‘Close to Me’ Recap: ‘Episode 5’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Five of ‘Close to Me’. To revisit ‘Episode 4’, click here.
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When we are young, we are taught two critical lessons by our parents. Specifically, that there are two sides to every story, and we should listen to both of them and that hard times are so impactful… that we will become a better person because of them. And our parents send those lessons our way, so that we can grow as a critical thinker and look at situations as a whole and so we can face tough times in an objective manner with our heads held high. But while those lessons have merit and give us a touch of guidance when we set out into the world, it doesn't take long for us to realize that those two concepts don't always work out as they were explained to us.
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Because there are times when learning the other side to the story, provides us no context or insight. It either confirms what we already knew, or it informs us that people will indeed lie to cover their tracks and we quickly come to realize in adulthood… that a great deal of people use tough times as an excuse to be outright rotten to others. All because they can hide behind the guise that they were under duress, making it clear that rising to the occasion revolves around a solid moral core over anything else and really, the flip side to those hopeful and simple lessons is of relevance today, because it was put on full display in the next episode of Close to Me on Sundance Now.

Because rather than focus on Jo Harding and the revelations she uncovered about her husband and the year prior in the last episode, the story opted to shift gears and show us the other side of the story. Specifically… what Rob was doing this past year and well… what we learned about his role in this mess, was quite sour in nature and supremely unsettling for certain. For it turns out that once Jo started to struggle with a new phase in her life, wherein her son was off learning about the rest of life and wherein her body was going through menopausal changes… Rob was nowhere to be found. Instead, he took the time to demand the standard routine from his wife while he tried desperately to save his own fledgling business.

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Which allowed for us to really get to know Rob and learn that he is a traditional man so to speak. One that firmly believes that emotions are best reserved for special moments only, and that it a man’s job is to put food on the table and be respected for it and the home he has built. But as the episode unfolded and Rob continued to play the pity card rather than communicate with his wife, the darker stuff came into play. Since he quickly turned to Anna and the comfort, she provided him. In an effort to escape his problems and to give himself a safe space to place blame upon his wife for his woes, rather than own up to his own actions or try to understand the moment. And of course… since he treated Anna like he treated his wife, as an object there to serve his needs... that whole affair took a turn once the pregnancy came into play and the ugly didn’t end there.
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Since he also constantly treated Jo as a problem and used gaslighting and snide remarks on a consistent basis to engender guilt in her heart over her healing path. One that helped her in ways she never imagined, but since Rob wasn’t the ‘fixer’ here, everything was a waste of time in his mind, and to top it all off… there is a chance the worst-case scenario was indeed his doing. Since he was furious the night Jo provided receipts of his affair… while she was standing atop the stairs. But while we wait to see if Rob was indeed the one that made Jo fall, and is now trying to atone for the worst sins imaginable against a spouse, we can reflect upon a quality story, that truly helped us to understand the unfortunate other side of this journey, and Rob and toxic masculinity as a whole.

Because this story held nothing back regarding how Rob and guys like Rob operate, and it made it clear how small these men are and how badly they struggle with emotional connection on both an internal and external level and how easily their egos are bruised when they don’t get what they want. Which made this story not only critical to the journey, since it fills in so many important blanks, but it makes this story an important and poignant piece of work. One that truly reflects a genuine problem in our world right now and it deserves a round of applause for putting this on display, and for starting this conversation, and now that we have complete context and understanding of what the last year looked like for Jo Harding… this harrowing journey can come to a close, and it will be quite interesting to see where the finale of this saga will take us, come next week.   

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