*Spoiler warning*
Whoaaaa this episode was PACKED!
We start off with Beth in Russian class. As we learned in previous episodes, some of the top chess players are Russian and she’s learning the language presumably so she can communicate with them. She makes some friends in that class and they go romping around town doing teenage things — she’s definitely lost a bit of her innocence at this point.
Alma gives Beth a really cute gold watch that has “with love from mother” engraved on it! These two have become really close over the past couple of years and have been doing just find without Allston. Their adventures continue in Mexico City at an international chess tournament. On the way over, Alma informs Beth that she’ll be meeting one of her long time pen pals (Manuel) there. Those two immediately click and I’ve never seen Alma so giddy — it’s nice to see her happy after all she went through with Allston.
At the hotel, Beth runs into the twins who manned the check-in desk at her first ever tournament. Their relationship has completely changed. They used to be very skeptical and condescending towards her, but now they’re like BFFs.
Alma convinces Beth that she should take a break from studying chess and she goes with her and Manuel to the zoo. There…
