Anti-Zante – As the opening episode of Then You Run begins, drivers are caught in a snowstorm in 2005. A traveler (Christian Rubeck) speaks to Eva on the phone before he has to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of him. He falls asleep in his car. When he wakes up, he gets out and walks among the other stopped vehicles. He goes from car to car killing their inhabitants. He continues until a vehicle in the distance starts. The traveler gets back into his vehicle and drives away. After the intro, Reagan (Richard Coyle) asks about the yield of the crop.

Turi (Francis Magee) walks in and tells him they’ll have 28 kilos for the entire crop. He goes on to say it is roughly 450,000 euros worth of weed gone to crap. When Reagan asks about Orin (Cillian O’Sullivan), he is told he is likely out in the Range Rover. Turi tells him that the expensive sample is gone as well. Reagan tells Turi not to be merciful when he finds the girls. They find that one of their guys is frozen in the steam room even though it is 90 degrees in there. Reagan’s son points out that Orin is holding a remote despite there being no television around. Reagan questions why his brother is frozen in a steam room with no TV.

One month earlier, Tara (Leah McNamara) attends a funeral. Stink (Vivian Oparah) and Ruth (Yasmin Monet Prince) talk about it being an open coffin with Nessi (Isidora Fairhurst). Stink says she thought Nanny O’Rourke was scary alive. They approach Tara by the coffin and try to cheer her up. Stink says she is thinking about all four of them for Zante. Tara admits she wants to speak to her about that. After the ceremony, Stink tells Tara that she has to come because they’ve already booked everything. Tara explains she is supposed to live with family because she is only 17. Stink can’t believe she is going to have to go to Zante by herself.

She argues with Nessi and Ruth about their sexualities and being men magnets. Later, Tara tells them that she won’t be in Ireland for their end-of-school holiday. Instead, she’ll be in Rotterdam where her father has lived for years. Stink questions why he didn’t come to the funeral for his own mother. Tara gets upset, curses Stink, and leaves. Ruth reminds Stink that Tara has no one else. Orin approaches Tara who says they have to talk. Orin shows her his car and welcomes her to the Netherlands. Tara is shocked to see how nice Orin’s house is. Once he takes her inside, he says he wanted her room to feel special.

Then, he shows Tara where he writes his ditties. He knows it is terrible he wasn’t there to bury his mother, but he insists he couldn’t. Orin also knows he hasn’t been a real father to her. He takes her to meet Saskia (Lea Marlen Woitack). When Tara learns the pool is out, Saskia tells her she can swim at the beach. Once she is alone, Tara finds a bat under a cabinet in the kitchen. She goes into another room and looks through the dresser. She finds a picture of someone in a book. When Orin joins her, Tara suggests her finds can come for a visit. Saskia doubts she’ll get much out of him because he is in work mode looking for one of his commercials on television. Tara asks why she is always in the basement if the pool isn’t working.

Saskia thinks she should ask her father about that because she doesn’t make the rules. If she did, she’d tell Tara to clean up her mess. When Tara sees her outside later, she imagines beating her with the bat. At the beach, Orin mentions that Tara’s 18th birthday is coming up so he wants to do something for her. He thinks it is time she met the rest of the family including Uncle Reagan. Tara says she saw a picture of her mom in front of the hotel. She reveals that she remembers the crash although she doesn’t remember all of it. Tara is introduced to Reagan who says she looks like her mother. Darian (Darren Cahill) tells Tara that his dad, Reagan, has a courier business.

Reagan tells Jakob (Konstantin Lindhorst) that he didn’t expect to see him this evening. He gets Davey (Aron Hegarty) to translate for him. Reagan asks Jakob why his friends found him in Rotterdam instead of Kraut-country where they left him. Davey tries to translate for him, but he can’t do it successfully. Jakob eventually says he is only there because Dagmar’s people sent him. He explains that they want him at the coastguard’s office. Reagan asks if Dagmar put him with the coastguard to spy on his harbor. Jakob promises to tell them lies. Tara watches as Turi grabs Jakob and puts sulfuric acid on his hands. Tara translates for Reagan and sends Jakob a warning.

Reagan tells Orin to babysit his kid before saying this is no surprise to him. In the morning, Tara asks Orin what Reagan meant by that. She thinks her mom was crazy and that may be why Reagan doesn’t like her. Tara knows Reagan is a drug dealer. Orin says he was a mess after the crash so Reagan brought him there, forced him to work, and saved him. His mom wouldn’t take his money because she knew how Reagan made his. Tara wants to see what is in the box in the studio. She wants the code to the swimming pool and she wants her friends to visit this summer. Orin agrees to let her friends stay for a week and let her use the swimming pool, but he asks her to leave his studio alone.

Once she goes into the locked room, she sees Orin’s weed-growing operation. Ruth and Nessi get off the bus while Stink finishes speaking to Marten (Anton Nurnberg) about music. Marten follows Stink off the bus to tell her about the upcoming poetry slam tonight. Stink is surprised that he has a girlfriend named Kira. The girls get tired of waiting for Tara. Stink tries to convince a local vendor to give them food since they don’t have a lot of money. She returns to the others with weed that the pizza guy sold her. He’ll bring more when they meet him at the beach. The dealer, Mirko (Lazar Dragojevic), told Stink there was a party there tonight.

They contact Tara again to ask her to come to the beach. They see Marten sitting alone nearby, but Stink doesn’t want to go over because he had his chance. When she changes her mind and goes over, Marten says they should’ve ended it back in Hamburg. He reveals that he wanted in on Kira having oral sex with a slam poet. Marten really thought she was his soul mate. Stink gets a call from Tara, but she doesn’t seem to notice it. Tara struggles to talk when attempting to leave a message. Later, Stink notices the voicemail and says Tara didn’t say anything. They use Find My Friends to track her location to “Das Haag”.

Mirko emerges from the water and realizes they left him. The girls make it to Orin’s house. Tara opens the door before collapsing to the floor. They find drugs and manage to wake her up. After Tara throws up, she says she saw her. In a flashback, Tara sees her mother on Orin’s laptop. She tells Stink and the others that she saw her mother. In a flashback, Orin reminds her that he told her not to come in there. She sees drugs in his box. Tara goes after Orin to ask who that was. She heard the woman saying she is 18 and it is hers now. Orin is forced to tell her that the hotel is hers. Tara’s mom isn’t dead even though she remembers the car crash.

Orin says she wants to worm her way back into Tara’s life now. She wants to lure Tara up to Norway to the motel. Glimpses of a flashback show Tara attacking Orin. Tara takes the girls to the deep freezer that contains Orin’s body.

 

Then You Run Review

The opening episode of Then You Run slowly developed an interesting story that could become very fun as it progresses. Tara O’Rourke is sent to live with her father, Orin, after the passing of her grandmother. She soon finds out that he is involved in a drug operation and her mother may not be deceased. Tara will likely inherit a motel once she is 18.

When her friends come for a visit, they are shocked to learn that Tara has killed her father. There is also a killer on the loose who is only being called the traveler. While this episode didn’t cover it, Tara and her friends will likely be pursued by Reagan and his gangster friends. On paper, the story sounds great and it could get better with a few more episodes.

Based on the first episode, the pacing was a little slow with the dialogue rambling about insignificant subjects at times. Some of these scenes made the characters unlikeable and even annoying. That is going to make it difficult to genuinely care about the outcome so there may not be anyone to cheer for.

The pacing will probably be a lingering problem considering there are eight episodes in the series. Regardless, the first episode was interesting enough to keep me around for a couple more episodes just to see where the story goes next. We’ll see if it manages to achieve and maintain any intensity as the gangsters search for Tara or whether it runs out of steam midway through.

The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Then You Run can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.