WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Trickster Season 1, Episode 3, now available on The CW.
Trickster makes sure to weave the history and culture of Kitimat's Haisla community throughout its story, but more importantly, it reminds audiences that it is also a living culture. Jared's link to his people is faint but insistent, despite the way Maggie has shrouded it in the chaos of her alcoholism. It's an unassuming but important turn to be introduced to the family matriarch, Jared's grandmother Sophia.
Sophia's influence on the story has so far been only mentioned in passing. Wade brings her up in the second episode to influence Jared to stay away from Maggie, suggesting to his son that Sophia suffered from the same illness that causes his mother to scream at empty rooms. Jared quickly learns to fear the mystical things he sees, haunted by the idea he could be sent away, too.
But Sophia's introduction is marked with stoic humor. Maggie's on the hunt for Wade, who's now survived his second "death" at her hands. Losing his trail, she continues to cut through the dry Canadian brush until her shotgun trains on another person. Sophia eyes the surprise arrival of her daughter with dry disinterest, a freshly caught rabbit dangling from her hand. It's a reunion that's been a long time coming, and neither woman could be mistaken for feeling emotional about it.
They share curt dialogue instead of hugs as Sophia allows her daughter inside her old fashioned cabin. Within their arguments are crucial details. Estranged is too clean a word for the distance between the two, and the adept butchering of the rabbit is a metaphor for Sophia's scant but cutting remarks. Maggie accusatorily reminds Sophia hasn't seen her grandson in over a decade. Sophia disapproves of her daughter's request for a drink and demands a bottle of booze stay in Maggie's truck. The scene whispers Sophia's story to the audience. She used to be just like Maggie, turning to alcoholism to stave off the voices that haunt her.
But today's Sophia is the crux of what Maggie needs. Sophia has finally found balance within herself. She lives in solitude, attuned to her surroundings and her heritage. Among her notes are the stories of tribal elders, words that would be forgotten if Sophia hadn't stopped screaming back and learned to listen instead. Her anger is honed and tempered, and she's well aware of what battles can be won and lost. She brings what was a background struggle to the foreground; the coming oil pipeline that might revitalize the struggling Kitimat, but at the price of destroying Haisla land.
Sophia knows that in time the oil corporations will win, but she won't stop fighting, either. She burns the corporation's prospecting stakes whenever they reappear in the nearby forest, holding on to the past for the sake of keeping it alive a little longer. She's also made peace with the voices that chase her family. They're not gone, but Sophia has planted herself firmly amidst her inner maelstrom. Today she thrives, on her own terms.
Her brusqueness with her daughter softens when Maggie finally stops flailing and admits her voices have been louder than ever. The voices are urging that "he must die." Maggie assumes they mean Wade, particularly since she's used her own powers to kill him twice, and yet he keeps coming back. Sophia takes the revelation that Wade is something inhuman better than she took the news that her daughter had been hiding the truth about Jared's biological father. After all, Wade distastefully tells Jared by the end of the episode, they're witches.
It doesn't take long for Sophia to find the right clue in the stories she's collected from Haisla elders — that Wade is a trickster spirit. But that's not the only important thing she's given Maggie in this scene. She's a living reminder that Maggie can still find peace within herself, without the risky crutches of drugs and alcohol.
Based on Eden Robinson's Trickster trilogy and directed by Michelle Latimer, Trickster stars Joel Oulette as Jared, Kalani Queypo as Wade, Crystle Lightning as Maggie, Georgina Lightning as Sophia, Anna Lambe as Sarah, Nathan Alexis as Crashpad, Craig Lauzon as Phil, Gail Maurice as Georgina, Joel Thomas Hynes as Richie and Jamie Spilchuk as Mr. Good. Trickster airs Tuesdays on The CW.
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