Dare Me Episode 8: Containment- Review and Recap

Addy and Coach are in full disaster mode in an angsty Dare Me Episode 8 that leaves little doubt Coach Colette is not a good person.

When things get bad and the wheels come off there is nothing left to do but contain the chaos. Colette does that better than anyone. She is a sociopath, a predator, and potentially a killer. Dare Me Episode 8 begins and ends like all the ones previously with Addy’s emotion-filled words. She knows there is something wrong with what Coach is doing, but is powerless to rebuke her. Addy may understand that Coach isn’t completely honest with her, but she has no idea by the end of the episode she may be sleeping with a murderer.

Young girls are fickle. High school is a time for exploration, boundary-pushing, and finding one’s self. Addy is a typical girl. She is desperate(in a high school way) to get out of town and away from her mother’s eyes. She thinks she wants excitement and danger. Like most girls her age despite what she thinks she wants she really just wants stability. This makes her very vulnerable. The two most important “friends” in her life, Coach and Beth are anything but stable. Addy may not like the relationship she had with Beth but she has jumped right from one hot mess to an even more scorching one.

True love isn’t demanding, it’s kind and caring. Neither woman is capable of giving that to Addy. Beth is just a girl herself who has not been treated well by the people who should love her the most, and Coach is a huntress who is constantly on the lookout for her next meal. For a teen girl, the allure of drama is all-consuming. Addy romanticizes what she and Colette have. Her own words betray the toxicity of the relationship. She thinks she was nothing before it. She is too young to understand coaches shouldn’t call kids in the middle of the night to cover up a crime scene. Colette may be able to convince Addy everything is fine, but there are cameras and a potential witness who say otherwise.

This very Addy-centric episode of Dare Me gave little away in terms of why Addy is so naive. She has been manipulated by two women now and seems completely unaware of it. Likely a product of age and inexperience she is a lamb to the slaughter. Herizen Guardiola continues to bring a warmth to Addy that is absolutely necessary to bridge the gap between Coach’s ice queen and Beth searing heat. It’s difficult to play the “straight man” to their more aggressive personalities and hold your own. She has shown remarkable restraint that has allowed Addy to grow. As she begins to spin out of control literally and figuratively that growth makes her more likable and the tension that much greater.

Coach is every parent’s nightmare. She has charisma, access and a lack of conscience. Colette knows exactly when to pull Addy in and when to push her away to maintain control. Every word and deed is designed to help herself. A prime example is the pushup punishment Coach metes out during practice. She will sacrifice anything and anyone to cover herself. It’s irrelevant that Addy doesn’t have her shoes because of Coach. On the other hand, Beth is a menace but she is not a monster. She may be mean at times and the girls clearly had a very co-dependent relationship, but she is hurt more than anything and lashing out. Addy confuses that behavior with Coach’s erratic affections.

When the trauma of the night before becomes too much for her, Addy passes out in school. The scene between Beth and Addy in the nurse’s office is simple and yet rife with subterfuge. There is a lot of history between these two girls. Love, companionship, safety, and now pain. When Beth feeds Addy cake it is full of menace. Beth would never hurt Addy though. She loves her as opposed to Coach who only needs her.

Willa Fitzgerald’s Coach Colette French is a narcissist. She is also dangerously adept at handling personalities. When Addy shows up at her house hurt and angry she spins a tale about how tough her life with Matt is. It is a false sense of what her life is really like. Coach is a woman who never grew out of the angst of adolescence. She needs the heightened emotion of drama. More than any other Dare Me Episode 8 showcased her cold-hearted nature. Every word creates an illusion of a terrible existence that justifies her bad decisions.

Addy may be finally wisening up that Coach lies and that calling a teenage girl in the middle of the night at a death scene is wrong. She is a moth to a flame however and for the second time tonight, we see her in the rain with a broken, manipulative girl. A flashback to a rainy night shows Beth and Addy. This was the night Addy got her Hamsa bracelet too. It is an innocent exchange between two girls who care for each other. What happens between Coach and Addy, however, is twisted and wrong.

Coach takes advantage of Addy’s nurturing nature. She fakes a breakdown designed to entrench Addy further in her life and allow her access to her phone. That singular event more than any other should answer the question of whether Colette is a good person. She doesn’t care about Addy, Will, Matt or even her daughter. She only cares about herself and preserving the carefully curated life she has cultivated.

Dare Me Episode 8 provided a veritable treasure trove of backstory. It gave subtext to Addy and Beth’s friendship and more lies from Coach. There was a lot of disturbing imagery and even more disturbing behavior. What it didn’t do was show what actually happened to Sarge Will. The answer to the question, who killed Will is still unknown. Addy is too inexperienced to see, but things are spiraling out of control. When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you. For Addy’s sake, I hope she is able to protect herself because the abyss isn’t just staring back it’s spying on her and guiding her every move. Catch up on all our coverage of Dare Me here.