Season 2, Ep. 10: Once Upon A Time

1 — The morning has arrived. Jade is outside sitting on the porch in Kenny’s house. He is in a bad shape. No one has been able to sleep. Kenny and Kristi arrive and enter the house. Kristi brings her emergency kit backpack.

Boyd is standing in the living room. He tells Kristi they are upstairs.

Boyd tells Kenny that his mom, Tian Chen, and Victor took Ethan to the Diner. Kenny starts to talk, but Boyd interrupts and asks him to go upstairs in case they need his help.

Boyd leaves Kenny’s House and stands on the porch. Jade tells him that Julie should be wearing a dress to a Prom, not lying there catatonic.

Jade starts a monologue that Boyd listens to intently: “There is so much they don’t know about this place. It’s like opening a book and starting from the middle. Or trying to imagine what a jigsaw puzzle looks like when all you have is a few random pieces and not even the helpful ones, like corners or edges.

The trick is you find two pieces that connect. Then at least you have a place to start.”

Boyd looks at Jade in a meditative stare tinkering his words.

Kenny asks Boyd where he is going. Boyd replies they need to talk to Sara.

(It seems Jade’s words clicked. Sara is the two pieces that connect … to start the jigsaw puzzle.)

Boyd heard Elgin's dream where a Boy in White repeated the same words Kenny heard in his own dream. Sara said in the forest when they found the Lighthouse that a Boy in White told her to push Boyd through the Farway Tree. That's what started the whole thing. Boyd appears in the tower dungeon. Someone throws a rope at him to climb. He finds old man Martin chained to the wall. The music box plays a song. The same music box everyone sees in their dreams in the town. Sara is the connection to the Boy in White -- who seems to know a lot of what's going on in this place.

2 — Donna, Dale, and Elgin arrive in the Volkswagen van to the RV. Dale suggests they get supplies, set out, and see what they can find. (seems Boyd told them off-screen about what he found in the forest, the tower, and the music box. Stopping the melody of the music box is how they end the dying in their sleep).

Donna says Boyd tried that already. Dale complains Boyd isn’t the end-all, be-all answer to everything. Why should they be here at the RV? Randall is an asshole.

Donna responds, well, you are an asshole too and I wouldn’t leave you out here to rot.

Dale complains he finally gets out of his jail room and he is now on corpse-collection duty.

Donna asks Dale to check the left side of the road and Elgin to the right side of the road with her.

Donna thanks Elgin for coming to help find Randall’s corpse. Elgin says it feels good to do something useful. Donna says he helped enough with his dream. That might end up being the answer to their current threat situation.

Dale calls them. Donna and Elgin arrive. Dale says he doesn’t think Randall is dead. Dale asks if there shouldn’t be dead monsters around here. Donna replies so much for silver bullets.

Donna asks both of them to carry Randall to the Volkswagen van. Dale complains. Donna shouts to carry him to the ban. As they touch Randall, he screams literally endlessly in agony, nonstop, scaring the hell out of Dale and Elgin. His eyes’ iris are all white.

Simultaneously, Julie and Marielle begin to scream nonstop, too.

3 — Sara, Kenny, and Boyd walk into the forest. Sara asks how is this supposed to help. Boyd replies when we were in the forest, you said a little boy in white told you to get into the tree. It’s the same tree that put me in the damn chamber where all this started.

Boyd tells Sara, well it turns out that Elgin had a dream about a little boy in white, told him a nursery rhyme, the same one Paula kept repeating before she died. “They touch, they break, they steal, no one here is free. Here they come, they come for three unless you stop the melody.”

Boyd asks if any of that makes any sense to Sara. She says no.

Anything else she knows about the little boy? She replies only that he was trying to help them.

Boyd says this little boy goes around this magical forest doing good. Popping up in people’s dreams and–

Sara says she doesn’t think he really was a little boy.

Boyd tells Sara when he said this was the opportunity to help these people — the moment is now.

Boyd brought Sara and Kenny to the Tower Ruins. This is where Boyd exited the tower. He explains the old man Martin was chained to the wall in this spot, and the hole that was 40-50 feet deep where he appeared was in this other spot, and– (Boyd stops talking). Sara looks troubled.

Boyd asks Sara what is it? Sara replies she can hear it. The music box is right here. Boyd asks where. Sara looks around and points to a pile of rocks. Right here. She starts digging. Boyd says there is nothing here. She insists the music box is in this spot.

Sara stops for several seconds. Boyd asks what happened. Sara can hear their screams. Sara’s nose begins to bleed. The music box is hurting them. Sara begins to scream and hold her head with both hands. Kenny asks what the fuck is going on.

Boyd asks Kenny’s help to move Sara away from the Tower Ruins. She asks them to stop. It is laughing at you for bringing it back to town. For setting it free. It wants to hurt us and make us suffer. It got so excited when it touched Kenny’s arm.

Boyd asks Sara how does he stop this. Sara hears Julie’s screams. July and the others are dying and when they die, it will be too late. You need to stop the music. Boyd asks Sara how he can stop something he can’t see.

4 — Donna looks at Tillie gathering residents on the ground to hold hands and pray together.

Donna asks Matthias to gather all the guns and lock them in the shed. She doesn’t want them in the house. They managed to make it through the night. Now we just have to see about today.

<It seems Donna implies some people might get so hopeless and desperate they might take the guns to do damage to themselves, or worse... to help others die before the dreams terrorize them to death.>

5 — In Kenny’s house, Julie’s state hasn’t changed but she is no longer screaming. She is in a deep sleep. Tabitha is next to her daughter, meditating while staring at Julie.

Tabitha stands up and asks Jim to come along to outside the room. She tells Jim there is something she has to do and expects him to say it’s okay.

The last time Victor saw his mother, she told him that there were children locked in a tower, and that if she helped them then everyone could go home.

Jim doesn’t understand. Tabitha says that all these children she has been seeing, the tower she has seen in her dreams, what if Victor’s mother was right?

What if the only way to save Julie is to find that tower?

Jim says he had a theory about this place that almost got him killed. Tabitha says this is different. He asks how. Tabitha says that last night Julie was calling out to her and she couldn’t do anything to help her daughter. She was just standing there powerless. They can’t sit here hoping for the best.

Jim points out that Victor’s mother left this place and she never came back. Whatever she went to do, she never came back. Victor had to grow up here alone. What if that happens to you? She says that she knows. That’s why she needs him to tell her that it is okay for her to go. She has to try.

6 — Ethan says that when Julie wakes up, she’s gonna be hungry. Tian Chen, Victor, and Julie bring a lot of containers with food. Tian Chen made Julie’s favorite.

Tabitha asks Victor to come talk to her for a bit. “You said that your Mother wanted to help the children that were locked in the tower. Do you know the way to the tower? “

Victor doesn’t know the way to the tower, but he knows the way to the Bottle Tree. Jim asks the what?

Victor browses through the crayon drawings and brings one to Tabitha. This is how you get to the Tower. You have to visit the Bottle Tree. Tabitha asks if he can take her to the Bottle Tree. He replies he thinks so.

Jim wants to talk to Tabitha privately.

<Boyd and Sara found the Bottle Tree in Season 1, Episode 9: "Into the Woods." They found the tower some time after Boyd picked one of the bottles from the tree.>

7 — At the Tower Ruins, Boyd is powerless. Unable to find a way to stop the music box without the ability to see where it is. Kenny asks what to do next. Boyd says they should head back to town. Kenny refuses. Sara just said that the box is here. All we need to do is find it. People’s lives are at stake here.

Boyd says they know more now than they knew this morning. That’s a win. The best thing they can do now is tell people they shouldn’t feel afraid. We are working on it.

8 — At the Colony House, Ellis asks Reggie if he’s okay. Reggie asks why people ask that when the answer is obvious. Ellis apologizes for locking him up in that room. Reggie says he lost his shit. He didn’t realize how fragile they are. This place breaks you. He was cooking something for Paula like an idiot. Ellis says it was no one’s fault. Not to blame himself. Reggie looks at Ellis. Repeats it was no one’s fault. You are right.

Fatima asks Ellis to get married right now. They don’t know what’s going to happen. If this is the end, then I want it to end with you.

9 — Jade is at the Bar. He is wrapping bottles in a towel, and then slamming them on the table to break them. Then collects the pieces aside on the table. Christopher’s Notebook can be seen on the edge of the table. He picks two pieces and tries to fit them as if they were the jigsaw puzzle he mentioned to Boyd earlier.

Bartender Tom appears behind the Bar and asks if that’s what he is doing with his Bar. Jade says it is a thought experiment. He found this helpful when he was developing his software. Jade doesn’t finish the thought. He turns around and tells Tom… you died.

Tom says correct. Jade says: “Okay, well, just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. Tom wonders if Jade will ask him if he is real. Jade responds he imagines this is some sort of stress-induced psychosis, and you will disappear soon enough on your own. He is trying to reorient his perspective. It should help him find a different way to look at this symbol. There is got to be an answer and he is not seeing it.

Tom says Jade is overthinking it. Jade says: “Oh really, Dead Tom!”

Tom replies he already knows what he has to do. Tabitha told you she saw this symbol down in the tunnels. The question is: How far are you willing to go to find the answers?

Jade says going into those tunnels would be insane. He doesn’t even know if he will find anything down there.

Tom says Of course you do. It’s natural design. Same reason your brain is in your skull. Your heart’s behind your ribs. Nature will always put what’s most precious in the spots most difficult to reach.

Jade being the asshole he is, continues to be an asshole to a figment of his imagination. Or is it a figment of his imagination? “All right, so I’m supposed to what? I’m supposed to take advice from some… You ran into a house that was falling down to save Tabitha and she wasn’t even there.”

Tom responds that given the chance, he would do the same thing.

Jade responds: “Then you are a fucking idiot. Like–” both laugh.

Tom: “You don’t make moral choices based on the outcomes you expect. You make them based on whether or not you think they are right. When I ran into that house, I wasn’t thinking about the Trolley Problem, or determinism, or… wasn’t thinking of any of that. There’s a 16-year-old girl over there who needs your help.”

10 — Sara asks if Boyd buried Paula yet. Boyd recoils at the thought that he forgot. Sara volunteers and she will find some people to help. Boyd holds the hand he sliced with the knife to transfer the worms to the monster’s throat. Sara says not to worry about Paula’s corpse. He is doing the best he can. Boyd removes the bandage on his left hand and the wound is dry but open. It looks like it needed stitches and should be still bleeding, but it’s dry.

10 — Matthias is storing all the guns in the shed, as Donna requested. Reggie enters the shed and asks Matthias if he is putting away the guns. Matthias says he is. Donna was worried about leaving them in the house. Matthias asks if he needs help, but he responds no, he is about done. Matthias turned around to face Reggie — who slashed his throat with a knife.

Reggie tells the dying Matthias that it is okay. He just gonna go a little sooner than the rest of them. Reggie opens the cabinet to stock up on weapons and ammunition for his massacre spree plans.

11 — Jade heard Tom’s words clearly and loudly. Jade brings a large spool of thread, possibly from the crochet kit that Elgin uses. He is tying one end to a nearby tree. Jade mutters: “Everything is a system. Everything is connected.”

This is how Jade deviced to find his way back to the exit as he goes deeper into the tunnels where the monsters sleep in search of the symbol’s secrets. The thread will lead the way back to the exit. He turns on a flashlight.

Jade enters the tunnel: “Everything is gonna be fine. Fuck my life!”

Jade begins his descent but immediately trips on his butt and slides down the entrance. He recovers his composure and begins to walk into the tunnels. A few yards in, his flashlight begins to flicker and turns off. Jade panics and smacks the flashlight a few times until it functions properly once more. “Piece of shit!”

Jade moves the flashlight around to identify his surroundings for a direction deeper into the tunnels when he spots the puppet and the unexpected sight frightens him.

Jade slowly approaches the puppet and touches it to make sure it is harmless. Jade looks around his surroundings and settles down his fear. “Okay, I got this. Easy peasy! Easy fucking peasy!”

12 — Boyd enters the church. He needs answers and wisdom to figure out how to stop the music box’s melody — something he can’t physically see or locate at the Tower Ruins. Boyd asks: “Anybody up there?” As if asking God if he is listening.

“If you are really up there… you are a real fucking asshole, you know that? You enjoying this? If Khatri were here, he would say: God moves in mysterious ways. Oh yea, yea, ’cause Khatri had a plan. He thought you put him here for a reason. He… (chuckles) thought that we were gonna walk out into those woods like Butch Cassidy and the motherfucking Sundance Kid! He thought that right up until the time one of those things slit his fucking throat! What did he do with his last breaths? He prayed. He gasped out that fucking prayer so that you would know. So that he could show you that he had never lost faith. You know what, motherfucker? I ain’t here to pray. If you are anything other than some bedtime fucking story that we tell ourselves, then you will tell me why! Why you made me think I could fix this. Some kind of fucking hero gonna lead these people home when all I am is a dumb motherfucker who keeps getting people killed! You fuck. You think this is funny? Huh? You up there somewhere having a fucking laugh? Huh? Huh? Just… answer me! Answer me! Huh? Say something!”

(Boyd kicks the mailbox that Father Khatri used as a lectern for Mass, and it crashes down with a loud clank noise.)

<Damn. This writer must be an atheist or an asshole. Or both. Way to get 80% of USA christians to cancel their MGM subscription. Not sure if to cancel or praise his cojones. Fuck. My sister is an avid Marvel Cinematic Universe watcher with me. She refused to watch Deadpool and Wolverine just because he said he is Marvel Jesus in the movie trailer teaser. Wait till she ever watches this episode. lol>

The second Boyd knocked the lectern to the ground, Donna was entering the church and saw the lectern crash down.

Donna says: “You know… tampering with a mailbox is a federal crime.”

Sigh. Another asshole. lol

13 — At the Colony House, someone knocks the door. Kristi is watching over the comatose Mariselle. She shouts whoever it is to come in.

Kenny asks how Mariselle is doing. Kristi says she is getting worse and getting colder. She ponders to Kenny if this is how it ends for all of them. Ever since Marielle stepped out of that bus, Kristi allowed herself to believe that maybe there was a plan to all of this. Something they were meant to do here. But there is no grand design. They are all going to die here. All they endured would have been for nothing.

Kenny says his father used to say: “It’s hard to see the sweater when you are only just a thread.” Kenny didn’t really know what he meant until now. All of the people that have gotten stuck in this place… maybe we aren’t the ones to get to get home. But maybe what we did here… makes it easier for the people who come next. Maybe we are the reason that they get to go home. Just because we are only a thread doesn’t mean we don’t matter.”

Kristi takes a deep breath as a tear crosses her face. She places a hand on Kenny’s thigh. Kenny holds her hand.

14 — Donna puts the mailbox-slash-lectern back in place while Boyd sits sideways on a chair.

Donna says: “There you go. The least you need is Father Khatri haunting you over everything else.”

Boyd replies: “It is too late for that.” (Because he already haunts him.)

Boyd says: “Julie and Marielle. Randall. Sara says they are dying. And once they are gone, there is no way to put the genie back in the bottle. Whatever this thing is, it just waits for us to go to sleep, and then…”

Donna finishes his sentence: “Like Paula.”

Sara says the music box is there at the Tower Ruins in the clearing. Only it is not physically there. Like looking at an instruction manual with too many pages missing. How is he supposed to —

Boyd trails off without completing the sentence. He tells Donna that he saw his wife, Abby, last night. Donna asks how she look.

Boyd says there should be rules. There has got to be something he can hold in his hands. Boyd blames himself. He brought those worms back to the town.

Donna agrees. He did. But he also gave people a whole lot of more time if it hadn’t been for him coming back to town. He gave Donna more time.

<Donna refers to Boyd coming to the RV to save her from Randall, who tied her up and threatened her with a knife. Then again when the monsters surrounded the RV and he distracted the monsters while they ran to the Volkswagen van in Season 2, Episode 9: Ball of Magic Fire.>

Donna reveals his son Ellis is about to get married. This is what she came searching for Boyd. Nothing official as they no longer have a priest. They are making the most of whatever time they have left before they fall asleep and those things kill them in their sleep. Boyd should do the same. Donna asks Boyd to come to the Colony House with her to participate in the makeshift wedding.

Boyd says he is not giving up. She chuckles and replies she didn’t say he should. This might be the last few hours any of them get. So why doesn’t he stop being a martyr and come and watch his son get married? The end of the world will still be here when the ceremony is done.

15 — In the tunnels, Jade reaches a large chamber and looks around with the flashlight. There is nothing remarkable in this chamber other than a brain-like mass of small roots in the ceiling sprouting roots in every direction in the ceiling. Suddenly, Jade hears a child whisper: “Anghkooey.”

As Jade hears the whisper, he seems to have a lucid waking dreamwalk into another time, where the children are all around him lying down on top of stone slabs as if ready to be sacrificed against their will in a ritual.

<I read somewhere what looked like a leak, that there were 7 childrens to be sacrificed, but one escaped. Probably the Boy in White or someone else. The ritual failed and the monsters who planned to gain eternal life got a botched ritual that wasn't completed, leaving the men and women cultists in a monster-like immortal state instead of a normal human immortal state.

So the children are trapped in this comatose state eternally until a 7th child is sacrificed to complete the ritual. In this case, Sara was supposed to sacrifice Ethan as the 7th child. The voices lied to Sara, who promised if she killed Ethan, everyone could go home. I haven't confirmed this yet, but whoever said that online likely watched it between the end of Season 2 and beginning of Season 3 (which I am yet to transcribe.>

Jade moves the flashlight around every child around him, then feels the urge to look to the ceiling where he finally encounters the origin of the symbol haunting his dreams and waking moments alike. The children Tabitha sees and the symbol are connected. All this time he refused to enter the tunnels, and long before that, Jade was meant to be standing in this chamber to understand his next quest. Being a pragmatic scientist who believes in physics and chaos theory, he has a special talent set. That’s one of the skill sets the children draw people to find their way to the fallen tree in the road.

<Jade has been haunted by dreams and visions of the symbol in:

SEASON 1, Ep. 2: The Way Things Are Now
Season 1, Ep. 4: A Rock and a Farway

Victor and Sara saw the symbol in the tunnels in Season 1, Ep. 10: Oh, the Places We’ll Go and later Tabitha told Jade.

Jade saw the symbol again and the puppet in the Colony House in Season 2Ep. 1: Strangers in a Strange Land

Jade confronted Victor and showed him the notebook with the symbol and the Polaroid photo in Season 2, Ep. 3: Tether.

Jade saw the symbol again and also Cristopher holding the notebook in Season 2, Ep. 5: Lullaby.

Full circle. Jade finally reached the source of the symbol.>

Jade looks back to the ground and the children and rock slabs disappeared. Jade looks back to the ceiling where the symbol turned out to be a hole in the surface with growing roots with a view into the sky. Now there is only a ceiling with a brain-like mesh of roots blocking the view into the sky.

<This hasn't been revealed yet in mid-Season 3: "if the circle of children with a window into the sky is a vision of something that happened centuries ago... what tree grew above this chamber and how the surface looks like in the present? Is the Tower Ruins above the symbol or something else?>

16 — Victor guides Tabitha through the forest toward the Bottle Tree. Tabitha asks how his Mother planned to save the children. Victor replies that he doesn’t know. All she said was that the children needed her. Victor stops. He tells Tabitha that the Bottle Tree should be right here (where he is standing).

<It is unclear if the writer wants the viewer to figure out that the Bottle Tree is a living thing that moves location. Early in the series, we have seen Victor measure the distance between the Colony House and the trees. He has said that the trees are moving closer to the Colony House inch by inch over a period of short period of time.

Logic dictates under this place's rules that the Bottle Tree has moved far more than mere inches from where Victor is now standing over a possible period of 30+ years since the last time he saw it when he was a child.>

Victor hears the clinking of bottles in the distance. The Bottle Tree moved several yards from where he last saw it.

Tabitha asks who put the bottles there. Victor doesn’t know. He looks at the ground in front of him. He says here is where he saw his Mom standing. Victor says when he came out of the Root Cellar that day of the massacre, he came looking for his mother. Victor found his mother’s corpse there on the ground in front of the Bottle Tree. His mother didn’t make it into the tree.

Tabitha asks what does he mean: “–into the tree?”

Victor guides Tabitha around the tree and shows her that the Bottle Tree is a Farway Tree.

<When Boyd and Sara found the Bottle Tree, they completely missed looking around the tree to discover the hole.>

Tabitha inspects the rim of the hole in the tree and says that the night the monsters got into the Colony House, Julie said that you both escaped by climbing into a tree.

Victor replies that Farway Trees always take you to different places, and you never know where you will end up, but his mother said this one was special. That it would take you to the Tower to the children.

Tabitha asks: “– and then what?”

Victor says that’s all he remembers.

Victor opens his lunch box and says that he put some snacks inside for her.

Victor places the lunch box’s cord around Tabitha’s neck so she can carry it with her.

Tabitha asks if it hurts to go through a Farway Tree. He says it is just like walking through a door. Tabitha tanks Victor and hugs him.

Tabitha asks Victor to go back to town. He wishes her to be careful.

Tabitha steps into the hole in the Bottle Tree and disappears while Victor stands there.

17 — Tabitha appears next to some trees in the forest. A few yards away she finds the door into the Lighthouse tower.

Tabitha stands there in awe and looks above her all the way to the top of the Lighthouse tower, taking in the sight.

18 — In the Colony House, Donna covers Fatima’s eyes and guides her to their bedroom. Fatima has a fancy dress and a decoration on her hair. Donna tells Fatima that he wants it to be a surprise.

Ellis says she always says this view makes even this place look like a dream, so I figured… is this okay? Fatima says it is perfect.

Boyd enters the bedroom. Ellis says he made it. Boyd replies wild horses couldn’t stop him if they wanted.

Fatima says it is not much of an aisle, but would Boyd do her the honor of walking her through? Boyd agrees and extends his open hand to lead her to the doorway. She doesn’t need to call him Sheriff Stevens anymore.

Boyd walks her down to Ellis by the window. Fatima says her father had a saying: “Life is a journey through the unknown, and though your eyes and mind may sometimes deceive you, your heart will never lie. My heart’s belonged to you since the moment I met you. You are the love of my life, for as long as that life may last. So, will you Ellis Stevens do me the honor of being my husband?”

Ellis responds: “I will.”

Fatima tells him she made something for him. She places a wire-made ring on his left wedding finger.

Ellis’s turn: “It’s a tough act to follow. The day my family and I saw that tree, our lives changed forever. But the day I saw you get out of that car, that’s the day that my life really began. There have been… so many times here where I felt… like I was stumbling in the dark. But each and every time, you were the light that guided me through. You are my love. You are my home. You are my light in the dark places. So, will you, Fatima Hassan-Rostami… will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

Fatima says: “I will.”

Ellis: “Well, the rules say we kiss now.”

Donna looks at Boyd who is distant in deep thought. “Are you all right? Where would you go?” Ellis asks his Dad if he is okay.

Boyd snaps out of his vision-tunnel thoughts: “Light in the dark places. I gotta go. I’m sorry.”

Boyd hugs Ellis, then Fatima. Boyd departs with: “I love you guys.”

19 — In Kenny’s house, Ethan stares at a comatose Julie and asks his father: “Will we get to see Thomas again if we die?” (the baby brother that died a year ago)

Jim responds: “Yea, we will.”

Ethan: “Grandpa, too?” Jim replies: “Grandpa, too.”

Ethan: “Maybe it won’t be so bad, then. She likes to sleep with two pillows.” Jim tries to help him.

20 — Boyd closes the door of that canned goods truck he took shelter in with Victor, Tabitha, and Elgin when he exited the Tower Ruins the other night.

<Those words in Ellis's wedding speech about Light in the Dark Places -- Boyd figured out what he needs to see the music box at the Tower Ruins is to bring the torch he took from the wall next to old man Martin to the Tower Ruins. He left that torch inside the canned goods truck. A physical item he brought from a Tower that doesn't exist in the present.>

As Boyd jumps off the truck’s side step, he hears a loud shotgun-racking noise,

Reggie points a shotgun at Boyd: “You did this. Everything was fine until you went into the forest. You are the reason all this is happening!”

Boyd says he knows that Reggie doesn’t understand this, but Boyd thinks this torch is gonna help him fix this.

Reggie shoots at Reggie, injuring his shoulder and a big area around his arm, knocking him to his knees. Boyd can hear Reggie reloading the shotgun.

Reggie apologizes to Boyd and says he likes him, but–

Boyd turns around and points his gun at Reggie, killing him instantly.

Boyd drags himself slowly as he carries the torch on his right hand, while his left arm is numb with the pain. The shotgun’s scattered fragments are lodged all around his upper arm.

21 — Boyd reaches the Tower Ruins and waves the torch around without success. Nothing happened. He gets frustrated and reels in pain.

Boyd reaches out with the injured arm and grabs the lighter inside his jacket’s left pocket. Boyd lights up the torch with the lighter.

Just like that, the Tower Ruins disappear and are replaced by the full Tower — somewhere lost in time. The walls and the well’s winch appear before his eyes. Boyd can now hear the ballerina music box. He turns around and sees the music box behind him by the corner. Exactly where Sara said it was located.

Boyd hears moaning coming from the adjacent room and investigates. Boyd finds Randall, Marielle, and Julie chained to the wall, just like old man Martin was.

Freaky. Could the skeletons Boyd saw next to old man Martin be... Marielle and Julie? Did Boyd dreamwalk to a past version of the Tower where they are still alive? Who knows. Who needs paradoxes, right? Well, buckle up. You will see this Tower room again in Season 3 when Boyd is still trapped in the hole beneath this room -- and someone will be there to drop down the rope that saves Boyd -- which is a mega paradox on itself.

If you don’t understand what I mean about the skeletons… just compare the two screenshots: A) Marielle and B) skeleton. The very same spot on the wall. Sadly, the production messed up the position of the arms and the chain holding the skeleton.

Now take a look at the part of the wall Julie is chained to and compare it with the screenshot of the skeleton that Boyd found in Season 2, Ep. 2: The Kindness of Strangers. Again, the production messed up the position of the skeleton’s arms and the chain. But it is the exact same spot on the wall.

Boyd attempts to free Julie from her chains, but he remembers how difficult it was to remove Martin’s shackles. He decides to return to the music box. As he raises the torch high in the air to smash the music box… Abby appears behind him and shouts his name.

Abby says that destroying the music box won’t stop their suffering, it will only prolong it. People in this town will suffer in ways he can’t even imagine. They are all going to die, screaming. You think you need to be the hero. You think you need to be responsible, to save them. You don’t have to suffer anymore. You don’t have to be afraid. It’s okay. None of this matters. We can be together. I miss you so much.

On cue, Randall, Marielle, and Julie begin to scream in agony. The camera shifts to Kenny’s house, matching Julie screaming in agony on her bed simultaneously.

Boyd hesitates. So whatever this thing is, it just lets you come in here for a little chat?

Abby says it knows you won’t listen. It wants you to fight. It wants you to have hope that you could actually win!

Boyd asks why. She replies: “Because hope is what makes you willing to suffer. Hope is what sent you out into the woods that day. Hope is what made you leave me alone when I needed you most. It is not your fear that feeds the forest, Boyd. It is hope.”

Randall, Marielle, and Julie scream louder.

Abby asks Boyd to let it go. If they don’t die today, they’ll just die tomorrow.

Boyd says no and smashes the music box with the torch, then steps on it twice with force to further smash it into pieces.

22 — After Boyd smashed the music box, Julie, Marielle, and Randall wake up in their beds.

23 — Boyd exits the Tower and appears at the Tower Ruins. Triumphant, Boyd says: “Fuck you, motherfucker. You don’t break me! You hear that? YOU DON’T FUCKING BREAK ME!”

The dog that young Victor met in the past appears near Boyd and barks at him.

<This dog saved Boyd the last time he exited the Tower Ruins, leading him toward the canned goods truck in Season 2, Ep. 2: The Kindness of Strangers.>

The dog runs away and Boyd follows him.

24 — Ethan uses his crayons to draw a picture. Jim brings a glass of water to Julie, who is still shaken up after the horrifying experience.

Ethan opens the door. He tells his Dad the cicadas’ buzzing is no more. Ethan asks if he thinks it is over. Jim says he hopes so.

Julie asks her Dad… “Where is Mom?”

25 — Tabitha climbs the Lighthouse tower. The spiral stairway reveals the same toys she saw in her dream: The truck, the poker cards, the ambulance.

Tabitha can hear a child whisper: “Anghkooey.”

Tabitha approaches the end of the Lighthouse. Gears clinking as the mechanism rotates the Lighthouse’s lamp clockwise.

At the mechanism room, the only way forward is to climb the short ladder that leads to the top of the Lighthouse, where the lamp rotates lighting up the horizon.

Tabitha walks around the top of the Lighthouse, looking to the forest below through the glass. Suddenly, she hears a voice behind her.

The Boy in White tells her: “I’m sorry. I really am. This is the only way.”

The Boy in White pushes Tabitha through the Lighthouse’s window, shattering it as she falls to her death.

The camera fades out and fades in to the sound of a life support device, beeping at the rhythm of a slow heartbeat. Tabitha survives and wakes up. The Boy in White sent her back to the real world.

Tabitha’s heartbeat stabilizes and picks up speed. A male nurse notices she woke up and tells her to wait a moment. He goes to the lobby to report she is conscious.

Tabitha stands up from the clinic bed and removes her saline IV needle. She walks toward the window. The computer screen near the bed has the St. Anthony Hospital logo.

A female doctor asks Tabitha how she is feeling.

Tabitha asks where she is.

The doctor replies she is at St. Anthony’s Hospital. Her name is Dr. Brody. Three days ago, a pair of hikers found Tabitha in the woods. She was lying unconscious on the side of the trail. The doctor asks Tabitha if she remembers what she was doing up there.

Tabitha opens the curtains to look outside the window. She is in a city somewhere in the real world. Her thoughts on her family left behind in that place.

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