The focus mostly shifts from the community center and into the lives of the seven. Frank’s grandson, Tom, wants to ask out a girl at school. His tepidness is compensated by Frank’s confidence who asks him to tell his friends that Lady Gabriella will be at the party. While at lunch at the center, the group discusses each other’s secrets. Myrna, Frank, and John accidentally stumble upon Christian’s stash from the other night. The three decide to meet at the party and dispense with the bag. Meanwhile, Rani gets excited by the prospect of spending a night with Christian and his sister, Es. She agrees to help Es study for tests in order to get into a good college. But, Christian decides to leave the two alone. Es and Rani then play a game of answering and asking questions to know each other better. Their conversation reveals Rani’s feelings toward Christian. The action shifts to the party. The guests start arriving but there is no sign of Gabriella yet. The Lady has her own night of suffering going on. Earlier in the day, her girlfriend agrees to meet her to discuss their relationship. Gabriella has an outburst and her friend leaves, accusing her of “never being able to change”. She frequents bars and junk food places, only to think about her own attitude and the lack of control she has over her anger. Gabriella stalks her girlfriend outside her house and is angry when she sees her with another woman. In this state, she continuously rams into a stranger’s car while at a drive-through and gets locked up again. With no one to call, she remembers the card Greg gave her at lunch at the center. Greg reaches the station and, using his smarts, outwits a paparazzi waiting for Gabriella outside the prison. The two share a beautiful moment in the car wherein they bond over their mutual feelings about how miserable their lives are. At Tom’s house, his friends start getting anxious as the star of the party for whom they came didn’t arrive yet. They start accusing Tom of lying to them in order to get people over at his house. The bell rings but it is Myrna and John, whom Frank receives and takes upstairs. The three decide not to hand over the money to the corrupt police and keep it for themselves, leaving the bag with Frank as he can’t leave town due to his anklet. As Tom’s friends are about to leave, in walks Gabriella with Greg behind her with pizzas in his hands to save the day. Rani too gets back to her house, still gushing over Christian’s compliments on her necklace. Suddenly, she is attacked by the thugs from Lawrence Hill, who confirmed her address via the photos they took of the van. She avoids the situation by thinking on her feet and the thugs leave. The episode ends with Greg once again gaining favor with his employers by signing up Lady Gabriella as a client and the thugs’ boss alerting Christian’s former gang mates of the suspected betrayal.
The Episode Review
The second episode of ‘The Outlaws’ furthers the idea that the show will not just be confined to the community center. In fact, the focus seems to have shifted entirely towards the Lawrence Hills robbery, and the story of the other characters is relegated to subplots. This seems like a sensible choice given how well the setup has been until now. With the introduction of a menacing villain in the form of a criminal gang boss, things look like getting really nasty here for our seven musketeers. The depth in Merchant’s writing was a bit inconsistent. Certain scenes involving his character and Gabriella and the parallel between their condition were brilliant. The arc for both the actors reaffirm the notion of “more than that meets the eye” so popular in this genre. But, the same attention is not given to John’s follow-up of his failure with the Chinese investors with his father. The first episode ended on an ominous note for John and his family about losing the investment but there is no follow-up to that in the second episode. This seemed a bit odd to me but hopefully, we will get to see more of it in the third episode. Episode 2 is a bit of a dampener compared to the first episode but does a decent job of continuing the interesting timeline of the seven outlaws.
