{"id":597333,"date":"2026-08-27T06:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/597333\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T06:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:40:10","slug":"the-shards-recap-episodes-6-and-7-rhondas-all-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/597333\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Shards\u2019 Recap, Episodes 6 and 7: Rhonda\u2019s All That"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Shards<\/a><\/p>\n

Homecoming<\/p>\n

\n Season 1<\/p>\n

Episodes 6 – 7\n <\/p>\n

\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n

2 stars<\/p>\n

**\n <\/p>\n

\n The crew\u2019s decision to pull a She\u2019s All That for homecoming backfires spectacularly.
\n Photo: FX\n <\/p>\n

Perhaps there\u2019s a rational reason why episodes six and seven of The Shards are two halves of a two-parter aired back-to-back instead of one slightly-longer-than-usual episode, but I think it\u2019s time I stop looking for logic on this show. Over the course of \u201cHomecoming\u201d \u2014 which is very clearly one episode with an arbitrary break two-thirds of the way through \u2014 shit just happens, regardless of whether it makes sense or feels consistent with what came before. This is the dreaded Ryan Murphy style of storytelling, which has plagued the series from the moment Bret Easton Ellis departed<\/a> and seems to get worse every week. And yet, \u201cHomecoming\u201d is still a mild improvement over the dreadful Dance Off! episode<\/a> in that it at least carries some momentum as we near the finish line.<\/p>\n

Picking up where we left off, the Trawler has inexplicably released Rhonda. Even more inexplicably, she\u2019s back at Buckley. You would think being kidnapped and ritualistically tortured would excuse you for the rest of senior year, especially since she has moments of panic in which she repeats the phrase \u201cGirly smell\u201d while crying. Bret\u2019s voice-over tells us, \u201cThe world was lost to her and her to it. Looking back, even though I didn\u2019t know it then, I deeply related to this feeling.\u201d A hilarious thing to say about someone who, again, was kidnapped and ritualistically tortured, but I don\u2019t expect Bret to have self-awareness. He remains fixated on Robert, who he\u2019s sure is responsible for Rhonda\u2019s and Matt\u2019s disappearances. And because he\u2019s the only one who sees the threat, Bret believes it\u2019s up to him to put an end to it. (This makes more sense in the book, where Bret is truly on an island. In the show, Thom is also deeply suspicious of Robert and would be eager to help take him down.)<\/p>\n

Bret decides to visit Matt\u2019s father, who is surprisingly wistful about his missing son and their fractured relationship. \u201cI knew him as well as any parent can know their kid,\u201d Mr. Kellner (James Wolk) says. \u201cI can trace the constellation of freckles on his back by memory. But I didn\u2019t really know him. I didn\u2019t know what kept him up at night. I didn\u2019t know what he dreamt of, who he loved.\u201d I found these lines poignant and appreciated the callback to the themes of the first episode<\/a>, which laid out the way the parents on The Shards had all but abdicated their responsibilities and forced their children into early adulthood. At the same time, I don\u2019t believe for a second that Mr. Kellner would be as tender and open-minded as he appears to be in this scene \u2014 he doesn\u2019t even flinch when Bret, in another unbelievable moment, accidentally confesses his love for Matt. Mr. Kellner also seems too calm about Matt\u2019s whereabouts, especially since his private investigator discovered a missing psychiatric evaluation for Robert Mallory, the only friend Matt ever brought home to his parents. Bret is sure the psych eval is the smoking gun he needs, so he\u2019ll have to hope there\u2019s a copy in Robert\u2019s file at school.<\/p>\n

Speaking of parents being suddenly invested in their kids, Terry and Liz have accompanied Debbie to a meeting with Buckley principal Dr. Croft. Okay, they\u2019re both visibly distracted, but it\u2019s a shock they\u2019ve shown up at all. In yet another example of The Shards telling rather than showing, we learn Debbie \u201cis in a very precarious position academically, behaviorally, and socially\u201d and has \u201calienated half the school.\u201d Did I miss something? There\u2019s been no indication Debbie is suddenly ostracized or really any less popular than she\u2019s always been \u2014 though I guess to show that, the series would have to actually give us scenes at the high school, rather than the dozens of Hamburger Hamlet\u2013set scenes we get every episode. For reasons known only to Liz and Ryan Murphy, she decides to stand up for her daughter at the meeting, accusing Croft of being as much of a coke fiend as Debbie and exiting with the line, \u201cEither she goes to college or you go to jail.\u201d Debbie is touched by her mother\u2019s personality replacement, while Terry calls her \u201celectric\u201d and gifts her some unisex Giorgio perfume as a reward for her unexpected maternal instinct. As soon as the Schaffers leave Croft\u2019s office, Bret arrives to demand access to Robert\u2019s file so he can read the missing psych eval. Despite Bret\u2019s passionate insistence that his classmate is a serial killer, Croft tells him Robert is a good kid from a good family and sends him back to class. How did Bret think this was going to go?<\/p>\n

Over at Hamburger Hamlet \u2014 seriously, was it a budgetary choice to film every scene on this set? \u2014 Steven is showing Susan and Debbie his plans for the senior homecoming float. It\u2019s a design by Ferdinando Scarfiotti, the iconic Italian art director of films like American Gigolo, which happens to have been a tremendous influence on the real and fictional Bret Ellis. Susan, however, wants something more amateur-looking. In another thuddingly obvious monologue, she laments her own perfection. \u201cIt\u2019s just a lot for me, a lot to constantly maintain,\u201d she whines. \u201cI\u2019m just so tired of being Miss Goody-Goody Nice Girl Queen of Everything all the time, you know?\u201d And I\u2019m tired of every character on this show constantly restating their inner turmoil out loud, but here we are. Unfortunately, Terry has tasked Steven with ensuring the senior class wins for best float \u2014 it\u2019s all for Debbie, who joined the float committee after internalizing that her alienation could hurt her college chances \u2014 and that means he\u2019s going with the fanciest design possible. But Debbie has an even better idea of how she can make an impact, one that will also get Susan to stop complaining about how winning all the time is really hard. Instead of letting Susan be crowned homecoming queen, they\u2019ll encourage the senior class to vote for Rhonda. It\u2019s a nonsensical plan, but Rhonda herself goes along with it, if only because she\u2019s too traumatized to put up much of a fight.<\/p>\n

Homecoming aside, there\u2019s still the Trawler to worry about, a fact we\u2019re reminded of when another victim turns up on a playground, this time with a pentagram carved into his back and fish corpses shoved into his wounds. The police realize it would cause too much panic to attribute the murder to the Trawler when a different serial killer is roaming Los Angeles, so they blame it on the Night Stalker instead. Bret, of course, smells the obvious cover-up and decides it\u2019s time to talk to the police about his own suspicions. (To be fair, the Night Stalker was interested in satanism and the occult and he mutilated some of his victims in a similar fashion, but the animal stuff is indeed a Trawler special.) Facing the less-than-impressed detectives, Bret puts forth his theory of the Trawler, which he\u2019s largely cribbed from Joan Didion\u2019s writing on Charles Manson. \u201cThese are deeply personalized, fetishistic killings,\u201d he explains. \u201cHe\u2019s mutilating his peers because of how we make him feel: like a freak.\u201d The cops don\u2019t entirely buy that their serial killer is a high-school student, even as Bret identifies Robert by name. He killed his mother and he probably killed Matt Kellner, he tells the detectives, who later agree Bret might know more than he\u2019s letting on.<\/p>\n

Back at school, Thom hangs out on the bleachers for a secret meeting with the creepy home invader from Robert\u2019s party<\/a>. Yes, Thom is in the cult, or at the very least, Riders of the Afterlife\u2013curious, a development that doesn\u2019t track at all but does give him another opportunity to express that he\u2019s broken and misses his dad. The cult member says some predictably culty things about how Thom doesn\u2019t need his father or his friends for guidance. Worryingly, the two seem to agree people need to die and together repeat the phrase \u201cLet me die,\u201d words written in the Riders of the Afterlife pamphlet Matt\u2019s dad found in his bed. By the time Thom arrives at Hamburger Hamlet, he\u2019s looking like a shell of his former self. He immediately tries to start a fight with Robert, then confronts Susan about passing the homecoming crown to Rhonda. \u201cThom, there are bigger things in life than homecoming,\u201d she assures him, but she can\u2019t stop him from running off. Eventually, Bret is left alone with Robert, the two frenemies dropping all pretense of amity as they needle each other through smiles. Part one ends with Robert admitting he actually did see The Shining, which might feel like a bigger deal if Bret or the audience were ever in doubt.<\/p>\n

Part two begins with (sigh) a Rhonda makeover montage. Rhonda isn\u2019t all that reactive to Liz bizarrely telling her \u201cI\u2019ll just have to pretend you\u2019re my daughter,\u201d but she is triggered by Liz\u2019s Giorgio perfume, which she identifies as a \u201cgirlie smell.\u201d Let\u2019s take note of that! Back at school, Bret has been tasked with counting homecoming votes for some reason, while he muses that homecoming offers a rare moment of hope amid all the terror. (Fact-check: No one on The Shards, including Bret, seems all that terrified. Debbie found Cha Cha\u2019s bloody corpse last week and doesn\u2019t mention it once in this episode.) Midway through the count, the votes are heavily weighted toward Susan and Rhonda. No surprise there, but it\u2019s still a tough pill for Debbie to swallow when Bret fills her in outside. \u201cI was never gonna win because I never do,\u201d she says. \u201cThis entire school thinks that I\u2019m a frivolous and spiteful clown.\u201d I don\u2019t mind heightened dialogue, but everything here is so on the nose that it feels more like the writers think we\u2019re stupid. In any event, Bret is sufficiently moved to start lying and counting extra votes for Debbie. The homecoming court ends up being Rhonda, Susan, Debbie, Thom, Ryan, and Robert because those are the characters we\u2019re following.<\/p>\n

Ahead of homecoming, Robert gives Susan a bottle of the Giorgio perfume (important!) and tells her \u201cYou\u2019re my queen,\u201d foreshadowing what\u2019s to come. The next time we see them, they\u2019re being paraded around the track on the Ferdinando Scarfiotti float. It\u2019s a lovely homage to American Gigolo, though I don\u2019t buy that Terry and Liz would be as impressed as they are (or that they\u2019d show up to homecoming in the first place). In a retread of last week\u2019s Groover of the Week conclusion, Susan is announced as homecoming queen, prompting a defeated \u201cFuck me raw\u201d from Debbie. Robert is then crowned king, much to Thom and Bret\u2019s surprise. How has the new kid become the most popular guy in school after a dance-floor meltdown witnessed by the senior class? Beats me, but there\u2019s no time to dwell on that. Susan announces that she can\u2019t accept the crown and gives it to Rhonda, calling her \u201ca survivor and a beauty in her own right,\u201d which is only a little backhanded. Rhonda has a brief moment of happiness before she gets a whiff of the Giorgio on Susan\u2019s wrist and is triggered all over again. \u201cSusan Reynolds kidnapped me,\u201d she declares.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s somehow enough for the cops to promptly arrest Susan, whom we see crying as she\u2019s led into the back of a police cruiser. Maybe just bring her in for questioning first? Inside the school, Robert assures Bret that Susan has an alibi \u2014 they were together on the nights Rhonda and Matt disappeared. Robert told the detectives this when he was interrogated for six hours as a result of Bret being a \u201cfucking pest\u201d (his words, not mine). As baffled as I am by The Shards\u2019s plotting, and as hard as it is to feel invested in much of anything at this point, I still like the scenes between Bret and Robert, which have an edge and a strong undercurrent of homoeroticism the show is otherwise lacking. Robert correctly clocks Bret as being obsessed with him and does not seem terribly convinced by Bret\u2019s \u201cPeople aren\u2019t thinking about you nearly as much as you think they are.\u201d (Be serious.) Robert also identifies the lustful subtext of Bret\u2019s fixation on Robert and Susan together. \u201cDo you wish you were there with us, Bret?\u201d he taunts. \u201cPlacing me inside her, hoping you can lick up my cum off the floor while we aren\u2019t looking?\u201d Reader, I gasped. Somehow Bret is able to move past that, even after Robert holds his face kissably close before threatening, \u201cDon\u2019t fuck with a king.\u201d It will be harder to move past what happens next, though. First, the power goes out, leaving Bret wandering the halls as lights flicker around him. Then he sees it, prominently displayed in the trophy case before him: Matt Kellner\u2019s severed head and hands. At least for the moment, he\u2019s too stunned to scream.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Rhonda\u2019s return made me think Matt might still be alive. Alas! Given that he was only missing on the show, I do think his family should have been looking for him a little harder, not that it would have made a difference.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Riders of the Afterlife pamphlet in Matt\u2019s bed makes the link between the cult and the Trawler even clearer. I\u2019m genuinely confused as to what the show is trying to do here because we\u2019re simultaneously being presented with \u201cgirlie smell\u201d as a clue, suggesting the Trawler is a single person. And are cult members wearing Giorgio?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Meanwhile, Thom being a member (or a would-be member) of the Riders of the Afterlife complicates things further. Only one person in this friend group is knowingly connected to a violent cult, so are we supposed to view him as a potential suspect? At this point, the show has made such a mess of the character that I wouldn\u2019t put it past Murphy to turn Thom into the Trawler.<\/p>\n

\u2022 I\u2019m glad Bret finally went to the police, which he should have done several episodes ago, but why doesn\u2019t he mention that he saw Robert going into a house where he found a cage with Rhonda\u2019s bloody uniform inside? The Benedict Canyon property is an important part of the novel that has already been forgotten here.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In the book, Bret\u2019s meeting with Dr. Croft is much more heightened, giving us a glimpse into how far down the rabbit hole he\u2019s fallen. His frantic paranoia makes the scene genuinely hard to read and sets the stage for his horrifying actions during the climax. Here, Bret and Croft have a mildly tense interaction, and in another scene, he\u2019s telling Thom to calm down. Huh?<\/p>\n

\u2022 We only have two episodes left, and I don\u2019t know what to make of Robert and Susan\u2019s relationship. Their timeline is admittedly ambiguous in the book, if only because they\u2019re trying to hide it from Bret and Thom, but it feels more like sloppy writing here.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Speaking of which, Terry and Liz deciding they actually do care about Debbie makes no sense. Kudos to Wes Bentley and Evan Rachel Wood for doing what they can with two characters who are wildly different from episode to episode.<\/p>\n

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