Brave New World Review: Episode 3 is all filler until right at the very end

Brave New World goes full filler for its third episode, but the ending includes a shocking death and a change of scenery that promises better days ahead.

The third episode of Brave New World has our main characters scrambling to escape from the extremist group while trying to save Bernard, who took a bullet during the ordeal. John has reluctantly brought the Beta plus and Alpha plus foreigners to his place to hide. His mother Linda (Demi Moore) sees this as their opportunity to go back to New London, where she is apparently from. She’s a Beta plus just like Lenina. John’s father, it ends up, is also from the dystopian “paradise.”

That’s all pretty interesting, but the tension goes out of the episode when Madyson arrives looking for the two escaped tourists. After she figures out that John is lying about harboring them, Madyson points a gun at him, but his mother gets the drop on her. The scene overall felt very forced. It’s also weird that Madyson is still wearing the wedding dress from the House of Monogamy because when we first saw her in the pilot she couldn’t wait to take it off.

The escape sequence just keeps dragging on after that. The best moment is when Bernard tries to drive a car and fails miserably, giving us a look at what have happened if Viserys had ever attempted to fly a dragon on Game of Thrones.

Eventually, the trio get to the outskirts of New London, but only residents are allowed inside, John is afraid he’ll be vaporized the second he crosses the barrier, but his mother assures him he’ll be fine and pushes him through. Ultimately, she is shot before she can escape on the shuttle with her son and his new friends, but sees New London one last time before she goes, sacrificing her life so her son can live a better one. Moore makes the most of her final moments; it’s a shame she couldn’t stick around for more episodes.

I’m glad we’re done with the Savage Lands, which reads as a poor man’s Westworld. With John in New London, things could get interesting, especially since it’s hinted that the Director could be his real father.

The virus storyline is probably the one I’m most interested in right now, but we barely get anything on it this week. It’ll be interesting to see if it has any connection to John the Savage, and to see this fascinating dystopia through his eyes.

“Everybody Happy Now!” doesn’t live up to its name and is pretty much a filler episode. Hopefully the followup is a more exciting affair.

Episode Grade: C+

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