Ayahuasca
Episode 7 of Love & Anarchy begins back home, with Johan speaking to Isabell and trying to cheer her up. Declining his suggestion of painting her room, Isabell instead wants to visit Lars. Johan is defiant though, telling her that even if he was Santa Claus, he won’t let her see him. It’s certainly tense at home and something that’s brought across to work too. Sofie apologises to Max for not texting back and confirms that Lars is a bit better despite still being admitted to the mental institute. Even worse, Isabell is blaming herself for what happened. Max does his best to lend a sympathetic ear, distracted by everyone else around him and focusing exclusively on Sofie. Holding her hand, he tells her that he’ll be there for her. That weekend, Max heads back home again and greets his younger siblings warmly. His Mother is not quite as warm, telling him he looks pale and to wipe his feet on the way on. Max immediately finds himself berated by his Mother who bemoans his new “relationship” with Sofie, especially given she’s married. Even worse, he’s blamed for the two boys smashing a glass at the table. The poor boy can’t get a break and while he gets himself cleaned up, he looks in the mirror and contemplates what to do next. While office romance continues to blossom, Friedrich decides to head off and do some soul-searching, bringing him to ingesting some strange tea known as ayahuasca. Dressed in white gowns, he prepares himself for what’s to follow. As he meditates, Friedrich starts to see visions of an empty office and all the different literary voices we’ve seen across the season that he’s wronged. Eventually Friedrich comes across himself, along with a series of surrealist scenes that show the fears brewing in his subconsciousness mind. Back home, Sofie and Johan continue to bicker with the former making Isabell her favourite cookies as a way of trying to cheer her up. Eventually she defies Johan and decides to take Isabell with her to visit Lars at the institute. Our three separate storylines all reach a nice conclusion by the end, eventually culminating in Max deciding to get naked and heading back home. Friedrich also returns to the office after some soul searching and apologizes to Caroline for shouting. Isabell and Lars meanwhile appear to patch up their differences.
The Episode Review
The penultimate episode of this average Swedish drama culminates in our characters hitting a crossroads and all coming to terms with the issues they’ve been confronted with across the season. Friedrich’s surrealist scenes are arguably the big highlight here while learning more about Max’s family life paints a picture of how difficult it’s been for him in the past. The empowering way he leaves the family home is pretty funny too but these small pockets of humour have been few and far between in what’s otherwise a very vanilla drama.
