Maitreya
In The Clearing episode 5, we are transported back in time to the year 1973, wherein Adrienne is doing household chores. She quickly stops by a fitness center and practices yoga. When they go back to another class, the teacher instructs them to shut their eyes and picture their ideal future. After doing so, Adrienne is seen sobbing over the grave while a preacher announces that Thomas has passed away.
Adrienne enters her somewhat cluttered home after finishing her yoga class. Tom is seen at the table, clearly upset. When he learns Adrienne had been using birth control pills while lying about it, he loses it and becomes furious with her. He then storms off.
There is a knock on the door while Adrienne is knitting at her desk. She learns from the police that her partner Tom was killed in a car accident. They go on to say that they think he was drinking when this happened. She naturally recalls that moment from the yoga session and is taken aback that it actually happened.
In order to get Dr. Latham to sign his most recent work, Adrienne travels to USA and meets him. Adrienne cautions him against going on a trip that he and his partner are taking shortly after getting acquainted with him. Soon after, Adrienne opens her very own yoga class where she teaches the same concepts she learned back home.
Adrienne discovers Tamsin Latham, the doctor’s wife, is seriously ill as a result of their trip when she gets to Dr. Latham’s home. Shortly after, Tamsin is on her feet moving like she had never before a couple of days after Adrienne met with her. Adrienne takes advantage of this by enticing Dr. Latham as well as Tamsin into the small world she is creating.
Tamsin and Dr. Latham aren’t content with their relationship. One evening, Adrienne tells Tamsin that she is deserving of a lot more. Adrienne learns about their separation a few days later from Dr. Latham and Tamsin. Thereafter, she expresses her happiness to them.
Adrienne starts to get to know everybody who assisted her in leading The Kindred. She meets with each person separately and presents a fresh future she is capable of offering. When a lady speaks out in opposition to Adrienne and claims that she isn’t who she says she is, she is promptly thrown out. Hannah stops the lady outside by asking if what she’s saying is true. The lady goes on to say that The Kindred is going to be a cult.
The remainder of the team, including Adrienne, finds the home in which they will start raising the kids. Adrienne overhears Hannah’s efforts to contact the lady and informs Hannah that she is ill. She then places a hand on Hannah’s stomach and goes on to say that she thinks she is unwell.
The Episode Review
The entire episode centers on Adrienne, also called Maitreya, who goes from being a regular person to her self-described enlightened phase as Maitreya. The Matriah-led episode further reveals Maitreya’s beginnings and the way she started The Kindred from scratch after relocating to the United States.
An outstanding performance by Miranda Otto as shines in the episode that centers on The Kindred’s rise. However, The Clearing fails to provide Maitreya with a compelling reason for her actions that shows how she evolved into the icy person she is in the present timeline.
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Episode Rating
(3)
“Justthefactsmaam” pretty much nailed it. She was *always* that way, she just became more egomaniacal as she acquired more self-belief and the monetary means to do so.
Most cult leaders tend to have a personality disorder; and even the forms of ASPD theorized to develop later in life are often a result of genetic predisposition.
“I passed my gift onto you” was what her mother said.
I completely agree that she has been through her fair share of tragedy. Given that she herself lost a few of her children, her past doesn’t really excuse the way she treats the kids. Also, thanks for drawing my attention to the situation with her mother. I overlooked that bit.
“fails to provide Maitreya with a compelling reason for her actions that shows how she evolved into the icy person she is in the present timeline”..? So her bemused reaction to her mother setting fire to herself (and subsequently being comitted to a mental institution), her poverty and resentment towards it and her husband, her self-centred and sociopathic behaviour as a young, financially disadvantaged woman and her belief that her manifesting her husbands death and his subsequent death in a tragic accident aren’t reasons enough?