Our Country Friends

The Japanese reality show continues to enthrall the guests, who watch it nightly and come to know the participants and their quirks well. With the plumbing still not fixed, Masha now helps the Actor to wash with pails of water frequently, repeating the same acts that she did the first time. Senderovsky, aware of this arrangement, knows that he must fix the pipes to save his marriage, so he calls in his contractor, despite barely having the funds to do so. His agent calls and tells him that, after canceling a hospital show because of the pandemic, the network needs a comedy and they want his script. In his excitement and desperation to find success with his project, he asks Dee to help him get the Actor on board with his pilot. The two are sitting on the porch discussing the pilot when Masha exits the house with a pail of water and brings it to the Actor’s bungalow; she does not go in, despite the Actor’s plea. After watching this scene, Dee agrees to help.

Senderovsky brings the pail of water into the Actor’s bungalow and tells him that he can do whatever he wants with Masha. The Actor belittles Senderovsky and tells him that he is better than him. After taking the Actor’s abuse, Senderovsky offers to help the Actor start a relationship with Dee, and though the Actor knows Senderovsky’s motivations are because of the script, he agrees. Senderovsky sets them up for a walk, and they soon find themselves on the road in front of the House on the Hill, making awkward small talk. The Actor is happy to be on a walk with her instead of Ed but struggles to connect with her. When they encounter a snapping turtle in the middle of the road, he goes to save it, not knowing that it is dangerous. She stops him, showing him how to safely move the turtle. They save the animal in the presence of the black pickup truck, and as it begins to rain, they run to find shelter at an old abandoned international camp. They talk about the nature of love and soon find themselves having sex on the camp’s stage. During the act, the black pickup truck drives by, parks, and shines its lights on them. Afterward, Dee tells the Actor that he cannot see Masha anymore. On their way back to the house, they see roadkill, but the animal looks like it was shot rather than run over.

Every morning, Nat and Karen get up an hour early to practice Korean before Masha wakes up. Karen enjoys spending time with Nat and is doing her best to connect with her over BTS and Korean vocabulary. She decorates her bungalow with BTS posters and bedsheets and even orders Korean vocabulary books. She tries to convince Ed to make a Korean dish but he refuses, warning her against becoming too attached to Nat and expressing his displeasure with how her app drove Dee away from him and into the arms of the Actor. Masha watches Nat with Karen and is conflicted: She feels jealous of their relationship but is thankful that Nat’s behavior has improved with Karen as a friendly figure in her life.

The weather begins to turn warmer, and Karen reads Vinod’s novel, although she can only bring herself to read five pages at a time, and she wonders at his lack of ambition and whether she can actually love him. The book is about his own parents, before they immigrated to the US and before his father turned violent and his mother overly critical and judgmental. The novel and her time with Nat also remind her of how she, Vinod, and Senderovsky once all promised to never have children, because of their own parents’ treatment of them, and that Senderovsky is the only one to break that promise.

Karen considers telling Vinod about the novel and at night she applies cream to his face, caring for him. One night, he returns the favor and as he does so, kisses her. It is awkward at first, Karen doubting if she should kiss him back because of her conflicted feelings, but Vinod is confident, knowing that he came here to live his life before it ends. Karen asks him to tickle her, as she doesn’t believe that she’s ever experienced the sensation. She then decides she will show him the book, and on their way to her bungalow, they kiss in front of Ed and Senderovsky. Once inside, she changes her mind, deciding not to show him, and as they become more intimate, a gunshot sounds in the distance.

Ed and Senderovsky, sitting on the porch, ignore the shot and talk past each other. Each says what they want to say, barely listening to the other. They discuss Vinod and Karen and the Japanese reality show. Senderovsky is trying to convince Ed, who is packed and ready to go, to stay with them. He asks Ed for some money to help with repairs to the house and Ed gladly offers it. Suddenly, Vinod comes rushing out of Karen’s bungalow, onto the porch, with his novel in hand. He insults Senderovsky for hiding it and lying and slaps him. Senderovsky falls from the impact and topples over the coffee table.

News of George Floyd’s murder horrifies the guests. Despite how removed their area is from the protests happening in the cities, they begin seeing pro-police signs pop up everywhere. Vinod, angry with Senderovsky, wants to leave, but will not because of Karen. Despite the tension and drama, dinners continue as normal. The relationships bloom between Vinod and Karen and between Dee and the Actor. The Actor, committed to the script now, suggests that he and Dee move into the main house while Senderovsky and his family move to the bungalows so that he can access the internet while the script is in pre-production. Senderovsky agrees. Masha, meanwhile, struggles with her patients, whose racist views only worsen with the protests. She also contends with the sting of rejection now that the Actor turns his attention away from her toward Dee. She believes that Senderovsky is using everyone around them to his own benefit and that he set up Dee and the Actor not only to help his script but also to get his wife back.

Three weeks pass with Dee and the Actor in the main house and their relationship is a social media hit. They are considered the first quarantine celebrity couple and fans love them. This changes, however, when one morning Dee logs on to see that she is under fire for an essay on Gone With the Wind in which she aligns herself with racist cops using the term ‘my people.’ People begin dissecting her writings about growing up poor and white in the American South and condemn her while criticizing the Actor for dating her. She struggles with her confusion about the fact that these essays were fine before the pandemic and earned her reputation and fame. She has a breakdown in the bathroom and the Actor sobs with her until his sobbing is louder than her own.

Karen and Nat are on a walk, masked because of pollen, and are nearly run over by a pickup truck, although neither can later remember what color the vehicle is. When Karen returns and tells Senderovsky, he calls the police and a state trooper comes to question Karen and Nat. Karen insists that it is a biased-based incident, as both she and Nat are Asian and were walking with masks, and she cites the increase in violence toward their demographic. The state trooper disagrees with her. Senderovsky reveals that the black pickup truck makes many appearances and at times seems to be stalking him and the guests. He reports this as well as the increasing number of gunshots around the house. This shocks the guests and angers Masha, not only because Senderovsky did not tell the group about the truck but also because the state trooper’s only advice is for them to be careful because they are isolated.

The Actor receives a call from his team to strategize and find a way to explain away his romance with Dee. They want to blame the Tröö Emotions app by saying that he acted under duress, and they encourage him to publicly make up with his former girlfriend. People know where he is, and the address of the House on the Hill and its guests are publicly posted. His team has a plane at a nearby airfield, ready to take him away.

At dinner, Dee questions the group’s LGBTQIA+ and socio-economic diversity and tries to force everyone to disclose their net worth. She is insecure about the attacks online and tries to shift the focus to the others. She reveals her own net worth and is met with everyone agreeing that she is very wealthy for her age and that predominantly they struggled financially when they were her age. Vinod tells her that he read her book and says that she is trying to make sense of her birthright as a white American. Throughout this conversation, the Actor moves away from Dee while Ed can only think about how he wants to be closer to her.

Senderovsky stresses about money to Masha while in bed. The network sent him the first payment for his script, but if Dee and the Actor separate, and the Actor once again turns on the script, the money might completely dry up. Nat, who usually stays with Karen, comes to Senderovsky and Masha’s bungalow in the middle of the night, wanting to sleep instead with her parents; she leaves a note of explanation for Karen. Meanwhile, in the house, Dee and the Actor have sex and Dee thinks that he loves her. The Actor stays awake afterward and cannot sleep. Around 4 am, he receives a message from his team. Someone filmed him and Dee having sex at the abandoned camp. He gathers his strength and packs. Nat, up early as always, sees him with his bag heading toward his car. She chases and yells for him to wait but trips and skins her knee. He leaves, and she cries in the driveway, waiting for someone to come get her.