‘Lodge 49’ Recap: ‘Something from Nothing’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching a lot of television over the past few years, it’s that most shows need at least a season to properly figure out what works for their audience, in order to provide them with a perfect storytelling experience. That means by season two, we see episodes that cater to everything the audience loves, alongside a story arc that takes us on a perfect ride of highs and lows. But when it comes to Lodge 49 on AMC, all of those rules are in essence thrown out of the window, and this series…well this one apparently knew its audience from the get-go because it is already telling us a flawless story that knows how to ebb and flow in a way to please its fans.
 
Take for example the last few episodes, because ‘The Mysteries’ and ‘The Solemn Duty of the Squire’ stepped away from the more lighthearted themes and ideas we often find on this series, replacing them instead with darker notions and concepts involving loss and how sometimes life just slaps you around when you’re down and while many shows out there would continue to stay that course, and surprise an audience with a new direction to try it out, this series knew that wasn’t the right way to handle this modern day fable, and thankfully, the next episode in this series, ‘Something from Nothing’, took the time to steer us back into lighthearted territory, by letting Bruce Campbell do his comedic thing.
 
But before we dig too deeply into Ernie and Dud’s time with Captain, we also need to take a moment and discuss Liz’s journey, because her story in this tale also went to some supremely lighthearted places as well. Because as it turns out, Liz’s time with corporate guy (and I might add, it’s hilarious we’ve yet to learn his name) has been quite the positive influence in her life since she followed through in exploring the management program at Omni after all, and ended up getting herself a new gig at corporate and found some purpose in life at last and well, it was just beautiful to see Liz on a new path, one that gives her peace and also, I found it fascinating how this particular part of the story paralleled Dud’s journey in its own unique way since Omni Corporate has its own Lodge-like proclivities…

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However, while Liz’s story was a joy to watch, let’s be honest…it’s Bruce Campbell that stole the show in this one because my goodness, his turn as Captain in this one was the stuff of legend. Because the entire sequence wherein Ernie and Dud hung out with him was rip roaringly hilarious as Captain, or Gary if you prefer, went to every extreme with this duo to have a good time, even going so far as to invite both Ernie and Dud to a cockfight south of the border before ending their night at some kind of wild party involving free spirits and goats and heaven knows what else and this manic sequence wiped away and all of the darkness that remained from the last two episodes and…in the process this part of the story found a way to maintain the heart and character intimacy that this series is known for.
 
Because as the story progressed, we came to learn a lot about Captain/Gary. In that, the man loves to drink, because he’s struggling like the rest of our characters and he’s going through a nasty divorce, and he’s also…an outright fraud. For eventually he reveals to Dud and Ernie that the whole Orbis thing is a big fat lie, one designed by shell corporations to get to the oil that lies beneath the plant and well, while this seemed like quite the downer for Ernie, good came out of this whole twist after all since Gary gushed about how the kindness exhibited by Ernie and Dud genuinely made him happy and that because of said kindness, he wanted to help them out and include them in his own plan to buy out the land and the oil, making them rich beyond their wildest dreams, and as an added bonus, he also offered to pay for the loan on the Lodge and save it, provided of course he could join up. 
 
So, that’s there this one leaves us, with hope in our hearts since everyone’s problems are seemingly solved and while this one did leave my spirits soaring, the closing image of Avery watching Dud and Ernie from afar, and Gary’s track record as a liar leaves me a touch skeptical that all will be well. But in the here and now, I can at least bask in the fact that this was a delightful episode through and through and it was just magical to see Bruce Campbell show off his acting chops once again and I really enjoyed every single second of this tale and thanks to this story, we now have an end game in sight since clearly the next couple of episodes will focus heavily on saving the Lodge and the deal to make Ernie and Dud rich and well, I need more, plain and simple, so it’s time to watch another entry in this magnificent tale. Until next time.

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