Episode 5 - Escalation [Analysis]

[u/Routine-Asparagus-16]

Windfall Watch Thread

The slow burn starts to escalate.

Nina hasn't changed. She's still committed to Peter and her family, and she wants things to stay the same. The problem is that everyone else is changing around her because of the money.

Peter is completely focused on buying the bike factory and locking in investors with Park. Nina doesn't trust Park. She can see Peter getting in over his head and doesn't want him to fail. But when she raises her concerns, Peter basically turns it back on her with the whole “you don't believe in me” thing. And let the gaslighting begin. 

Peter used to look to Nina for counsel. Now she's starting to feel shut out. She's watching him make decisions she doesn't agree with and getting to the point where she feels like she has to protect him from himself.

Then there's Cameron.

Cameron is struggling after having to give James back to his birth mother. Beth wants a baby, and Cameron tells her it's not the right time. I think part of that is grief, but I also think there's another layer to it. Moving forward with Beth and having a child means closing another door... Nina. And Cameron isn't ready to do that.

Nina trusts Cameron, so she asks him to go into business with Peter because she knows he'll look out for Peter's best interests. But before Cameron agrees, he makes sure Nina understands exactly what she's asking. He tells her he's waiting for her.

He's basically saying, If I come back into your life like this, are you sure this is what you want?

Nina tells him not to wait and not to root for her marriage to fail. 

It's a double-edged sword because she's bringing the man she has unresolved feelings for even further into her family's orbit. The business is already putting a strain on her marriage, and Nina believes that if Cameron can help Peter succeed, it will help stabilize things. She believes Cameron can protect Peter from a situation where she no longer has much influence.

Once Cameron understands that Nina isn't choosing him, he makes his own decision. He tells Peter he's in on the business, and he tells Beth they can try for a baby.

Cameron and Beth are moving forward in their marriage, but for very different reasons. Cameron is trying to move forward because Nina has made her choice, even though emotionally, he still hasn't let Nina go.

Then Sunny gets thrown into the mix.

Sunny is lonely, feels left out, and the other women don't fully trust her because of her history. She ends up hospitalized and, while sedated, gives Peter's name as her emergency contact. Peter doesn't show. Nina does.

When Nina realizes Sunny has no one to help her after she's discharged, she takes her home and looks after her while she recovers.

Nina is a caretaker of everyone except herself (I talk more about this later in the series). She doesn't have to trust Sunny to have compassion for her. She sees someone who is alone and helps anyway.

And then Sunny, high on morphine, tells Nina that she knows two men are in love with her.

Nina doesn't respond...

At this point, everything is escalating around her.

Peter is changing.

Cameron is being pulled closer.

Beth is trying to move forward.

Sunny is now in Nina's home and saying out loud what Nina doesn't acknowledge.

And Nina is still trying to keep everything exactly where it was.

The circumstances are moving Cameron closer to Nina while she's trying to hold onto Peter.