It also leaves all of our characters at a loss for how to react. The death of Craig, whom we last saw a few episodes back leaving his newlywed Italian wife soundly sleeping, rocks the base’s fragile social ecosystem. There’s an aptly dour tone throughout, matching the seriousness of what happens when death, arguably not an unexpected specter in a military base like this one, hits home. Not so in this episode - set at Thanksgiving, no less. The HBO show has long leaned heavily on its sun-dappled Italian setting between the playful beachside moments and the lustful poolside hangouts, Luca Guadagnino has flooded it with a sunny brightness that has helped make this coming-of-age tale feel almost dreamy at times. And yes, I mean that in both a literal and a figurative sense. I knew we had to come down from the giddy high of last week’s - that election-news button alerted us to as much - but, boy, was I not ready for We Are Who We Are’s darkest episode yet. Let’s not mince words or waste any time: This is a gut punch of an episode.
