‘Homecoming’ Recap: ‘Pineapple’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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If there’s one thing that people love and adore when it comes to cinema and television, it’s a good mystery. There’s just something magical about trying to figure what is going on in a story, and when a juicy enigma presents itself, it motivates us to pay close attention to the movie or show we are enjoying at the time, and work to uncover said mystery before the story reveals all of its secrets to us and a quality conundrum, is precisely why I’m finding myself completely and utterly hooked by Amazon’s brand new series, Homecoming.
 
Because my goodness, something incredible is brewing in this tale and the curiosity that was simmering in my mind after watching the pilot episode, came to an outright boil when I settled in to watch the next chapter in this saga, ‘Pineapple’, because things went from strange, to intense in this particular tale while at the same time, this story worked to keep an air of mystery hanging in the air. However, all curiosity aside for the moment, the first real warning sign that we were going to be in for a nail-biting ride came by way of the opening moments. Because the chilling music playing over images that should have brought comfort made everything seem dangerous and unsettling and that was further compounded by the fact that the treatment is not going well for one particular soldier.
 
In fact, a fair chunk of this episode revolved around the fact that Shrier is starting to have second thoughts about his stay at Homecoming, to the point where he’s skipping his medication, and detaching himself from his friends in this place and really, the most intense scene of the story came about at dinner where Shrier questioned if this band of brothers were actually in Florida and he also pondered upon Homecoming’s ‘real’ purpose, and his frustration with a lack of answers, and his suspicions exploded in a powerful moment when he outright lost it and screamed and hollered at anyone who would listen. 
 
Yet, the tense nature of this story didn’t end with Shrier’s outburst, the future kept it going as well since Carrasco continued his deep dive into that complaint that Walter Cruz filed years ago, and the mystery surrounding that complaint only grew when Walter’s mother refused to answer questions and deflected every step of the way and her push to make this a non-issue was complimented nicely by the grand reveal from Heidi’s mom that Heidi simply came home one day and wouldn’t discuss the details of why she left a fine paying job behind in order to move back in with her mom and take a gig that didn’t quite cater to her talents.
 
If anything, the mystery simply persists in this tale, and I’m dying to know why there is such anger oozing from people in the present and the future when it comes to Homecoming. It’s just fascinating really and something epic and terrible must have happened if so many people are that desperate to have their memories of this place fade away and well, while this episode offered up no easy answers to the mystery at hand, I am ready to discover more. Especially now that I know that Shrier is likely going to cause some trouble down the line. Which means at this point the only way to get the answers I seek, is to dig in and deal with the ugly, so I’m off to revisit this strange place once again. Until next time. 

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