Uncovering Television: Thoughts on TOP OF THE LAKE - Episode 5

Top of the Lake's fifth episode is an exhausting 50 minutes of television. Though it is, perhaps paradoxically, a rather subdued episode, "Episode 5" features surprising revelations, brief bouts of intense violence, more unanswered questions and one particularly shocking and devastating moment that leaves both Robin and the audience reeling. Appropriate then, is the fact that the episode conveys a universal and overwhelming feeling of helplessness - Helplessness from a mystery that seems increasingly unsolvable; Helplessness from the past; And helplessness from death. 

Jude (Robyn Nevin), Robin's mother, feeling terrified and powerless in the face of her terminal cancer, visits Paradise. There, she bathes in a small pond with the women of the commune and receives blunt, but oddly comforting words from GJ: "Are you dying? Nothing wrong with that. Very natural. The body knows what to do. Go with the body." And, after hearing that the only drug Jude has is morphine, "Get some heroin." 

You see, too often is the subject of death or of someone dying tiptoed around. And, as Jude later tells Robin, it can be consoling to hear it voiced so directly. Having the people around you be so open about your situation can allow you to be more open about it yourself. However, as open as Jude becomes about her own mortality, she is unable to come to terms with the newest development in her daughter's life - the new, deepening relationship with a one, Johnno Mitcham. After seeing the two embrace in her home, Jude pleads with Robin to stop seeing Johnno, implying there may be more history there than Robin is aware of. Robin agrees, but is only able to keep her word for so long.

There are many parallels between the characters in Top of the Lake; And, not unlike her mother, Robin (either consciously or subconsciously) is in need of someone who will be bluntly open with her about her situation and her past. Equally, Johnno has been struggling with his own feelings of helplessness and, after Robin's prompting (contrary to her position from the episode previous), he finally admits to her that though he was there on the night of Robin's rape, he did nothing to try and protect her. In a beautiful and compassionate moment that shows the product of Robin's many years of experience with understanding and dealing with youth, absolves Johnno stating, "There was nothing you could have done. You were a kid." However, a mixture of helplessness and guilt still remains in Johnno, and the urge to rid Laketop of one of Robin's rapists, Sarge, leads him to charge to Sarge's trailer, beat him up and run him out of town (to, sadly and hilariously, the applause of Sarge's neighbors). It's another interesting parallel between Johnno and Robin, with the latter starting the job by stabbing Sarge in the episode previous and the former finishing the job this week. Top of the Lake's writers have a wonderful knack for showing connections between characters without dialogue, and this is just another example showing the growing bond between Robin and Johnno Mitcham. 

In the world of Tui's case, Robin is surprisingly yet unsurprisingly asked to return to duty. It's a bit odd to have Robin let go from the case only to have her reinstated in the next episode. But, perhaps instead of it being a fault on the part of the writers, it goes to show the indecisiveness and strange, internal motivations of Al Parker. It's not really clear if his asking her back is a product of the reporter we see later in the episode, the man who we see Robin speaking with at the end of "Episode 4," or Al's obvious romantic interest in Robin. Regardless of whether or not it's that final reason, the fact still remains that Al is clearly smitten with Robin - from abruptly asking her to marry him to warning Robin, not unlike her mother, to stay away from "you drug addict friend, [Johnno]." Al Parker is kind of quietly disgusting to me, and it's another credit to the show the way the writes are able to make these slimy, unlikable characters sympathetic. At the end of the episode, Al's actions toward a suspect and then reaction to Robin's insubordination followed by his attempt to make her jealous by telling her he has a life (including "a hair appointment and then a date with a lady"), is completely pathetic but almost in a "Oh, dude, I feel so bad for you" kind of way. 

This ability to make appalling characters sympathetic can also be applied to Matt Mitcham. Since Tui's disappearance, and more than likely well before, Mitcham has been battling strong feelings of ineffectiveness. Late in the episode, he laments to his mother's grave, "I know I'm useless." Mitcham seems convinced that one night we will just wake up to find Tui back in her bed, safe and sound. And again in this episode he climbs the staircase to Tui's bedroom, only to dejectedly find it empty save for the dog she left behind. 

In a last ditch effort to do something other than sulk around his house as his daughter remains missing, Mitcham tells his sons, to their nonchalant reactions, that he is hiring a couple of hunters to find Tui and will pay them 10,000 dollars to bring her home alive and untouched. Luke and Marc seem to not share their father's enthusiasm, however and mention the various times they walked in on Matt passed out drunk on Tui's bed with her "walking up and down on top of him." It's a strong accusation of incest toward their father. And though early on I believed Matt having an incestuous relationship with Tui was a bit too obvious, his shockingly violent reaction to these claims doesn't exactly instill confidence in the purity of their relationship. 

After Robin accuses Johnno of setting her to be raped 15 years ago (which I can't decide if it is motivated by her attempt to push Johnno away or by the genuine trama and sense of unknowing that the assault inflicted upon her), the two briefly break up only to reunite when Johnno sees the blonde, hooded Jamie (the silent boy with "no" and "yes" on his palms from a previous episodes) again on the lake in his kayak. The pair chases Jamie through the woods but lose sight of him, only to decide in a moment of intense passion (and contrivance) to make love. As the pair engage one another, a couple of off-putting fellows who I assume are the hunters that Mitcham hired discover the couple and film them with a camera phone. After the voyeurs are seen, there is a brief fight and Johnno is able to get the camera but is slashed across the upper-thigh before Robin is able to scare the maybe-hunters away with a few shots from her pistol. 

Thankfully, Robin is able to get Johnno to Paradise, where the women of the commune are more than happy to strip him of his clothes and apply pressure to his injury. As Johnno is being tended to, he and Robin flick through the shots of their writhing bodies on the voyeur-hunters' phone when something else that catches their eyes - a brief shot of Tui wandering out of a cave, floating into view, a ghostly figure in her white parka. She almost manifests out of thin air before dissipating just as quickly behind a thicket of trees. It's a breathtaking shot, beautifully elegant and moving to Robin and the women of Paradise alike; not only because of the hope it garners that maybe Tui is still alive, but also because this discovery occurs outside of the realms of knowledge of both Matt Mitcham and the police department. Paradise has also represented a safe haven for abused women and none of its members would ever alert these larger groups to this new information for fear that it might bring down greater harm on Tui's head should she be found. Instead, they seem to be biding their time, hoping, like Matt, that Tui will return to them for help. Robin too, though apart of one of these larger groups, remains silent, unwilling to place Tui's fate in the hands of men she doesn't trust. It's significant that when nearly all of the men are rendered helpless or ineffectual in one way or another, Robin and the once beaten-down women of Paradise would rise to be the strongest characters in the episode - having the most up-to-date information on Tui, taking care of the enfeebled Johnno, and, in the case of GJ, imbuing Jude with the strength to face her impending death bravely and with dignity. 

And shockingly Jude does die. Upon getting back to her mother's home, Jude's boyfriend Turangi (Calvin Tuteao) reveals that Jude died in the hospital. It's a moment that depressingly mirrors a scene in an earlier episode where Robin's obsession with Tui's case causes her to miss one of her mother's important doctor's appointments. It's also a moment that is completely devastating in its suddenness. Yes, Jude was beginning to fully accept her circumstance, but she didn't seem particularly debilitated. Obviously she wasn't healthy, but Death didn't seem to be waiting outside with the car running. After seeing her happily bathing with the women of the commune earlier, something seems inherently wrong with having Jude simply die off camera later in the same episode. 

But that's how death works. It can take a person in an instant (or over a long period of time while the severity and pain is hidden), leaving that person's loved ones confused and totally helpless. Sometimes we don't get the closure that we want and need and I applaud the writers for dealing with such a tragic moment in a way that feels heart-breakingly real. It's like GJ says when she speaks to Jude about the prospect of dying, "It's those you leave behind that will experience your death." And it's Robin and Turangi that are left behind to deal with Jude's unforeseen and untimely demise. (Another interesting parallel that is worth noting is the helplessness and guilt felt by both Robin and Matt Mitcham. Edited one after the other, Robin listening to her mother's final voice-mail message and Matt's flagellation both feel like events of masochistic atonement. It's not the first of these parallels we've seen between Robin and Matt and I can't help but think there might be a connection that's yet to be revealed. Perhaps there's a deeper reason why Jude pleads with Robin to stop seeing Johnno.)

This same masochism is a theme that is becoming more and more prevalent and is seen again when Jamie repeatedly slaps himself after he is taken into custody. He's being interrogated by Robin who is trying to see if she can get any information about Tui out of him when Al takes over. (He also has a bottle of the date-rape drug, Rohypnol, in his possession which is highly unsettling.) It's a strange and horrifying scene that follows as Al perpetrates a series of humiliating punishments on Jamie including pulling his chair out from under him and forcing him to go through the motions of making a cup of tea for his mother. More than anything it feels like another power trip by Al, a need to seize the control he feels he's lost. It's a long, brutal sequence that finally causes Jamie to loudly voice the helplessness felt throughout the entire episode by yelling, "You don't know anything!" (Notably, it's again the women who show strength in the face of this abuse - Robin challenging Al on his actions and Jamie's mother hugging her son to prevent him from hurting himself.) 

But in reality, Jamie is right. Robin and the women of Paradise have seen a small bit of evidence that points to Tui's survival. But none of them know where she is or in what condition she is. There's also Bob Platt's widow (played by Xena herself, Lucy Lawless), who tells Robin that before Bob's death, he had seen something horrific and, in an attempt to get out of Laketop as quickly as possible, sold Paradise for two million dollars. Though it remains to be seen where this new mystery will go, the final, stirring sequence gives the audience irrefutable proof that Tui Mitcham is alive. After ransacking his house, Jamie kayaks across the lake, drops bags of food on the ground and then whistles a bird call. As he does so, Tui rushes out and begins to voraciously consume the spoils Jamie has brought her. Presumably he's been helping her the whole time, but that remains to be seen as she doesn't acknowledge him whatsoever. Admittedly, it's feels like an extremely manufactured cliff-hanger, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't have me intrigued to figure out just what the hell is going on.