‘The Mosquito Coast’ Recap: ‘The Glass Sandwich’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season one finale of ‘The Mosquito Coast’.
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It is definitely safe to say, that human beings believe that they are invincible to a certain degree. After all, we push ourselves and others to incredible heights in order to accomplish incredible goals and the fact that we have indeed accomplished wonders by holding to that mantra, only engrains it further into modern society’s collective mind. But while many will claim that holding to that notion makes us better since it makes it strive for more, the fact of the matter is… this is a horrible belief through and through. For we are creatures that require rest, and our mental health requires a break and nurturing from time to time as well and if we don’t provide either aspect of our humanity with that… bad things can and will happen… as evidenced by the season one finale of The Mosquito Coast.

For ‘The Glass Sandwich’ finally saw the Fox family reach its breaking point and understandably so. Because for the past few weeks, they’ve endured horrific and painful revelations, and their lives have been in danger on a consistent basis, all because Allie and Margot have shady, shady pasts and are eager to defy convention and push their family to escape those pasts and well… Dina finally had enough of her father’s shenanigans in this tale. To the point where she actually spoke up and lashed out with sour and bitter words, the kind that wounded Allie in a manner he’s never experienced before and hearing her daughter speak such truth… inspired Margot to do something quite drastic and make plans to bring Dina and Charlie back to the United States, without Allie.

A move that was both satisfying and bold, since Allie has indeed put them through the wringer and well, going this route would have taken the story in an incredible new direction filled with wild possibilities since it would put Allie at a crossroads. One where he would need to decide to either go after his own family and demand their company or let them go and try to start anew with more gullible people. But before we could see where such a move would take us, disaster struck. In that, Charlie ran into one of the assassins that was searching for him and the family, and his newfound desire for violence motivated him to put a bullet in the man. Which in turn, got him arrested and well, that put the family at a different crossroads. For now, they had to decide whether to leave him behind and move on, their least favorite option… or if they should call the authorities and use America’s power to free him, or band together and save the young man themselves.

As it turns out, door number three was the choice that Allie once again made for everyone since the thought of dealing with the NSA was quite unappealing and that led to one incredible sequence of events. One where the family pulled together in a beautiful manner and executed a dastardly plan, that was designed to catch the cops off guard and set them up for an escape by water and the only complication that came about while executing this plan… was Bill. Because he and his boys arrived to handle their business and that meant that Charlie and Allie had to resort to some wild tactics and guile to evade his bullets and believe it or not, they did, and they were able to reunite with Dina and Margot and head off on the boat to safety. But while that sounds like a happy ending, one that resolved bad blood because family unity should trump all things… that simply was not the case. 

Because clearly, Margot and Dina are in a bitter, bitter place mentally. Nor are they happy that they are even further away from the United States and stuck with a man that they no longer care about and well, that is honestly quite the brilliant way to end the fascinating first season of this unique series. For it more or less establishes Allie Fox as the true villain of this tale, one that genuinely wants to do good things, but treats people like garbage to get there and to complicate his goals further… two people very close to him no longer have any faith in him and are likely looking for a way out of this madness so they can find a happiness they’ve never known. And that really does do a wonderful job of setting the recently announced second season, since all of those all of those elements will undoubtedly come into play when the Fox family finally arrives at their final destination, and it will be quite interesting to see what Allie becomes when he is free of the worries of the world he left behind and if he can redeem himself because of that freedom, when season two gets underway. Until next time.

Season one of ‘The Mosquito Coast’ is streaming now on AppleTV+.

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