From the series’ start the character Amantha, Daniel’s sharp-tongued, slightly-manic but fiercely-devoted sister, established herself as a force to be reckoned with. But now, in the show’s second season, I’m beginning to think that not only does her bark greatly outweigh her bite, but that in some ways Amantha relishes her role, especially in those moments when she appears to be thinking, “Hold me back, y’all!” while expecting that someone will. However, the concluding scenes in this week’s episode may lead to some heavy duty jaw-snapping soon.
As Amantha and Janet wait for Daniel to awake from his induced coma, Teddy is frustrated with his father Ted who doesn’t see the need for “specialization” to improve the tire store’s lagging business. But he also praises his dad while explaining to his younger step-brother Jared that Ted, Sr. saved the store after Jared’s father almost lost it. He was, of course, also Daniel’s father. The Teddy vs. Daniel animosity does not improve. After his obvious efforts to avoid Tawney, even going as far as to try to spend the night at the store, Tawney decides to tell Teddy about Daniel’s request to kiss her. Teddy reservedly takes it in but I could almost hear his blood boiling as he walked out of the door. As Janet said last week, Tawney means well. But her common sense is seriously lacking. It also needs to be said that actress Adelaide Clemens has been outstanding in this role.
Jon Stern—Amantha’s lover and Daniel’s lawyer—visits Hollis, a death row client who is about to be executed because of new DNA evidence, something that exonerated Daniel. The irony is not lost on Hollis, nor on Jon as Hollis compares himself and the evidence to a sleeping giant.
In another one of Daniel’s prison flashbacks he receives a pamphlet on mental illness. Reading it does not garner the response the author was probably expecting when Daniel once again turns on the rage, an event that greatly pleases his sicko cell neighbor. When Daniel calms down and attempts to sleep, his neighbor only becomes louder, shouting “Wake up! Wake up!” And suddenly we are back in the hospital with Daniel waking from the coma and momma beside him as he says something about “doing it again”. But then the moment is gone and he’s back to his self-effacing ways, cracking jokes. It’s just another one of those times when he says something that makes you sit up and go, “What was that?”
Bobby Dean does a lousy job of “laying low” after the ass-kicking he and his buddies gave Daniel. So one of the guys busts his drunken face. But it gets worse as a young boy identifies Bobby as the man who beat Daniel and urinated on him, leading to Bobby’s arrest by Sheriff Daggett. In this moment, I thought of Amantha’s most probable reaction. Along with the other sleeping giant, Daniel, it gives us much to look forward to next week.