Things that are even less than no things-Absentia Season 2, Part I
So here's the thing about Season 2 of this VERY BAD show that absolutely does not deserve Stana Katic.
Ok, here are several things.
Thing 1: The plot set ups are nonsense. There is absolutely no clear reason for Emily to be hunting down people from her orphanage, but that's what she's doing with the "help" of Idiot Detective. Like-at the end of season 1, there's some mumblety whatever about seeing if there are more of these people "she" (the Villain, I guess?) targeted . . . for what? We know why she hated Emily. We know that she manipulated Charles, her co-torturee. There is nothing to suggest that any other orphans are dangerous or in danger.
Thing 2: At first it seems as if the season will be about the difficulty of recovering from something as fucked up as what Emily has been through. Emily is drinking. A lot. And she resists her brother's suggestion that she check out some meetings. (Brother is JUST a recovering drunk this season. We will really super duper never ever talk about him torturing and play drowning prostitutes ever again).
In the first episode, we see Emily shooting up and it's left deliberately ambiguous about WHAT she's shooting up (much later, it turns out to be sodium pentathol to help her remember-what, I could not say).
But worst of all, she has a passionless fuck-buddy relationship with the stupid detective, and he is so unwaveringly repulsive in every possible way.
So-I guess she's at rock bottom, especially when you factor in the fact that Flynn stays with her periodically in her complete dump of a place, so she's fucking up large here.
Thing 3: Oh my god, the ludicrous other plot mechanics. Recovering drunk brother is an EMT now, trying to get his real medical license back. Idiot Ex, New Wife, and Flynn are in therapy on account of Flynn having been tortured and still having to go home to his moronic parents. In the family therapy session we see in episode 1, the dumbest fucking things happen:
-The therapist points out that Flynn might have complicated feelings about New Wife's miscarriage (I guess all that tranq darting took its toll, after all). Both New Wife and Idiot Ex are SHOCKED, never having met a human, let alone a human child, before.
-The therapist refers to Emily as "the biological mother." Because. You know, sensitive therapist. But this turns out to be FORESHADOWING.
-This doesn't technically happen in therapy, but we learn through yet more Awkward Exposition that New Wife used to be a therapist (who apparently never realized her SON might have complicated feelings about the miscarriage). Emily's brother, during Awkward Exposition, says New Wife should go back to her old job and by the end of the day, she is! Because, you know, licenses, hiring processes, Not Even A Thing in Boston, where literally everyone is drunk driving.
There's also a terrorist attack in episode 1 on a DHS building. Idiot Ex gets assigned to this, which is a bad sign for everyone.
Emily, in chasing after orphans for no reason at all, runs into HER BIOLOGICAL MOTHER. This is supposed to be shocking, but we literally had been given no information about the circumstances of Emily being given up, so less shocking and more . . . apathy.