UnPrisoned – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

F**K Normal

Episode 5 of Unprisoned begins with a therapy session. Paige gives the client advice based on her own experiences. However, Paige’s client mentions seeing her Instagram account.

Paige runs into her colleague Amanda after the session, who informs her about the upcoming gender reveal party. Unfortunately, it has been canceled due to the host pulling out. Amanda is ecstatic though when Paige offers to host the gender reveal party instead.

Paige finds her father working on his ice cream bike. Paige however, is concerned about her father’s inability to work a normal job, but he reassures her that he’s doing just fine.

Paige heads back onto Instagram and does a live video updating her followers on her current situation, going on to speak about normalcy. She also makes references to Edwin in there too.

Elsewhere, Edwin explains his business plan to Finn. Finn likes the idea and agrees to be Edwin’s social media manager for his business. Paige then introduces Mal to her father and Finn as her boyfriend. They both appear to be extremely happy with her choice.

Edwin’s first day at work goes well, and he sells a lot of ice cream, with the help of Finn. In addition, he rescues a girl’s dog from her locked car, gets a date with her, and is featured on a news channel. Everything appears to be going seamlessly for him.

Paige reaches out to Etsi for help with the gender reveal party and Etsi happily agrees to help her out. When Etsi arrives, she inquires about Mal and asks Finn about him. Etsi seems to have reservations about Paige’s choice, based on her previous relationships. Finn, on the other hand, assures her that Mal is fine. Thereafter, Mal gets to the house to help decorate for the baby shower.

Paige is stressed at the baby shower, and she ends up telling the guests everything about her past. Furthermore, everything goes south when the roof begins to leak just when the gender is about to be revealed. As a result of all this chaos, Paige regrets being so open at the party, but Mal comforts her.

Meanwhile, Edwin has a date with the woman whose dog he rescued. Edwin is seen as being honest and humble, which impresses the woman. So much so in fact, that she asks him if he wants to go back to her place.

At work the following day, Amanda thanks Paige for hosting the baby shower and she compliments her on her ability to help people. Additionally, she informs Paige that she managed to get her selected for a Ted Talk through her husband’s friend which really makes Paige feel good.

When Edwin heads over to the garage to pick up his ice cream bike, he finds it missing, which upsets him. Paige, on the other hand, appears to be struggling and unable to think of anything to say at the Ted Talk. So naturally, she decides to stalk her ex instead.

The Episode Review

Paige is in the middle of her therapy sessions when the episode begins. Once again, this show falls short of providing a realistic depiction of how therapy works. It’s particularly telling because Paige can’t seem to separate her professional and personal life, dragging her own problems into sessions regularly, which is extremely disappointing.

Furthermore, the show demonstrates its prejudice against Caucasians yet again. This is something we mentioned before but Edwin is seen telling Paige in this episode that ‘he’s: “proud of her for finally not dating a Caucasian.” Now imagine if that sentence was reversed to a white man telling his daughter: “I’m proud of you for finally not dating a black man.” Racism, of course, goes both ways but Unprisoned seems tone deaf to that point.