Season 1, Ep. 9: Into the Woods
1 — Sara and Boyd walk deeper into the forest. Sara asks how he knows where to go. He replies he doesn’t However, he finds the place where he found the talismans. Boy said they will set camp here. Sara complains it is not nightfall yet. Boyd says this place is as far as he ever wandered into the forest. Anything beyond this point is uncharted territory. He’s not going to keep exploring just two hours away from dark. This is where he survived the night he found the talismans. In the morning, they can explore further into the forest.
2 — In the Diner, Kenny and his mother talk in Cantonese, with English subtitles: “It’s divided into three projects: one large group builds the tower, then two smaller groups work on the radio and the power source. That last group is basically just Jade.”
Tian Chen Liu: “Has he found Victor yet?”
Kenny: “No. But if Jade mentions that symbol one more time, I think Jim might kill him.” (Chuckles)
Tian Chen Liu: “I’m just glad he’s finally working. He’s very selfish and lazy. I don’t like him.”
Kenny: That’s the kind of thing you always say about people you like the most.
Tian Chen Liu smiles. “Go ring your bell. Be a good sheriff.”
Outside the Diner, Kristi returns Kenny’s book. She finished Chapter 6. Same Chapter, Kenny read before handing the book to her.
3 — At the Sheriff’s Station, Donna let some Colony House survivors enter the building to sleep through the night. Dale complains in his usual asshole attitude. She says they will sleep here until they finish reparations and building the tower. Dale doesn’t believe the broadcast will work referring to it transmitting into neverland. Donna says not to spread his bullshit. The other people need to think in something positive after what happened recently. Fourteen people died in the Colony House.
4 — In the Matthews house, Tabitha finishes digging deeper into the hole in her basement. Takes the lamp and walks up the stairs. She feels disoriented. The stairs is now a tower stairs in spiral shape. She stumbles upon the finger figures Julie uses to tell stories to Ethan. She yells at Ethan to clean up his mess, stuff he left on the stairway — toys, cards, books. Tabitha hears a land telephone ring in the distance. She hears a baby crying (Thomas). She calls out to Jim to grab the kids. Something is wrong. The ringing and the baby cries continue. This is obviously a nightmare or vision. Briefly, a scene shows numbers scratched on concrete. Year numbers: 1506, 1609, 1672, 1752, 1793, 1864, 1883, 1931, 1978.
Tabitha looks up to the ceiling and sees Jim hanging from his feet. Suddenly, he looks at her and yells with the sound of a car horn blaring instead of his voice. She sees the RV crashing into the side of the road and turning. Tabitha wakes up from her nightmare. Jim and Julie are still sleeping.
5 — Donna wakes up in the Sheriff’s Station to the screams of a woman. “He kept saying he was fine. He was making jokes about the tower.
6 — Kenny and Jim continue building the tower. He needs more wood. Kenny will send some guys to the barn to scavenge some extras. Jade is finishing up the wiring and the batteries.
Donna arrives at the Colony House. Jim asks how’s she doing. She had a rough morning. Kenny asks if Eric is with her because he needs him to go on a supply run. Donna turned around and said Eric is not coming.
Inside the Colony House, people are working on cabling for the broadcast tower. On the sofa, Ellis and Fatima talk about Eric hanging himself. Ellis didn’t see that one coming. Fatima changes subject to the tower, as she cuts wiring with a knife. She is terrified more about the tower working than not working. She keeps thinking about how they go back now after everything they have seen and the things they have done. They aren’t the same people anymore.
Ellis says when his Dad came back home from Afghanistan, he said that coming home from war is like traveling from another planet. And then when you come home, you can’t tell if everything is different than it was when you left it or if it’s you. If you are the one that has changed.
Fatima asks what it will be for them if they go back to the world they came from. This is the only place they have ever known together as a couple.
7 — In the forest, Boyd stops to carve a tree. He carved an arrow in the direction he came from. Sara asks what he is doing. He replied making sure we find our way back.
Sara asks how he knows they won’t be walking and walking in a loop as it happens in the Town with the road. What if they end up back in the Town? Boyd says he doesn’t know. Guess we’ll see.
Boyd asks Sara… she said those voices told her that killing those people would get everyone home. Do you ever stop to think that maybe they were lying? What did the voices say that made her willing to kill that little boy (Ethan). Sara says he wouldn’t understand. The voices told her that the Matthews family, Tobey, and Jade were coming. The voices told her there would be two cars coming to town. The voices said that if she didn’t do what they said, her brother Nathan would die. That everyone would die.
Boyd meditates on what that means. Sara asks why he didn’t put her in that box. He doesn’t know. He stops talking and removes her cuffs. Boyd says he has seen this town make people do bad things.
8 — At the Matthews house, Tabitha browses through Victor’s stash of crayon drawings. She doesn’t understand. Julie says Ethan thinks it is a puzzle. Ethan corrects Julie. Not a puzzle. A story. All the drawings fit together and tell a story. Once they figure out the story, we will know what to do next. That’s how it works.
Tabitha suggests they stop viewing these crayon sketches. Ethan says they can’t. They can’t finish the quest unless they figure out the story. Ethan is not scared. He promises.
9 — At the Colony House, Jim and Jade put together the batteries daisy-chain, but they are trying to figure out how to get the most power efficiency considering some of the batteries are expired and some are low in charge.
Jade asks if he has heard whether Victor has returned. Jim looks at him annoyed. Jade pleads with him to open the notebook and see the symbols. Jim refuses and thinks he is smoking weed. Jim is willing to keep working alone without him if he is going to pursue this symbol stuff or search for Victor.
10 — Donna is drinking alcohol. The sight of Eric hanging himself hurt. She looks at her photo with her sister. Kenny comes into the room and offers condolences. He heard what happened. He came to see if she was doing okay. Donna is blunt. She says so now you are a Sheriff and want to offer words of wisdom? Something I like about Boyd is that he minds his own damn business.
Kenny ignores that and informs that he will gather some people to salvage wood from the barn. Donna is definitely drunk. She walks down the stairs blurting out loud, you want wood? We have plenty of wood. I’m saving you a trip. Donna walks past the kitchen and grabs an axe from the closet. Donna starts to axe away at the kitchen floor to provide wood for the tower. Kenny and Jim try to stop her. She says why do we need the kitchen floor if the magical tower will get us home? Eventually, she calms down and storms out of the house.
11 — Sara and Boyd continue their journey through the forest. Sara hears a clinking noise. They find a tree with bottles hanging from the branches. Boyd tries to get one of the bottles. He sees something inside the bottles. Sara asks if that’s a good idea. Suddenly, she covers her head in pain. She says she can hear them. Then goes into seizures.
Sarah says she thought he said no one had been out this far before.
12 — Tom serves potato vodka to Donna in the Bar. He asks how’s the magic tower going so far. She ignores him. Tom says of all the time he has been in this place, it is the first time she comes to the Bar. She replies that’s because he serves piss water. His distilling is shit. She says at least here I’m alone. Kenny enters the Bar. Needs to talk to Donna. She is not mad for Eric taking his own life. She is mourning what this place almost become. For 90+ days, everything was alright. Once people realize the magic tower doesn’t work, everyone’s hope will be gone. Everyone will start to die.
13 — Kristi is sad. Eric was a close friend. He arrived in Town around the time she did. He was Celiac Disease. Always bloated and visited regularly. Kristi made Kenny promise that if the magic tower project failed he would come talk to her. Implying Kenny might lose hope and take Eric’s route.
14 — Jade complains in Kenny’s kitchen with Tian Chen Liu cooking there about Jim driving him out of the Colony House. Jade the weed degenerate. Tian Chen Liu talks in English. Jade, you always complain, complain, complain. Do you want electric? Here! Tian Chen flicks the light switch on and off. Jade said that won’t work. They can’t use any of the plugs and the cables have no copper wiring. Just rubber. He looks up to the lightbulb. Suddenly, he had an idea. He knows how to make it work.
15 — Jim gives up for the day and returns home. He calls Tabitha, and she replies she is in the basement. Julie comes up with a bucket of dirt and asks her father how the tower project goes. He replies things are really shaping up. Julie calls him a bad liar. Julie changes the subject and thinks they may have been meant to come here. In this place, they have come closer to each other. How about you stop the tower work for today and help us dig the hole in the basement? She convinces Jim to help.
16 — Evening has arrived. Boyd set up a camping tent and placed the talisman hanging from the center. Sara wakes up from her post-seizure unconsciousness.
Boyd was able to grab one of the bottles from the tree. Inside, he found a piece of paper with the words: 1864. That’s it. Every bottle has a piece of paper.
Sara says they should go back to Town. The voices sounded different this time. It was a woman and she was screaming. She said that she was wrong. That we shouldn’t have come. That there are things out here that are worse than the monsters. She kept saying (ugh) — it doesn’t make any sense. She kept saying: “Tell Mr. Fish and Loaves that I was wrong.”
[Holy krap. Boyd told Abby and Ellis in the car that in the Army, his guys called him "Mr. Fish and Loaves." The woman -- one of the voices -- in Sara's mind is Abby's spirit.]Boyd and Sara hear a loud twig cracking nearby in the forest. Suddenly, their camping tent is pulled and turned upside down. Something big is out there.
17 — Ethan says there are drawings of scarecrows, bogeymen, and giant spiders. This is definitely a quest. Jim and Ethan are helping remove dirt from the hole while Tabitha and Julie dig. They used a piece of a bicycle as a pull system with rope to ascend and descend the bucket through the hole.
Tabitha’s shovel makes a clanking noise. She thinks she reached the bottom.
18 — Boyd and Sara continue to get tossed around inside the camping tent. Then it stopped. Boyd asks where the talisman ended up. He looks around and locates it. Then place it back at the center of the camping tent. Sara says they shouldn’t have come here. They aren’t safe. Boyd insists they are okay. Immediately, a very loud horn is heard in the distance. Then a very bright light shines through the tent’s fabric. Almost as bright as daytime.
| 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 |
