Season 2, Ep. 3: Tether
1 — Boyd is back at the Sheriff’s Station. In the bathroom, he inspects his arm searching for the worms under his skin. He sees nothing. Minutes later, Boyd is explaining to his son Ellis what happened to him in his journey with Sara. Ellis asks about this entering a tree and appearing someplace else thing. Ellis asks if he means as in teleportation. Boyd says he doesn’t know. Maybe. When he says it like that it sounds fucking crazy. Ellis asks about Sara’s whereabouts. Boyd doesn’t know. She said she was gonna be right behind him. He doesn’t know if she is still alive. Ellis tries to start from the beginning and asks what happened next after he teleported. Boyd did not disclose anything about the hole, Martin, or the tower. Boyd said he teleported back to the forest near the town. Ellis grew upset because he could smell his father was hiding something from him. Ellis said all he knows is that his dad went on a journey to find answers and find a way home, and now he is back with nothing to show for it.
Ellis explains that some people who make it in this place still hold on to that part of themselves, but last night things got bad. He thinks he saw that part of Fatima that she holds on to start to slip away. Boyd responds that Ellis must become that part of her she holds on to that this place can’t take away. That’s how they get through this until they get back home. This place won’t win.
Ellis says he will now go check on Kenny to see about those traps for animals. Boyd tells him to skip that and go straight to Fatima. Ellis thought while he was out there on that task he would bring some of those wild flowers she likes. Boyd smiles and lets him go after a joke. About replacing that wire ring doodad. He should do something about that. Ellis should be better than that. Both chuckle.
2 — At the clinic, Kristi finishes up the stitches on Jim’s face. Tabitha, Julie, and Ethan are near the bed. Jim tries to stand up, but Kristi holds him back to the pillow. Jim has 3 cracked ribs and probably a bruised lung. Kristi asks Tabatha if she is okay. Heard she had a pretty rough night. Ethan says her mom was on a quest with Victor.
Jim asks the kids to leave them alone for a bit. Tabitha says Donna will let them stay at the Colony House. Jim interrupts her. That’s not important right now. He wanted to tell her that he thought she was dead. She apologizes. Jim says he can’t lose Tabitha. They kiss.
Tabitha reveals what she found while digging the hole in the basement before the sinkhole opened up. The wiring is not connected to anything. The wiring was just dangling from the ceiling. Tabitha asks how they have electricity if the wiring is not connected to anything. Jim says they have so much to talk about, but changes the subject. Asks how the kids are. She will take them to the Diner to eat something. Jim says he loves her and she reciprocates. Both kiss again.
3 — At the bus, in front of the Diner, Donna scolds Randall because he is not listening to her. Randall says he is but tells her to fuck off. Donna points at his rifle suitcase and says that’s not gonna do anything against those monsters. All he will accomplish is to make people more nervous. Randall counters her argument with it is okay to start shooting at the bus wheel because that made people real fuckin’ calm.
Boyd approaches the bus area and throws a bunch of “whoa”s at all the cussing he is hearing. Randall asks who the fuck he is. He answers Boyd Stevens. The Sheriff. Randall thought the Asian guy, Kenny, was the sheriff. Donna responds they are just having a little disagreement about firearms. Boyd says residents do not carry guns. That’s the rule. Randall asks whose rules are that. Boyd replies: “Mine.”
Randall says the rules change and starts to head out with his rifle suitcase. Boyd stands on the way and says he has had a bad week and he is usually more patient. If Randall doesn’t like the rules. Great. You take your rifle with you and go live in the woods and make whatever rules he likes there. See how long he lasts. Now if he wants a roof under his head when those monsters come out, (Boyd shouts harder than usual and angry) then he should put the fucking rifle down and you listen to the lady. Randall smirks at Boyd’s cojones, and drops the rifle suitcase to the ground. Boyd says that’s a good choice.
Boyd picks up the rifle suitcase and tells the passengers, grabbing their bags from the bus’ cargo bay, that he will have time to talk and answer their questions, and they will get through this together.
4 — Inside the Diner, Ethan asks his mom, Tabitha, if they can go see Victor. She says they won’t. Victor has had a rough few days. Ethan says he hopes Victor is not mad at him. She wonders why he would be mad. Ethan and Jade were in Victor’s room. Jade was looking for clues about how to get home (back in the world). Ethan asks if they might be able to get their stuff back from the toppled house. Norman is still down there.
Tabitha stands up and asks Tian Chen Liu (Kenny’s mother) if she could allow her to look around the Diner’s storage room. All their belongings were in the house, now beneath the rubble. They no longer have any supplies or clothing. Tian says you come to stay in our house. Mothers help together.
5 — Outside the bus, Boyd and Donna talk. He wants to know how their supplies are doing. Donna says no good. The storm wiped half of their crops. They need to get serious about rations now that the bus people are here. Donna says the bus driver reported 25 passengers, but after the monsters killed a few, there are now 22 surviving passengers to feed. Donna scolds herself for shooting her shotgun at the bus wheel. Those who died ran away after that. Boyd cut her some slack. Some were going to die anyway. Lets focus on the ones that survived the arrival. Donna asks what happened to him during his journey in the forest.
6 — IN the woods, Kenny is inspecting the animal traps. Ellis is too busy cutting wildflowers. Kenny scolds Ellis and asks for his help to find the rod that keeps the trap armed. Ellis notices the attitude and tells Kenny that he understands that he is shaken up about Kristi and Mari. He doesn’t finish the thought and says nevermind. Suddenly, they hear music: “Wake up, little Susie, wake up♪”
They investigate. It is a cellphone’s wake-up alarm. They find the young woman who was at the Gas Station (Tom’s Bar). She has the animal rod stuck through her head against a tree. Kenny stops the alarm clock and tells Ellis they must bring her back to town to bury her. Kenny inspects the body. The rod went through her forehead and came to the other side impaling the tree. Her skull is pinned to the tree.
The young woman, Kelly, starts to breathe. Kenny and Ellis fall to the ground on their butts. Ellis asks Kenny to bring Kristi for medical attention. Kelly asks for help.
7 — Victor finds his bedroom upside down. He doesn’t know Jade and Ethan were here earlier. Clara sees his door open and comes in. She is glad he is alright. Victor asks who was in his bedroom. Something that was hidden beneath his bed is missing. Clara says she saw Jade and Ethan here the night before.
8 — In Kenny’s house, Jade is playing a violin. He is emotionally deep into his performance. Outside, Victor approaches the house and hears the violin. Victor knocks hard on the door. Jade stops playing the violin to check the door. Jade sees Victor. “Oh, you’re back. Holy shit. This is great. This is great.”
Victor points at the violin. “That’s mine. Give it back to me.” Jade says he thought he could play it for a little while longer. Victor shouts louder in anger. Jade returns the violin. Victor says that’s his bedroom. No one goes into his bedroom. Victor leaves back toward the Colony House. Jade grabs the notebook and storms after Victor and apologizes. Jade thought Victor was dead. He’s been searching for him all over the place. There is a symbol that he keeps seeing. There is this notebook that Kenny’s mom gave him. Some guy kept drawing the same symbol and there is a Polaroid photo. “Would you please just fucking stop! Look at this.”
Victor stops and turns his head to look at the notebook.
“There is gotta be a reason I’m seeing this everywhere. This guy must have seen it too. And look, right in the back. That’s you. Right? Maybe in some fucked up way this could be the key to getting the hell out of here. Don’t you want to go home?”
Victor looks meditating for a while then his mind trails away and snaps at Jade: “The violin is not yours. Stay away from me!”
9 — In the clinic, Mari is holding a rock painted with a heart and other stuff. EMT Kristi enters the room and tells Mari the paint got a little faded. Seems this is a memento she kept from before she found the fallen tree. The first time Kristi arrived at this place she carried it with her and held it when she slept. Sweaty palms, she guessed, faded the paint. Kristi compliments Mari’s blonde hair. Looks good on her. Kristi tries to get closer, but Mari rejects her. Mari says maybe she should stay with the bus passengers. People died last night and that’s the rock Mari painted for Kristi sitting there like if it was your nightstand at home and Kristi is just standing there like everything is just fine. Mari needs some time.
Kenny storms into the clinic shouting for Kristi. It’s an emergency. Kenny grabs her emergency kit backpack. Kristi says she has to go. Asks Mari to not move out of the clinic yet until they talk.
10 — In the forest, Ellis sits next to Kelly. She says it doesn’t hurt. They share their names. She asks where they are. He says they are in the woods not far from the town. She wonders why she is in the woods. Then she starts to remember.
They were in the bar. Some people knocked at the door. Then Brian opened the door. These people came inside the bar. Brian was screaming. The monsters dragged them out and made Kelly watch. The monsters said they wanted to play with her.
Kelly and Kenny arrive. Kristi introduces herself to Kelly and informs her that she will take a look at her. Kristi looks at the back of Kelly’s head and sees the rod exited the rear and impaled the tree behind. Kristi’s eyes signal it doesn’t look good for Kelly.
11 — In the clinic, Jim is alone on the bed. He tries to sit up. Then slowly stands up. He can see the exit sign above the door flickering. He pulls a chair and slowly drags his body along the door frame to climb up atop the chair. He reaches out at the Exit sign.
Tillie enters the clinic looking for Kristi, and finds Jim on the chair. Tillie says you are the guy that was rescued from the toppled house. You were with Brick, the young guy who was sitting across the aisle from her seat. Tillie announces she will leave him alone to resume what he was working on. Jim asks Tillie where were they heading to before they found the fallen tree on the road. She replied the racetrack. She was going to bet on the ponies. She’s been visiting racetracks all across the country.
Jim asks if it was a charter bus. She gives a silly answer. It was a bus like any other with wheels and a door, and tickets you had to buy. Jim asks what’s in the purse she is holding. She snaps back that he is asking a lot of questions. He says he has one more question — but as he lands off the chair, he drops to his knees and holds the chair for support. Tillie tries to help. Mari comes from Kristi’s bedroom to Tillie’s shout for help.
Mari helps Jim to sit on the chair. Jim’s manners aren’t great today. He asks who the hell is she. She replies her name is Marielle. A pediatric nurse. She goes away for an aspirin or something. Tillie stays with Jim and says can you imagine coming to this place and finding out that your fiancé is here? Jim is confused. Tillie says Kristi and Marielle. They are engaged. Jim’s face shows he is trying to understand. Possibly looking for a connection to what’s going on in this place.
12 — Elgin and Fatima walk outside the Colony House. Part of the radio tower is on the ground after the storm. The townsfolk are collecting the pieces and moving them away. Elgin asks Fatima how long she is been here. She replies she just had her first anniversary. Elgin is lost looking in the horizon. Fatima asks what’s wrong. Elgin asks if there is water nearby… like a lake or a pond nearby.
Fatima responds there is a place nearby they call the Brundles not far from here. Elgin wants to see it. At the Brundles, Elgin asks why they call it that way. She says it was named that way already when she arrived in the town. Fatima starts to ask how he knew about this– Elgin interrupts and responds: “I saw it.”
Fatima asks if Elgin is the one in the bus that had the dream. He confirms with a nod. Fatima says those dreams happen sometimes. People have all sorts of strange reactions to this place — she says. Dreams, nightmares, weird premonitions. But they don’t know why or what it means. Why it happens to some people and not to others. This one girl, Nadia, she used to say that it was like this place is calling out to us, but only some of us were listening closely enough to hear it.
13 — Kristi, Kenny, and Ellis stand a few yards from Kelly to consult. Kristi says if they were in the real world, this would normally be at least a 15-hour operation. Ellis says Kelly is literally talking sitting there. Kristi answers Kenny that Kelly could be here hours or days alive while her skull is impaled to the tree. She is not suffering right now. No pain. But Kristi doesn’t know how long that’s going to last.
Kenny says those monsters will be here in the night. Tellis says they need to get her out of the woods. Kristi says they don’t understand. It is even a miracle that Kelly is still alive. Kristi says she doesn’t have anything strong enough in her emergency kit for the pain it might cause to pull her out of the rod impaling her skull. They need to pull out the rod.
Ellis wonders if her possible death, pulling the rod out of her skull, would be peaceful. Kristi doesn’t know. Kenny provides an option. Without listening to what the option is, Kristi figures it out and says no. She is not having her last moments be with a gun to her head.
Kelly calls out Kristi. She can read in her expression that she is not okay. Kristi is sincere and confirms it. Kelly asks if she is going to die. Kristi says yes.
14 — Tabitha and Julie look through a bunch of clothes in the Barn’s storage room. Julie complains Ethan has spent the afternoon with Kenny’s mom checking out toys while she is here browsing through creepy clothes that belonged to people who might have died. Tabitha says this is no different than visiting a Thrift Store (secondhand stuff and antiques for sale).
As Tabitha and Julie leave the Barn and walk toward the road, Tabitha stops walking and sees two dead children standing on the road. Julie looks in the same direction her mother is, but she sees nothing there. She is concerned for her mom. Tabitha says she didn’t see anything. Let’s go home.
15 — Boyd sits on a rock to visit Abby at his wife’s graveyard. Boyd talks to the graveyard. He’s got news. There will be a marriage soon. Maybe you know that already. Boyd hesitates a while. Maybe none of this is real. Maybe you and Ellis are sitting at a hospital bed waiting for me to open my eyes up. How is it that an old man chained to the wall in a tower that is no longer there knows your name? How can that be real?
16 — In Kenny’s home, Tabitha and Julie argue. Julie insists on asking what happened outside the Barn. What did she see? Tabitha asks Julie to take all the clothes upstairs. Julie shouts louder and decisive: “Mom, talk to me! Do you know what I spent the whole night thinking about in that Diner? How I was gonna have to take care of Ethan by myself, ’cause I thought you were dead. And I sat there waiting for those monsters to find Dad and rip him apart. So don’t tell me you’re fine, and don’t tell me it’s nothing.”
Tabitha feels Julie’s pain and swallows deep. “Yes, I saw something. Something that wasn’t there. It’s not the first time that’s happened. After Thomas died, for months I could still hear him crying. Sometimes I would even go into a room, and I would see him there. Just for a second. It always felt so peaceful. Like he was letting me know he was okay.”
Julie asks if this is what just happened now. Did she see Thomas? Tabitha says no. This was different. Tabitha saw two children standing in the middle of the road staring at her. But this didn’t feel peaceful.
17 — In the woods, Kelly asks if Ellis is still there. Kristi is sitting next to Kelly. Ellis approaches and kneels before Kelly. She says hi to Kenny. She says they are so nice and ask for her phone. She wants to talk to her mother on the phone. Kristi says phones don’t work here, but she can use her phone to record a message and if they ever leave this place they can show it to her mom. Tell her I love her and that she’s sorry she didn’t give her mom a hug. She wanted one but I was mad when I left. They had this fight about Brian, and she didn’t hug her, so tell her that I’m sorry.
Kelly begins to scream. She feels the pain now. Kristi says the longer they wait the more she will suffer. Boyd was coming back from the graveyard when he heard the scream. She sees Kelly for the first time. Ellis says she is from the bus. The monsters left her like that. Boyd asks Kenny and Kristi to go back to town. Kristi refuses, but Boyd says he is not asking. Kristi won’t leave no matter what. Kristi holds Kelly’s hand. Boyd takes hold of the rod in Kelly’s forehead. Boyd pulls the rod with all his strength. The screams stop. Kelly’s hand falls from Kristi’s grasp.
18 — Kristi enters her bedroom at the clinic. Marielle asks if everything is okay. Kristi is in a bad place. Tearful. She asks Marielle to please stay. Kristi is freaked out and cries. She asks Marielle again to stay. Kelly’s death and suffering affected Kristi, but she doesn’t say anything to Marielle.
19 — Outside the Root Cellar, Kenny tells Ellis he plans to go to the Church to see if Father Khatri had anything there that they can read at the funeral service.
20 — Ellis enters the Diner. Fatima is lost in her thoughts drinking tea. Fatima asks Ellis to promise it won’t be like this always. Asks him to lie to her if he needs to. Ellis proposes to get married. He knows that Fatima wanted to wait until they left this place and returned to the world, but Ellis doesn’t want to wait. He doesn’t want this place to dictate when they can be happy. Fatima accepts. A smile returns to her face.
21 — Ethan is outside Kenny’s house, putting together a Jenga-like structure with pieces of wood. Ethan says he found the pieces in Mrs. Liu’s storage closet. She said he could have it. It’s a puzzle. Tabitha kneels on the ground next to Ethan. Tabitha wants to talk to Ethan. She knows he likes to see everything as a challenge or a quest. Ethan interrupts her: “I know it’s dangerous here. I know it’s not like things are all just make-believe, and I promise I’ll be careful.” Tabitha smiles and approves.
Ethan finishes the last pieces and completes his puzzle. Tabitha looks at the structure and this triggers a vision. The memory of when Victor and Tabitha were in the underground tunnels and found a similar structure.
After Tabitha’s flashback in her mind, she came back to reality and sees the dead children again outside Kenny’s house.
Tabitha asks Ethan to stand up right now and pulls him inside the house, closing the door behind them. The dead children are still standing there after the door closes.
22 — Donna is busy in the greenhouse near the Colony House. Checking on the crops. A large pot of what looks like Kale or something else crashes to the ground from her grasp. She curses and gets angry. Crops are dwindling and there are 22 new people to feed. Now this.
Boyd enters the greenhouse. He informs Donna there was this girl from the bus out in the forest. Kelly. Those monsters dragged out there, and they took a metal rod from one of the traps and stuck her right in her head and into a tree. The kid was still alive. Donna asks if he had to kill her. He nods. Donna is sorry he had to do that. Boyd says: “Ellis said she was traveling with her boyfriend, Brian. The monsters got him. Kelly said the monsters made her watch what they did to Brian. Funny thing, though. My first tour in Iraq, I was driving a few guys from my unit back to our command center. We drove over an IED (a makeshift bomb). Standard-issue jeep. The fucking thing blew right through the jeep. First two guys, dead on impact. But there was this kid from Winsconsin, we used to call him Smuckers, because the kid fucking loved jelly. Anyway, the shrapnel from the IED ripped right through. He died in my arms. He was crying. Begging. First time I ever watched someone die. Corporal Brian Kelly. How about that? That’s a pretty big fucking coincidence, don’t you think?”
[Hmm. Whoever brought Brian and Kelly to this place had a funny way to stick it to Boyd for what he did at the Tower Ruins. Boyd is seeing here a pattern.]Donna puts things together in her mind and is blunt: “Boyd, what happened in the forest?”
Boyd says he got to go. Donna protests: “No, no, no! You do not get to walk in here and dump a load of shit like that and then just walk away! You don’t want to tell me? Fine. You talk when you feel like talking. I just need to know that you got your shit together. I tried doing what you do, okay? And I just got a bunch of fucking people killed. No, I don’t need a goddam pep talk! I just need to know that you are back! Because these people can’t take a whole lot of more of this. Fuck. Im not sure how much more I can take.”
23 — At the Church, Kenny is searching through Father Khatri’s belongings to see if he finds something to read at the funeral service. He can’t find anything. He takes one of the lanterns and lights it up with the match. Kenny goes down the stairs toward the basement but he hears noises. Kenny asks if there is someone down there. It’s too dark. Kenny keeps walking down the stairs with his gun ready
Kenny sees a bunch of books all scattered atop furniture, a chair, a table, and a bookshelf. Kenny scouts the basement turning the lantern around the room to illuminate every corner. There he finds Sara.
| 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 |
