehow landed a pitch with Sinotec. Leon wants her to run the pitch. She agrees to go after doing one thing in Chicago. She quickly visits Arthur (Gael Garcia Bernal) who never thought he’d see her again. She gives him a copy of the Station Eleven graphic novel she recently finished. Young Kirsten (Matilda Lawler) asks who is on the front cover. Arthur turns to her and jokes it is the ahole who ruined his life. When she asks how they met, we jump back in time once again. Arthur finds Miranda sitting and drawing in a café so he decides to approach her. He thought he knew her, but she says she isn’t an actress. He says he likes Chicago because it is mellow and there are no paparazzi. He moves to her table before offering to buy her work since she is an artist.
Miranda says she is in logistics though. Arthur explains his friend is having a birthday party down the street and he didn’t buy him anything. He needs to bring him something and he thought one of her drawings would be a good present. She tries to leave but he stops her and offers to pay $1,000 for the drawing. Miranda laughs loudly before saying it isn’t for sale. Before she leaves, she tells Arthur he does look familiar after all. He follows her outside and offers to give her an interpretation of her work. Arthur reveals his dad is a poet. When his dad publishes something, he gets the editor to give him an interpretation to see if he gets his work. He doesn’t think it matters that he hasn’t seen her work because he has good instincts. When she agrees, Arthur says the subject of her work is a person who is alone and not a spaceman. He is adrift and a bit exhausted.
His heart is warmer and lighter than they realize. He goes on to say the spaceman wears the suit for protection. Miranda says nothing although she gives him one of her banana drawings. They exchange names before Clark (David Wilmot) screams for Arthur to come inside since he is already late. He invites Miranda to come with him, but she has to go home. Once Arthur goes inside, Miranda contemplates her choices and follows him. Next, Miranda meets with Jim in Malaysia in 2020. Jim says he is glad their companies found a way to work together although Miranda reminds him his company bought hers. As they step through the doors, they see Huang (Kurt Yue) who wouldn’t sign a deal without hearing from them first. They approach a table and talk to the receptionist. Miranda talks to the woman in another language and learns the pitch meeting has been canceled. A man arrives and gives the receptionist a gas mask.
Once she puts it on, she tells Miranda good luck and leaves in a hurry. Miranda quickly tells Jim. As they walk through the lobby, they find out they’re not going to get a signal and the hotel’s Wi-Fi is still down. Jim asks if she has her SAT phone because he left his in Indie. She looks around and suggests there are fewer people here than usual. Jim decides to talk to the warehouse boys to see if they know what is happening. Miranda seems out of it. She says she is going to get her SAT phone. In another flashback, she hangs out with Clark and drinks while Arthur talks to a friend nearby. He reveals he often ends the night talking to someone fascinating Arthur met three bars ago while Arthur chats with fans.
Miranda suggests she acquired Arthur before he calls Arthur over. He asks about her drawing which looks like a boat anchor. She says it is a feeling like cut and run. When a squall comes up so fast, you have to cut the anchor and go. Her father did that in front of them once. Arthur eventually comes over and asks for another round. They joke about Arthur and Clark being Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They find it funny when Miranda says they end up the same and get killed by Hamlet. Back at the motel, Miranda makes a coffee and gets in touch with Leon who says she needs to leave because the flu has mutated. He warns her that she only has 6 or 7 hours to leave and the Asian governments are controlling what is online to hide it. She will need to leave by sea using a tanker called the Robespierre. First, she’ll need to go to the desk to pick up the package with supplies he sent to her.
Leon tells her not to worry about anyone including Jim. As she rushes to the lobby, she says they barely noticed her and it was better not to be noticed. Once she gets the package, she runs into Jim who already knows about the collapse of civilization. He jokes about it and intends to golf before they realize they’ve overacted. Miranda tells him how she is going to escape and Jim jokes about that too. Again, he believes it will blow over and the conference will be back on. If that happens, Miranda warns him his pitch is weak and should be improved. As Miranda heads to the docks, she leaves a message for Arthur and admits she made a mistake. She claims she is coming to Chicago to find him somehow. We jump back again to see Miranda in Arthur’s grandma’s house. She talked about herself the night before and her banana paintings.
They sit down for coffee and talk about a movie. On a bus, Miranda talks to Leon who hears a woman on the bus coughing. He encourages her to move away and stay safe so she decides to get off the bus. Before she goes, she opens the package and finds a picture of the boat, keys, and a butterfly knife. In another flashback, Arthur tells Miranda about living on an island between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean for a short time. Miranda says her father used to take them swimming with the whale sharks. He cleaned boats for tourists so they sailed with no plan until she was eight. She says Hurricane Hugo came a few years later before suggesting she needs to leave. They end up having sex. Once Miranda gets off the bus, she walks the rest of the way to the boat. She gets a call from Clark confirming Arthur died. The revelation causes her to fall to the ground and hit her head. She drops the keys and they end up sinking in the water.
Miranda admits she shouldn’t have left. In a flashback, Arthur invites Miranda to come to California with him. Later, the couple goes to a red-carpet event. It is 2007 in Hollywood. One of Arthur’s friends, Elizabeth, approaches Miranda to warn her she called the people at The Daily Mail and told them they were the ones having an affair. She says it is absurd because he isn’t even her type and she’d never do that. As for Miranda, she is busy dealing with a supply chain crisis. Then, Arthur talks to someone on the phone about a legal issue while Miranda paints a picture of her spaceman. Arthur says she is his girlfriend although the paparazzi would treat her better if they were married. When Miranda steps outside and interrupts, Arthur learns her Spanish isn’t great. He says he found her phone laying on the grass so he picked it up and left it on the chair nearby. Later one night, Arthur worries about her not sleeping. Miranda says Leon called and wants to send her to Perth.
He doesn’t like that although he recently went away for four months to film a movie. He complains she is never there even when she is home because she is locked away in that little room. He also doesn’t like that she won’t let anyone see what she is working on. Arthur admits he doesn’t want to live the wrong life and die. During dinner, Arthur talks to the group although he seems to have a closer relationship with the woman he was accused of having an affair with. Tesch (Erin Alexis) asks about Miranda’s work and learns she isn’t going to publish it when she is finished. She doesn’t understand the purpose. Miranda says it is peaceful and makes her happy. She learns two guests just went to Fiji and they promise it was a rebirth. Clark says Tesch seems to get reborn every time she leaves the house. Then, she encourages them to visit Prague.
Tesch asks Clark who he is. He explains he worked with Arthur in the 90s and strived to be an actor, but he wasn’t good enough in the end. Arthur’s supposed flame talks about going and feeling like she was in the paintings she studied. Elizabeth (Caitlin FitzGerald) believes it was a stupid feeling although Miranda does. She mentions Miranda’s work. Miranda learns that Arthur took her to the pool house to see her work and that angers her. She holds up her glass and recites some of the lines from her book. Once she says something about burning every parasite alive, she dumps her wine out. Tesch asks if that is a quote before Arthur confesses that he wrote it. He tells them about the movie it was from and playing two parts in it. Clark heads outside and joins Miranda by the swimming pool. She quickly asks him when the relationship started with Elizabeth. Clark isn’t sure when it started although he believes Arthur got scared because he was falling in love.
He tells her about Arthur losing a role to Mel Gibson and says work isn’t life. Miranda believes the book ruined her life. Later that night, Miranda and Arthur talk about some of his movies and his relationship with Elizabeth. She says she always knew it would be temporary before saying the pool house is on fire. She passes Elizabeth on the couch as she leaves. Elizabeth gets up and sees what is going on. She notices that the pool house is on fire while Miranda says love makes work impossible. Miranda’s work is burned as well. Arthur looks at the book and says his son Tyler would love her book. Tyler is the son he had with Elizabeth. Miranda gives him another copy for Tyler. Back in Malaysia, she returns to the motel where the pitch was supposed to happen. She goes to the bar where everyone is watching television to see what is going on with the flu. She sits down, drinks, and checks on Arthur on social media. She finds Kirsten’s social media account and a picture of Arthur as King Lear.
Huang tries to get out but couldn’t. Jim believes they’re ready to make a deal. They agree to go land the deal. During her speech, Miranda drops it and begins talking to the businesspeople in English. She says they know the world is coming to an end. She says anything they do will matter now. However, she thinks it does. She begins telling everyone about the man she loved dying last night and her not being there. She complains about being there with them instead of being with Arthur. She asks why she wasn’t at the play with her love when he died. Huang and the others listen before Jim begins his pitch. Once they’ve finished, Jim and Miranda agree everyone is going to die. Neither has family back home. Jim admits he went playing golf because he didn’t know what else to do. She tries comforting Jim while admitting she is scared too. They agree to head to the front desk to get room-sealing kits. When Miranda talks to Leon on the phone, she pretends she got on the boat and is currently heading to safety.
She begins sealing her motel room. In a flashback, Arthur invites Miranda to stay with him for dinner but she quickly refuses. She says she can come back. In the present, she hears a knock on the door. When she opens the door, the spaceman enters. She says she has a job to do, but she has found him nine times. Miranda says she’ll find him again. There is no rescue mission and they’re already safe.
Station Eleven Review
The best thing Station Eleven had going for it was the relationship between Jeevan and Kirsten who was magnificently played by Matilda Lawler. The opening episode wasn’t perfect although it established an interesting plot that could’ve worked very well. Instead of sticking with what was working, the show has become a jumbled mess while pretending to be about art. In reality, it isn’t about anything.
Certain reviewers swore the third episode was the best and described it as a real turning point for the series, but I cannot agree with that assessment. It was tedious and frustrating from the first second with the show adding more shallow characters that we just don’t care about. Gael Garcia Bernal was great in Mozart In The Jungle, but he seems uninterested and uninspired here.
It doesn’t help that we’re never given the opportunity to develop any relationship with the characters. As for Miranda Carroll, the character was never given an opportunity to thrive, but at least the character was more tolerable than Jim. The actors and actresses were never really given the chance to turn this into a hit although it is HBO and will likely steal awards when all is said and done.
Having watched every episode twice to recap them, it is clear that the biggest problem is the confusing flashbacks. Not only are we getting flashbacks every five minutes, but we’re seeing three and even four time periods at once. Half of the things going on aren’t interesting and will likely matter very little in the end. The third episode could’ve been interesting if the first two had focused on these characters in the first two episodes. It doesn’t matter who is portraying the characters despite many praising it for this reason only.
If the character and dialogue aren’t strong, it isn’t going to work regardless. We shouldn’t ignore the unrealistic scenes here either. I am sure a Hollywood celebrity is going to meet his soulmate in a quiet café without being harassed by fans. Furthermore, the way Miranda dropped the keys in the water and the way she conveniently got them were silly too. I wouldn’t criticize people for dropping out now although I’ll likely stick with it to recap it and since there is nothing much better on right now.
The episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Station Eleven are available on Reel Mockery here.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
