If you were already upset at Chris (Alison Thornton) and Billy (Arthur Conti) in the last episode of Prime Video’s Carrie, wait until you dig into episode 5, “Physical Education.”
We begin the episode again with a peek into the documentary, where the host goes over women of throughout history who had powers and were either considered miraculous or witches. One of the best-known was Joan of Arc, who had visions of the war and was still killed despite being essential to the Hundred Years’ War.
This became a lasting impression: women who were feared, betrayed, and then sent to oblivion. We see a montage of women, landing on Carrie (Summer H. Howell).
Margaret’s next move
Then we cut back to another familiar woman, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan), now in the principal's office, telling Mr. Grayle (Matthew Lillard) about Chris being Carrie Red. But without solid proof, they can’t do anything, since there have been other accusations out there, too. They need hard evidence.
Margaret declares, “This is a war,” and heads out, telling Carrie this is just phase one. As she leaves the school, she loudly tells anyone passing by that Chris is Carrie Red, and rumors begin to spread—even to Chris herself as she walks in, constantly being stared at.
In homeroom, Chris says she isn’t Carrie Red, and she says some pretty terrible things about Margaret right in front of Carrie, but then she’s called to the principal’s office. Her father, John (Michael Trucco), is there, adamantly defending her and saying there’s a reason hearsay evidence doesn't hold up in court.
Mr. Grayle says that if Chris cooperated and let him search her phone, she might not get into as much trouble. However, her father is against any punishment and walks Chris out.
As John leaves, he yells at Chris that he didn’t want to be called down for this, that it was a waste of his time, and that if she has anything to do with this, she should delete anything on her phone.
We see Carrie talking to Emaline (Thalia Dudek) in her backyard. Emaline encourages Carrie to use her powers to defend herself more, saying that she is at war and holding back her best soldier. But Carrie ends up retreating back inside once her mother arrives home.
When Carrie walks in, Margaret explains why she did what she did with her father’s remains, but after thinking it over, she suggests that she and Carrie go pick them up together after school one day, which Carrie is glad to hear.
Carrie lets her powers fly
The next day at school, Carrie sits at lunch Emaline, who says that in the past, people would have burned her for her powers. Emaline says that that’s the past, and right now, she’s on her own. She should “put the fear of God” in those girls after what they did and their lack of self-control, Emaline tells Carrie.
Carrie takes this advice to heart, messing with Tina’s (Josie Totah’s) eyeliner, then making Sue’s (Siena Agudong) drink spill all over her pants. When Chris takes a picture of Sue’s wet pants, Sue storms up to her and threatens to turn her in as Carrie Red. Chris says it's her word against everyone else’s.
Sue tries a different approach and tells Chris she’s better than this, and that if she took Carrie Red down and apologized to Carrie, it would be fixed. Chris walks over to Carrie and says she’s sorry.
But of course, she follows this up with a slew of insults against her mother. As she walks away, Carrie makes Chris’ nose bleed profusely. She then snaps her eyes, and it causes Chris’ nose to break, sending blood flying. Carrie gets up and walks away, but not before telling Chris as she walks by, “Plug it up.”
As Carrie walks home, she freaks out a little, and Emaline, who follows her into her house, tells her that what she did was awesome and that she shouldn't feel bad about it. But Carrie is scared because it felt like she lost control—though it felt good. She also curses for the first time.
Emaline, sensing Carrie is spiraling a little, takes her to an abandoned gas station where she practices her powers, trying to grow stronger, even making a car explode.
Meanwhile, Chris and Tina are in Chris’ room after she was sent home with her nose injury. Tina suggests they post on Carrie Red to make her feel better, and she first shows her a picture of Sue buying the pregnancy test. Chris says no, because she still feels at least something for her friend, and instead focuses on a picture that Tina took of Brooklyn (Rowan Danielle) and Mr. Peist (Rahul Kohli) walking together. They post.
This leads to the teachers back at the local bar, where Mr. Peist has been drinking in response to the picture being posted, which makes him look inappropriate. The teachers talk more, saying that they have to do something, but they conclude by saying that meme accounts aren’t real.
That night, Margaret and Carrie have dinner. Soon after, Margaret creates her own Instagram account and calls out the school’s administration, the children, Chris specifically, and more about the whole Carrie Red situation. She practically tags the entire school, and it spreads like wildfire—including to Chris.
Tommy (Joel Oulette) also tries to tell Sue about the new account, but she's been distant after their night together and her secret pregnancy scare.
Since Chris isn’t in school, she decides to go out with Billy (Arthur Conti) and do something foolish: break into the White’s house and slightly move things around to let them know someone was there. As they walk around, Billy finds some of Margaret's hidden cameras, instantly finds the SD card, and swipes it. Chris also breaks the picture of Carrie’s father.
They go back to Billy’s place and start erasing the footage, but stop when they spot a video of Carrie that Chris is particularly interested in. Margaret and Carrie arrive home with their dad’s remains but see the broken photo and know someone has broken in.
Margaret brings this up at the PTA meeting, live-streaming the whole thing, and asks the parents to bring down Carrie Red since it is starting to affect everyone’s lives outside of school. Even the teachers agree.
Sue's plan to end it all
That night, Sue goes over to Brooklyn’s house to discover her very upset, and Sue goes upstairs and pleads with Chris to take down the page. Chris says Carrie Red is the only thing she has left and refuses to deactivate it.
At school the next day, we learn that Sue recorded the entire conversation shows it to the guidance counselor, Peter (Tim Bagley), who says they should take it to the principal.
Carrie walks down the hallway, talking to Emaline, when Tina calls her out for being freaky in public. Carrie asks what she means, then shows her a video from Carrie Red.
The video is from Chris and Billy’s stolen footage, showing Carrie walking into her house, but instead of speaking to Emaline like we thought she was, she speaks to no one in the video. Carrie turns to face Emaline in the hallway, but she vanishes. Carrie closes her eyes, and the screen turns to black.
You can watch every episode of Carrie season 1 right now on Prime Video. Keep following along with our episodic recaps right here at Show Snob.
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