Undone season 1, episode 6 recap: Prayers and Visions

Undone explores the life of Camila in “Prayers and Visions.” Camila questions her identity. Alma investigates. Jacob stays away. We’ve got the recap!

When you live life by very strict rules, you expect things to go a certain way. You expect life to be hard, yet somehow go easier because you have a plan. Camila (Constance Marie) is a strict, rules-driven mom. She loves Alma (Rosa Salazar) and Becca (Angelique Cabral) in different ways. This may have started when Alma developed pneumonia and lost her hearing at three years old. I can imagine Camila wondering if she did something wrong that led to her daughter’s illness. I know my mom always blamed herself for me being hospitalized with pneumonia when I was around the same age. It wasn’t her fault. But, in life, and especially on Undone, reality doesn’t always matter.

I’ve been wondering if Camila was kind of the key to figuring out whether or not Alma’s time-traveling was real or psychosis. This was mainly based in Camila always wearing the same thing. That actually comes up in “Prayers and Visions.” Apparently, she wears the same outfit all of the time as a kind of uniform. If her attitude was altered after Alma’s illness, just think about how everything changed for her when Jacob (Bob Odenkirk) died. Rules probably felt as safe as being under the blankets.

I’m taking time to talk about this because we’ve reached a point where we know all of the characters about as well as we’ll know them. Camila is always in a state of concern over Alma, which strains their relationship. Camila is much more fun and carefree with Becca. They’re buddies. Yet, Alma is the daughter that’s most like her mom. Yes. They have polar opposite beliefs. And, Alma has claustrophobic feelings towards rules and routines. Yet, Alma’s reactions to rules and routines follow a pretty strict pattern: ignore them, purposely break them, make fun of them. Becca is more like Jacob: rules are cool while they’re working for you. When they don’t help you get what you need, opt-out of them.

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No Eggs in the Morning

Camila wakes up on Saturday morning and gets the paper. Her hair is down and her robe is on. Two small children are running around with an Easter basket. Camila tells the kids to come back tomorrow if they’re looking for Easter Eggs. Camila is like an unofficial deacon at her church. She counsels parishioners, she gives them encouragement, and she’s a devout Catholic. This is something she likely has rediscovered about herself since Jacob’s death. She holds such a high standing that Father Miguel (Tyler Posey) asks her to be the one to light the pastoral candle at that night’s Easter Vigil.

She’s honored. But will anyone show up for her? Camila thinks Alma is a long shot. She’s a little shocked, but accepts that Becca may not be able to show up to mass, either. At a food tasting for the wedding, Becca’s relationship with Reed (Kevin Bigley) and his mom Beth (Jeanne Tripplehorn) seems a little strained. The Hollingsworth’s are paying for everything. Becca wants to fit in with them. So, when they ask her to go that night’s Protestant ceremony, Becca agrees. Camila is more concerned about Becca’s icy cold reaction to Reed’s touch.

Alma does show up for her mom at the last minute. After the Easter Vigil, Father Miguel talks to Alma. This is at Camila’s request. She’s afraid that Alma is not taking her meds. This spoils any good vibes that were going between Camila and Alma. As Father Miguel presses her, Alma asks if Camila mentioned that she had snuck into her purse to get the prescription and had it filled for her. He did not know and the tables turn. Father Miguel righteously counsels Alma to follow her best judgment and the judgment of her doctor.

Well, this doesn’t go over well with Camila at all. She insists that Father Miguel has ruined any chance there was of Alma taking her meds. Father Miguel does not agree. Camila argues that Alma is talking to people in the head. Father Miguel counters by saying a lot of people think that’s what he does when he prays. He’s trying to say nothing is wrong with Alma. But, the mere hint of a comparison of religion with insanity rocks Camila’s world. She doesn’t show up for Easter Mass. When she picks up the paper on Easter Sunday morning, the same two kids come around again looking for Easter Eggs. Camila just sighs. Is she loosing both of her daughters? They’re her whole life.

Call Him Sam Spade

At the end of “Alone in This (You Have Me),” Alma and Sam (Siddharth Dhananjay) were tenuously back together. Alma had just told Sam about her dad and her ability to time travel. There was a single tear in anticipation of  rejection. When we first see them in this episode, they’re in bed. Alma is asleep. Sam is wide awake. He gets up and starts going through Alma’s evidence boxes. He watches some home movies of the Winograd-Diaz’s. He’s touched. He also starts researching leads.

When Alma gets up, she’s relieved and genuinely excited that Sam stayed after her revelation. She tells him that she loves him a few times in this episode. It’s nice to see them this way: openly in love. The get a couple of leads. First of all, Darrold (James Mathis III) is a real name. He was Farnaz’s skinny armed boyfriend. They are able to track him down. Essentially, Darrold thought that Jacob was a wack-job who unfairly used one of his students as a test subject for wackadoodle pursuits. He has no info for them because around the time of the accident, he was away interviewing for medical schools.

Darrold’s name had shown up on a list of people who had been questioned after the other big development in the investigation happened: someone broke into Jacob’s lab before the accident. Sam and Alma consider that this might be the work of the weapons company that low-key threatened Jacob. Alma gets this info by using her powers. The Security Desk Officer at Jacob’s college, Nancy (Keiko Agena), does not want to share any old info about the break-in with the couple. But Alma experiences Nancy’s entire past and tells her that she knows she lost someone that she can’t stop looking for even though she knows they are gone. Sam thinks Alma divined this info from Nancy’s computer screensaver. But, she didn’t.

Sam is super supportive of Alma in this episode, but he’s also growing more concerned. Jacob only shows up in flashbacks in media files. He talks to Alma, but we don’t see him. Instead, Alma looks like she’s talking to herself the way Geraldine used to. Also, Alma isn’t using her handheld blackjack, but she seems to be able to control her phasing now. At least she can return to events where she left them, which is a big improvement. But, the whole concept of all of that is a crack in the foundation of Sam’s support. How long will Alma and Sam remain happy? Keep watching Undone!