2-1. Happy F*cking New Year.

Amanita and Nomi, ready for the holidays.

Running Time: Approx. 120 minutes. Written by: Lana Wachowski, J. Michael Straczynski. Directed by: Lana Wachowski.


THE PLOT:

Will and Riley have escaped from BPO, but not without a cost: Whispers (Terrence Mann) was able to look Will in the eye, and now he can visit Will wherever he goes - which means he can potentially use Will to track down the others. Riley is countering that by giving Will regular heroin injections to shut down the psychic link, but it's clear that this is a temporary solution. And with Whispers making contact with Will's father, whose health is deteriorating without his son there to take care of him, Will may need to act sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, the photos of Lito and Hernando go public, leaving Lito "watching (his) career die in real time." Sun finds her life in prison growing more precarious. Amanita fends off the persistent Agent Bendix (Anthony Cistaro) who is certain she knows more about Nomi's whereabouts than she's saying. Kala's honeymoon with Rajan proves less than ideal, while Capheus' friends and community show their appreciation for his recent actions.

In Berlin, Wolfgang discovers that killing Sergei has opened up a power vacuum in the criminal underworld. Rival crime families are on the brink of war - a war he might prevent if he takes his uncle's place as one of Berlin's four criminal kings!


CHARACTERS:

OK, just how cool is Hernando? He's in mid-lecture in his art appreciation class when the pictures of him and Lito hit the Internet. A smugly homophobic student is all too happy to share, and the picture goes up on the screen. And Hernando... literally turns it into a teaching moment. He doesn't miss a step as he answers Mr. Smug's challenge, "Is this art?" and quickly gets the entire class laughing with him and laughing at the homophobic student who thought he was going to come out of this as The Big Man (TM).

Meanwhile, I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to care about the endless running subplot involving Kala and Rajan's marriage. By this point, it seems evident enough that Rajan is a genuinely nice guy, and that I was wrong when I thought I picked up on something sinister in his possessiveness. But I don't care about him, not even a little bit. I don't care about his and Kala's sex life, or lack thereof, though I'll admit that his injury in this episode gave me a simultaneously laugh and wince. I don't care about him in any way, not even enough to dislike him, and the thread involving him remains my least favorite part of the show - Though Kala and actress Tina Desai absolutely sparkle when playing opposite Max Riemelt's Wolfgang, with the scene in the snow late in this episode a particularly charming highlight.


THE CAPHEUS RECAST

Happy F*cking New Year sees the debut of Toby Onwumere as Capheus. A fairly minor amount of Internet research reveals that Aml Ameen's departure was abrupt, occurring in mid-production after a period of creative disagreement with Lana Wachowski. Additional information varies, and I doubt the full truth will ever be made public knowledge. Suffice to say, while I normally prefer shows write out a character rather than recast - In this case, with production already underway, I doubt there was any viable alternative.

I do regard it as unfortunate. Capheus started as a nonentity in the first couple episodes, but he rapidly became one of my favorite characters, and Ameen's performance had a lot to do with that. This episode is fairly Capheus-light, so I will wait to form an opinion on Onwumere. He does perfectly well with his material in this episode, so I suspect all will be well... But he is a much larger and more imposing physical presence, and he doesn't convey quite the same sense of innocence, so it will definitely be an adjustment.


THOUGHTS:

This episode dropped during the almost two-year gap between seasons, airing as a Christmas special about six months before the rest of the second season launched on Netflix. It's a lengthy episode, running about two hours, and serves to catch us up with the eight leads while at the same time setting up the threads that will run through this season.

As a series, Sense8 has leaned heavily into the notion that family isn't just decided by birth - That we form our own families based on the connections we make with others. That theme is abundantly visible in this episode. At one point, Nomi receives a message from her sister, asking her to act as Maid of Honor at her wedding. Nomi remarks to Amanita that if she went, her parents would be the very first people to turn her in as a fugitive; by contrast, Nomi and Amanita form a sibling-like connection with Bug, who is genuinely touched when they invite him to share their Christmas plans.

Lito, Hernando, and Dani already have been acting as a sort of family unit, with Dani tearfully admitting that this Christmas, shared with them and with Lito's mother (Dolores Heredia), is the happiest she can recall. Wolfgang is far more connected to Felix than to any of the members of his murderous extended family, and Sun is treated as family by her cellmates who tell her, "Welcome home," when she is finally released from solitary confinement.

Ultimately, I don't have very much more to say about Happy F*cking New Year. It does its job, setting various threads in motion: Lito's now-open sexuality, Wolfgang being called on to become a crime boss, whether he wants to or not, the FBI agent pursuing Nomi and Amanita, and of course Whispers' pursuit of Will. There are some very strong scenes, from a shared birthday celebration to an effective rendition of Hallejulah as the eight celebrate Christmas. And Terrence Mann continues to be a wonderfully creepy presence as Whispers, sinister even when being superficially friendly to Will's father.

What it lacks is the momentum Season One had built by its final episodes. This episode is effectively a new start, establishing the characters' new situations for future developments. It is absorbing, because by this point we are so absorbed by the lives of these characters that it would be interesting just to watch them navigate their most ordinary respective days. But it's definitely less compelling than the series' very best - More of a foundation for developments to come than a gripping piece in its own right.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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