Review: ‘The Curse’ Episode 9
Just as the previous episode of The Curse dissected the complicated and painful ‘friendship’ between Asher and Dougie, Young Hearts dismantles Whitney and Asher’s ‘relationship’. I put these dynamics in quotes since the two episodes make it clear that that they are toxic and damaging at their core. In both cases, these characters’ benign and even friendly interactions are soon eclipsed by the tragedies and neuroses underpinning their lives and how they view themselves.
For Dougie and Asher these problems are fairly self-evident, even if both men are able to delude themselves into thinking that they are inherently cursed to feel miserable and alone. But what makes The Curse such a compelling watch is how it gives us constant insights into what Whitney is thinking, while never giving us a clear answer as to how aware she is of her own delusions. Even as the season is coming to close, (and potentially the entire series) Whitney is still unbearably consistent in upholding her progressive values. Is she fooling anyone? Clearly, no one else buys the act (for as fawning and desperate as Asher is, I’m still not entirely convinced that he believes she has pure intentions). Maddeningly, she might be the only person still buying into her inherent goodness.
As Asher crushes whatever was left of his dignity in his urgent pleas to her to close out Young Hearts, she’s clearly disturbed by his outburst, but it’s still possible that her sense of self-importance is so high that she will happily take back the man she viciously cut down in her ideal version of Fliplanthropy. The closing scene walks such an impressive tightrope with her character, where her duplicity is so complex that I couldn’t tell if she was mostly angry that her documentary series didn’t take the cruel route she wanted it to, or if she was shutting down out of guilt at what was to come. Her coldness mirrors how close she came to breaking down at the end of the episode’s fifth season after her and Asher’s dilemma over whether they should sell one of their homes to Mark.
I understand if some viewers find it hard to sympathise with Asher, since he clearly isn’t a good person. His callousness towards a customer at his old casino job, with CCTV footage of him laughing behind her back at the fact that everything she earns that day will be rendered void, is genuinely repulsive. But I find it heart-breaking how, as Asher recounts all of his flaws to Whitney and tells her exactly what she wants to hear, he specifically mentions how he understands that taking on Mark as a buyer was a mistake.
Of all of Asher’s missteps throughout this series, this is one of the few moments where he was completely in the right. But just like any abuse victim would, he has accurately pinpointed that the only other time that Whitney has ever shut him out like this is after the couple agreed to sell their home to Mark. As he disregards his own personality and self-worth for Whitney’s benefit, he becomes increasingly perceptive about what to say to appeal to her self-indulgence.
As Asher now becomes aware that the dominant problem in his life is that his relationship is teetering on the edge of destruction, he abandons all his previously held beliefs that he is cursed. I’m curious to see how the season finale will play out in relation to that idea, since it complimented the show’s voyeuristic shot placements and slow, creeping camera movements so well. Now that all the mysticism has been removed from Asher’s life, I worry that the show might lose its sense of eeriness and dread in its season finale.
But I can’t say that I’m not anxiously awaiting the season’s final episode. Judging by its title alone, Green Queen, Whitney’s planned title change for Fliplanthropy, I wouldn’t be surprised if Asher finds himself alone and unloved by the end of it. What is certain is that I will be watching many of the episode’s scenes peeking out of the gaps in my open palms as I cover my face, just as eager to know what comes next as I am to look away from how impressively awkward and cringe-inducing this series is.
