Class – Brave-ish Heart – Review
The second part of last week’s Class rewatch double bill was episode 5, Brave-ish Heart. I know I’m super late getting to this review, it’s been one of those weeks!
Synopsis
As Charlie (Greg Austin), Matteusz (Jordan Renzo) and Tanya (Vivian Oparah) try to stop the petals from annihilating the human race, April (Sophie Hopkins) must fight the terrifying force of Corakinus, light years away from home.
Light in the Shadows
Picking up immediately after the first episode we join Ram searching for April in the Shadow Kin realm. She saves his ass from a nasty shadow beastie and in doing so sets the tone for the entire episode.
Probably one of my overall favourite things about this show, and especially this episode, is the subversion of character tropes. That’s so evident in the April/Ram relationship. He’s introduced as the cocky ladies man football star, but is really this sweet, caring boy who has deep religious faith. April starts out as the wallflower with no friends but she has a core of steel and is fierce when it comes to protecting those she loves.
Likewise later in the episode, when April is gearing up to fight Corakinus and she and Ram share a moment. In any other show there would be a declaration of “I love you”s and probably a passionate “last kiss”. Brave-ish heart up-ends that expectation with April telling Ram not to say it and him replying that he’s only known her for a month.
There’s also a great moment where Ram says “Fine Frodo, let’s go hop in a volcano.” and April doesn’t get the reference. It seems like such a total opposite moment, you feel like April really should be the one to know The Lord of the Rings not Ram! I do take offence to Ram calling it an “old movie”. The shot later on of the Shadow Kin marching out of their fortress also has major LotR vibes, which is such a cool callback!
Deal with the Devil
Quill (Katherine Kelly) and Miss Ames (Pooky Quesnel) are still trying to come to a deal. Quill is trying to find out what Ames and the mysterious governors are all about “You didn’t help with the Shadow Kin. And you didn’t help with the really quite hot dragon tattoo guy.” since they have offered to get her free will back. All they ask in return is that she convince Charlie to use the Cabinet of Souls to destroy the blossoms.
This is perhaps the one episode that makes me wish more than ever that this show had continued. It sets up so much about the Governors that never pays off and it’s so frustrating. Quill and Charlie both question how Ames knows as much as she does about, well, everything. Her only response is that the Governors are “efficient”. But they must be far more than that. After all they worked out what the blossoms were, the possible ways of defeating them and the odds of each of those scenarios in a morning apparently.
Parental Warning
Tanya, Charlie and Matteusz are dealing with April’s parents in the aftermath of April and Ram disappearing into the Shadow Realm. Charlie gets a call from Quill about the blossoms so he and Matteusz go to the school while Tanya goes to find Ram’s dad. I love that Tanya doesn’t just get shepherded along with the others despite being the youngest. She has had a relationship with Ram longer than the others (even if it was him paying her to do his homework) and she wants to honour that.
Quill confronts Charlie about the Cabinet and his lie about it being empty. She wants him to use the cabinet to destroy the Shadow Kin, not the blossoms. Charlie doesn’t want to use it at all as it will be the end for the Rhodian souls contained in the Cabinet. When Ames arrives, talking of deals and knowing far too much about Charlie, Quill and everything else he starts to realise what an impossible position he is in. When he is finally persuaded to use the Cabinet Quill insults Rhodians for being stuck up and pompous. I always saw the speech he gives as a sort of failsafe, making sure that whoever is using the Cabinet really means to use it. Kind of like the two key system you always see on missile launches in movies.
Makes you think
Like I mentioned before, so much of Class, and this episode in particular, is about subverting tropes. Flipping the norm on its head and making you think.
April’s explanation to Ram about the Shadow Kin’s world view always stands out to me. No-one has ever actually oppressed them, it’s just how they view themselves and they are fighting against that imagined slight. I found that on rewatch that speech brought to mind the state of identity politics in the world today. Not all those who think they are being “oppressed” really are, but they choose to fight against that perception that only they have.
The way the parents behave in this episode is another example. When April and Ram’s fathers both jump through the rift to “save” their children and end up getting saved.
I also loved Ram’s “there’s 30 million of us, try to learn something.” when April is completely clueless about his religion. I do think we could all stand to learn a little more about others and foster some understanding. There Class goes again, challenging our way of thinking!
What do you think about Brave-ish Heart? Where does it stand in your ranking of Class episodes? We’d love to hear from you.
Don’t forget the rewatch continues tonight at 8pm (UK) with episode 6, Detained. We will be live tweeting again using #ClassDW. See you there.
