Screen: The CW/Hulu
After the unimpressive series premiere, Capture slid off my "shows I mostly pay attention to" list and onto "shows I have on while I'm working" list. Last night's episode -- the third of the season -- was probably going to be the last to which I accorded even that much of an honour until one incredible moment forced me to pay it heed.
What you need to know (because, let's face it, you have not been watching, nor should you have been) is that Erica and Ryan, the purple team, were the Hunt team in the pilot, and successfully captured the required two teams. Even before that, though, they let us know that they would turn in superior performances in the game due to the fact that they both practice parkour. (In the pilot, they said that they've been homeless for a year and live in Ryan's car -- but I'm sure that has nothing to do with their incredibly interesting hobby!) In the second episode, producers left a Subway sandwich out for the malnourished contestants potentially to find, but the blue team (Eric and Shane) left it in an inedible condition, throwing some of it in a nearby stream, enraging Erica, who I guess hasn't had the chance to understand how reality-show sabotage works because she doesn't have a TV because she lives in Ryan's car. So when the blue team became the Hunt team in this third episode and captured Ryan -- rather easily, by the way, considering how much he bragged about being able to run up walls and shit -- Erica did not take it well.
The hilarious thing about this (over)reaction is that, as I said in the post linked above, this whole stupid show is just a tarted-up Tag. The talon, the elimination vote, the jail -- all that business is layered on to the proceedings to disguise the fact that a bunch of adults are running around playing a schoolyard game (and that...you're watching them). And, okay, I didn't clip what led up to this, but that's only because nothing led up to this. The blue team didn't exercise any kind of shenanigans to capture Ryan: they chased after him, they caught up to him, and they slapped a thing on his back because that's all they had to do! Erica can be upset about getting taken out of the game, of course -- no one likes to lose -- but she's reacting like she was dealt some kind of injustice as opposed to having a partner who wasn't just slightly faster.
I mean, she got in a fight with bros who defend themselves by sneering, "Sorry for partying," and I am still taking their side. Because the thing about being on a show called Capture about teams trying to capture each other is that if you're not the one capturing, you might get captured. I just wish someone on the production had explained any of this to Erica.