As the second episode of The Change begins, Linda (Bridget Christie) checks her map. Carmel (Monica Dolan) and Agnes (Susan Lynch) talk about smashing their father’s headstone. They argue they could’ve had any career without him. Agnes says they won’t hand their legacy over to someone undeserving without a fight. If their father thinks he had the last word by dying, he has another thing coming. They leave Linda some food and knock on the camper door. Carmel watches her through the window until Linda closes the curtain.

Siobhain (Liza Tarbuck) calls Linda and urges her to pick up because she doesn’t believe what Steve has told her. Siobhain asks what makes her so special. She urges Linda to come home because the kids say Steve already smells. Joy (Tanya Moodie) does a show about male entitlement. Linda takes off on her motorcycle while the radio show continues. Carmel and Agnes call into the show to say they’re going to have a woman instead of an eel king at the festival. Linda goes into the building where Joy is recording. Once Joy finishes, Verderer enters to take over. Linda talks to Joy about hot flashes and apologizes about the bell when she came in.

Linda notices a painting of Tony on the wall and says they really captured the essence of him. Joy already knows about the caravan. Ryan (Sonny Charlton) offers them coffee. Joy tells Linda that Ryan is called they since they are nonbinary. Verderer (Jim Howick) starts his show talking about woke stuff. He says they’re up against the feminazis. When Verderer learns about the eel king, he worried that could tip the men of the village over the edge because they have nothing else. Joy tells Linda that he had a really hard lockdown. He lost a sister and his job so he went to the woods to end it all. Linda soon learns that Verderer is Ryan’s uncle. Ryan lives with him year around. Ryan invites Linda to their upcoming cat speed-dating night.

The charity helps set up homeless cats with the elderly. Linda is instructed to tell the sisters she doesn’t like eels or they’ll keep leaving them on her step. Linda walks through the woods while looking at her map. She sees someone walking nearby so she quickly hides from them. Linda believes she has found the tree she climbed as a kid. She manages to climb into the tree. A flashback shows a young Linda with a stuffed animal. She put the animal in a box which was eventually hidden in the tree. In the present, Linda looks for the box only to find that it is missing. Someone scraps something from the wall. The pig man (Jerome Flynn) comes by with his boars and finds Linda stuck in the tree. He agrees to warn them off because Linda is afraid of them.

Linda says men should be more self-aware of how threatening they can be to lone women. Once she gets down, the man says the pigs wouldn’t have harmed her. They’re young and lost their mother. Some people want to keep their numbers down. He doesn’t agree with that so he tries to keep an eye on them. Linda says she was looking for something but it is gone. The pig man offers to make her a nice cup of coffee to perk her up a bit. Linda says she is going to text to let them know while following him. William takes Linda back to his cave. He reveals he was a numbers man in the city and was adding up other people’s money all day. Linda notices a picture of William with his daughter before saying she doesn’t have any kids.

While Linda drinks with William, Carmel goes through the caravan. Linda finishes the coffee and William offers to show her back to the path. As they leave, Linda’s box is shown sitting in William’s cave. Siobhain finally gets in touch with Linda and complains about her leaving. Linda says she isn’t telling anyone she is married with kids so she won’t be judged for this. She confesses that the time capsule wasn’t there. Linda isn’t sure whether she is coming back. She doesn’t think she needs a reason to stay though because dads do away all the time. Siobhain gets upset and tells her to grow up and come home. Linda goes to the bar and sits with Tony who begins talking about gender-neutral bathrooms.

Linda admits she doesn’t know what she is doing there. He says they’re all there to get laid. Linda grabs them some drinks. William sits alone with the time capsule.

 

The Change Review

The second episode of The Change wasn’t as good as the first because it went off on a bit of a tangent about things that probably weren’t integral to the core story. The episodes are already short so it’d be better if it’d focus on the main story. All of the political stuff on the side was pretty unrealistic and unnecessary.

On the other hand, the episode improved when Linda returned to the woods and encountered William. The fact that William has the time capsule will create some interesting moments in future episodes. It really doesn’t need all the political stuff because the series is effectively moody on its own.

If it sticks to that, it can turn into an emotional trip. It also seems to be trying to accommodate both sides of the political argument when it really didn’t need to do either. Focusing on Linda’s emotional journey and the interesting people she encountered would’ve been enough to carry the show.

This episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of The Change are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.