Smoke Recap ‘Your Happy Makes Me Sad’: Invisible Fight
- Cherish
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
In the second episode of Smoke, airing on Apple TV+, Gudsen and Calderon tail their D&C suspect.
Smoke Season 1 Episode 2 Recap and Review
‘Your Happy Makes Me Sad’ is a less artsy, more straightforward version of the Smoke story, that dropped a bomb at the very end. But before we get to that, let’s discuss Freddy Fasano, and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s performance that gave his pain a resonant kind of eloquence and a deep well of dignity.
A man who spoke little and worked a lot, Freddy, already 43 and looking much older, was unused to kindness. He found some in a Coop’s regular named Brenda, who boosted his confidence and planted the idea of applying for a managerial position after the current branch manager accepted a new job. Coop found a spark within himself to want something more than what he had, and he took up Brenda’s offer to give him a free haircut at her salon.
There was a single tear that rolled down his cheek as Brenda gave him a scalp massage whilst she shampooed him, perhaps the first tender human interaction he has had in years. It was a deeply humanising moment for a man who has killed at least three people and maimed others. There was an undercurrent of melancholy and determination as they discussed his haircut, and also, a warning bell – once they were done, he would look very different from the sketch Gudsen was able to get from the bartender.
Freddy’s attempt to change his life meant that he was not out setting fires, which made Calderon more than a little desperate. Her career depended on closing at least one of the serial arsonist cases, either Milk Jug or D&C. Now that neither of them had provided a fresh crime scene, her and Gudsen’s investigation had stalled.
They tried tailing Arch Stanton, all the way to his trailer in the middle of nowhere, but after five days and nights of nothing, Calderon was forced to concede that if he was D&C, he might be on sabbatical. But, still worried about her career, she returned to the trailer alone and broke in to search it without a warrant. What she found was an underground tunnel with a massive amount of heavy weaponry (and a few other things I’m not sure I could include in this recap). What she did not find was any incendiary device or any proof that Stanton was the D&C arsonist.
Stanton, in soldier cosplay and carrying a large gun, tried to surprise Calderon from behind, but she was a real experienced soldier who got the drop on him and shot him twice, on both thighs. Of course she realised that she was in an even bigger trouble now, and she almost called her ex lover Burke for help. Instead, she figured out how to sell her story and called the ATF.
With Stanton alive and a jerk even to the paramedics helping him, and with most people just relieved that they were able to secure that massive stack of weaponry without anyone getting killed in the process, Calderon’s impulsive and illegal move turned into a celebration amongst firefighters and cops, with the notable exemption of Gudsen, who refused to join them. Burke was there too, and though he had been trying to bury Calderon’s career, it did not look like he intended to expose her secret. He knew that Calderon’s story was full of holes; Calderon did not even bother denying it. She, too, knew that once they compared Stanton’s bunker material receipts with the D&C fires, they would confirm that he was not D&C. She said she had one more suspect, but we’d have to wait to find out who this was.
Calderon and Gudsen had developed an almost sibling-esque partnership, with mild bickering and pulling at each other’s chain, so it was noteworthy that when Gudsen found out that Calderon shot Stanton, and that there was a celebration at a bar, his reaction was annoyance rather than relief that she was all right. Adding to his stress was the response from a literary agency that turned him down and gave him the same feedback his wife Audrey gave him, that his story needed more female characters.
Taron Egerton was chillingly magnetic in that scene with his wife, with the genial husband facade running so thin until it completely crumbled in the presence of his stepson Emmett. Audrey and Emmett were both upset because Emmett’s father Gerald had to move away for a job. Gudsen, who has not really been able to connect with Emmett despite his efforts, lost his patience when Emmett took out his teenage unhappiness on him, in his own unhappy teenager way, even going so far as to point out that the house belonged to his mother. Based on Audrey’s tense face alone, that was likely not the first time that Gudsen’s mask slipped, and the angry man beneath was, briefly, exposed.
Gudsen got ahold of himself before things took a turn for the worse, and he left. With Good Rats by Dropkick Murphys featuring Shane MacGowan playing in the background, we saw Gudsen’s preferred mode of de-stressing, right there on the potato chip aisle, wearing sunglasses, a hat, and a rainproof jacket, and walking with a limp.
With this end episode reveal, Smoke has kicked up the tension several notches. If the Pilot played coy with the core story of Smoke, the second episode made clear where we stood. The hunter was the hunted. It felt like the meat of the story could finally begin.
Rating: B+
Strays
🧑🚒Word of the episode: inspiration - a divine influence or action
🧑🚒Calderon noticed that D&C’s limp disappeared for four steps on video, confirming her theory that the limp was fake.
🧑🚒Young Lee who tried to dissuade Freddy from applying for the manager position was not cruel, just realistic.
🧑🚒Gudsen was dictating his novel to his phone when Calderon walked in on him.
🧑🚒Calderon finally opened the letter she received last episode, it was a parole hearing notice.
🧑🚒Freddy: ‘If you don’t have dreams, what do you have?’
🧑🚒Freddy: ‘They can’t hurt what they can’t see.’
🧑🚒Gudsen briefly alluded to his marital troubles to Englehart before assuring him they were fine.
🧑🚒Gudsen had started looking at the photos of the bystanders during the Milk Jug fires, with his theory that the arsonist returned to the scene.
Episode Title: Your Happy Makes Me Sad
Episode Writers: Dennis Lehane and Adriane McCray
Episode Director: Joe Chappelle
Original Air Date: June 27, 2025