In The Knick’s Season 2 premiere, Dr. Thackery gets his sea legs.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…
Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick returned tonight with a somewhat more intimate start to the season than we saw back in last fall’s freshman run. Soderbergh’s style – notably the true “star” of the series – is still set to sometimes put viewers in a state of detached unease, but “Ten Knots” very purposefully picked things up with each individual character, relying on our actual investment in where things left off with them to carry us through.
Clive Owen’s Thackery was far worse off after being in what 1901 considered “rehab,” Andre Holland’s Edwards was now on the cusp of possibly taking over for Thackery full time (bad time to have a detached retina), and Chris Sullivan’s Cleary remained dead set on getting Cara Seymour’s Harriet out of the women’s penitentiary (presumedly with cash earned using his fancy new ambulance and sponsoring catch-as-catch-can wrestlers).
So Season 1 had the responsibility of making us invest in all, or most, of these characters as their journeys would be more instrumental than the overall style when it came to carrying us into these next ten episodes. And, fortunately, there’s still room to grow. Elbow room for surprises. Gallinger (Eric Johnson) was a curious case back in Season 1 because we followed him so closely and all he offered up was a bigoted spirit and a series of extremely unfortunate life events. Here however, in “Ten Knots,” he took a drastically proactive turn by kidnapping Thackery and taking him out to sea for some cold turkey torture.
All of which, of course, was meant to benefit himself, but no one else was going to rescue Thackery from his facility-enabled drug spiral. Also, in hauling Thackery out on the boat and giving him this tough-love treatment, to get him back in fighting shape, Gallinger almost accidentally revealed more about himself, and his childhood, than the show ever allowed before. And you got the sense that Gallinger was reared using this type of harsh, unflinching treatment. In fact, it’s probably what allowed him to endure all the sinister turns his life took last year with his wife and daughter.
The boat/knot rehab also had another outcome, aside from getting Thackery clean. It sort of turned addiction into one of Thackery’s new medical targets, so it’s possible that much of this season will deal with him searching for a cure. Which is a dangerous prospect considering how there is no “cure.” So would Thackery be someone who’d actually figure out that regimented steps and the re-structuring of one’s life is the best track? Or is he going to hurl all new forms of antiquated barbarism at this problem?
Cornelia (Juliet Rylance) kicked off the premiere out in San Francisco, getting trampled while trying to help out in the bubonic plague quarantine zone. And this notably being the third plague pandemic, we’d also discover that Speight was dealing with it back in New York. Anyhow, Cornelia remains trapped as ever in this man’s world of contempt and patronage. And now she’ll have to move in with Phillip’s father, who we already knows has nasty intentions for her. So it may be safe to assume that she and Edwards will find their way back to one another simply because she’ll soon be in distress.
Meanwhile, Eve Hewson’s Lucy is trying to make amends with Michael Angarano’s Bertie, who’s currently still at the Knick even though it’s in the process of moving uptown (and he’s been betrayed by two people he once held dear). He seems fine rebuffing her attempts to reconcile, though less fine with having to do surgeries without Edwards (who’s keeping his eye problems a secret). The Walking Dead’s Emily Kinney is supposed to be joining the Knick this season as, I believe, a nurse, but I didn’t spot here in this opener.
Whether or not the first season was successful in making you fully care about these characters, Soderbergh’s camera work and Cliff Martinez’s perpendicular electronic scoring always make the Knick a very absorbing, atmospheric experience. Scenes are either designed to suck your in or push you out, depending on the messages at hand. They range from fly-on-a-wall to super-intimate settings, without ever quite repeating the same note.
Broken ground ushered in a new era for The Knick, both thematically and physically, as the hospital’s poised to make a big cross-city move. Meanwhile, as usual, anyone’s life can take a violent slide into misfortune at any point, though misery is often the focus here. Fortunately, Soderbergh’s versatile style can service many thematic masters and his skill with atmosphere helps elevate both performance and story.
