This week, we watched and discussed the second episode of “The Queen’s Gambit,” which followed Beth as she gets adopted at age 13 and enters a chess tournament.  Like the first episode, the second episode was a targeted flashback of her life that followed her at a specific time in her life; for this epidode, what was when she leaves the orphanage and begins going to highschool.  It was interesting to see this change in Beth’s life and see how her prior experiences affected the way she navigated highschool.  As chess becomes her priority, she stops focusing on school or developing a social life.  It was interesting to see how she reacted to typical teenager events, such as school, bullies, and getting her period for the first time, as well seeing how she pursuses the very non-traditional (at the time) path of becoming a chess master. This episode did a good job of showing the viewer life through Beth’s perspective as she struggles through her young teen years.  While some of the obstacles that she faces can seem to be a highschool cliché, such as dealing with bullies, the show remains interesting by focusing on chess and how Beth uses it to cope with her situation and take control of her own life.  Overall, I thought that the characterization and plot in this episode were really well done and made for an intruiging show!