‘Halt and Catch Fire’ season 3, episode 7 review: Keys to the kingdom
“Halt and Catch Fire” may have moved a tad slowly in the first few episodes of season 3, but we are starting to understand why. They were gearing up for a truly crazy run as we near the end of this chapter of the story.
Tuesday night’s new episode had one turn after another, and almost everything changed from top to bottom for every main character. Take, for example, Cameron Howe starting off from being reasonably happy thanks to a new surprise marriage to completely miserable. She hadn’t necessarily taken her eye off the ball when it comes to Mutiny, but her communication of her ideas was weak. Her desire to protect the brand was overtaken by the thirst for success everyone else had. She’s now in a position, the same one Joe MacMillan found himself in during season 1, where she is completely losing something she once considered her own. Whether or not she sets fire to anything like Joe remains to be seen after everyone within the board room voted for the IPO other than her. Had she handled things differently with Bosworth when it comes to her marriage, maybe things could have been different.
As for Joe, he realized that with Gordon controlling MacMillan Utility, this was his chance to strike. He was honest with him (shocking, we know) about why he made the move he did with the lawsuit, and perhaps even more shocking than that was Gordon hiring Joe as a silent partner for 49% of the shares that he had. Maybe this is because Gordon knows Joe can do things he cannot, or maybe it’s because he worries about his future in his own with his company. Either way, the gang is back together, but with a problem — Ryan Ray. He, unaware of Joe’s endgame, went and snitched on everything the board did, potentially poisoning the company and his own future with it. Who thought Ryan was going in this direction?
As a whole, we’d consider Tuesday’s episode supremely well-acted (kudos to Mackenzie Davis), but also entertaining, sweet at times, and heartbreaking at others. Once of the best this season. Grade: A-.