The Proverbial Deep Breath
As Maja cools off from her outburst, we begin Quicksand’s third episode with Maja’s lawyer smuggling a phone into her cell. After nonchalantly acknowledging what’s he’s risked to do this, we cut back to yet another flashback, this time involving an economics class and the beginning of a clash between Samir and Sebastian. This ultimately spills over to an event later on in the day where both kids question their family life and upbringing leading to some pretty heated words being spat at one another. After cooling off and venting to Maja, Samir and her share a moment that appears to be hinting at something brewing between the two in the future. For now though, we leave these questions hanging in the air as we briefly return to the prison where we see Maja talking to a priest. He tries to get her to open up but she brushes off his suggestions. It’s here where we begin to see problems manifesting between Maja and Sebastian in their intense relationship. As they go to a club together, Sebastian gets blind drunk and spirals out of control, prompting Maja to take him home and head back to her own place to let him cool off on his own. The next morning, the plot thickens as Maja meets Samir by a bus-stop and the two share an intimate moment and kiss. At this point we take a break from the constant criss-crossing between timelines to see Maja breaking down and crying uncontrollably. She can’t bring herself to even contemplate the idea of shooting Amanda let alone killing her and she uses this as ammo to her next interview with the Inspector. After vehemently replying she didn’t do it, it turns out they have a witness from the day that says otherwise. A survivor from the classroom who has a completely different tale of events that transpired that day. The episode then ends with Maja being told she pointed the gun at Amanda and fired twice, killing her best friend and leaving things in a state of perpetual turmoil going into the next episode. With the exception of a few key moments, the third episode is easily the weakest out of the 6. The flashbacks don’t serve much purpose except show Sebastian’s decline and the debating and general heated discussions don’t really bring that much into the fold either. Still, there’s enough here to act as a proverbial deep breath before things start getting really intense for the final 3 episodes but as a stand-alone piece, this is certainly the weakest of the 6.
