I was captivated by the show when I first saw it in 2020, amidst the pandemic and lockdown. This show resonated with me, so much so, that I’ve continued to watch it at least once a year since then. The miniseries is an adaptation of the 1983 American novel by Walter Tevis. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy who plays the character of Beth Harmon.
Episode One “Openings”:
Persistent repetitive knocks on her door awakened a young woman with Firey red hair. We discover the young woman has fallen asleep inside a bathtub. She struggles to gain enough traction to exit the tub without falling but fails and tumbles down. It is apparent that she is intoxicated. She greets the attendant at her door and tells him she will be down in a moment in French. She is a huge hurry to get to her destination. Her destination, however, remains unclear. She takes a few green pills and downs them with a small bottle of alcohol. As she rushes to her destination, the bombastic flash of lights and clicks overwhelms her with the various cameras and newspaper reporters clamoring for her attention. She forces a smile at them. She feels obvious embarrassment because of her late arrival.
She apologizes to the male opponent seated at a table with a chessboard. It appears he has been waiting for some time for her arrival. The chess board clock is ticking down the minutes on her clock. She stares vacantly into space, as she prepares to make her move. The scene shifts to the past.
A redheaded young girl of nine stands on a metallic grated bridge. She has the same vacuous stare, while a cacophony of policemen and onlookers are gawking at her and the scene behind her. The scene shifts to reveal that the young girl is the only survivor of a tragically fatal car accident. A bloodstained blanket covers a woman lying on the ground. The young lady stands on the bridge, gasping for air, trying desperately to make sense of what happened to her and her mother. We learn she is Beth Harmon, and that her mother was the casualty lying on the ground. It is apparent that the other driver in the other vehicle also perished in the crash, given the tangled metallic ballet of twisted metal and shattered glass, from a T-bone accident.
They take Beth to the Methuen Home for girls. After greeting her, Mrs. Deardorff guides Beth around the orphanage. She later meets with another Orphan name Jolene, who has a penchant for disrupting the status quo and verbalizing her displeasure with colorful expletives, not conducing to young women of her age or situation. Jolene asks Beth what her mother’s last words were before dying. Beth’s surprise is visible, a memory flickering in her mind. We discover from that minor flashback that Beth’s mother said, “Close your eyes” as their vehicle is hurtling towards oncoming traffic. Beth, however, responds to Jolene’s inquiry, and utters “I don’t remember”.
Beth is then required to consume a dark brown pill and a lighter “mint green” pill. Jolene instructs Beth to avoid taking the green one until she is ready to sleep at night. Beth ignores the advice and takes both pills as commanded by the Orphanage nurse. We learn later that the Librium, (the green pill) has an adverse effect on Beth, as she wanders the orphanage in a hazy stupor under its influence. This makes it even more difficult to eat her dinner and converse with her fellow roommates at the orphanage. Beth's thoughts return to her mother as she lies in her bed that night. We gain a small glimpse into Beth’s ruminations about her former life with her mother. Conflict abounds within it. Beth’s mother is an exceptionally gifted and intelligent professor of mathematics at Cornell University. She struggles with some kind of mental illness, as she tosses aside a bottle of Librium. Her parents’ fight nonchalantly about how their daughter is being impacted by Alice’s Harmon’s erratic behavior. Alice’s husband, Paul, finally gives her an ultimatum that if he leaves, this will be the last that both she and Beth will see of him.
Beth surprises the math instructor at the orphanage one day in class, as she has completed the assignment before any of the other girls there. Beth’s mathematical skills astound and amaze her teacher. Her math teacher asks her to go downstairs to clean the chalkboard erasers.
At that place, she finds Mr. Shaibel engaged in a game of chess against himself. This intrigues Beth, even though Mr. Shaibel glares at her with a deep consternation. Beth continues to find excuses to make her way down to the basement to observe Mr. Shaibel’s game of chess. She then plucks up the courage to ask what game he is playing and asks if she can learn and play the game, too. Mr. Shaibel refuses her initial behest and says that he doesn’t play with strangers.
Beth keeps asking to play a game with Mr. Shaibel, and she shows her knowledge of various moves that the game pieces can make on the board. Mr. Shaibel finally concedes and allows her to play a game with him. He wins the first game against her with “The Scholar’s mate.” Beth urges Mr. Shaibel to teach her the moves requisite to win a game using the “Scholar’s Mate”, which he says that he will teach her later. Later that night, she takes three of the Librium pills, which allow her to visualize the “Scholar’s Mate” as she plays an imaginary game of chess on the ceiling of the dormitory. Later, she returns to play another game of chess with Mr. Shaibel, and Mr. Shaibel captures her queen. Mr. Shaibel refuses to allow her to continue playing, citing that she has resigned the game, in part, to sportsmanship protocol. Beth becomes frustrated and indignant and calls Mr. Shaibel a very bad name, which is a great affront to him. He refuses to play with her again over a period of a few weeks. Beth, desperate to play again, inquiries from Jolene about what her harsh words to Mr. Shaibel meant. Mr. Shaibel eventually forgives Beth and allows her access again to the basement area and begins her real instruction of chess openings, middle game and end game strategies.
Beth excels enough that Mr. Shaibel teaches her the names of the squares and also provides her with a copy of Modern Chess Openings, so that she can excel even further. Mr. Shaibel invites friend, another Chess proficient who plays several games against Beth and loss to her. Mr. Shaibel’s chess club friend invites her to play a simultaneous game with his student chess club members.
She later experiences confusion because the previously administered Librium has been banned for the consumption of the orphanage girls. Beth exhibits withdrawal symptoms, as she has grown accustomed to its side effects. Despite this, she still wins the simultaneous game against the chess club and boasts of her winnings to Mr. Shaibel. Beth's withdrawal symptoms persist. She believes she cannot play to her full potential if she isn’t taking the Librium. She believes the drug allows her to visualize the game more succinctly, and it gives her the needed edge to win games. Beth takes the matter into her own hands and pilfers the remaining Librium that is housed in a large glass container at the nurse’s station, which is locked. Beth grabs a screwdriver from Mr. Shaibel’s tools and then discreetly leaves a film viewing of “The Robe.” She gets a large amount of the drug and stuffs it into her side pockets. She feels that this isn’t enough and starts eating hundreds of the pills in a single moment. Mrs. Deardorff and the other staff are shocked when they discover Beth holding the Librium glass jar in her arms and trying to take it with her. Beth succumbs to the drug’s effects from her overdose and collapses on the ground as the glass jar shatters.
Interesting aspects of this episode:
Beth is wearing a light pastel green dress, which mirrors the older Beth in the previous scene in France. She is required to remove her pale mint colored dress and exchange it for a darker green jumper. The mint green dress not only mirrors Beth in both timeframes, but it could also represent Beth’s addiction to Librium, as both the dress and the Librium are the same colors. Beth has moved on from one form of addiction: addiction to the loss of her mother by the forceful removal of her mint green dress, and the addiction to Librium that, Beth, feels allows her to win the games of chess she plays with other opponents.
Mr. Shaibel represents for Beth, the father she never had. Although he never explicitly declares his love for Beth, it becomes clear through his actions as he assists her in grasping the intricacies of chess and guides her towards becoming an exceptional player.
Mrs. Deardorff serves as a temporary mother figure. However, she is sterner and sets boundaries for Beth. These are boundaries that her own mother most likely didn’t impose upon her when she was alive.
Alice Harmon, Beth’s mother, serves as a representation of a white queen, who used her daughter as a pawn, against Beth’s father. Alice Harmon used Beth as a sacrificial pawn when she said “close your eyes” just before the car accident that takes Alice’s life but leaves Beth alive. I think anyone would most likely feel a sense of betrayal, deep psychological wounds, and anger if someone manipulated them in this manner and almost caused their death.
Jolene is not only serves as Beth’s friend but is a juxtaposition of a black chess piece on a chessboard. Jolene was always challenging everyone around her with her boisterous protestations and profanities. Jolene, however, also challenges Beth and educates her. Thus, allowing Beth to question the world around her, examine her own actions, gain personal introspection, accountability, and the autonomy in the chessboard's microcosm, and the orphanage. Jolene also becomes Beth’s confidante and surrogate sister, too.
Isla Johnston, who portrays the nine-year-old Beth, does a wonderful job in her acting abilities. You really can sense a feeling of anger and betrayal in the young Beth, as she navigates her life at the orphanage, after the death of her mother. She excels in ability to convince you that her character Beth, is severely addicted both to the Librium and winning the game of chess.
The acting by Moses Ingram, who portrays Jolene, is superb. Although she isn’t given enough screen time, she still has the remarkable ability to capture a viewers’ attention and compassion for her angst.
Review Of Episode Two “Exchanges” coming soon. Stay tuned. :)