‘Conversations With Friends’ – Episode 2 Spoiler Review

The Hulu television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends becomes less focused on the conversations in Episode 2 and more focused on the lack of conversations between friends and family. 

If you haven’t read my review of Episode 1, you can check that out here. Otherwise, proceed with solely your own opinions and not my trustworthy bias.

Plot Summary of Conversations with Friends Episode 2

According to Hulu, here is the synopsis for Conversations with Friends Episode 2.

At Melissa’s birthday party, Frances finds herself alone with Nick. They can’t resist the attraction between them and kiss. The next day Frances visits her parents in the country and agonises over what this turn of events might mean.

Hulu Press

Discussion of the Plot

Yet again, Alison Oliver steals all of the scenes that she is in as Frances. The character returns home on a holiday to see her parents, divorced and living separately albeit close enough for Frances to walk. Her mother asks questions, trying to get a sense of her daughter’s life, but Frances doesn’t take any bait. That is, until she starts talking about Melissa and to her, the more interesting Nick.

Frances’s mother, Paula (Justine Mitchell), inquires about Frances acting hungover, leading Frances to offer up the most enthused response she has given just about anyone in the first two episodes so far. She starts to talk about Nick, and the lavish house he and Melissa live in.

Alison Oliver as Frances expresses a slow yet rapid change in emotion when starting to talk about Nick, but she quickly returns to her shell as she seemingly reveals more than she is comfortable doing. She abruptly gets up from the dinner table and goes to visit her father.

The time Frances spends with her father is remarkably more pained than that with her mother. Her father, Dennis (Tommy Tiernan), has one solution to the obvious lack of intimacy he shares with his daughter: money. There is nothing a father can’t buy with money and favors, except anyone’s love that he desperately craves.

Oliver’s pained and longing thousand-yard stares again offer an entrance into her psyche of Frances. She is a young woman who was presumably denied the attention and affection a child wants and needs. She cleans up after her father between their shared words that can’t possibly total more than fifty. 

While her mother asks questions, her father offers nothing. Neither is appropriate for Frances, and she seems uncomfortable and unsatisfied with both parents’ approach or lack thereof of connecting. But that’s ok. It is easy for a young person to become disaffected by the varying degrees of parental affection. Just check out this Gottman Institute blog post. I think Frances could have used some more hugs as a child.

The obvious solution is to go to a party and flirt some more with that older guy who is married. We’ve all been there. Or is that just me on my recent trip to Italy? Sorry, unrelated. This story takes place in Dublin. That’s in Ireland… obviously.

One thing leads to another, and Frances and Nick start making out. She leaves the party embarrassed, confused, or both. But upon finding out that Melissa will be out of town soon, she makes plans to see Nick again at his place.

The episode ends with Frances lying to Bobbi about everything. She continues to push people away. Although, at this point, none of the people in her life seem like they are trying much more than just saying they are trying to connect. It is hard to tell if we are seeing things from Frances’s perspective, or if Bobbi, her mother, her father, and others are genuinely failing to connect.

It is somewhat of a gray area, but so are all relationships in real life. There are three sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth. But nobody knows the truth, we are all bound to our own five senses and whatever sense our brain can make out of them. And I’m just saying from experience, those thousand-yard stares that Frances is well-practiced in indicating she is making more sense out of her situation than could possibly be good for her well-being.

If you liked this review, be sure to check back for future episodes! They will continue to release regularly. And if you have any thoughts about the show, we would love to hear them either here, on Twitter @TheCinemaSpot, or on Facebook @TheCinemaSpotFB.