The Mosquito Coast (Season 2), Episode 1: Steaming on Apple TV+, Mosquito Coast is a thriller drama series based on the novel of the same name by Paul Theroux. It is developed by Neil Cross and Tom Bissell and stars the writer’s nephew – Justin Theroux in the lead role of Allie Fox. His family of 4 has gone through 6 identity changes in the past 9 years, and while they are on the run from the authorities, their children are trying to know the reason behind it. The first season showcases these conflicts while elaborating on Allie’s worldview. While the family manages to free their son from imprisonment, the further journey was yet to unravel.
The Mosquito Coast (Season 2), Episode 1 Recap:
Episode 1: The Damage Done
The first episode of the show’s sophomore season titled ‘The Damage Done’ is directed by Stefan Schwartz. The previous season ended with the Fox family, leaving the place on a boat. While Allie (Justin Theroux) mentions building a similar boat like the way they were traveling from to his wife – Margot (Melissa George) in the very first episode, he actually makes it happen in the end. While he feels a maddening joy in the end for being able to leave, it was a sign of his stubbornness descending his family into a path filled with a series of dangers. However, he is too occupied with his ideology that he does not pay heed to their desires or their worries.
Since Allie keeps what happened before hidden from the kids, Margot insists on telling them about it. The narrative then shifts to 13 years before, where Allie enters an office space and has a discussion with Pavani (Ritu Lal) about their upcoming pitch. As he mentions once in the previous season, he had developed a system that can predict the variations in bird migration patterns based on climate change projections. Along with Pavani, he tries to make the presentation more fun to make their audience interested in it. After their conversation, he drives away to a restaurant and sits in his car, seeing Margot enter it with another man. They seem to have some connection with one another, but it is not revealed yet.
Afterward, he goes back to his place and speaks with Isela (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) who invites him to join where they are, a place where he can be genuinely helpful and prove to be a great resource. He denies doing so and notes staying where he is for the sake of his family. Later, he goes to where Margot lives and takes the kids out for a ride. The man seen with her before – Richard Beaumont (Ariyon Bakare) is her current partner, who does not hold a great opinion about Allie. Margot tells him to not speak ill of Allie, which only she has the right to. Sometime later, Allie watches an online video of Richard speaking about human exceptionalism that rubs him in the wrong way.
On the day of his pitch, Pavani keeps calling him repeatedly, trying to get in touch with him. However, he does not sense the urgency of their situation and goes to meet Margot instead, at the university where she works as a professor. He listens to a part of her lecture where she speaks about pastoral life in the past. He reiterates the phrase she uses – ‘Becoming rather than being’ as a way to charm her, but she is not in the mood to listen to him. She goes out of the classroom, and he follows her. He shares concern about her being with a person like him whose views in his opinion are insane. She shuts him up and does not pay heed to his argument. He then goes back to his workplace.
Pavani gets frustrated by him for not picking up any of her calls. They enter the meeting where one of the investors shares the possibility of using his technology that was supposed to help migrant birds among other good causes, for data mining for the government and for homeland security. Allie tries to object since he is ideologically against it. The investor smugly mentions that they have control over how the technology is going to be used. Frustrated by his inability to act on this issue, he then decides to hack into the system to stop their progress in that direction. Due to this act, he became a person of interest to the authorities.
Fast forward to 13 years later and we see Dina (Logan Polish) being annoyed after listening to this story and knowing that Allie and Margot started running away from the system and became fugitives for as simple as hacking a database. Allie notes it being more serious and complicated than that where the government considered them a threat since they illegally accessed it. He had hacked the metadata that they had gathered about the American citizens. She argues hiring a lawyer and fighting against it is better than running away from the problem. He argues back stating a law that makes his actions illegal. She can not believe that while her mother could have not gotten involved in this mess, she willfully chose this life and stopped the progress of her own career.
The story then switches back to the past where Allie is interrogated by the authorities. They try to understand the purpose of hacking and also about his relationship with Margot who was infamous for her acts of what they refer to as domestic terrorism. He does not disclose any specific details and shares only cursory details. Once he leaves their custody, he calls Margot and alerts her to stop whatever she is doing. Meanwhile, Margot enters an office of HJP with Richard, in disguise. Richard looks at the security footage and enters a room with Margot looking for genetic material. Once he finds what he was looking for, he puts the timer on a bomb they brought inside. While this happens, Allie tries his best to reach Margot and drives towards her location.
The Mosquito Coast (Season 2), Episode 1 Ending, Explained:
Why did the Fox family become fugitives?
On their drive outside, Margot realizes that the person she spoke to from the FJP staff is still inside the office and requests Richard to drive there to save her. He is too focused on his mission to care about a person dying inside, which is why he denies doing so. She still runs out of the car to enter the premises on her own and tries to alert the employee to get out. But it was already too late to save her since the bomb explodes within a few seconds she reaches there. Meanwhile, Allie enters the premises and tries to comfort her. She notes that while Allie can find a way out of what he did, she cannot.
The narrative switches to the present where the couple speaks without the presence of their kids. She feels it is wrong that they are still lying to the kids and hiding what actually happened. He feels it okay for the kids to blame him more than her and does not seem to feel bad about it. She shares a line that Richard mentioned about him in the past – People don’t change. They just reveal themselves as who they are. Margot perhaps finds it difficult to trust Allie’s intentions after all the trials and tribulations they went through.
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THE MOSQUITO COAST (SEASON 2) TRAILER
THE MOSQUITO COAST (SEASON 2), EPISODE 1 LINKS: IMDB, ROTTEN TOMATOES
THE MOSQUITO COAST (SEASON 2), EPISODE 1 CAST: JUSTIN THEROUX, MELISSA GEORGE, LOGAN POLISH, GABRIEL BATEMAN, NATALIA CORDOVA-BUCKLEY
Where to watch The Mosquito Coast
