Article contributed by Daniel A
Soulmates has created a world where everyone one can find their perfect match, but this week’s episode asks: what if your soulmate has already passed on?
The episode opens with Heather, a woman videographing her world travels. She goes to a Soul Connex centre for her ‘next adventure’ and her results tell her that her match is not yet in their system. During a group session in a church, Kurt (Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton) talks about Heather, who has died in a car crash. She was his soulmate, only discovering their compatibility after her death, and Kurt claims not to think about her any more. The pastor tells him it’s hard to see God’s path sometimes, but to take heart that he’s given Kurt a second chance after having tried to commit suicide.
Kurt’s parents pick him up after therapy. At their ranch his father tells Kurt he wants him to take over when he retires, but he needs to know that he’s ‘done with all this test nonsense’, and Kurt promises that he is. That night Kurt watches Heather’s travel videos.
At his next session, Kurt is approached by a woman, Martha (Malin Akerman), who tells him about her lost soulmate. They go to a bar and Martha asks him why he took the test so young, and he tells her, ‘what could be better then spending the rest of your life with someone that is meant for you and only you?’ Martha says she took the test because she got divorced for the third time, asking God to pick for her, but says she has to wait thirty years or so to meet him. They have sex out the back of the bar, and Kurt finishes quickly, telling Martha that it was his first time. Surprised, Martha hurriedly leaves, and Kurt returns to his car crying and apologising to Heather. He receives a message from Soul Connex asking if he still wants to meet Heather, and the app sends him a location to meet her the next day.
It’s nice to see Soulmates giving us a glimpse of a world where Soul Connex is not the perfect solution to all relationships. For people of Martha’s age the test isn’t even a viable option, just as with normal dating. Plus cracks have been starting to appear in Soul Connex’s perfect system, with another character’s account being hacked in episode two and now here.
Kurt arrives at a barn where Samson (Steven Mackintosh) is preaching to a group of people. He invites Kurt in and shows him a vision of Heather saying she loves him. Samson tells him and the congregation that while they believe in God, suicide cannot be a sin if their true love is waiting for them.
At night, Kurt meets up with another man, Travis (Joe Anderson), who tells him it will be nice to meet their respective lost soulmates before a van pulls up and the pair have bags thrown over their heads and are placed inside.
They arrive at the church of Righteous Transition and are greeted by Brother Hickock and Sister Laurelann. Laurelann tells them they are all one there and they need to shed themselves of all possessions that tie them to the world. They are given new clothes, and she takes their phones.
They arrive at a sermon led by Samson, who tells them to greet fellow parishioners by telling each other they are worthy of love and Kurt bumps into Martha. Meanwhile Hickock has been handing out vials of liquid to parishioners and Samson tells them all to drink and be free, which they do.
Kurt wakes in a forest and is approached by Heather. She holds up his phone to his eye to open it and Kurt realises it’s actually Laurelann, who reveals that drinking the vial was a test to their commitment. As the other parishioners wake, Kurt asks Travis if he saw his soulmate, but Travis says he saw his children. A van passes them, leaving the grounds of the church, and Laurelann tells Kurt that not everyone drunk the vials and they are not ready for the journey. She then hands him a shovel – they are to make their own beds before they lay in them.
As Kurt is digging he once again finds himself near Martha, who is having difficulty with her grave, and he offers to help her. She tells him he’s too young to be there, and he tells her he’s 25, which makes her feel a little better, and she suggests they be ‘death buddies’ to perform all the rituals together and make sure neither of them chicken out. Martha tells him she’s there because of Kurt, after their incident at the bar she realised she has all this love inside and she just has to give it to the right person.
Samson and Hickock baptise the parishioners, and Samson tells them to truly be free they must leave behind everything that holds them to Earth, including their money. Hickock approaches the parishioners one by one to get their fingerprints so they can access their savings, Samson telling them their money will be put to God’s work. Travis says he wants to leave his money to his children, and Samson says that would be a noble gesture but that he doesn’t know where they are because they don’t want to be found, unable to forgive Travis for what he did to their mother.
Samson gets the group to participate in an exercise where they pretend they are meeting their soulmate, and Kurt and Martha pair together. Martha begins to tear up when Kurt, pretending to be her soulmate, tells her how special she is to the world. They are interrupted by Travis, who is yelling at his partner and the futility of the exercise. Travis storms out, and Martha leaves as well. Later Kurt returns to his room, finding Travis has hung himself.
It seems like an odd choice for his character, someone that obviously had a will to reconnect with his children, and the episode would have benefited from his questioning of the Righteous Transition’s motives in contrast to Kurt and Martha’s blind devotion.
That night Kurt visits Travis’s grave, and Martha is also there. Kurt reveals that he was relieved when he found out that Heather was dead because if she was alive that he might have actually had to have done something. Martha says he’s brave, but he asks her if what they are doing is actually brave. They kiss and make love.
The pair wake in the grave in the morning and Martha thanks him for the perfect last night. Kurt asks what if he and her became a couple, and Martha tells him it would never work and to stop it.
Martha tries to talk to Kurt but they are gathering with the other parishioners for the final ritual. The vials are handed out and everyone drinks. As they return to the church Martha takes hold of Kurt’s hand and they flee, but the pair start to vomit from what they have consumed. They try to stop the van leaving, but it swerves to avoid them and picks up Samson, Hickock and Laurelann. As the pair fall to the ground choking, they hold each other’s hands as ‘death buddies’. Heather appears to Kurt and slaps him awake, and he carries a vomiting Martha to a nearby road where he waves down a truck. They arrive at a hospital and Kurt drags Martha to the entrance, ‘life buddies’ she tells him as the paramedics arrive.
A happy ending for a rather macabre, and ultimately rushed, episode. There were a lot of heavy themes throughout that would have benefited from more exploration, particularly in regards to character development. Unfortunately a one-hour drama only has so much time, but hopefully Soulmates can revisit these ideas again – and continue to question its world of ‘perfect soulmates’ it has created.
