The OA took its narrative to and beyond the boundaries of fantastical storytelling, but just like any other TV show, it always needs something to ground it back in reality too. The characters do a good job of drawing the audience in and giving everyone something to invest themselves in, but obviously those characters don't exist in a vacuum. And although The OA is an unusual show, it's very typical in the sense that the relationships between the characters are really make or break elements of the series.
Many of the relationships between characters on The OA are some of the most interesting and emotionally involving parts of the entire series, but of course there are some relationships that just don't bring a lot to the story or in some extreme cases, make the story even harder to watch. So here are 5 relationships that saved the show, and 5 that hurt it.
Hurt It: Pierre Ruskin & His Test Subjects
The OA is clearly a show that doesn't shy away from getting a little weird, but one of the weirder aspects of season 2 that just fell a little flat was the whole Pierre Ruskin storyline. Pierre Ruskin doesn't actually make an appearance until the end of the season, and that makes it pretty hard to care about his character or what it is he's doing with that mysterious house.
The situation with the puzzle and how it's affecting the kids who solve it is definitely weird, but in the end it just seems like a whole lot of time wasted on a lesser version of Hap's experiment.
Saved It: Karim & OA
Sometimes there are relationships between characters that save a show just because the relationship is so compelling and lovable, but there are other kinds of relationships that can save a show because they actually allow the narrative to move forward. And the relationship between Karim and OA is one of the latter.
Being stuck in a mental institution at the mercy of Hap was obviously a problem for OA and the rest of Hap's captives, and if Karim hadn't stuck his neck out and helped OA escape then the entire story of season two would have stopped dead right there.
Hurt It: Prairie & Her Parents
On a certain level Prairie's relationship with her parents was a necessary element of The OA, but it doesn't seem like Prairie's relationship with her adoptive mom and dad really helped her or helped her story all that much.
It was important to ground Prairie's story in some kind of reality, and obviously going home with her family is what facilitated her relationship with her new friends and fueled her journey towards finding her old friends once again. But aside from that, it doesn't seem like they contributed much to the story at all. In a show as riveting as The OA, you really can't be that boring.
Saved It: OA & The Five
It's pretty hard to pull together a crew of disparate characters who don't seem to have anything in common and then create a bond between them that is believable and that the audience feels invested in, but The OA managed to do this with Prairie's new friends.
These five seem like a motley crew if there ever was one, but their faith in OA and the bonds that grow between them are a huge part of what The OA's success relies on. As individuals these characters aren't necessarily compelling or even all that appealing, but together they make magic happen. Literally.
Hurt It: Hap & The Prisoners
Hap's relationship with OA, Homer, and the rest of his NDE lab rats is a necessary evil for the show, but it is not something that is particularly pleasant to watch. Hap's determination to discover other dimensions is borderline psychotic, and the way he dehumanizes and mistreats his prisoners is repulsive.
The necessity of Hap's behavior and treatment of the NDE squad is debatable, however what's not really a question mark is whether or not he could at least treat them all a little better than he treats them. Maybe throw them a hot meal every once and a while, give them some sun exposure, something.
Saved It: Prairie & The Prisoners
All of Hap's abductees have only two things in common. That they've all had near death experiences in their real lives, and that they've all been discovered and taken by Hap himself. But the fact that they're all wildly different people doesn't impact the bond that they've managed to forge in captivity.
Through the most trying of circumstances they've all managed to develop unbreakable bonds with one another; bonds that are so strong that even the alternate universe versions of themselves seem destined to meet. It's hard to survive in the circumstances they've been dealt, but they've managed to do so through their relationships with one another.
Hurt It: Hap & Homer
Doctor Hap is one of the creepiest creeps to ever creep, and there are already more than enough reasons to hate him before his bizarre infatuation for OA develops. But he seems to be under the delusion that he and Prairie have some kind of positive relationship, and the fact that Prairie is openly and shamelessly in love with Homer creates a really unsettling dynamic between Homer and Hap.
Because Homer won Prairie's affection, Hap sees fit to torment Homer even more than he already was, if that's even possible. The psychological abuse he subjects Homer to in order to undermine his relationship with Prairie is hard to watch.
Saved It: OA & Khatun
There are a lot of different characters and plot threads being pulled together on The OA, but the reality of the situation is that the story of The OA simply cannot take place without the connection between OA and Khatun.
Khatun is the key to Prairie and the rest of her friends escaping Hap's captivity, but she is also the one who stole Prairie's sight from her when she was still young Nina Azarova. Their relationship is bizarre and complex, and quite literally exists outside of the real world, which makes it a really interesting an unique addition to the show.
Hurt It: Hap & OA
Is reverse Stockholm Syndrome a real thing? Because that seems to be what's going on between Hap and Prairie. Hap simply abducted Prairie to use her as one of his many experimental subjects at first, but his affection for her grew with time and only got more and more repugnant to see.
Hap is a disgusting, unappealing person on his own, but the dynamic between him and Prairie is exceptionally off-putting. She's not his coworker, his friend, or his girlfriend; she's a woman he abducted and someone he has complete and total control over. His infatuation with her is just another form of abuse.
Saved It: OA & Homer
The OA is overall a very spiritual and soulful show, and the real soul of the entire series is the relationship between OA and Homer. Sometimes the whole epic love soul mate thing can come off as corny, but the intensity of the connection between Homer and OA is literally enough to sustain both characters.
They keep each other alive, they would die for each other, and even being separated by dimensions and worlds is not enough to keep them apart. Prairie needed a pretty strong motivation to willingly die and move on to another dimension, but Homer was more than enough.