‘Troppo’ Recap: ‘Venomous’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Six of ‘Troppo’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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One particular ‘crime’ that a great deal of television shows commit in telling their stories, is glossing over important moments in the development of the characters. Because sometimes in television shows… bad things happen to the characters, like genuinely, earth-shattering, life-changing things or they deal with a powerful revelation… only to have the matter forgotten in next week’s episode. And escapism via television or not, that’s just criminal since it isn’t realistic or sensical in the slightest since big moments have lasting impacts upon people, and it doesn’t matter if they’re fictional, because not exploring that further doesn’t allow for them to grow. Which is critical to good storytelling. But it continues to happen in television regardless of how often people call it out in the name of moving the story along.
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But now and again, you run into a show that understands that there is a better story to be told when big events are followed up upon, and it just so happens that the Amazon Freevee show, Troppo, is one of those shows. Because everything that Ted and Amanda went through in the previous episode, wherein they finally took the time to begin to handle their respective pasts and the trouble those pasts have caused them, could have been a fine excuse to move on from such matters in the next episode. But thankfully ‘Venomous’ is a story that opted to dig deeper into notions of yesterday and show us how opening up old wounds in an attempt to face them, can put us in a rough spot. But not before fooling us into thinking this episode would indeed be the same old thing.

Because a fair chunk of this episode, was dedicated to handling some loose ends. Since Ted was ready to get back to work and quickly came to learn with Amanda that the man that Yoon Sun was paying money to… was involved in a gambling ring that Sun was also in with and oh yeah… he was also big on smuggling out snake venom. For droplets of that, when injected intravenously, provided quite the high quality high. Which was quite the discovery and quite the break in the case since it proved that Amanda’s hero and mentor was in fact, a bit of a scoundrel since he helped to run the venom often and that… this may in fact tie into Jong Min’s murder. Since he might have seen something, he shouldn’t have if he was tailing his wife and checking on her gambling habits.

But alas, Damford and others kept pushing back at Amanda since she was showing her face often in town and standing up to their stigma of her and that began to take its toll and force her to travel into memories she didn’t want to and well, that boiled over when a surprise visitor showed up at the office. Because Lauren’s mother arrived to face her daughter’s killer and provided Amanda with the worst scenario here. In that, she offered Amanda pity and sorrow for what she had become and that… broke Amanda and everything came flooding back and left her in an incredibly dark place. Prompting Ted and Maali to search for her in the middle of the night when she ran off, to offer help and guidance and well, that made for one brilliant ending to one brilliant tale.

Because there was carry over and deeper exploration regarding dredging up the past, in a crime drama no less… where the case always takes precedence and that was just refreshing and wonderful to see and it was also quite cerebral in nature as well. Since this whole mess properly explored the power of the past and how it eats at us when unresolved and it taught us a great deal about Amanda in the process, and how she’s never forgiven herself for this. Since facing this plunged her into all kinds of darkness and mental strife, and well, this definitely compels us to continue the journey post haste. So, we can see if Ted can reach Amanda and bring her to a place of stability, so they can solve this case and give her the peace she so clearly and desperately craves. Until next time.

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