Name: Central Park season 3 episode 8
Director: Mario D'Anna
Released: 2022-10-14T00:00:00

The eighth episode of Central Park season 3 sees Owen worrying about his son, Cole, as he gets exposed to racism during an interaction with a lady in the park. The episode is now available to stream on Apple TV+.

Recap

Cole was enjoying his Saturday afternoon in his Squirrel Quarrels costume until he crossed paths with a woman who got freaked out watching him come at her.

He was holding a toy dagger with an eye patch on his eye. For some reason, this woman reacted like she saw a pirate holding a sword.

Cole even offered to help the woman, but she stayed adamant that she doesn’t need him anywhere around her. Eventually, Owen and a colleague of his arrived and took care of the situation.

While Cole forgot the incident quickly, Owen, on his side, panicked as he realized that his son just got exposed to racism. He later came home and told Paige and Molly about it, with the latter wanting to react violently towards that lady.

Owen was more worried about the fact that Cole didn’t even realize that the woman was being racist to him. He finally mustered the courage to talk to his son, but Cole was more excited about a role-playing event called Lunar Palaver.

The conversation got lost in that, and while shopping with Cole, Owen tried several times to have a conversation with him about this topic. Things escalated when the costume Cole picked turned out to be a scarier one with daggers on it.

Owen finally sat down with Cole and reminisced about the interaction they had with that lady in the park. Cole had moved on from that and still looked at it as an odd incident.

He thought that the lady must be having a phobia of eye patches. Owen decided to articulate that she had a phobia of black people.

He shared African-American history with Cole and his own personal experiences. Cole wondered if this will ever happen to him again. Owen was honest and suggested that it probably will.

The only thing Owen wanted to make sure is that his son is prepared to face it.

Now Cole was having second thoughts about going to Lunar Palaver, as he didn’t want to scare anyone. Owen told him that it would be fine and that he shouldn’t miss this event.

The only thing Cole needs right now is a less scary costume. As per his father’s suggestion, Cole agrees and buys a less scary costume that lives up to his style, with no weapons attached to it.

Owen drops Cole to Lunar Palaver and apologizes for the messed-up world. Cole, on his side, assures his father that he had no problem switching clothes.

Amidst all of this, Bitsy suspects that Helen has something to do outside the Brandenham Hotel. She follows her and finds out that she is dating a man.

Bitsy offers this man some money to get out of her and Helen’s lives, only to later find out that Helen broke up with him on the same day.

Review

The eighth episode of Central Park season 3 handles racism in the best way possible.
As mature as Cole is, his innocence comes out in this episode and it’s hard not to like the character.
It’s good to see Owen taking the charge instead of Paige, who as a mother would definitely be protective of her child, but Owen over here is a black man himself and he has gone through everything Cole would go through someday.
As delicate as the subject matter is, Central Park also managed to keep the laughs going creatively without hurting the goal of the episode.