A Teacher Season 1 Episode 9 Review: Episode 9

So, what if I’m not OK?

That seemed to be the running theme of A Teacher Season 1 Episode 9 as both Claire and Eric struggled with their new normal.

Of course, they were nowhere near OK, despite their continued pleas to the contrary. Fortunately, by the end of the installment, both reached the realization that no matter how hard they tried to hide it, they were, in fact, not fine.

Starting with Eric, he’s in a pretty dark place after Claire’s rejection.

Lethargic and surly, Eric has seemed to cut everyone out of life as he sinks further and further into despair.

He’s no longer the reckless partying lothario we saw on A Teacher Season 1 Episode 7. For a while, Eric chose to bury his pain and guilt by excessively indulging in the frat lifestyle, and he was still socializing with others.

The Eric we meet in the present day continues to bottle his emotions, but he’s also become disinterested in life.

As a result, he’s stopped going to class, putting his academic future in jeopardy, and stopped hanging out with his friends.

It’s a more subdued and dejected Eric, who still isn’t ready to accept that he needs help until a chance meeting at the bar.

Eric: You all right?

Chloe: I’m not gonna hook up with you. I’m… you’re way too young, and I just got out of a long-term thing. Five years. It’s been really hard.

Eric: Yeah.

Chloe: Yeah, my friends know it has. They just don’t want to hear about it. They just want to fix me, as if sex could fix me. I can’t really… I can’t really talk to them about it. I can’t really talk to anybody about it. No one understands. I don’t know, I just feel so confused. When we first were together, I was so madly in love with him. I felt sick. But he put me through the wringer, and now that I’m out of it, I can see how unhappy I was. I don’t want to feel this way anymore. Permalink: I don’t want to feel this way anymore.

Permalink: I don’t want to feel this way anymore.

What started as possibly being the girl to drag Eric out of depression ended up happening, albeit in a different way.

Instead of having Chloe be a romantic prospect who convinces Eric to get the help he needs so they can be together, Grace Gummer’s character was a kindred spirit, nursing a broken heart after getting out of a toxic relationship herself.

Through Chloe, Eric was able to see the parallels to his own relationship with Claire and finally get some much-needed perspective.

Eric is still pretty messed up by what happened with Claire, but he’s no longer looking at their relationship through rose-colored glasses for maybe the first time.

He can’t see yet just how inappropriate and screwy everything was but listening to Chloe pour her heart out to him allowed Eric to see things from a new angle.

It was as if he was listening to someone impartially describe his and Claire’s relationship for the first time.

In this iteration, no one was commending Eric for banging his teacher or unnecessarily vilifying Claire.

It was just a statement of facts that resonated with Eric, allowing him to see the truth for how things were, not how he remembered or wished they were.

It was a small moment, but it got through to Eric.

After insisting to no end he was fine, Eric accepted that he needed help and made the first smart decision in a while by choosing to go home.

Eric: Hey.

Sandra: What’s wrong.

Eric: No, I just thought I’d come home, you know, for the weekend, or maybe longer. I need help, mom. I need help.

Sandra: I know. I’m glad you came home. Permalink: I need help, mom. I need help.

Permalink: I need help, mom. I need help.

Nothing will be solved magically overnight, but as they say, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

Well, Eric admitted he needs help, so hopefully, with due time, he can find a way to move on with his life.

No one said it’d be easy, but again, it’s a start.

And then there’s Claire.

Watching her downward spiral was difficult because, on the one hand, it’s hard to feel sympathy for her after everything she’s done and the way she destroyed the lives of those around her.

On the other hand, though, no one deserves to be degraded like that, and after hearing her tale of woe about how scarring it was to grow up with an alcoholic father, we – or at least I – can’t help but feel a little sorry for her.

This doesn’t erase or excuse her behavior over the past two years, but it does humanize her more as a character, and we, as the audience, have to reconcile these different sides of Claire.

She’s selfish and inconsiderate and self-destructive and predatory, but she’s also more than just her worse character traits.

We see Claire struggling as she tries to make sense of her worth and identity.

Guy: I don’t think I can hit you any harder without hurting you.

Claire: Just do it. Come on.

Guy: Are you OK? Oh my god, I am so…

Claire: Why’d you stop? Come on.

Guy: No, no, no, I’m not.

Claire: Come on. That was great. Keep doing it.

Guy: You’re fucking bleeding.

Claire: I’m fine.

Guy: I don’t think I can do this. I’m really sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Are you OK? No, like actually, are you OK? Permalink: No, like actually, are you OK?

Permalink: No, like actually, are you OK?

So much of how Claire defined herself – teacher, wife, sister – have been stripped away, leaving her to grapple with her new titles – felon, sexual predator.

These latter seem to have overridden everything from her former, and Claire finds herself readily accepting whatever is thrown her way, not believing that she deserves better.

Watching Claire not only accept but also seek out the debasing treatment from her internet date highlighted how much her sense of worth is tied into what others think.

She’s at such a low point in her life that she started to believe that was all she would ever be.

Gone is the ‘holier than tho’ persona who believes she was unjustly punished, replaced by this depressive, fatalistic character.

While it’s about time Claire got off her high horse, she still doesn’t seem to realize why her affair with Eric was wrong, other than it hurt those closest to her.

That’s frustrating to watch, seemingly cheapening Claire’s melancholy.

It’s almost as if she doesn’t deserve to be this sad or feel this way, still not grasping the weight of her poor decision-making.

Maybe it’s nitpicky, but any emotional breakthrough doesn’t feel earned, which again adds to my disparate feelings about Claire.

Wyatt: Claire? Claire? Talk to me. What is it, Claire?

Claire: Stop trying to help me.

Wyatt: I’m just trying to do right by you.

Claire: I can’t even look at you. This whole good man act. You know I used to go through our trash when I was a kid? I used to count the number of empties to make sure you weren’t going to die. I was 10 years old, and I would get into bed terrified, thinking, maybe I missed a cue or something, and that when I woke up, you’d be gone. What, now I’m supposed to watch you thrive? Knowing that you could beat it, you just couldn’t do it for me.

Wyatt: Claire, I wish I could go back. I would give anything to be able to…

Claire: I have spent my entire life running from you, trying to feel safe. I… I wanted to help kids that were like me and give them what… what I never got, and somehow I’ve hurt everyone, and I’ve fucked everything up, and I don’t know how to fix it, and I’m such a fucking horrible person.

Wyatt: You are gonna find a way to keep going, I promise you.

Claire: I don’t want to be here. Everybody wants me gone. I just want to be fucking gone.

Wyatt: I know. I know it feels that way, but you got to stay. You gotta stay. You gotta. Permalink: You gotta stay. You gotta.

Permalink: You gotta stay. You gotta.

If this was the writers’ goal, then kudos to them, for it’s about the first time Claire has felt like an actual character worth caring about.

Over the past eight episodes, she’s oscillated between predatory teacher, egotistical wife, and haughty sister.

Now, for the first time, we get to see this broken woman that Claire has hinted at throughout the series but never showed.

She’s often used her traumatic childhood as an excuse for her behavior, but it’s hard to take her at her word when she’s always playing the victim.

Here, we get a stripped-down, vulnerable version of Claire, and it works, so far as making us feel something other than disdain toward her.

If the writers had introduced this version of Claire sooner, the series would have been able to tell a more nuanced version of an illicit affair instead of the half-baked iteration we got.

Some stray thoughts:

Matt finally got to say his piece to Claire, and it was glorious. In comparison to Nate, Matt’s reaction to Claire was pretty tame, but at least he got to say what was on his mind, and hopefully, good things continue to happen for him, not that we’ll ever know.

Even though Eric quit the frat, you’d think some of his friends or at least Cody would be more worried about him. Did Eric manage to alienate everyone in his social circle other than his roommate Ryan, who still gives a damn, or did the series not spend time depicting that?

Did anyone else think this episode felt like a series finale instead of a penultimate episode? If so, did you wish this was the last episode, or do you still want to see what else the writers have in store?

On a slightly unrelated note, if you guys haven’t seen Saturday Night Live’s parody skit of A Teacher, I highly recommend it. In short, it’s how the situation between Claire and Eric should have played out had Claire been the professional she was supposed to be. It’s highly entertaining and worth a watch.

So what did you think, TV Fanatics?

What was it about Chloe that got through to Eric?

Has your opinion of Claire changed?

Do you wish this was the series finale?

Don’t forget to hit the comments below to let me know your thoughts. If you missed the penultimate episode, remember you can watch A Teacher online at TV Fanatic.

Episode 9 Review Editor Rating: 4.4 / 5.0 4.4 / 5.0

5 User Rating: 0.0 / 5.0

Unrated Unrated 4.4 / 5.0

Jessica Lerner is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.

‘A Teacher’ Episode 9 Spoilers: Will Eric fall for another older woman? Grace Gummer enters as new character

Spoilers for ‘A Teacher’ Episode 9

In the previous episode of the limited series ‘A Teacher’, we got to see Claire’s (Kate Mara) life after incarceration – six months in jail and five years of probation. We saw her father (with whom she had a strained relationship) and brother Nate (Adam David Thompson) come to meet her once she is released.

She stays at Nate’s place along with his wife Lisa and their kids, even though it is plenty clear that Lisa doesn’t want Claire anywhere near the kids and doesn’t appreciate her presence. When Claire applies for a new job, one of the owners recognizes her. Claire tells her, “I served my time, Victoria.” But her statement is met with a loud warning, “This woman cannot work here. Google her you’ll see she is a sexual predator.” Claire sobs and when she gets home, she Googles her name.

At the dinner table, when she brings up the incident again, Lisa scornfully asks her if she was surprised that others think like that. And it’s not just her. Nate then makes it clear that he isn’t going to stand up for it. “Do you even realize the damage you’ve done? You’ve jeopardized my career, don’t even get started on him (her husband Matt), he’s barely functioning… and that kid.”

But all was not sad. As the episode comes to a close, Eric (Nick Robinson) texts Claire that he needs to see her. When they meet, he says sorry. “Being with you, it was everything,” Eric says, confessing his love for her. Claire snaps back, “Look at what it’s doing to us. I’ve tried to convince myself it’s okay but it’s not. Go be a kid Eric, just go.”

The next morning, she decides to leave Nate and Lisa’s house and goes to stay with her dad. So, what comes next? Last week, we speculated that Claire’s marriage with Matt (Ashley Zukerman) is over. The promo for the new episode reveals that is true. In the short clip, we can see that the two meet and sign some documents, presumably divorce papers. As they sit, Claire tells Matt that she made a mistake. Matt seems incredulous at her affair with a teenager being referred to as a mistake.

But the highlight of the promo is what is possibly a new insidious development. We see Eric drinking at a bar when a woman walks up to him, asking if he would take a photo of them. She was from a group celebrating what looked like a bachelorette party. And among the group was actor Grace Gummer, who will play a character called Chloe. In the promo, we see Eric and Chloe share looks.

She too is an older woman. Is this going to become a thing? Has Eric’s relationship with Claire had a lasting impact on him in this manner – that he feels growing attraction for older women alone? The promo ends with Sandy (Rya Kihlstedt), Eric’s mom asking him, “What’s wrong?”. Does that mean he did something? We’ll find out soon.

‘A Teacher’ premiered on Tuesday, November 10, on FX on Hulu with three back-to-back episodes. More episodes in the ten-part series followed every week starting from Tuesday, November 17, 2020. Directed by Hannah Fidell and written by Boo Killebrew, the new half-an-hour episode of ‘A Teacher’ will be available to stream Tuesday, December 22, at 12.01 am EST on Hulu. The season finale will then air on December 29, 2020.

Disclaimer : The views expressed in this article belong to the writer and are not necessarily shared by MEAWW.

A Teacher: When is episode 9 released? How many episodes are coming to Hulu in total? – HITC

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A Teacher has been essential viewing since it arrived on Hulu but fans have been left asking when episode 9 will release.

Hulu’s A Teacher explores the captivating and illicit relationship between a teacher in a dead-end marriage and a charming 18-year-old student.

However, as of December 15th, only eight episodes of the series have been released.

As a result, fans have been left asking when episode 9 of A Teacher will be released on Hulu and how many episodes there will in total.

A Teacher on Hulu

A Teacher arrived on Hulu on November 10th, 2020.

The series, which is based on the Hannah Fidell-directed film of the same name from 2013, tells the story of a teacher at the fictional Westerbrook High School in Texas.

The teacher, Claire (Kate Mara), is dissatisfied with her marriage and feels like her life has hit a dead-end.

That is until she befriends 18-year-old student, Eric (Nick Robinson), and the two develop illicit feelings for one another.

FX on Hulu

A Teacher episode 9 release date

Episode 9 of A Teacher is due to arrive FX on Hulu on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020.

For those wanting to watch episode 9 as soon as it is available, the next episode of A Teacher is due to release on December 22nd at 12:01am Eastern Time so you could be in for a late night.

Since the first three episodes of A Teacher released on November 10th, fans have had to wait for one new episode to arrive each week on Tuesdays.

Hulu

How many episodes in A Teacher?

A Teacher consists of 10 episodes in total.

That means with episode 9 up next, fans have just two episodes of the series left to watch.

With new episodes arriving weekly on Tuesdays, the 10-episode series is expected to come to an end on December 29th, 2020.

A Teacher is available to stream now on Hulu with episodes arriving on Tuesdays.

In other news, A Teacher: When is episode 9 released? How many episodes are coming to Hulu in total?

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