Season 1, Ep. 8: Broken Windows, Open Doors
1 — Boyd packs several supplies and tools inside his camping bag, including the keychain his wife gifted him. Father Khatir’s blood still dried on his shirt. Kenny enters the Sheriff’s Station. He informs the Colony House people are squared away. Each house has a basement mostly unused. Each house will take two or three residents to live there. Some are at the clinic and last three will stay with Kenny and his mother… and Jade. Townsfolk are boarding up their windows.
With the Colony House residents now living in the Town, Kenny suggests gathering everyone together for a common ground set of rules. Boyd suggests Kenny to do that, but Kenny thinks it would mean more coming from Boyd, as everyone looks up to him. Boyd seems to be in shock still. He tells Kenny that Father Khatri saved his life the night they arrived in the town. Boyd grows emotional and breaks up his talk and asks Kenny to give everyone his regards. He tells Kenny that he needs to do something very important. Boyd just remembered Father Khatri revealed he had Sara in the basement of the Church, but didn’t tell Kenny. Sara was responsible for the death of Kenny’s Dad.
Kenny insists it must be Boyd who talks to the people. Boyd scolds him. He needs Kenny to start pulling his weight and learn to talk to people in a way he sounds half convincing as practice for when Boyd is no longer around.
2 — Boyd walks down the stairs to the basement. Sara is standing there looking at Boyd. Her dress still has Nathan’s dried blood.
3 — The camera view from a drone perspective looking down 40 degrees angle shows an old car pulling a move trailer cart along a rural road. The song “If I had a Boat” by Lyle Lovett plays in the background. This is a flashback scene. Boyd, his wife Abby, and a younger Ellis are in this car.
[This confirms why Boyd concluded that hearing this same song at the Diner was the sign he was waiting for. He was playing this song in the car the same day they arrived in the Town.]Boyd tells his wife how peaceful this song sounds. The man is riding a pony on an ocean because he has a boat. Abby says no matter how many times he talks about this song, Boyd still can’t afford a boat. Ohh… Boyd mansplains to Abby that if [they] manage the payments– she interrupts him right away and makes a joke about one of the key roles of management options is deciding not to pay the payments, because [that’s] the option [they] will be taking. She laughs. Ellis chimes in and says: “Yea, I’m pretty sure most lenders frown on that option. Boyd snaps at him: “Nobody’s talking to you.” Boyd and Ellis laugh.
Boyd asks them if they know what they used to call him in the army. Mr. Fish and Loaves. They’d send him to any base to set it up with any resources. He would make it work. Ellis responds if they didn’t call her Iron Abby.
[This reveals that Boyd and Abbey met in the army and fell in love while serving the country.]Boyd continues to be playful about buying a boat. He says Iron is rigid. Unable to bend. Drawing a parallel with Abby on buying a boat. He’s served his country for many years, is highly decorated in his career, ready to retire and leave behind the hardships of his career to enter the civilian life. A boat would do nicely to accomplish that. Abby ignores him and keeps digging into her purse. She complains she is unable to find her chapstick in that bag and resumes digging deeper. He is concerned and looks. Suddenly, Abby asks Boyd if he can hold this thing she removed from the bag for her to have it out of the way while she searches for her chapstick. Boyd grabs it, and it is a big orange keychain object.
Boyd looks at it and asks Abby: “This looks like a boat key.” Abby and Ellis say simultaneously: “What?”
Boyd repeats, why is he holding a boat key?
Boyd looks at Abby in astonishment. Did you buy the boat?
Abby and Ellis laugh. They had planned this a while. Abby jokes she thought to herself if she had to listen one more time to this man sing about Tonto and his pony one more time, she would throw herself into traffic. Boyd goes: “Oh snap!” Ellis congratulates his father with: “Happy retirement, Dad!” Boyd is so happy and thanks his wife. Ellis yells for his father to stop the car. They encounter the fallen tree on the road and hear the crows cawing.
2 — In the present, Boyd and Sara walk through the forest. Sara asks if Boyd can tell her where they are heading and where Father Khatri is. Boyd ignores her and begins his own line of thought. The monsters used to shriek all night long, driving people crazy. That stopped once he found the talismans. Then they started to whisper. He always wondered about that. He mocks Sara whether the voices tell her anything about that. Sara says no. “Of course not. God forbid they tell you anything useful.”
Sara refuses to continue walking until Boyd answers what’s going on and where Father Khatri is. Boyd breaks the news that he is dead. Boyd tells Sara the monsters got into the Colony House. Father Khatri tried to help, and a monster killed him along with other people. She asks if Ellis is okay. He responds he is at the clinic with other people. Sara cries.
Boyd mocks her that now she cries. Did she cry like that for Bing Qian (Kenny’s father). Boyd says the only reason Sara is alive is because Father Khatri thought she could help everyone get home. The second Sara proves him wrong, he will put a bullet in her. He commands her to keep walking. She asks where they are going. Boyd cocks his gun to prep it for shooting. Sara obeys.
3 -Kenny walks three Colony House residents into his home and instructs them where things are and to ration the food. Other people will work at the Colony House to get it ready for everyone to return once done.
Jade is in Kenny’s porch, sitting and tinkering. Jade is holding the old Polaroid with the man and Victor as a boy in the photo. Jade asks why are these guys here. Kenny informs him they will have a few more house guests for a little while. Jade doesn’t like the idea and sounds rude.
Jade asks the lady if she knows where Victor is. She responds she saw Victor and Julie run into the woods last night. Victor heads out in search of Victor. Jade seems to have tinkered all day about the polaroid photo and its connection to the notebook with the symbol his visions have bothered him.
4 — Julie tells her father she couldn’t understand what happened last night. One second everyone was having a good time, and out of nowhere, monsters were inside the Colony House chasing them. Jim asks how she got out of the house. Julie responds she was in Victor’s room and they climbed down the attic with a rope. He was stacking this bunch of drawings that he handed to her to help carry his stashes. It looked like he was getting ready to leave the Colony House with them before the monsters arrived.
She says Victor asked her to follow him into the woods, and they ran into this tree and he pushed her inside. Victor said, “It was starting.” Jim asked what he meant by that. Julie didn’t know, but one second she was in the tree and suddenly she was inside a giant cabinet in a root cellar. Tabitha loudly wonders how that is possible. Ethan says Julie went through a Farway Tree. Jim says “Huh?” Ethan explains that Victor said you can go all sorts of different places. So maybe Victor landed somewhere else. “We have to find him!”
Julie stands up and freaks out. She moves to the hallway and asks what’s happening to them. She is confused. Now their house’s walls are broken. Ethan chimes in. They are digging a big hole in the basement. They are going to find out where the electricity comes from. Julie continues to cry. Nothing makes sense.
Jade breaks into their house without knocking, demanding to know if they have seen where Victor is. Jim forcefully pushes Jade out of the house and asks if he knows what she is gone through. Jade explains that he discovered something last night. There is a symbol that he’s been seeing. The same symbol is in this notebook. Inside the notebook, he found this Polaroid photo. Jim slaps the notebook off Jade’s hand and lands on the ground. He doesn’t care shit about this. “Just stay the fuck away from my daughter.”
Jim snaps at Jade. “You led me into the woods, have me climb a fucking tree for some stupid idea, and then you run off like a psycho before we even have a chance to try it.”
Jade apologizes for that. Jim responded: “It worked. All I got was some static. But it worked. I think if we get it up over the tree line, and we get it enough power, I think we could get a signal out.”
Jade asks Jim how he proposes to get up over the tree line. Jim says they start by going to the high ground. They look toward the Colony House up on the hill.
5 — [Flashback] Boyd and his family continue driving and find the Town. The sun is still up. Father Khatri runs into the middle of the road and stops their car. He asks them to listen to him. There is not much time. This is going to sound very, very strange, and you aren’t going to believe me, but if you don’t come with me right now, you are all going to die. Abby pulls out her gun. Father Khatri says it is good that she has a gun and she is welcome to keep it pointed at him but he begs them to follow him.
Suddenly, they all hear a loud shriek. This was long before Boyd found the talismans, so they had to hide in places to survive. Father Khatri responds that the shriek they heard is death and it is coming right now. Boyd, Abby, and Ellis leave the car and follow Father Khatri.
Donna welcomes them into a sort of basement or hidden room. They stay the night. They can hear the monsters shrieking and a man screaming in agony as they feast on him.
6 — [Present] Ellis is in a clinic bed. EMT Kristi checks on his arm and slowly pulls his socket back into place and places a sling to hold his arm. She asks Fatima to make sure he doesn’t leave the bed until she can finish up later. She needs to tend to other guests.
7 — Donna picks up dismembered arms and legs from the Colony House’s front yard and drops them in a cart. Jim Matthews and Jade approach her.
Donna asks how Julie is. Jim says she is okay, but that’s not what they are here for. They need Donna’s help. They want to build a tower and place it on the roof. Jim thinks they can broadcast a signal high above the Colony House that can reach other areas. Jim says the Colony House is the highest point in the highest hill. A broadcast from a tower above the house will be able to broadcast a signal to avoid any interference from the forest canopy. Donna agrees to let them do it. Jim is concerned and asks if she is sure.
Donna squares off in front of him and asks if he knows how many people died last night. She answers 14. Body parts of all of them are still on the ground all over the hill. She doesn’t think any of the surviving residents will return to the Colony House any time soon. They have the Colony House to focus on their project.
8 — Boyd and Sara find a shed in the forest. He wants Sara to wait inside while he goes back to town for his supplies. They are going to explore beyond, farther than they ever dared to for a way out of this place. Sara tells Boyd he doesn’t need those cuffs. She will stay in the shed until he returns. She wants to help.
9 — [Flashback] Boyd removes a fake door disguised with grass. Donna, Father Khatri, Abby, and Ellis were hidden in a hole below the ground. A makeshift underground room surrounded by wood panels.
Boyd sees other people come out of their underground hidden places similar to the one he is in. He sees dismembered corpses all over the place. Donna sarcastically tells them welcome to your worst nightmare. Father Kathri says they have a lot to unpack. He will explain more at the Diner down the road. They have many questions, but the father only has limited information about this place.
With Boyd’s military experience, he tells Donna and Khatri how to organize, create a system, make sure everybody is covered at night, and gather resources. Build new hiding places and switch locations constantly so they don’t repeat the same hideout twice.
As time goes by, Boyd guides the people to perform tasks. He assigns his wife Abby to draw a system for where to spend their nights. They are going to dig up new underground hiding places and constantly rotate where they stay at night to make it difficult for these monsters to find them. [This was how it worked before Boyd found the talismans]
10 — [Present] Julie sits on the edge of the hole her mother dug in the basement. She is sad, staring at the hole. Her mother, Tabitha, comes down to the basement. Julie wishes to know whether they will still get the divorce if they leave this place. Tabitha doesn’t have an answer. Julie reminds Tabitha that she said they love each other. Then why get a divorce? Is Julie the reason? Did Julie do something wrong? (she asks her mom). Tabitha hugs and kisses Julie. No. It is not Julie’s fault.
Tabitha explains many things lead to a divorce. But she can only understand once she becomes a parent. Their only job is to love and protect their children. When baby Thomas died, something inside Tabitha broke. She has no idea how to fix it. She keeps reliving that day. Ethan and Julie were in their bedroom. Jim and Tabitha were with Thomas in the kitchen. Thomas was on his changing table. The phone rang. Jim picked up the phone. Tabitha grabbed a diaper. They turned just for one second. Before they knew it, Thomas rolled off the changing table. Julie’s father is the love of Tabitha’s life. But sometimes she sees Jim and she hears the fucking phone ring. Julie asks why she never told her that.
Tabitha responds that no matter how grown up Julie is, she will always be her little girl. So they pretended everything was fine. It made things worse. Both apologize and hug.
11 — Outside the Diner, Bartender Tom, Eli, and five Townsfolk argue. Tian Chen Liu (Kenny’s mother) yells at them in Cantonese. Tom says there will be trouble if she doesn’t allow them to enter the Diner. This happens during daylight. Boyd intercedes and asks what’s going on.
Tom complains they have Colony House guests in their houses, eating and using their supplies. If it comes down to letting Colony House guests raid the Diner for food and supplies, then it’s going to be him doing the raiding. Boyd scolds them for behaving like animals and assures them they will figure things out. No need for raiding. Go back to your homes till they come up with temp plan.
12 — [Flashback] Boyd and Father Khatri talk about the monsters. They come out at night. Do the monsters walk around in the forest during daytime? Boyd thinks there might be resources out there. He plans for the townsfolk to scavenge during daytime. Father Khatri asks how long he spent in the military. Boyd served for almost 30 years. He set up operations in some of the biggest, baddest clusterfucks on the planet. Abby was a Marine. She is the badass in the family.
Ellis worries about his mother, Abby. She is staring into the distance. Distracted in thought. Abby tells Ellis she was thinking about this dream she had when she was a little girl. She drifted off and said nevermind.
[This is a sign that the show writers revisit. Later in Season 3, Tabitha also mentions she had dreams in her childhood where she saw the same 3 red stones they are at now in a remote settlement they find in this place. Tabitha thinks she was destined to find this place.]13 — [Present] Boyd decides not to venture into the forest searching for a way home. This time around, Kenny is the one insisting that Boyd goes out into the forest journey. He asked Kenny to lead. That’s what he is going to do. So get your supplies and get out and search for a way home. Kenny addresses Donna. And you, get over what happened last night at the Colony House and be the scary hard-ass lady you have always been because that is who these people need you to be right now. If they aren’t going to fight like hell to go home, then we might as well swallow a fucking bullet right now. Kenny unsheaths his gun and hands it to any of them to make his point. Kenny leaves the Sheriff’s Station to let both leaders think about his words.
Donna tells Boyd she didn’t know that little bastard had that in him. Boyd laughs. “Now how about you explain what the fuck he was talking about.” Boyd had not shared this journey into the forest plan with Donna yet.
14 — [Flashback] Boyd shows Father Khatri what he found. A goat. Boyd found it about half a mile out eating some grass. He also found chickens out there. Boyd said he would build some traps to capture them. Father Khatri couldn’t believe there were chickens out there in the forest. Boyd asks the father to gather volunteers to rebuild the pen outside the old barn. They will need it.
Ellis calls his father aside and tells him he needs to stop going out there into the forest. It is his mom, Abby. She is not doing well. Boyd has been going out for weeks into the forest, and he doesn’t know what’s happening to her. Her mind is deteriorating. Ellis thinks this place is starting to get to her. Boyd counters his argument. This is Iron Abby. She is tough as it comes. What Boyd is doing is important to the community. Ellis scolds his father for not listening to what he is saying. Boyd says they are still 4 hours away from nightfall. Tuck your mother and townsfolks away to safety. He will return before night and then they can talk. He promises. Ellis pleads to please stay to give company to his mom. Boyd brushes him off: “We will talk tonight.”
Boyd goes into the forest and starts carving a tree side with a knife. Suddenly, a dog growls behind him.
[This is the same dog Victor saw as a child and again in the present when he was with Ethan in the woods. The dog is now here before Boyd weeks after Boyd arrived to the Town.]
Boyd talks to the dog. Where did you come from? Well, you must belong to someone. Does that person live in the forest somewhere? Boyd approaches the dog. Squats and offers both his hands, palms up. The dog humbly reaches out with his nose, but a twig-snapping noise startles the dog and he runs away. Boyd runs after the dog to see where he is heading. Suddenly, the dog disappears out of his sight. Boyd now realizes he is in trouble. He lost his way. He is never been this deep into the woods and doesn’t know what direction the Town is. Nightfall is coming in a couple of hours and he has no hiding place to survive the monsters.
The night catches up with Boyd. The forest is dark. Pitch black. He hears the monster shriek in the distance. He pulls his gun aiming nowhere, expecting a monster to approach him any second. As he moves between the trees backward, he trips over and falls on his back. He lands among ruins.
Laying on his back on the ground, he hears steps nearby and suddenly the monsters’s faces come into his view through the gaps between the foliage.
This is where Boyd found the talismans. The monsters didn’t attack him inside the ruins. He figured out the talismans around him protected him from the monsters. Boyd brought the talismans with him in the morning and gave one to each house for protection.
15 — [Present] Boyd visits Ellis in the clinic. He tells Ellis and Fatima that he will begin his journey through the forest to search for a way out back home. Ellis mocks his plan because it helped them so well last time. This in reference to Boyd brushing off Ellis’ concerns about his mother Abby that time he went into the forest. It led to her death. Boyd asks Fatima to leave them alone for a few minutes.
Boyd tells Ellis if he wants to be angry at him and hate him, that’s fine.But he is going to say a couple of things and you are going to listen whether you want to or not. If something happens to Boyd and he doesn’t make it back, he never wants his son to regret what he didn’t say to him. He says he loves him and is proud of the man he has become.
Donna and Boyd meet outside the clinic and say their farewells. Boyd thanks her for what he’s done for his son. She asks him to return from his journey into the forest. Otherwise, she won’t have anyone to argue with. Donna hugs him. Now get the fuck out of here before people start thinking we are friends. Yes, ma’am.
16 — Fatima tells Ellis he shouldn’t be so hard on his Dad. What happened to Abby that awful day wasn’t his fault. It was this place. It got to Abby. That Boyd let Ellis hate on him and put all his anger on him because that’s what parents do. Can you imagine what that day was for him? Fatima had not arrived to the Town back then, but she’s heard what happened from other people who was there.
17 — [Flashback] In the morning, Boyd gathered all the talismans he could from the ruins and carried them in his jacket, bundled up as a makeshift bag. Suddenly, he heard multiple gunshots. In the Town, everyone is running and scattering in different directions. Abby is shooting at Townsfolk. Boyd arrives to the town and sees Abby shooting at people. He pulls out his gun and aims it at Abby. Ask her what’s going on baby? Abby shoots another woman. Donna runs toward the woman that fell to try to keep her alive. Abby points the gun at Donna who ask why she is doing this. Abby says nothing in the Town is real. It’s a nightmare. The only way for us to go home is to wake everyone up. You can’t die in dreams. Everything is going to be okay.
Boyd asks Abby to stop. She turns around and looks at Boyd and says no. Boyd tries to explain that he found something [the talismans] that he think might help the people in this town. Abby said he didn’t come back before dark. There is no way that Boyd had survived out there. She insists it is time to wake everybody up. Boyd pleads with her to stop. She begins to sing the boat song. Boyd smiles at her and sings along. He almost had succeeded in stopping her shooting spree.
Suddenly, Ellis came running to assist the woman on the ground. Someone must have told him that Abby was shooting people on the street and hurried up to stop her. Ellis called out at his mother, Abby. Abby turned around and aimed her gun at Ellis. Boyd yelled no, and he had to shoot Abby in the back before she could shoot Ellis. In her mind, she was simply waking Ellis up from the nightmare.
18 — [Present] Boyd removes his Sheriff badge and puts it on the bed. He grabs his old orange jacket. A lighter was in its pocket. He tested it worked still. Took hold of one of the talismans, grabbed his backpack, and headed into the forest to meet Sara at the shed.
In the forest, Ellis caught up with his father and shouted at him. Boyd asked him what he’s doing out here. Ellis said he’s been following him since he left town. “I have been trying to find to find the courage to say something to you. Last night when those things got inside the Colony House, Fatima and I, we would’ve died. I mean, there was no way that we could’ve survived that. But the one thing that saved us, that saved her… was the talisman on the door. I’ve just been so angry for a really long time… and I didn’t know how to — But, you know, if you didn’t do what you did, if you didn’t bring those talismans back… it wasn’t your fault, Dad. What Mom did, it wasn’t … your fault. Look, I’m sorry, Dad.”
Boyd and Ellis embrace each other.
Ellis says he didn’t want his Dad to leave without saying Goodbye. Boyd said this isn’t Goodbye. The Shed’s door opens behind Boyd. Sara comes out of the shed. Ellis looks at Sara in disbelief and asks what she’s doing here after what she did to Nathan, Tobey, Kenny’s father, and Gina. What she intended to do to the boy, Ethan. Boyd tries to convince Ellis that he needs Sara for the success of his journey deep into the forest. Boyd promises to explain the whole thing when he returns. For now he needs Ellis to trust him. No one in the town must know that Sara is with Boyd.
19 — Outside the Diner, Kenny gives a speech to everyone. Boyd is out there in the forest risking everything to find a way out of this place. In the meantime, they will conduct themselves differently. No more Colony House or Town factions. Everyone is together on this. A community. Donna warns her people not to be shitty houseguests. During daytime they will put the Colony House back together (repairs and cleanup).
Donna brings up that Jim has an idea to build something that might broadcast a signal to the out world to get them out of this shithole. Asks volunteers to help build his tower.
Jim says they will need supplies, batteries, and anything with a charge. But most of all they will need people to build this thing.
20 — Boyd and Sara leave the shed. He cuffs Sara willingly. He won’t take any chances.Boyd doesn’t trust her, but Father Khatri said they need her connection to the voices to find their way out. He will respect his wisdom.
| FROM TV SERIES RECAP NAVIGATION | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEASON 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| SEASON 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| SEASON 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
