The Woman Who Found Bite Marks On Her Skin

Episode 4 of Roar starts with Ambia about to give birth. She claims there are too many people of color in the room, and chalks this up to the reason why the baby doesn’t want to come out. ..

Ambia is having a difficult time at work. She starts bleeding and it looks bad. However, we soon fast forward in time to find Ambia preparing to go back to work. Her partner, Greg, is left to look after their eldest daughter, Zoe, and their newborn son, Harvey. Ambia is quite the high-flying employee at a private equity firm called Layman Capital Group. However, faint whiffs of sexism seem to be in the air among the men. ..

She goes to the office and finds a bite mark on her breast. She stays late at work to finish her story with Zoe, but when she gets home she realizes that there is a bite mark on her breast too.

Zoe is not happy with her mother showing up late, and even tells her that she should be “making things better, not worse” when Ambia tries to explain herself. Ambia eventually lies with her daughter in bed, pointing out that not all women are the same and she works hard to make sure they have a good living.

Zoe is distracted at work though, partly thanks to random bite marks she keeps finding; one on her thigh and the other on her breast. Ambia is on the cusp of leaving the family again, heading off for a business lunch. She avoids calls from Greg, and even admits later on with her colleague Rodney that she’s having a good time. Eventually he encourages her to turn her phone off. She’s also peer pressured into drinking.

It turns out Greg’s calls are in relation to Harvey, who happens to have a fever of over 104. He’s obviously not happy when Ambia returns his call early in the morning, intoxicated, pointing out she shouldn’t have ignored him all day.

When Ambia eventually returns home, she has numerous bite marks all over her cheek and neck. Zoe screams when she sees her mother, while Greg encourages Ambia to go to the doctor and get them checked out. Ambia refuses, using her marriage therapist as an example of why these sorts of things don’t work. Instead, she presses on with work. ..

When Ambia belittles the other workers in the office, it quickly leads to a tooth sprouting from her hand. This scene is horrifying and eventually sees her pass out.

Ambia wakes up from a dream in the hospital and finds that she is still covered in bite marks. She decides to go to a therapy group after hours, which is clearly a dream sequence but it is very well-done. ..

Many other women are there too, also sporting bites of their own. Ambia talks about how the bites started when she was at work. She believes Greg is resenting her while Zoe clings to every piece of skin while she’s there. Meanwhile, she’s unable to confront her feelings regarding Harvey’s birth, given it was a bloodbath and she feels guilty that she can’t fully enjoy her son’s birth. It sounds like she has post-natal depression.

At the same time, Ambia is letting work “eat her alive.” When Ambia awakens, Greg rushes into the hospital, apologizing. The bites are getting better now while Ambia seems a little calmer after talking about her issues.

The Episode Review

This chapter showcases Ambia’s plight, although by the end one could argue that she’s been suffering from post-natal depression, which is why she’s decided not to be with her family so much. ..

Ambia is putting all of her energy into going to work, despite being offered to stay at home longer. She’s paranoid over Rodney taking her job (despite making it clear he doesn’t want it) and she’s succumbing to peer pressure with her colleagues. ..

It was tough to watch Ambia swayed into drinking alcohol and ignoring her family. Although the therapy session did help somewhat toward the end, it’s still a little disappointing that we didn’t get to see more of Ambia’s depression or sensitive side to level out her persona. This would have done wonders to really help take us on a journey with this character.

Regardless of the outcome, this is likely to be a highly divisive episode; let’s hope the later chapters can deliver on expectations. ..