Felicia Nickens
The following recap contains spoilers for The Crowded Room Episode 8, “Reunion,” on Apple TV+
The first half of The Crowded Room was spent showing us skewed versions of events, leaving us questioning what was real and what wasn’t. The last half of the series has been slowly filling in the blanks and giving us accurate versions of the events that have occurred over the years. “Reunion” mainly focuses on Danny’s alters and what purpose they’ve served for Danny. Through his meetings with Rya, Danny is beginning to understand who he is and why it’s time to fight to integrate them.
Yitzhak
When questioned about when Yitzhak emerged for the first time, Danny recalls a time when he was getting jumped by a group of boys. As Danny is curled up in a fetal position on the ground, they pummel and kick. Just as one of the boys swings his fist toward Danny, Yitzhak jumps up and catches the boy’s fist in his hand. Danny stands there with the strength of someone 3x his size and with his accent, calls the boy stupid.
Another memory emerges of when Marlin and Candy came to the boarding house to confront Danny about leaving. We see parts of this earlier in the season with Yitzahk on the porch while Danny is inside. Marlin yells at Candy and Yitzhak threatens him for speaking to a lady like that. We see now that it was Danny on the porch, his posture and accent changing as he defended his mother.
What about all that blood on the wall at the boarding house? The police questioned if he had killed anyone there, but in actuality, Danny had injured the drug dealer from past episodes by shooting him in the shoulder after he breaks in and tries to hurt Annabelle.
Through their conversation, Rya and Danny conclude that Ytzhak was his physical protector. He had the skills and competence to deal with violent situations.
Mike & Johnny
Mike was closest in personality to Danny with the exception of being rather cool and more sociable. He was the reason Danny was able to socialize and attempt to make friends. He was the one who was able to flirt with Annabelle and invite her over to the party (of one).
Johnny was the escape artist. He helped Danny escape his problems through self-medicating (drugs) and selling drugs to get money to escape his financial troubles. While Danny powers through some of those memories, there is an instance of him at the drug dealer’s apartment where he is snorting coke and dancing around in his underwear. He crawls over to the dealer and begins to blow him. Danny shakes off the memory and doesn’t want to speak of it anymore with Rya. I suppose he did those sorts of acts for money as well. It must be hard to come to terms that you aren’t aware of what has happened to your body by others over the years.
Jack
Jack was a father figure to Danny. Danny, who grew up without a real father in his life, looked to Jack for fatherly help and advice. It is confirmed by Rya that Danny did indeed travel to London in search of his “father” which is why Jack turned up. Jack is who Danny needed when he needed “self-rescue,” which is why Jack told Danny he needed to leave London to go home and “face the music.”
Ariana
Ariana was the keeper of Danny’s fear and loneliness. She was the one who could get close to people physically and somewhat emotionally. When people got too close though, she couldn’t handle it. Danny confesses he himself has never had sex before, but Ariana had.
Speaking of Ariana, Danny gets a visitor at the jail. It’s not clear who it is at first but it turns out to be Jerome, the man from the club who was with Ariana. He tells Danny he read about the situation in the newspaper and felt compelled to come and see him. He still has a hard time disassociating Ariana from Danny because, to Jerome, Ariana was Danny. Danny doesn’t recall any of it at first and apologizes to Jerome because he isn’t Ariana and leaves.
Jerome comes back another day and apologizes for not being more understanding and re-introduces himself to Danny. They shake hands and have a nice conversation about his time with Ariana and confess that they were like one person and that it’s rare to find someone so in tune with your movement and that from day one they understood each other. He doesn’t think Danny is crazy but that he must be lonely. Danny confides that he is scared that he won’t like who he is once the alters all fuse together.
Jerome offers simple but wise advice,
Take the good parts of yourself and love them and the bad, try to make better.
Jerome visits once more but this time it is to say goodbye. He believes it isn’t fair for either of them since he still misses Ariana. Danny retreats internally to the barn and allows Ariana to take over. She reaches for Jerome as he expresses his love for her. She tells him he loves him too while swiftly letting go of his hand as Danny takes over. He tells Jerome she just wanted to say goodbye.
Jerome is so wonderful and even though he hasn’t appeared much, just this episode alone made me think how good he could be for Danny. He seems to understand what Danny is going through and would most likely be patient and kind even if it was just a friendship. Danny could use someone good in his life.
Marlin
Marlin makes a comeback in this episode and continues to prove what a dick he truly is. Detective Doyle enters a bar where he takes a seat next to Marlin. Marlin makes small talk with him as they complain about work. Marlin says he works with kids just to have them stab him with a knife, alluding to the wound on his arm. Doyle scoffs at that, telling Marlin it looks too superficial to be a stab wound. The reason he can differentiate is because he is a detective. Marlin’s face crumples.
Later Doyle fills Danny’s lawyer, Stan, in and tells him that Marlin is lying. Despite Candy being an alibi for Marlin on that day (whoa), he thinks Danny is telling the truth.
Why Candy? She claims Marlin was home with her during the shooting. Why wouldn’t Marlin want Danny brought to justice? The only answer is that if Marlin accuses Danny of shooting him, then they have to question what Danny’s motive would be. Marlin definitely doesn’t want that. However, it’s painful to hear that Danny’s mom would help Marlin instead of him.
Later Marlin sits with Candy and asks if anyone has been by asking questions. He reminds her that anything that happens is BOTH parents’ fault. A subtle hint perhaps that she knows about Danny’s abuse.
Stan sends a server to serve Marlin with a summons to testify for the defense but of course, this asshole approaches the D.A. and ends up as a witness for them instead, bragging that Danny has a history of violence and he can prove it.
Stan tells Rya the only way they have a chance to help Danny is by asking the D.A. for a plea agreement which would reduce Danny’s sentence to maybe 10-15 years, or his mother needs to testify to what Marlin did to him. Otherwise, he will get life in prison.
Lastly, there is Danny coming to terms with everything that is going on. He is doing a great job at handling his emotions on his own without the alters taking over. At one point he asks Rya if all of this is happening because of what Marlin did to Adam. Rya doesn’t answer and Danny begins getting upset asking her if Marlin ever did anything to him. She changes the subject.
Later, once Danny realizes there’s a strong chance he won’t win his case you begin hearing his alters panic. While he is asleep, Johnny takes over. He waits until lights out when the doors begin to close and puts his hand in between so the door closes on it. The guards take him to the infirmary where he steals a large paperclip. Back in the cell he sits there and stares at it. “Just in case,” he says as the episode ends.
“Just in case” in my opinion means if things go south, he has the means to end his own life. I think he will try to. It may serve a few purposes. One could be that it is the thing that convinces Candy that she needs to help her son. It could be the thing that makes Stan want to fight harder to get the help he needs versus a plea agreement for prison time. It could be a wake-up call to Danny himself to fight harder to remember the true trauma that happened to him in order to testify to it in court.
There are two more episodes left and now that we have seen the events as they really happened, as well as learning who the alters are, the only thing missing is Danny realizing the truth about Adam, and the trial. I look forward to seeing how it all concludes. See y’all next week!
