Moving On
We begin episode 9 of A Teacher with Claire out on a tinder date and drinking beer. Things go well, for the most part, eventually leading to Claire heading home and admitting that she has an ankle bracelet because of what she’s done in the past. As they have sex, he talks dirty to her but she’s really not into him talking about her dirty her affair was. Between a monotonous job and an indifferent divorce settlement being signed, Claire finds herself all alone and struggling to turn to anyone for support. Instead, Claire heads over to her date’s house and asks him to hit her. She’s really into it too but he most certainly is not. After striking her hard across the mouth, he panics and asks if she’s okay; Claire simply collects her stuff and silently leaves. Eric meanwhile continues to struggle, apathetically lying in bed and indifferent to the whole college experience. He’s skipping classes and clearly has a different “vibe”, at least according to one of his friends. Eventually Eric heads out to a bar where a group of girls surround him and even get him involved in their toast. One thing leads to another and Eric winds up dancing with a girl (who does yoga) on the dancefloor. She’s just got out of a 5 year relationship though and is in no mood to hook up. Especially given Eric is “way too young” for her. Eric connects with her story, especially how she mentions the toxicity that plagued her previous relationship, something he knows all too well about. Back home, Claire returns and takes out her frustrations on her Father. Claire had a pretty troubled childhood as it turns out, something that eventually sees her break down and start crying. Her Father lends a sympathetic ear though, telling her she’ll find a way through. As the episode closes out, Eric heads home to see his Mum, finally accepting that he needs help.
The Episode Review
The hard cuts between scenes continues for A Teacher’s penultimate episode as we cut to time after last week’s filler. This time we see the somewhat subdued fall-out from what’s happened in the past between our two protagonists. Claire’s dating now and Eric is drifting toward therapy. Since the affair, A Teacher has really struggled to settle into a consistent rhythm. There’s no big fireworks, fights or really much in the way of melodrama to drive this series forward; instead this show centers on themes of acceptance. In particular, the acceptance of Eric to seek help and overcome the demons holding him back from healthy relationships going forward. That’s before mentioning Claire though, who also finds herself coming to terms with the predatory affair that’s ruined her life. A Teacher delivers better drama this time around but it definitely lacks that X-factor to make it a better drama than it currently is. It’ll be interesting to see how this one wraps up its storyline next week but right now it looks like finishing with a whimper rather than a triumphant roar.
