Mrs Davis – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

A Great Place to Drink to Gain Control of Your Drink

Simone comes back to Jay’s restaurant for guidance as episode 5 of Mrs Davies begins. She finds the place turned upside down and Jay beaten to a pulp. Well, if Jesus isn’t safe in America, who really is? She picks up him but Jay says it is a routine thing. Devotees come with all sorts of expectations and emotions to Him.

Simone wants to know more about Clara. There is a hint of jealousy and genuine curiosity in her line of questioning, but Jay doesn’t have a lot to say. Simone is wearing a life vest and sporting cool shades, and she is actually on a boat with Wiley.

The Algorithm has told her that Schrödinger is on the island. We did see him get rescued in the very first scene, but how did he end up back there? Or is this before Schrödinger was rescued? We cannot say at the moment.

Wiley and Simone have seen his cat in the video, but when they confront him, Schrödinger is hesitant to help them. That is, until Schrödinger reveals he came back after being rescued.

Wiley calls Simone “Lizzie” and that is when Schrodinger becomes animated. He knows their names and says to them that he tried to “spare them” but “It brought them to him.” Schrödinger says Clara is “closer than they think”, before He starts narrating Clara’s story. But they must choose carefully as it comes with certain consequences… they choose to accept them.

Clara’s Story

Clara’s story begins in 1982. It turns out that Mathilde is her mother but without any motherhood affection. Clara is part of the Sisterhood of Coins; the top-secret organization saddled with the responsibility to protect the Holy Grail. Schrödinger tells them about the summer day Clara was at Mathilde’s work, but her mother was ignorant and asked her not to “go through the door.” She did anyway and saw the Grail.

Mathilde tells Clara the truth about the organization and the Asset (the Grail). Two men dueled over the Asset centuries ago, but they killed each other. Their widows took the Asset and were the first of the Sisters. She also believes that the thing has a temper and must be properly cared for. Otherwise, bad things like the eruption of Pompeii happen.

Articles of Care were thus created to follow protocol to protect it. The Grail has a life of its own and it is like a small baby. “Thou shall not sip” is the cardinal rule they must all follow, and that is how Clara’s training began.

Mathilde gets up in one of the quarterly earning meetings of the organization to discuss Article 13, which states that 1% of the human population must see the Grail every year, and that is why it is taken around the world but it is undoubtedly difficult to manage that. Mathilde gives them a simpler way out: creating a Super Bowl commercial. And that explains the BK Sports commercial!

In a shocking turn of events, the Apron man helping Mathilde with the presentation of the commercial is none other than Hans. He is tasked to secure funding for the commercial. He must infiltrate the Vatican and become a priest. They can use the Vatican’s unattended lands to shoot and embezzle money from their accounts. Initially, Mathilde was to star in the commercial. But Clara was chosen because she was younger and sportier.

Mathilde was not happy about it. She continued to neglect Clara, who was encouraged by Hans, now a priest due to his mission, to become someone on the “inside of a door,” meaning someone with power calling the shots.  Even during the shoot, Mathilde is bitter towards Clara. Hans, who is unhappy due to the lack of recognition he gets for his service, asks Clara to join his plan to steal the Asset.

Hans has got a decoy manufactured indistinguishable from it, and Clara will replace the decoy with the original. They can finally get Mathilde’s approval and care when the Vatican destroys the Grail. Hans reveals that he is Clara’s biological father but she doesn’t believe it. On set, when Clara lashes out at Mathilde for criticising her scenes, they talk alone.

Mathilde reveals she has brain cancer and will not live long, so she calls Clara her legacy and asks her to protect the Grail.

Before shooting the final scene of the commercial, Hans angrily approaches Clara and says the decoy is missing. Clara pretends to know nothing about it but he lashes out at Mathilde and says he will now live as a priest at the Vatican where he gets respect. He also vows to come back to Clara with the full power of the Vatican.

When push came to shove, the British Knights owners shockingly say that they did not ask Mathilde to make the commercial. She says someone called Brian gave her the green light but it turns out that he was only an intern. He rejects the offer to air it at the Super Bowl, and that is why the commercial was buried along with the BK shoes. Clara feels betrayed when she learns Mathilde lied about her cancer, but Clara is indeed the original Asset and leaves her forever.

How does Schrödinger come into the story?

This is Schrödinger’s cue to come in. And that is when it’s revealed Schrödinger is actually Clara’s biological father. She shows him the letters Mathilde has kept. She asks for Schrödinger’s help to destroy the Asset and suggests that firing the Hercules laser might do the deed. He vows to Clara to help her destroy it, “whatever it takes.” But it does not work as the Asset remains intact.

Schrödinger and Clara both agree to keep their partnership professional and not get too attached. She gifts the BK sneakers to Schrodinger for letting her stay with him. They experimented for over 10 years to destroy it but nothing worked.

It seems that more than keeping her vow, Schrödinger was happy spending time with his daughter. Clara suggested she drink from it, believing that should destroy it. To decide who will drink from it, Clara and Schrodinger play a game of rock, paper, scissors.

She pledged to throw rock but instead threw scissors, knowing Schrodinger will throw paper. She sips from it and everything seems normal. From Schrodinger’s description, she went to Jay for a moment and then her head exploded. That is when Schrodinger decided to get her liver inside someone – and it ended up in Simone and Wiley. The reason for it was that Schrodinger had seen his cat, Apollo, eat a dead mouse that sipped from the Grail but nothing happened to Apollo.

He is, in the present day, 35 years old and completely fine. Schrodinger thought it was like a vaccine, and that is why he gave Clara’s liver away. Schrodinger thought that if someone with Clara’s liver would drink from the Grail, they could destroy it. But then he saw that Simone and Wiley were kids and hence, called in a favour from his marine biologist friends and fed the Grail to a sperm whale. It went berserk after eating it and Schrodinger ended up on the island because it destroyed their ship.

He came back so that Simone and Wiley would never find it but now that they have, it is a sign. He tells them that the whale has a tracking device, and asks them to get it from the animal. Once they do, one of them drinks from it to destroy it. Wiley laughs it off, but Simone replies: “Whatever it takes.”

The Episode Review

Is Mrs Davis the most original, surreal television show currently anywhere? Yes. And a thousand times more. The remarkable creativity of the writers and everyone involved has taken the show to the next level. It has greatly elevated the possibility for us to get surprised with wildly unpredictable plot twists no one can see coming.

This episode was grounded in the tragic story of Clara. More than her involvement with the Grail, the episode focused on her tragic childhood. She had trauma due to being neglected by her mother, who prioritized work over her. Is it a low-key modern-day feminist critique? That might be the case, among other things.

Clara is dead and Schrodinger has unexpectedly taken the limelight. We definitely have an answer, even if it is a vague one, about where the Grail really is. This will be Simone’s ultimate test of will to destroy Mrs Davis “at all costs” and she might as well do it. Will we see her go to Jay one last time like Clara did before her head exploded? Quite possibly.

Another interesting thing about the episode was how Wiley and Simone were used. It was a meta way to show how the viewers reacted to the unfolding story from Schrodinger and how we erratically jump to conclusions. Just because of that touch, this one gets a perfect score.