Power
Episode 2 of The Republic Of Sarah begins with Grover visiting Sarah in federal jail. She’s got a 20 year sentence hanging over her and a tough prosecutor on the other side. However, she suddenly makes her bail thanks to her Mum, who just so happens to have $1 million lying around. With her remaining sober for now, she’s going to support Sarah going forward. The Cooper trial begins…and ends with Sarah found not guilty and the judge recommending that the United States give up control of Greylock to Sarah and the town. Of course, they’ve gone through the lengthy process of getting this approved by the UN right? Let’s continue… Back home, Danny visits Sarah and congratulates her on the big win. Handing over a book, he hopes she knows what she’s doing. Well, straight away the power gets shut off. This makes sense, given they’re a brand new country and need to sort this for themselves. Sarah tries to call on her Mother for help but she refuses to do so, pointing out that politics is what caused her to drink so heavily. When Sarah catches wind that the electricity companies have refused to meet with her, Ellen steps up. “It’s the Governor, she’s trying to sabotage the town,” She says matter-of-factly, not realizing the irony that they’re a new country now. They can’t rely on other countries for help. Perhaps AJ and co should have thought about all this before deciding to go independent? After meeting with the New Hampshire governor, Sarah realizes she needs to play hardball. This sees her turn her attention to Canada for help. Using Bella’s French-speaking skills, she tags along with Sarah and translates. Only, the wind farm price is way too high for her. In order to try and pay for this she checks notes allows Lydon to dig for Coltan in town after all. You know, that whole drama that led to this country going independent. Sarah needs cash to pay for the electricity and decides to allow Lydon to dig two mines. In order to do so, the mining company have to pay for the town’s power during the process. We’ll come back to this in the review portion but… wow. Anyway, Sarah hears back from Danny who proposes a third mine. This one would see two residents forced to move. Their relocation costs would be paid for along with a 5% income boost. One of those houses though is Grover’s. Sarah eventually meets him and drops the bombshell reveal. It’s a tough gig and he’s obviously not happy about it. Eventually though this leads to the power being turned back on across the town. She promises to do her best while Lydon are there, and to keep a close eye on them. Sarah tries to make things right with Grover by buying up more land and making it private property for him. Only, this has an adverse effect and actually makes him more angry. Sarah instead heads to the border where she finds the Governor shutting things down. After all, international borders are now in place and that goes for Canada too. This republic is on its own now. There’s an old Hives song that comes to mind here. How did it go? Oh yes, “Hate to say I told you so.”
The Episode Review
Can you really blame New Hampshire for shutting up shop and protecting their borders? I honestly have no sympathy for Sarah and co. here, especially after the hypocritical way she’s taken less than 40 minutes to go back on her promise to the town. Their whole independence gig was done to keep Lydon out and now they’re willingly allowing them to come in and mine for them. I said in the last episode that America would fight back and protect its borders no matter what. After all, a certain celebrity managed to gain Presidency on the pretense of forcibly protecting borders so it’s hardly surprising. I’m not sure why Sarah and the others are so shocked by this. Then again, they’ve elected a high school history teacher as their leader, so there is that. Last episode we learned that “various” residents would be uprooted but in exchange have new infrastructure, a brand new overhaul city-wide and a substantial flow of cash for every resident that was uprooted from the mining. Understandably, some people weren’t happy and decided to fight back. Now that they’re a brand new country “because a judge said so” (that’s not how this works by the way, they need UN approval) they immediately find the power shut off and wonder why. It also goes without saying that they need to set up trade routes now and that’s going to be very difficult with America and Canada both enforcing their borders. The most annoying part of this show though is the double standards on display. Sarah claims that she’s a “fair” leader and wants to listen to every opinion but yet the former Mayor is completely shut downs for his very real concerns, claiming that he’s being “negative.” After last week’s shaky but promising pilot, this show immediately descends into CW level of storytelling, leaving numerous eye rolling moments and ridiculousness to ensue. The acting is okay and there’s enough drama to keep things engaging but the actual story is so devoid of logic and realism that it makes it difficult to take this one seriously.
