In the second episode of The Miniature Wife, Lindy wakes up in a dollhouse and is very puzzled. Les left her a few Post-it notes telling her not to panic. She only realizes how bad things are when Les opens the dollhouse and she sees him standing over her like a giant while she makes coffee.
Les instantly tells her that his invention made her smaller by mistake. Even if things are bad, he is still very interested in his career. Lindy asks him how he means to cure it, and he tells her that the procedure can be undone and that he will make her normal again.
But there’s a big problem: he still hasn’t worked out how to undo it. Les tries to make things better by making her a Christmas brunch and promising to fix everything in a few days. In the meantime, he keeps saying that she will be secure inside the dollhouse, which has been carefully built to look like their real home, with little reproductions of her things inside.
At first, Lindy lashes out in fury because she is so overwhelmed. Then she breaks down in tears as she realizes how bad her position is.
Richard is more and more worried when Lindy doesn’t show up for their date. After calling her several times and getting no answer, he calls her office and finds out that Les is also not accessible.
When Lindy gets home, she calms down and talks to Les about how secretive he is. She is offended that he never trusted her enough to tell her the truth about his work, even though he had shown her little tests over the past few years.
Les says he has to go back to the lab to work on reversing the process. Lindy doesn’t want to be alone, but he convinces her that staying in the dollhouse is the safest thing to do. He attempts to make her feel better by taking her on a trip on a toy train before he leaves.
Lindy quickly gets a headache, and Les leaves her a tablet that is way too big for her to swallow, so she has to come up with an other way to take it. While she eats, she remembers a tense supper with her family when the movie version of her novel caused a fight. Her mother doesn’t like the book or how it shows her, which leads to a fight about the past and how the family works.
Later, Les tells Lindy that she is not like her mother at all and gives her some emotional support before going to work.
Les gets a call that night after Lindy goes to sleep and goes to the lab. Before he leaves, he sees their cat, Mr. Magoo, trying to attack Lindy. He brings the cat with him, but he’s still worried about leaving her alone.
Les bumps into Richard in the parking lot, and Richard asks about Lindy. Les lies and says she’s at home working on her writing.
At the same time, Lindy wakes up by herself and finds another message from Les and a Space Colonel toy he left behind to keep her company.
There is a lot of stress at the lab. Martin calls Les to ask how the restoration formula is coming along and to remind him of an important 30-day contract with Hilton. If they don’t produce, the corporation could face legal problems, such as a possible takeover or even jail time.
Vivienne walks in and takes charge of the experiments, putting even more pressure on everyone. She says that all testing must go via her. Even though the first attempt to restore a test subject is called a “nominal success,” it fails, making it evident that the solution is still a long way off.
Les is angry and lashes out, but Martin reminds him that they only have 29 days left.
Lindy has a hard time being alone and bored in the dollhouse. She talks to the Space Colonel toy a lot to attempt to keep things normal. She tries to leave, but all the doors are locked. Les left a letter saying that it was for her own safety.
Things get worse for her as a fly comes in through the window. At her little size, the bug is a very scary threat. Lindy crashes through a wall in a last-ditch effort to get away, but she loses her balance and falls along an electrical cord.
Les’s voice rings in her memory, telling her to hold on as she fights. Richard keeps attempting to call her.
Review of the Episode
This episode shows a lot of Les’s domineering side. He locked Lindy in the dollhouse without her permission, pretending to protect her. This makes me very worried about how he acts. He can’t help but admire his innovation, even when things are bad, which shows that he doesn’t care about the effects of his activities.
Lindy, on the other hand, is feeling more and more trapped and overwhelmed. At first, she believes what Les says, but it’s evident that he doesn’t have the right kind of faith. He doesn’t really have a solution, and his promises are based on doubt.
Les’s leadership style is also being questioned at work. He has a hard time dealing with stress and doesn’t handle things well when they don’t go his way. At the same time, Martin’s arrangement with Hilton adds a ticking clock that makes things more serious.
The pressure is rising because there are only 29 days left to fix the situation. If Les fails, Lindy might stay small forever, which is scary since it means this predicament could last forever.