The Big Door Prize, the Apple TV+ sci-fi/comedy about a mysterious machine that reveals people’s potential, reaches deeper into despair and goofiness this week.
Dusty and Cass’ daughter Trina celebrates a depressing milestone and is acting out to make sure everyone knows it. Plus, Dusty and Cass try a romantic getaway and find nothing but surprises, both welcome and unwelcome, waiting for them.
In the episode, entitled “Trina,” The Big Door Prize flexes its tonal muscles.
The Big Door Prize recap: ‘Trina’
Season 1, episode 5: Trina (played by Djouliet Amara) is really feeling herself. She takes a baseball bat up to the roof of Giorgio’s (Josh Segarra) restaurant and smashed his sign. It now says “Orgio’s.” Giorgio is deeply wounded by the gesture, and he lets Trina’s dad, Dusty (Chris O’Dowd), know it. However, because Giorgio has feelings for Trina’s mom, Cass (Gabrielle Dennis), the restaurant owner lets it slide.
So, what’s up with Trina? It’s the birthday of her dead boyfriend, Colton, and his twin, Jacob (Sammy Fourlas), who she’s been secretly seeing. When Father Reuben (Damon Gupton) checks in on her, she doesn’t want to open up about the matter.
Trina harbors some piece of guilt about Colton’s death that she just won’t let go. She hints that there’s a part of the story of Colton’s fatal car crash that would turn people against her, but she doesn’t tell Reuben what it is.
She is stunned to discover herself alone at the house on this momentous night.
What you need is a romantic getaway
How did that happen? Well, Dusty’s boss, Principal Pat (Cocoa Brown), noticed that the usually upbeat teacher was in a downer mood. It’s mostly because Dusty and Cass haven’t been seeing eye to eye ever since they got their conflicting Morpho machine diagnoses of personal potential. (He got “Teacher/Whistler,” while she got “Royalty.”)
Principal Pat has a solution: a coupon for the Cruise Inn, a themed hotel that’s popular for people cheating on their spouses. She gives it to Dusty so he can take Cass on a romantic rendezvous. The trouble is, the place is owned by Martha (Susan Savoie) and Rose (Schelle Purcell). Martha used to date Cass’ mom, Mayor Izzy (Crystal Fox), so Cass thinks Martha still hates her.
Certainly, the room in which Martha ends up sticking Dusty and Cass says there may be some lingering resentment. It’s the only room in the inn with bunk beds.
What kind of ‘explorer’ are you, exactly?
During dinner, they talk with an extremely odd couple whose lives were also changed by the Morpho machine. Glen (Rory Keane) was told he was meant to be a photographer, so he started doing that. Hawaii (Emily Topper) got “Explorer” … which she took to mean “sexual explorer.” So she’s been having tons of sex with random people. This creeps out both Dusty and Cass, but also reminds them that they aren’t being sexually curious.
Glen and Hawaii ask to come back to see their themed room, which is a ruse to get them alone. When Glen leaves in a hurry, and Hawaii stays, they realize what she’s there for. Dusty and Cass jump into a closet to have a private conversation about whether they’re ready for a tryst, and they quickly agree they are. Of course, within 10 seconds of trying, Dusty falls and hits his head, blowing the mood.
When Cass goes to get ice, she runs into Martha. They finally have a heart-to-heart, something they’ve been putting off since Martha and Izzy broke up. Turns out the thing that Izzy told Cass all these years ago — that they broke up because Martha didn’t want a family, and Izzy already had Cass, which made them a family — was a lie. Not only was it a lie, Izzy then told Martha to stay out of Cass’ life. Izzy chose to throw her daughter under the bus rather than confess her real feelings. Cass demands that Dusty take her home, no longer in the mood for a romantic getaway.
If you only knew …
Photo: Apple TV+
Trina decides to head over to her secret boyfriend Jacob’s place to spend the night with him and his dad, Beau (Aaron Roman Weiner). Beau is still all kinds of bent out of shape over the death of his son and the departure of his wife. But Trina throws him for a loop by revealing facts about Colton that Beau didn’t know.
Turns out his son liked rom-coms more than Westerns. He used to help his mom with laundry. And his favorite color was yellow. All this reminds Beau that he wasn’t present in his son’s life, wasn’t a caring father who made enough of an effort. This finally prompts Trina to confess to Beau what she hasn’t been able to say: She cheated on Colton before his death. Beau doesn’t handle this well. He asks Trina to leave.
Beau goes up to talk to Jacob, and tells him he doesn’t want to have secrets anymore (after catching his son shoving a bunch of weed into his desk drawer to hide it). Beau asks if Jacob knew about Trina’s duplicitousness. He says no, but we all know he can’t admit to his dad that he was the other man in the situation. If Beau found that out, he would never look at his son the same way.
That sounds really healthy
Photo: Apple TV+
I loved the conversation with Glen and Hawaii — both Rory Keane and Emily Topper give their absolute all to these two nutjobs. The Big Door Prize’s humor ricochets between a more down, deadpan style of humor and a broader, more cartoonish school.
That means you can have things like the floor of the dining room in the cruise ship-themed hotel start to move and give Glen motion sickness and Trina pulling a very gentle birthday prank on Jacob in the same half-hour without it feeling like one of the jokes doesn’t fully belong. (She gives him a small, clay knick-knack for his birthday, which breaks, and she makes a huge show of being put off by it before revealing it was already broken when she wrapped it.)
The joke of Dusty falling down was a little labored, but I get that there are only so many ways to skin that particular cat. But Topper’s goony sex positivity was just right — halfway between clueless and correct.
Like why is it weird to think she’d be happier being honest about her sexual awakening to her partner? Isn’t that the mature thing to do? Dusty freaks out about it because it’s out of his comfort zone, but then when she offers to sleep with both of them, he changes his tune.
I like that The Big Door Prize doesn’t commit to any one of these characters always being right. It’s a little more thrilling this way.
★★★☆☆
Watch The Big Door Prize on Apple TV+
New episodes of The Big Door Prize arrive every Wednesday on Apple TV+.
Rated: TV-MA
Watch on: Apple TV+
Scout Tafoya is a film and TV critic, director and creator of the long-running video essay series The Unloved for RogerEbert.com. He has written for The Village Voice, Film Comment, The Los Angeles Review of Books and Nylon Magazine. He is the author of Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Form of Tobe Hooper and But God Made Him A Poet: Watching John Ford in the 21st Century, the director of 30 feature films, and the director and editor of more than 300 video essays, which can be found at Patreon.com/honorszombie.
