Government Cheese – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Review Geek

14-05-2025

An Evening with Abraham Cohen
Episode 8 of Government Cheese begins with Hampton and Harrison heading back home after their fishing trip. Harrison winds up seeing the temple flyer on the backseat but doesn't think much of it. Hampton meanwhile, crashes on the sofa.
He waits for Harrison and Astoria to leave before grabbing the stash of money in his pocket. The whole encounter with the catfish is still playing on his mind, and this brings more surreal visions to life, including Bootsy who has been suspiciously absent for a few episodes.
The crux of the issue here stems from that money, which Hampton knows he shouldn't have taken but his greed got the better of him.
In the morning, Hampton drives to the temple and intends to give the money back but the rabbi shows up and stops him. With the money hidden behind his back, the Rabbi knows that he's a man in crisis and convinces Hampton to pray with him, ending with 'all will be forgiven'.
Hampton leaves the wad of money on the podium before leaving, but it doesn't take long before word of the safe break-in spreads. The police show up to investigate the area, although they dismiss the neighbour talking about her fireplace.
When the Rabbi finds the money on the podium, he wants to rescind his police report, believing all has been resolved. Despite the window latch being broken (thanks to Eli breaking it just before) it turns out Hampton took the building fund fees, not the charity funds.
The police do leave but naturally, the female detective is not in the mood to just turn the other cheek, so they decide to look around the neighbourhood. They head over to the neighbour's place and find a shoe in the fireplace, which is a big clue.
Meanwhile, Astoria shows off her designs to her boss, Mr Briess, who's impressed by her work. The position is opening up in San Francisco though so it means she'd need to move. However, she's confident that her husband will be able to look after the kids in her absence.
Hampton thinks he's out the woods but the reality is he's far from it. Despite giving the money back, the detectives find Bootsy, dead, stuck in the chimney above the neighbour's place. Without a drill or tools with him though, the detectives realize that there may be another suspect.
The Episode Review
So Hampton's life is about to be completely upended and to be honest, he only has himself to blame for it. 8 episodes in, we've heard very little about his drill or RocketCorp which is pretty amusing because this is the entire crux of the situation and its just been brushed aside here in favour of the familial drama and the temple incident.
All of this could have been avoided if Hampton just sold his drill and to be honest, given what we've seen, he's barely using it anyway. Its been a prop to break into the safe but he's not progressed in any way with the RocketCorp angle. And with 2 episodes left, it's unclear if he'll even circle back to this.
The surrealism angle is a nice touch that continues to enhance this one, but the series is struggling to balance all these characters and actually flesh out their journeys in a meaningful way, which is a shame.
Hopefully this one ends with a bang though.
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