‘Drops of God’ Recap: ‘Duel’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Three of ‘Drops of God’. To revisit the Series Premiere, click here.
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What we often forget about healing from severe trauma in our lives… is that it is not an overnight process. For while we may feel relief about acknowledging what’s happened to us, and are eager to heal our wounds, a lot of work must happen before we finally, truly, heal. For we must reconcile years of emotions and we must of course, unlearn the difficult responses that our body takes part in when we are reminded of the deep pain in our soul. Plus, we need to be ready to fail. Because we are entering undiscovered country when we reach this point in our lives and we will stumble and we will fall, and if we aren’t prepared for that… we may take a step back in our recovery. Hence the need to have an open mind about failure, so we don’t let it stew and gnaw at us, especially since… failure is just part of being human.
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If anything, this particular part of the journey back from pain is top of mind today, simply because it served as the focus for the next episode of Drops of God on Apple TV+. A feat that ‘Duel’ accomplished by way of a looming deadline for Camille. For it was nearly time to return to Tokyo and submit her answer for the wine she tasted in the series premiere and well, that meant she had to fast track her healing process and figure that wine out. Which of course, is a bit of a stretch from what we normally know about healing, since it takes time… but this is a story, and a fictional one at that, which allows for one to suspend belief about how quickly she healed here. Especially when one considers that she followed healthy steps through and through to get there. 

Because she did indeed reconcile her emotions and her issues with her past. Primarily by coming to look at her father in a different light. Not as an antagonist, but as a man that wanted to see her achieve her potential. Granted, some of his methods and some of the nonsense her mother brought forth contributed to those negative perceptions. But she had a gift, one that could take her far and give freedoms she’d struggled to find in life to date. But accepting her gifts and reconciling the past, allowed for her to go full bore in uncovering what wine she drank on that fateful day. Which led to quite the powerful sequence of events. Wherein we watched Camille go the extra mile to find the right answer, by tasing an unwholesome number of wines and she even resorted to some sneaky measures when she thought she finally had the right vintage in mind. 

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For it takes guts to pose as a sommelier and ask a family friend to fly in an expensive vintage to sell to a client so one can taste it. But that is what she did here and being bold and brave in that manner and really embracing her destiny through healing, paid off in spades. Since it forced Camille to evaluate what she tasted from a different perspective since she initially got it wrong, and well, a renewed focus allowed for her to come within an inch of winning the first round. For she did indeed guess the correct type of wine when the big day came, but she did get the year wrong. Giving Issei quite the win while bringing forth that lesson regarding failure. Because despite her best efforts and pushing herself hard to win round one, Camille did indeed stumble here and how she responds now will be critical. For if she accepts her mistake and acknowledges how far she’s come in a short time… she will bounce back fine. But if not… more work will have to come into play.
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But while it was amazing to see Camille’s healthy journey play out here and see her follow quality steps to healing and reconciling pain, it would be foolish to not discuss Issei’s journey here as well. For he was in quite the tough spot in this episode, since his family demanded that he leave wine behind and renounce the competition to join the family business. And this was so important and so expected of him, that his decision to carry forth with wine, not only put incredible strain upon him, but his father. Who was trapped in the middle of this battle and felt that Issei’s fate was his own to decide. Which brought forth a concerning moment regarding the mental health of Issei’s father. But while we wait to see what comes out of our concerns, we can revel in some critical and powerful storytelling about a young man trapped between the demands of tradition and his heart and this too will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the story. 

One that is about to test this duo for certain in a more intimate manner. Since Issei will struggle to maintain the course he wants, because his mother will indeed continue to pressure him and of course, Camille must reconcile her failure and continue her healing, which is never an easy task, and all of these elements give us cause to celebrate another powerful and fascinating tale. One that not only depicted the next steps in the healing process in an incredible manner, but leaned harder into the world of wine and provided the uninitiated with some fascinating perspective regarding it and how much it means to people, and it of course… used the competition to get its deeper messages across. Making everything here feel organic and natural and well, now that we’ve reached the end of the first leg of the test, we will undoubtedly be counting down the minutes to next week’s episode. To see how these beloved characters handle the new challenges that await them. Until next time.

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