Divorce Recap: The Next Day
Divorce is at its best when Thomas Haden Church’s Robert is looked at as the protagonist of this story instead of Sarah Jessica Parker’s Frances. The second episode is a much stronger outing than the first now that the show is dealing with the fallout of Frances’ affair rather than just spending time with her.
“The Next Day” dives right in where the first episode ended, with Frances still locked out of the house and desperate to talk to Robert after his mic-drop. She’s desperate to reach her children before Robert has the opportunity to ” make the kids hate her” as he threatened to but needs to maintain a façade of normalcy in front of them. For the first time she is confronted with the consequences of her actions along with the realization of how selfish they were.
Why is Frances so determined to cling to her suburban life after desiring to leave it yesterday?
Yet, it’s Frances’ friend, Dallas (played by Talia Balsam) who actually vocalizes what the audience is feeling. Why is Frances so determined to cling to her suburban life after desiring to leave it yesterday? While she continuously claims it’s because she wants to keep her family together as well as a longing to be with Robert, he isn’t as easily convinced. He hasn’t quite figured out what he wants from their relationship, whether it’s a reconciliation or a divorce. He is able to admit by the end that if their marriage hadn’t been failing then maybe she would never have cheated on him.
Image Credit: HBO
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Speaking of Robert, Church perfectly effuses anger and sadness as he deals with the knowledge that his wife cheated on him. The petty acts of revenge he takes, such as putting her purse in the trash, pretending not know who Frances is on the phone, and packing her “essentials” which turns out to be only bras, are moments which add levity to the show without taking away the pain he feels. He’s not the one who had an affair, yet he’s the one taking the brunt of the emotional fallout, and to make matters worse, his only friend is in a medically induced coma. Poor Robert has no one to talk to, along with a dog he didn’t want, and a neighborhood which is sure to take pity on him now that Frances has accidentally revealed their marital discord.
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With a title like Divorce, it feels a little bit like the ending of the show has already been ruined and the time in between is just a bit of stalling. Are Frances and Robert really going to reunite for a happily ever after? Of course not, and with the addition of Frances’ desire to open an art gallery, the idea of “happy ending” for the two is a divorce, not a reconciliation. With “The Next Day,” Divorce is now on the right track.