HBO’s The Third Day: Tuesday – The Daughter Review
*This Review Contains Full Spoilers*
On this week’s episode of HBO’s The Third Day, Tuesday – The Daughter, Helen’s (Naomie Harris) intentions for coming to Osea become clear as the fated birth preempted in the last episode nears.
At the end of last week’s episode, the biggest bomb got dropped that Helen is actually Sam’s (Jude Law) wife and that Ellie (Nico Parker) and Talulah (Charlotte Gairdner-Mihell) are their children. It’s a major reveal that really hits home in this episode with plenty more shocking reveals, but before we get to that, let’s wrap up a much smaller plot thread with Ellie meeting a strange girl named Kail (Freya Allan). Kail is incredibly loyal to the island’s religious beliefs and even chastises Talulah for no believing in God – although Kail’s explanation is a little ironic since she describes Talulah as a sheep being lead to the slaughter because of how she puts her focus into other things, but isn’t Kail also being a sheep being led to the slaughter, meaning death, with God as her shepherd. Regardless, after a bit of convincing, Kail is able to lead Ellie off to a secret part of the island where outsiders aren’t allowed and we get more grotesque religious imagery in the form of cave drawings and Kail talks about Osea’s great purpose. Truthfully, she doesn’t say much, but just mentions that Osea symbolizes the balance of the world – a foreboding ideology that doesn’t look good with how the island has become divided.
With Helen, we learn that she really came to Osea in order to find Sam since that one call he was able to make points her to the island as his last location. Although Mr. Martin (Paddy Considine) says that he’s asked the locals if they’ve seen Sam and says that he’s never been there, we know that they’re all lying, and Helen is pretty suspicious too. We also get some more time with the mysterious Cowboy (Paul Kaye), but the purpose of his presence remains unclear. He could be, and is likely, there for the birth of the child everyone obsesses over, but it really just seems like he’s there to provoke an emotional reaction from Helen about Nathan. Cowboy is incredibly persistent in having Helen talk about her grief from Nathan’s death, but she’s gotten over it in a way that Sam didn’t because she had some issues with him. Like Sam had mentioned, Nathan was a difficult child at times and Helen even says that the last thing she said to him was that she had wished she had never been born, but Helen loved him regardless and was distraught when everything happened. Cowboy is definitely suspicious, especially with his motives not being clear, and it’ll be interesting to see why he’s here in the finale next week.
Once Helen finally confronts Mr. Martin, we not only get a clearer picture of what’s been happening since Sam became the Father of the island, but also see how Mrs. Martin (Emily Watson) is such a controlling figure. Just when it seems like Mr. Martin is about to be caught in a lie and be intimidated by Helen, Mrs. Martin steps in and derails everything by telling half-truths. She says that Sam was on the island, had a relationship with Jess (Katherine Waterston), caused the island to become divided, and then left to go home to his original family. Some of these things are true since he was on the island, had a relationship with Jess that went farther than what we even know, and did divide the ideology of the island, but you never really buy that he left. However, Watson sells it so good as Mrs. Martin that you almost believe it and it’s easy to see why people trust her so easily. She’s so blunt and transparent that it’s hard not to take what she says so seriously and she always finds the right moment to speak when her voice will be heard. She’s easily one of the smartest people on the island, maybe the smartest, and she almost gets Helen to leave the island – but something else keeps her there.
The biggest reveal of the episode that’s going to have lasting ramifications going forward is that Jess is the pregnant woman and is still on the island. going forward is that Jess is the pregnant woman and is still on the island. She’s in extreme distress throughout the episode as Helen has to help her both move the baby into a better position in the womb, which is a very strange sequence, and give birth away from the rest of the islanders. It seems like she’s also more religiously involved than expected as she believes that the baby she’s having is going to save everything. The biggest reveal, that’s not unexpected but holds a lot of possibilities for what the finale is going to be like, is that she tells Helen that Sam is on the island in the big house and that the baby is his. With the final shot showing both Helen and Sam seeing each other by the water, there’s likely a wild finale in store as both the islanders and Jess are going to put up one hell of a fight to keep Sam on this island and this could spell doom for Helen and the girls if things get violent.
This week’s episode continues to bring out some shocking reveals that are likely going to set up one hell of a finale as Sam’s past actions on the island cause a hellish present for Helen as she learns new information of his whereabouts and what special birth really means.
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