The dramas of TVs New Golden Age excel at presenting their characters with a choice of evils. Should Walter White attempt to take down a more powerful druglord, or turn his familys life upside down by fleeing? Should Daenerys Targaryen let the slaves she freed take vengeance against their former masters, or punish their payback attempts with still more violence? Should Don Draper sell out, or give up? For many shows, the central conflict involves a question with seemingly no right answers.
But what if there are no wrong answers? What if the choice is hard to make because the benefits of either option are too difficult to turn down? In the right hands, thats an even deeper dilemma and Working for the Clampdown, tonights Halt and Catch Fire, proves this is a series with the tools and the talent to navigate this demanding kind of drama.
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Its grimly fitting that Cameron Howe is the person who has to make the decision, since she wound up on the losing end of a similar situation last season. Back then, the cutting-edge interactive interface shed designed for the Cardiff Giant personal computer set it apart from the pack, but also made the unit slower and costlier than its competitors. Gordon Clark and Joe MacMillan could have either saved the project by cutting Cam loose, or honored her genius at the risk of all their livelihoods. Fiction usually stacks the deck in favor of poetry over practicality, but Halt held fast to the idea that neither option was self-evidently superior and was a smarter, more sophisticated show for it. Season Two has featured a few equally nuanced callbacks to the matter, namely with Gordon admitting that the Giant was a soulless machine and John Bosworth (accurately) telling Howe that dropping her OS was the best business move.
This time around, its not a computer at stake, but an entire company. Recognizing that Camerons fledgling internet outfit boasts both a brilliant staff and near-limitless growth potential, Joe and his future father-in-law Jacob Wheeler offer to buy Mutiny outright. Taking the deal means not just a massive influx of cash and increase in reach, but also a chance for the Mutineers to make some actual money. This turns out to be crucial to Cams boyfriend Tom Rendon in particular: He grew up dirt poor alongside his kind blue-collar mother, and is at the brink of destitution even now. (Thats the secret hes been hiding behind his preppy exterior all this time.)
But the alternative is equally appealing. As the name makes clear, true independence is Mutinys raison detre especially since Cameron, whos been burned by Joes business tactics before. Ironically, its Joe himself who makes this case to her, when he learns of a plan to shutter the companys games division. Dont sell, he warns her, after spending the entire episode convincing her otherwise. Youll make a ton of money, the company will be a juggernaut, but your vision will be corrupted and lost. Wheelers can enable Mutiny to do great work but it wont be her work, guided by her intellect and instincts alone.
So Cameron chooses one of two right things to do, revealing her decision in a gob-smacking shot down the center of a chaotic office that arranges the Mutineers like diorama figures. Its a victory for her, obviously. Its also a big win for Joe, who willingly sacrificed professional success for personal growth by quitting his job and eloping with Sara Wheeler, whom hed almost lost. But its a tremendous blow to Tom and his mother, who needed the money; to Boz, whose loyalty to Howe is unshakeable; to the substantial faction of employees who wanted more of a say in the fate of their company; and most of all to Donna Clark, who fears that her brain-damaged husband Gordon will grow more unstable by the day. This kind of genuine moral ambiguity is much more satisfying than the usual antiheroic murk that prestige TV loves to wallow in.
Its also fueled by powerhouse performances from start to finish. Scoot MacNairy portrays Gordon suffering a frightening memory lapse right in the middle of a big valedictory speech with heartbreaking vulnerability, nailing his transition from conviction to confusion. Toby Huss works wonders when his John Bosworth meets an even bigger, better salesman in Jacob; his eyes beam, but his mouth opens and shuts like snake tonguing the air to determine if hes predator or prey. And not since Timothy Olyphants Sheriff Seth Bullock on Deadwood has anyone on TV blended blind fury with wet-eyed vulnerability as well as Mackenzie Davis punk programmer. Halt and Catch Fire is dynamite. Throw it at anyone wholl listen.
Previously: Building the Perfect Beast