Welcome back everyone to the coverage of the show that loves to literally lock teenagers in a room and see what will happen! “Deadly Class” is back for another week of mayhem, and the school is under direct pressure to find out the truth of a student’s death. Shabnam starts to show his creepily weird side, Lex finally gets a bigger role, especially with Billy, and the Maria/Saya friendship is under strain. It’s a wild time in King’s Dominion, and it only continues to get more chaotic.
As always, keep an eye out for Spoilers.
1. Lockdown.
The show gets to experiment with random students locked into rooms together thanks to Lin’s schoolwide-imposed lockdown. It gives a good formula for the episode to cycle through multiple scenes with different students. We get to switch between the anarchic group of Marcus, Willie, and Viktor, to the venomous room of Maria, Juan, and Brandy, and to the more lighthearted and intimate group of Lex, Billy, and Petra.
However, it gives us the show a chance to put characters that wouldn’t normally interact together, which really helps move the plot forward. I feel like if Brandy and Juan weren’t there to whisper negative thoughts about Saya to Maria, she might not have immediately fought her back. By the same token, having Saya finally reconvene with her clique means that her friend gets to school her on honor, which pushes her to instigate a fight with Maria. It also means we see Shabnam being creepy around those two and adding hearsay about Marcus and the rats to their discussion.
2. Lex bares all!
I feel like it’s been too long since we got a good chunk of screen-time with Lex, and it’s probably for the best. In earlier episodes, he was arrogant, and something of a social mercenary, always ganging up to pick on and tease people like Billy. However, we get an animated origin about his life pre-King’s, and it’s interesting to see he came from a working-class family and, contrary to the overarching theme, didn’t have an awful father. Rather the opposite – Lex’s father ended up going to prison for something Lex and his brothers did, leaving him with a resounding feeling of guilt he’s tried to cover up with bravado.
We also get some relationship built between Lex and Billy, as they are stuck in the room with Petra both terrible at containing their feelings for her. The situation ends up in a hilarious proposal for a threesome, which the show keeps coming back to for comic relief. Lex and Billy’s constant teenage internal struggles with this idea are hilarious and kind of endearing for both characters. Petra ends up giving up on the two once the curfew is lifted, leaving them both in shock and disappointment.
3. Lin is on edge.
After seeing a more tender side of Lin in the past few episodes, we see him starting to crack under pressure. Gao is constantly at his neck, especially threatening that the Guild will investigate and punishing them hard for not finding out the truth behind Chico and Yukio’s death. We also see a side of Lin that is more terrified of Gao as she knows the secret about his still-living daughter Naya. This makes his action in enacting the lockdown in a terrifying manner all the more justified.
Lin also catches Marcus trying to sneak to Saya’s room, which gives them a chance to really catch up for the first time in a while. This is us seeing Lin at his professional best. He starts by beating up Marcus to weaken him, before exacting psychological torture. Lin plays old film reels he acquired of Marcus’ parents and infuses that with the subtle desperation he has to save his daughter from Gao and the Guild. It’s really powerful and honestly scary to see Lin on the edge of emotional anxiety and cutthroat professionalism.
4. Saya and Maria.
The budding friendship that I loved watching bloom in the first few episodes now appears to be in ruins. Having killed Yukio last episode to exact false vengeance for El Diablo, Maria now is fraught with more lies and deception, and tension is created between her and Saya. Early on, Saya blames it on Fuckface, as she’s not sure who else could have got to her like this, and the guilt shown on Maria’s face is palpable. Maria, however, also gets riled up easily whenever Marcus interacts with Saya, as they are want to do. Their friendship is clearly under immense duress.
Continued belowBoth characters are separated due to the lockdown, and their suspicions and paranoia are inflamed by their temporary bunkmates. The buildup of Maria by way of Juan and Brandy is more entertaining, as Brandy excels in playing mind-games with her victims, sowing the seeds of doubt in Maria. Maria and Saya inevitable confront in the cafeteria, only to be separated by Gao. Later, they try to reconnect, but Saya still sees that Maria doesn’t trust her, even from confiding in her about Yukio. It’s a big loss as the best friendship of the show has truly deteriorated, but it feels justly built up.
5. Marcus follows his heart.
Yes, Marcus is still here, and he’s as pesky and anarchic as every in this episode. Surprisingly, however, he doesn’t get anytime dedicated to his brooding internal monologue this episode, and doesn’t even really feel like the protagonist here! Regardless, his relationship with Maria is incredibly shaky at this stage, and they barely exchange glances at the beginning of the episode. Once we get to the lockdown scene, Marcus gets to be a dick about his music taste, as he reps his Joy Division t-shirts and scoffs at Viktor’s love of Bon Jovi.
Despite all this, Marcus actually gets something of a redemption moment at the end of the episode, after briefly reconnecting with Maria. He decides that he trusts his friends enough that he can confide in them the truth about the boy’s home. It’s compelling for a moment, especially for a character who so fiercely refused to fit in with anyone, before his friends and the viewers see the scope of what he’s telling them.
That’s it for this week’s Deadly Class! Were you disappointed that the threesome was cut short? Were you as charmed off your feet by Willie’s formal dress as I was at the end of the episode? Voice off in the comments, and don’t forget to come back next week for more coverage.
