Shining Girls, Episode 6 – Bright

We see an early home video of Sharon / Kirby Mazrachi, Elisabeth Moss (“The Invisible Man”, “The Square”), dancing to a band and then switch to Harper, Jamie Bell (“6 Days”, “Rocketman”), in Cantigny, France, 1918, the war.

Next he’s watching and chatting to a dancer, someone he’s been writing to during the war, someone he grew up with, Klara, Madeline Brewer (“The Handmaid’s Tale (TV)”, “Hustlers”). Together they break into a house, as they did when they were kids, to steal silk stockings, and more.

Whilst in the apartment there’s a beeping and Harper rummages through some draws to find an electronic wristwatch, which shouldn’t be there, not in this time. He confronts the woman whose house it is about the watch, she won’t tell him about it. However, he grabs a photo of her husband which has an address on the back.

Harper finds his friend Leo, Christopher Denham (“Utopia (TV)”, “Billions (TV)”), down by the docks where they look for work. He takes him to the house on the photograph and the pair break in. All the windows are covered up and the house is filled with belongings that don’t look like they belong, too modern or too old.

Leo finds dollars from different eras, Harper finds an Almanac from 1973. Then he notices someone in the wardrobe, an old man who doesn’t even know what year it is, let alone the month or day. When Harper tells him he replies, “I haven’t been to this day”.

When the man makes a run for it, Harper and Leo give chase, but the man is hit by a car outside…suddenly, it’s not the same year as when they entered the house.

Harper and Leo begin living in the house and Harper takes Klara there, showing her how things can change, carpets, lights, anything. They instantly become newer or older, changing in style, he doesn’t know why.

Harper takes Klarna and Leo to modern day New York and to a bar, not just any bar, the one that Sharon / Kirby works at. Klarna sees that Harper likes her though he denies it. This appears to be the first time they meet, it is where Harper gets the video camera from and films Klarna, footage we’ve seen before.

Harper keeps returning to the bar, trying to meet Sharon / Kirby, trying to get to know her though she isn’t having any of it.

A complete change of tone for this episode, finally revealing how Harper is able to travel through time, marrying up some of those previous bits we’ve seen but not known the significance of. Next, we need to know why he decides to begin killing, though we can already see some violent tendencies in this episode.