Pure Season 2 Episode 3 Review: Return of the Lamb
Dale McGarrigle
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That was a perfect way to end things.
After more than a year apart, Noah and Anna reunited under the worst possible circumstances on Pure Season 2 Episode 3.
In those few impactful seconds, they both learned where life had deposited the other.
Noah discovered that, despite all his efforts to free his family that cost him everything, Anna was still running the local drug-distribution ring.
Anna found out that, instead of helping their family when they needed him most, Noah was again working undercover for the police. Which turned out so well last time on Pure Season 1.
But neither was aware of each other's motivations for their seemingly ill-conceived choices.
Noah didn't know that Estrada was forcing Anna to work for him by holding Isaak hostage. Anna was unaware that Valerie was blackmailing Noah to go undercover so that she won't make Anna do the same.
Related: Pure Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Faspa
It will be fascinating to watch them catch up after they find a way to escape listening ears. But with Valerie and Winston busy negotiating a warrant before the drugs disappear, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
Valerie seems determined to stay with this career-making case, with which no one wants her involved.
A scary, knife-wielding thug who broke into her home and nicked her throat as a warning would have been enough to scare off most people. But not ex-hockey player Valerie.
Instead, she just decided to get home security installed on her own dime, and learned what a key logger was as a result.
That answers the question of how the cartel appeared to be a step ahead of her.
But there's still the matter of how did Estrada and company even know about her. She's a low-ranking detective working with another lesser-known detective on a case largely off the books.
So there's got to be a mole inside that law-enforcement agency that's yet to be revealed, which puts everyone involved with the investigation in danger.
Especially since Valerie refuses to back off, even when her captain has reassigned the case, and her assets Noah and Abel, to the narcotics division.
Related: Pure's Alex Paxton-Beesley Q & A
Her reckless qualities aren't going to help her in family court, since her ex is obviously pushing to change their custody agreement so that he can take Ricky to California where he's got a new job.
They've got hockey there as well, so Valerie can't use that argument, can she?
Choices such as sending her clueless C.I. Abel to keep an eye on Ricky at his hockey game certainly isn't going to help her case either.
Isn't it frightening that Abel is supposed to be the more worldly of the two Funk brothers?
How could someone growing up in Canada not know what a hockey goalie looks like? And doesn't everybody recognize "Bond, James Bond?"
Pure Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Excommunication
But after watching Noah stare at Julius's cell phone trying to make a text appear, I'd say Noah set a pretty low bar for cultural awareness.
Noah has grown fairly fatalistic during his yearlong purgatory after he excommunicated himself from the Mennonite community.
He pretty much admitted to Valerie that he doesn't care what happens to him during his undercover work as long as his family is safe afterward.
If so, why did he burn the box of evidence that Bronco has accumulated and Valerie had appropriated after Jay's murder?
Granted, Bronco was a sloppy detective. But there had to be something in there which would help build a case against the cartel.
In any event, Noah sees himself as having nothing to lose, and that t makes him as dangerous in his own way as Valerie,
And yet, he seemed to feel something not just for Anna but also for Eva, who is the only innocent living in that furniture building.
Noah was only trying to fool himself when he told Abel that he was only trying to get information out of her. There's something more going on there.
It's harder to decide what's happening with Anna and Augustus. It could be he's just a nice guy who's trying to help out a worker who's been treated badly by her community.
It's also clear that Anna is tired of all the stresses in her life and having to be the strong one, and wouldn't be adverse to someone taking care of her for a change.
But smuggling cocaine inside the tires of Augustus's equipment isn't a great basis on which to build a relationship.
Anna has taken on a harder edge because of her crusade to get Isaak free from Estrada.
It was hard to watch this loving woman threaten to have her foreman killed to force greater productivity from her workers.
Related: Get CBS All Access via Amazon Channels for Hit Shows, Exclusive Originals & Live TV!
But Anna was correct in her urgency to free Isaak before Estrada can convince him to turn on his mother.
Estrada showed more layers than previously exhibited. Sure, he's brutal and nefarious. But he was an abandoned child who grew up in the cartel and who likes to relax with fine wine and cuisine.
Orff, on the other hand, is just a thug.
Is Estrada looking to cultivate an heir in Isaak? Or is he just enjoying the challenge of trying to bring down a righteous man?
After watching him make Isaak play God when it came to Javier's fate, I'm betting on the latter.
Also, if he wins over Isaak, he'll have Anna even more under his thumb.
It'll be interesting to see if Noah and Anna can come together and find a solution to their related difficulties.
To catch up on this season, watch Pure online.
What can Noah and Anna do?
Is Estrada getting inside Isaak's head?
When will Tina catch on to what's happening?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.
