Season 2 Of Peacock’s Scripted Crime Drama Departure Shows The Power Of Fear And Faux Outrage

Archie Panjabi as Kendra Malley (stage left) and Mark Rendall as Theo (stage right) in season 2 of Departure. Photo courtesy of Collider.com

Season two of Departure is a working blueprint of today’s fight with extremism. The series focuses on a town situated somewhere between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, Michigan named Rockwater (a bit of a dramatization) where a newly built bullet train (equipped with state of the art A.I) named Apollo which ran from Toronto through mid-Michigan and stopped in Chicago was derailed by a local white supremacy group that was both angry and paranoid about automation taking jobs from working-class families. Their paranoia was also fueled by local candidate and individual-who-should-have-listened-to-her-stylist more, Diana Bright (Wendy Crewson) who built her campaign on the bedrock of returning Michigan back to the heydays of industrial glory where everyone had a job working on the line and nobody had any cares or worries in the world. Anyone with any grasp on history knows there’s no such thing but damn does it sell.

To help with solving the mystery as to why a reliable train built with safeguards against unintentional AI malfunctions destroyed itself, taking over 60 lives with it, a crack team of investigators with experience in solving transportation tragedies caused by terrorist cells is brought in from Washington D.C and London, and from the very start it’s obvious that not only is the traditional explanation for the crash wrong, there are a lot of people doing everything they can to sabotage the investigation. That would be the epitome of not helping.

Bad faith science, bad journalism, dirty deals, corrupt tech dealers, murder, and covert operations to not only fund the preceding bad guy stuff but to further perpetuate it runs deep throughout the series, with conspiracy-minded lone wolf actors being the linchpins to it all. Are all the characters in this play of past versus future responsible for each and every part they played? Yes. Do they think they’ve done anything wrong but merely did what any God-fearing, country-loving patriot would do? No, and that, in a nutshell, is the reality of domestic terrorism and why it is so important to take a long hard look at who we listen to, who we surround ourselves with, and who is ultimately is responsible for our actions both personally and publicly. The show could have even left out the direct connection between the group(s) and candidate Bright’s son Richard Bright (Charlie Carrick) and it still would have been a believable scenario not because it’s a small town but because extremism breeds where there is want and an opportunity for someone to make a few bucks regardless of the cost to others.

Season two has some amazing camera work to it, the actors work well with each other and the dialog is believable and flows quite well. While some may find it too political, it does a fantastic job of showing how far those addicted to the past (or damaged from it) will go to stop progress in any form.

Photo courtesy of Oregon Live