CRZ22 – S2E09 – Caveat Emptor

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Caveat Emptor Let The Buyer Beware saw a battle of the wills between Pop and Ace/Augustin. It was the Cult verses the Resistance and both sides suffered losses.

Caveat Emptor – Pop vs Augustin:

Caveat Emptor was a hostage situation and battle of the wills. Augustin/Ace needed the info Pop had, but he was not going to give up that easily. Pop realizes that the letters between Warden Dale Lacey & Alan Pangborn are the key. He obtained them when he bought Alan’s trailer after he died last year. He pours over the letters. Augustin and the cult got to Dale’s wive, killed her and took her over for info on the Kid. She does not have any info, but knows about the letters and that Pop, the Collector, has them.

Pop heads to the hospital and finds Nadia and what happened to Chris. They are getting ready to leave when Chance arrives warning them of the Cult killing the people who didn’t respond to the noice and statue. They race to the Emporium but are stopped just short. The gun battle is not going well, when Abdi slams into the Cult’s car and kills them. The Resistance locks down the Emporium and sets up Pop’s pressure cooker bombs around the doors and windows. They discover Annie and her crew and question them. After Jamal is discovered, the Cult shows up outside.

Augustin calls Pop via CB and introduces himself. He offers safe passage out for Abdi, Nadia and anyone else in return for Dale’s papers. Pop says that he burned them, which he does later. Augustin calls Pop out for hitting Ace a lot as a kid. He say he ruined all four of the kids in his care. The battle of the wills via CB continues to ramp up. Augustin says they will kill Pop and take his memories of the letters, but offers to do it easy. Pop say no on retires these days. He says he has wired up a suicide vest and will kill himself first. So Augustin sends in the Cult.

Pop is buying time for the others. Abdi, Nadia, and Chris played a game as kids, They ran across the railroad tracks to escape Ace. The train is a mile long and takes a long time to get through town. The Resistance intends to do the same thing now. They fight their way though the Cult members and make it to safety. Pop makes his way back to his office, killing along they way. He injects himself with the mind altering drug on the way. When he arrives at the office Augustin is there. Pop attempts to blow himself up, but it fails. Ace kills him.

Caveat Emptor – Annie:

Caveat Emptor with Annie. She wants her Joy back and who ever gets in her way will fall. She fought her way across town killing cult members along the way. She and her group make it to the Emporium and join up with the Resistance. She is in shock and off her meds. Pop and the gang question each of the new new three and find that Jamal is a spy. They strap him to a bed and intend on pumping him with mind altering drugs to get info out of him. While the rest are distracted, Annie slips away and tires to get answers about Joy from Jamal. She wants to know where she in in the house. Jamal pushes he with his words. He asks her if Joy would be better with her, because of her condition. He also says when they are done with Joy she won’t recognize her. Annie seemed ready to torture him, but that push along with auditory hallucinations from her mom snap her. She kills him by stabbing him in the eyes with syringes.

After that, Annie floats along with the group. When the Cult breaks in she is force out of her daze and saves Chance and helps the Resistance group make it out and across the tracks. I feel she is going to push the group to go to the Marsten house to make an attack while most of the cult is cut off. But we will see.

King Connections:

All the floors and layers of the Emporium reminded me a lot of Jonsey’s Memory Warehouse he is trying to get info while being pursued by the enemy. We see the resistance fleeing across the railroad tracks to escape. It reminded me of the train scene from Stand By Me/The Body
We have Annie trying to get her way with a man strapped to a bed and dishing out vengeance on him like in Misery. Pop is called the collector and his Emporium holds things that people will give anything to get to. That plus the mentions of the Mellow Tiger take me back to Needful Things.

Here is a link to the Book and Audiobook. Check out the movie from Amazon or iTunes.

Closing Thoughts:

Caveat Emptor was a bottle episode but a powerful character study of Pop Merrill. When we see him constructing his suicide vest he switches out the batteries in the remote, but later he looks like he is removing them. He also injects himself with the mind altering drug. I really wonder if he could not come to killing himself and what remained of Ace. Was his gambit just to give the resistance time to escape? I just don’t know. Pope is a complex and deep character. He tried to get redemption from some of his past, but Nadia wouldn’t let him. Now she will regret it. Tim Robbins did a great job playing Pop and he will be missed.

 

Elizabeth from our FB group wants to know if we have seen this scene between Pop & Annie, will it happen in the finale, or was it just cut?

 

News:

For the rest of the seven weeks, a new episode will drop every week on Wednesday. You can find photos and descriptions in our Facebook group.
2 x 10 “Clean” the synopsis is as follows: “The opposite of Joy”

Season 2 Game Plan:

Season finale feedback is due Friday at midnight.

Sound Off:

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