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The funny thing is that Chase has some of Runs best sequences so far. Director Kate Dennis makes good use of the train set, emphasizing its narrow aisles while having Ruby, Billy, and Fiona constantly cross past each other, especially in the homestretch after Fiona retrieves Billys bag of cash. Dickon Hinchliffes propulsive score amplifies the tension of scenes featuring people doing nothing more than walk to and from train compartments and bathrooms. Theres a clever bit of plotting involving how Fiona cunningly obtains Laurences phone number from Ruby, helping her seal a blackmail scheme. (Archie Panjabis dastardly vibe combined with her calm, collected delivery deserves praise as well.) Wever does some great flustered phone acting when shes talking to Laurence and her son, Scooter, who recently broke his arm at a trampoline park while out with a new nanny. The episode isnt a total wash.

Still, Run pulls the rug out from under the audience in an unexpected and slightly sour way that feels neither productive nor earned. After Ruby and Billy barely make their train headed to Los Angeles, they independently discover that Fiona (or Alice, as Ruby knows her from the department store) is also on board. Ruby continues to overshare with Fiona/Aliceabout Billy, like that he carries around a big bag of cash, all while Fiona taunts Billy via text and tries to find him on the train. Fiona eventually catches up to Billy and tries to persuade him, once again, to give up on running away, claiming that this is just a phase and that hell get sick of Ruby, which will leave her in the lurch. Then she drops a bombshell: Im really glad that she doesnt know the real reason you texted her. Fiona shows Billy a promotional video in which he explains the Run idea directly into the camera. Its partially implied that Billy pulled the trigger to generate material for a new book.

Billy concealing his true motives isnt exactly the problem. Its more about how Run has so far concealed expository information and then provided it to the audience piecemeal. Sometimes it works well, like Ruby detailing her mental health history, and other times it can be slightly maudlin, like Billys explanation for why he abandoned his book tour. (Generally speaking, Run handles Rubys characterization better than Billys.) Yet, Vicky Jones and her writers started from a place of portraying their twin protagonists as desperate, somewhat selfish people who are genuinely drawn to each other, which has so far grounded each new piece of background material weve received so far. This revelation suggests that one embarked on this journey sincerely while the other didnt, which is fine, but Run doesnt treat this like a breach of trust or anything in the ballpark of momentous. Its just another twist, another info point, even though it fundamentally changes how we see Billy. If youre going to play that card, its worth doing it with more consideration.

Of course, the revelation will almost certainly be mitigated by what the situation implies: Billy might have sparked the journey for crass professional reasons, but he fell back in love with Ruby for real while on the train. While thats not an impossible sell, it demands at least some recontextualization of previous scenes to justify the reasoning. (If none of that actually happens, Ill gladly eat crow.) But on top of that, Chase ends up negating some of the nuance from Fionas motivation established in the previous episode. Its appropriate to claim that $10,000 isnt satisfactory compensation for essentially authoring Billys material while remaining uncredited, but Fiona quickly becomes the person who jumps off a moving train with a bag of money after blackmailing her former employer and what amounts to a complete stranger. Though Panjabi has fun with the character, Fionas transformation is a little compressed. She goes from an unseen presence to a righteously determined partner to a train jumper in just too little time.

Its all a little slapdash and signals that Run might be moving away from its best elements, mainly Wever and Gleesons chemistry. The scenes with them this week are mostly small-scale and fun: Ruby and Billys post-coital check-in, which had to be deferred to the cab ride to Union Station because they were late, is an awkward minefield in which Billy says every conceivably wrong thing, but the tension prematurely evaporates when Billy, on the train, sheepishly admits hes a dick. The other good moment occurs when Billy further confesses to Ruby about his on-stage behavior after being confronted by the audience member whose husband died, i.e. he called everyone in the room a bunch of cunts. Moments earlier, however, Fiona tells Ruby that Billy will never be entirely honest with her, and sure enough, Billy doesnt tell her about his true motivations behind sending the Run text.

That isnt flashy stuff, but they feel real and within spitting distance of human behavior, which, theoretically, is supposed to be what remains consistent even if the high-concept premise drives the bus. Instead, those scenes feel more and more like afterthoughts. Now, Fiona and the stolen cash has taken narrative precedence. Its certainly possible that Run has more positive surprises in store, but it could just as easily be the end of the line.

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Run is too twisty for its own good - The A.V. Club