The OA “New Colossus”

The woman known as The OA gathered a group of five people to assist her for some reason in some way.  For the pilot, we followed around high school drug dealer and generally violent person Steve.  This time around we follow Alfonso “French” Sosa, a “good” student who takes cares of his extended family and just got a college scholarship with a morality clause attached, so he probably shouldn’t be seen anywhere with Steve.

He’s still coming back to hear more of The OA’s story.

Besides some general drama involving Prairie getting permission to take a walk for an hour every night, much of the episode continues to fill in her backstory.  After her miraculous recovery from the school bus accident in Mother Russia, Prairie’s rich father smuggled her to a boarding school for the blind in the United States.  Then he seemed to die.

She doesn’t believe it.  The money dries up and she has to go live with a much poorer aunt, but she never believes the Russian mob got her dad.

It does tend to make her paranoid.  She’s a master violin player, she has weird dreams, and she’s still completely blind.  Dumb luck occurs when the Johnsons, looking to adopt a baby from Prairie’s aunt, find her instead and opt to adopt the little blind girl.  Aside from the weird dreams and flashbacks, which gets her put on medication, she seems to be doing OK.

Then a vision of somehow meeting someone important, a tall man, sends her to the Statue of Liberty for her 21st birthday.  Her father isn’t there.  Instead, she eventually runs into Dr. Hap Percy.  Hap overhears her playing the violin in the NYC subway and somehow knows she had a near death experience.  He’s a scientist studying those things and manages to talk her into coming back to his place.

Which she does.

By a small private plane.

And she can’t get a call through to her parents.

And then she goes down to a bedroom in the basement that includes walking through some running water.

And then she hears the door of her clear cell lock behind her.

Dude, for someone who grew up paranoid about the Russian mob, she sure did fall for some pretty obvious shenanigans right away.

And she’s not alone down there.  A boy named Homer is talking to her.

Maybe next time, be more careful about visions and impulses to go somewhere without leaving a note.  That’s what the guy in  127 Hours learned the hard way, too.