Spoilers follow for Y: The Last Man's eight episode, "Ready. Aim. Fire.," which premieres Monday, Oct. 18 on FX on Hulu.
Y: The Last Man zeroed in on one of its three ongoing stories this week in "Ready. Aim. Fire.," unfurling a mystery regarding the PriceMax crew and all the converging combustible elements housed under that roof. Threading through all of it was Roxanne's lie, which was revealed over several flashbacks, allowing this chapter to be the best of the series so far (though we're in "too little, too late" territory here), saddling up to both the themes of survival and the ever-enticing "apocalypse reinvention fantasy."
Missi Pyle's Roxanne was gifted a few extra psychotic layers this week when we learned that she'd tricked all the others from the women's shelter into following her, exploiting various methods of psychology to galvanize them against men while having them trust her as a former societal authority figure. This week, we found out that Roxanne was merely an ex-PriceMax employee who discovered she enjoyed killing women with reckless abandon whenever they tried to enter her domain. Her life as a police detective was just a story, though it was still one peppered with actual experiences from her own life, making her performance natural and the lie easier to sell.
Roxanne was able to evolve in "Ready. Aim. Fire.," moving from what was seemingly a one-note brute to a cunning manipulator, and Pyle's performance here was able to show us the cracks in her facade, especially when we watched Roxanne shoot a former member, Kate, in the back (which was the woman Hero tried to save back in "Karen and Benji"). Roxanne is now, basically, convincing these women to do exactly what she did. She's getting them to shed their former lives and build themselves back up anew, into stronger versions, with new names, all hating on the same (now) non-existent enemy. It's very Negan-esque and it surrounds Roxanne with a pack to protect her.
Trapped within this big reveal about Roxanne are Hero, Sam, and Nora all trying to survive the cult drama. With Sam and Nora being pushed out, both for reasons tied to men (Sam being a man and Nora not hating her late husband), Hero finds herself being drawn more into the PriceMax mind-warp. She's at odds, at times, with Roxanne's techniques of trying to make her resent her father and brother, but it's still an enticing offer for her (though perhaps any reason to not reach out to her mother is enough for her). Sam and Nora are in danger, however.
Not in immediate mortal peril, no, but they're not long for this group. Sam takes the initiative and leaves (finding himself in a school with a kind, but maybe crazy, principal who's convinced kids will somehow return to class) but that option's not available to Nora. And so Roxanne clashed directly with a parent willing to do absolutely anything to keep their kid safe, which is a force unto itself.
Interestingly enough, Nora didn't pull the "Hero is the president's daughter" card yet, but she also didn't have to. First she lit up the entire PriceMax, causing huge fire that depleted the stock. And when that didn't work the way she wanted (she'd hoped it would convince Hero to leave), she fortuitously found evidence of Roxanne's lie. Now she's the woman behind Roxanne and the newly dubbed "Daughters of the Amazon."
This episode's focus on this one story, which also happens to be the most surprisingly interesting arc of the season, allowed for an intriguing probe into the crafting of a cult. Roxanne's motives are selfish, and her methods when cornered can be homicidal, but overall this gang is supportive and strengthening endeavor. A harsh one, most definitely, but right now they're all keeping to themselves. They're not out there stealing from others or causing mayhem on the open road.
As we leave them though, the Daughters of the Amazon are being led by two women, who don't like each other, who will do whatever it takes to come out on top, which makes it a very engrossing and unpredictable storyline.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3B55JdD
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