‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ Ep. 5 ‘Sweet Surrender’ Review: “Birthday Celebration on Shrooms”
Birthdays are a time to celebrate life. They are a time to celebrate your life and the people who’ve helped guide you along the way. Some celebrations are huge, some are small and intimate. People come in and out of your life, but regardless there are always stable people. Whether those stable members are family or friends, they are usually always there. In the latest episode of Nine Perfect Strangers, we celebrate Zoe Marconi’s (Grace Van Patten) and her late twin brother Zach’s (Hal Cumpston) birthday.
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In a very intimate opening, the episode starts off with Zoe hallucinating and seeing Zach. They talk, namely about her lying and saying she and Zach were not close. He eventually disappears and she cries, her mother comes to her room and they cry together. We see the Marconis – Napoleon (Michael Shannon), Heather (Asher Keddie), and Zoe – go about the day as normal as possible. Zoe and Lars go back to the cave to let off steam, and Heather and Napoleon get a crazy adrenaline rush.
We also see Masha (Nicole Kidman) have flashbacks of the Connelly incident. She realizes she’s been neglecting Delilah (Tiffany Boone). The group meets for breakfast, and Lars talks about a very insane dream. The dream seems to trigger Tony (Bobby Cannavale) and Frances (Melissa McCarthy) is so out of it she falls asleep in her breakfast. Carmel (Regina Hall) is still very much dealing with her anger issues. Jessica (Samara Weaving) and Ben (Melvin Gregg) are definitely fixing their marriage which is why they went to Tranquillum.
The entire group seems to be getting close, which is what Masha wants. Her meditation shows her she’s been neglecting Delilah which leads them to talk. We find out a secret that Masha and Delilah have been keeping from Yao (Manny Jacinto). There is also a secret we find out about Lars, besides him being an absolutely cool guy. The episode ends on a weird note. The group is becoming closer, everybody dances while Napoleon sings. The Masha says something to Zoe that we’re all going to linger on until next week.
Jonathan Levine directs this episode of Nine Perfect Strangers, and David E. Kelley goes solo with the script. This may be the most well-written and directed episode. Also, the cast absolutely smashes this. Everybody comes together to create the perfect formula for this episode. The chemistry was amazing and it seems like we have officially found our footing. The therapeutic spa music is back in the score from Marco Beltrami and Miles Hawkins, and it’s so fitting, as the episode is very therapeutic for the guests and staff. Yves Berlanger’s cinematography continues to show the beauty of the property. There are some very beautiful wide shots in this episode. The shots fit given the uplifting and epiphany Masha has.
Nine Perfect Strangers is coming together very well. We still have a lot of things to solve, like who’s sending Masha death threats. We also don’t fully understand the psychotherapy she’s using. There are just a lot of unanswered questions that we need answers to in three episodes. This episode gave me faith in the creative team that the job will be done. – Rascal F. Kennedy
Rating – 9.5/10
Nine Perfect Strangers premieres a new episode Wednesdays on Hulu!