Lucky Hank – Season 1 Episode 6 “The Arrival” Recap & Review

The Arrival

Hank sits outside Taylor Manor – where his mother lives – and awaits William’s arrival as episode 6 of Lucky Hank begins. He sent him a voicemail in the last episode, asking him not to come. It is unclear if he has heard it or not but the big question in this episode is: will Hank take this chance and confront the ghosts of his past and seek closure so he can start caring again? We will see.

Things between Lily and Hank are back to normal – at least on the surface. Julie and Russell are having marriage problems and Julie has spent the night in her old bedroom. Laurel shows up at the house after Hank did not answer his calls. She is livid with him for leaving the voicemail. William now wants to go to North Carolina and not stay in Railton. He will only stay if Hank comes to the house and apologizes. Hank cites the Regional Humanities Conference as his preoccupation and texts Toni to pick him up.

As we know, Hank couldn’t care less. He goes to the conference to make fun of the academics there who care too much about their work. He spots Anna Wood in the crowd and follows her to the bar. At first, it seems like he wants to get back at Lily subconsciously and sleep with her. Toni dissuades him, saying he will regret it later, but Hank wants something else entirely, which we see later in the episode.

Julie announces to Lily that she is going to live with her in New York. Her first big fight with Russell is over him coming home late and her believing he is having an affair. Lily tries to calm her down and offers to mediate. Her urgency isn’t strong enough at first but when Julie cites Lily’s marriage with Hank as being troubled, Lily gets intense and sits them both down.

Hank spends a lot of the time alone since Toni is busy preparing his presentation. He goes around the conference, pitying the academics who are too self-indulgent to realize that all they seek is approval from a bunch of other people like them. His disdain is clear to see.

Grace is at the conference too and seeing her lively debate with another scholar, Hank gets a mix of envy and pity. The envy part we address later. Hank spends the day in the games room. Toni messages him and that is when Hank realizes he missed Toni’s presentation. Toni is heartbroken since it did not go well. He had been working hard for the last three years on his research but it is vitiated by his ignorance of recent developments on the subject matter.

Hank tries to laugh it off, which offends Toni. He says Hank has given up on everything he loves and cares about in his life. His depression causes him to lash out at people who actually seem to care. The fight is not resolved and Toni walks away. The reason why Hank wanted to approach Anna was to ask about his father. Anna was a student of William’s at Columbia. Hank asks her if William ever mentioned anything about him. Anna recognizes his need for answers and calls William “A good man” and asks Hank to talk to him directly.

Before leaving, Gracie spots Hank and says that she has never felt more alive. Despite the lukewarm reaction to the poetry session, Gracie and the other scholars were able to make a workshop out of it. That is the envy Hank felt; how easy was it for others to care about something and how hard it is for him to. Lily has a torrid time meditating. Julie and Russell turn against her and accuse Lily of moving to New York to get away from Hank. Lily gets very animated and leaves them be.

Later, she laments about the younger generation’s lack of understanding of the institute of marriage. As they start discussing New York Hank says he must visit his father before he leaves. He shows up and begins talking to William.

Even though he has gone over this conversation with him a hundred times in his head, Hank finds it difficult. William’s attitude seems one of indifference and cold-hearted, and he even refers to his son in the third person. That is when Hank starts realizing something is wrong.

He asks general questions to William about the place he is in and what the date is and unfortunately, William is not able to answer. He has Alzheimer’s from the looks of it and Hank breaks down crying.

The Episode Review

Episode 6 is the most emotionally jarring episode in the series yet. The truth about Hank’s father came as a shock. It relegates Hank to an entirety of life not getting closure and not having a chance to make amends. All the questions about his past that have eaten him up – as they did in this episode – will remain unanswered. The final scene was indeed heartbreaking and it is difficult to tell if Hank was more perturbed by this than his father having Alzheimer’s.

In the middle, it almost seemed like his marriage with Lily might become an issue again. It still might of course, but William Henry’s illness takes a more significant import. Will this galvanize Hank into “caring” again?  Has he “been here” this whole time and not known it?

Gracie’s ode to life was reason enough for Hank not to feel like his life is with him on the side. New York is a real option now. Hank can start over, although his unresolved issues still remain. Lucky Hank just handed us a serious blow with The Arrival.