one crowded apartment catchup.
[ episode catchup, since I have been failing. ]
Episode 2: AIRED APRIL 23rd
A Hua-Yao-centric episode. We see glimpses of her past where she owned a Chinese restaurant and was nearing the end of the process to become an American citizen before the bomb hit. We see how she lost her building when things were re-districted, and eventually was forced to move to District 2.
Ernest Thomas shows up a few times, making advances that are somewhat subtle, but the audience would have an idea of what is going on.
There is some trouble between Pablo and Raj, mostly because of Pablo's resistance to someone else living in the apartment. Hua Yao takes charge and tries to get them set up more comfortably, but there is obvious tension between the two men.
At the end of the episode, Rupa quietly tells everyone that she has lost her job, refusing to give details. She hands Hua Yao all the money she has left for that month, and promises that she should be able to find work soon and get the rest of the rent money.
Episode 3: AIRED APRIL 30th
A Priti-centric episode. Pablo is noticeably gone this episode, with Hua Yao and Raj wondering where he has gone. This episode follows a lot of Priti's daily life at school, and the problems she has there. While she attends school with people from other ethnicities, she is the only Indian in her classroom, and is picked on a lot by bullies-- especially because she will often fight back. The episode starts with her and a bully fighting on the playground, and yet she is the only one punished.
Rupa is madly searching for work, willing to do almost anything, but still can't seem to find a job. She is looking far less optimistic as she goes, struggling to be positive as she hustles through District 0 and faces a lot of racism.
While at school, Priti's teacher demands to know why Priti hasn't paid the fee for their field trip to the zoo. Priti makes excuses, and that night at home tries to approach her mother for the money while they are about to go to sleep. Rupa tries not to cry but then tells her that there isn't money for it, and she will just have to stay at home with Hua Yao instead.
But the next morning Rupa is gone before Priti wakes up, and Priti lies to Raj and tells him that she needs to be walked to school. In the bustle of all the first graders getting onto the bus, Priti sneaks on and hides until they arrive at the zoo. When her teacher realizes that she has come all that way, and is unable to reach Rupa (since Rupa does not have a cellular). The teacher is forced to sit outside the zoo with Priti for awhile, but then says she must go and check on the group of students inside, and leaves Priti unattended. Priti cries and walks over to the park across the busy street.
While she is playing there, Raj is walking by and she recognizes him. She tells him that the teacher wouldn't let her go in, and that her mother didn't have the money-- he is obviously upset to have been an accomplice in putting Priti in a bad situation by walking her to school, but takes her to an ice cream parlor and they have a sweet conversation, in which Priti gives up a bunch of secrets about what she knows about her dad, how her mother still cries a lot, and more. Raj promises to take Priti to the zoo one day.
Raj promises to keep Priti's secret, and takes her back home. That evening Rupa comes home extra late, looking disheveled, but happy. She announces that she got a job as a dishwasher. She also has a very small, cheap looking stuffed elephant that she gives to Priti with a kiss, saying that one day she promises that they will go to the zoo. Priti tells her that Raj told her the same thing, and Rupa and Raj look at each other a bit uncomfortably before Rupa nods and says that the three of them can all go together.
[ This week the iHolo download of the show peaked into the top five show downloads sometime around the past Saturday afternoon, but then was overcome by other shows. ]