Season 2, Ep. 8: Forest For The Trees

1 — Kenny and Tian Chen are in their house’s kitchen when the phone begins to ring. A man whispers: “They touch, they break, they steal. No one here is free. Here they come, they come for three. Unless you stop… the melody.” The message is repeated a second time, but Kenny hangs up the phone.

[It is difficult to tell whether this was a threat or a helpful warning. I'll spoil some of the people I recall get affected by the melody from the ballerina music box: Elgin, Boyd, Marielle, Julie, Kenny, and I think Randall. "They steal" fits Marielle. She stole the liquid morphine. "They break" fits Randall. He broke something when he pushed a guy at the Colony House.]

Kenny hears a noise and comes to the stove. There are many cicadas in the water pot. Kenny looks at the table and sees the ballerina music box. One of the cicadas jump from the pot and lands on Kenny’s left arm.

Tian Chen wakes her son, Kenny up. The whole thing was a nightmare. TIan Chen says he was yelling in his sleep. He says he had a bad dream. Kenny looks at his left arm. There is a bruise or a burn where the cicada touched him in the nightmare.

2 — At the RV, Jim is putting together a lot of salvaged wire cables tied up to the drone. Randall is arming the pieces of the drone controller. Randall asks what is the point of the big experiment, in Jim’s opinion. Jim says there is value in learning how far you can push someone before they break. Look at what this place did to Sara. Randall comments the fact that Sara is still breathing means Jim has a lot more restraint than he does. Jim responds he won’t let this place turn him into something he is not.

Jim is done with the cabling and asks Randall to give it a shot. Randall commands the drone to go up. It barely carried the antenna about 12 feet. It won’t go higher. Randall lands the drone. Randall asks Jim that if this thing works, why would the people running the experiment would want to talk to him. Jim said they already did it once. Randall thinks it is a waste of time to try to find someone to help them. If someone was able to help, they would have already done so. Instead, they should focus on who within the community is on the inside assisting the experiment people.

[This whole government-run experiment thing is something Jim came up with as a theory to explain what's going on in this place. He is an engineer. Someone of science. I don't think he believes in the paranormal aspect of this place like his wife, Tabitha, does. It's yet to be seen in Season 3 that there is anything to proof Jim's theory right. All points to the supernatural. In short, Jim is probably one of those whacky conspiracy theorists. He is stubborn and wants to apply his science logic to this place.]

Jim says Randall shouldn’t be going around accusing someone of being part of the big experiment staff. Randall asks who gave Jim the rules of the land when he arrived to this place. Jim mentions Boyd, Donna, and Father Khatri. Randall asks who Father Khatri is. Jim says he died the night the monsters got inside the Colony House. Randall asks if he saw the priest get killed. Jim didn’t. It happened outside the Sheriff’s Station. Jim wasn’t there.

Randall asks of all the people that died since you have been here, how many times have you actually seen it happen? Jim asks what is his point. Randall asks what if the people the monsters kill are part of the experiment staff? If you want to scare a bunch of people you need a body count.

Jim is not buying Randall’s theory. Jim asks What about Brick and Tom? Randall says he didn’t see them die. He asks Jim if actually saw them die. Jim wasn’t able to see it from his angle while pinned down by debris.

Randall says he saw Tom’s corpse the next morning, but he didn’t look closely at the corpse to find out whether the corpse was real.

Jim mentions Nathan. Sara’s brother. She killed him. Slit his throat. Randall says: “Or she didn’t. Let’s just imagine for a second that I am right. That everyone who dies here is in on it. It’s gonna mean one of two things. One: They pushed Sara so far that she actually killed someone. Or two: Nathan arriving just in time to save Ethan, what if all that was for show? Maybe Sara is not as broken as you think.”

[Jim is a conspiracy theorist, but Randall takes it to the extreme. Not a good mix. Randall is reckless, violent, and dangerous. Soon enough, Jim will find out he shouldn't have put these ideas in Randall's head.]

3 — Sara visits Boyd at the Sheriff’s station. Boyd says he was going to check up on her at the Church. Sara says she wants to go back out to the forest. She will pack a bag and take a talisman. What if the answers are out there and they didn’t go far enough? Boyd says they went far enough that whatever’s out there put us right the fuck back here.

Sara asks if that’s it. He is going to give up? He responds he didn’t say that. Sara says she understands people need him here, but asks him to let her do this. There is no place for her in the community. No one wants her here. This is something she can do.

4 — Tabitha leads Jade to the entrance of the underground tunnels where the monsters sleep. She tells Jade that’s where she saw his symbol and where she first saw the children. Jade says this has to mean something. This can’t just be a coincidence.

Jade asks Tabitha how much she knows about chaos theory. She looks at him like she doesn’t even know what that is. Jade explains: “A butterfly flaps its wings in Wyoming. A month later there is a tsunami in Japan… and on the surface, the two events appear entirely unrelated, but in reality, there is an intricate set of connections –“

Tabitha interrupts him: “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Jade simplifies it for her: “It’s not an accident. We need more information to see how they are connected.”

Tabitha says she won’t go back into the tunnels. Jade asks if Victor saw the symbol. Jade realizes that when he asked Victor point blank what he knew about the symbol he left out the part where Victor and Tabitha saw the symbol in the tunnels.

Jade says in the entire Venn Diagram of crazy that Tabitha and Jade have seen, there is one single point of overlap: Victor.

5 — Victor visits Kenny’s house and asks Julie if Ethan is home. Julie shouts at Ethan to come downstairs and thanks Victor for saving her life the other night. Ethan says they are going to help Tian Chen at the Diner. Victor says he brought Ethan something. Victor removes a coat from his backpack. Victor says it is getting cold and Ethan will need a coat soon.

[It is obvious that Victor's monitoring of the trees changing means that some kind of winter will soon come to the place. Victor said in a previous episode that in the many years he has lived in the place the trees have always been lush. In the previous episode, Victor said the tree leaves are falling. This never happened before.]

Victor says the coat used to be his when he was a child and asks Ethan to see if the coat fits. Ethan puts the coat on, and gives Victor a drawing he made. Victor returns the drawing and says he doesn’t want it.

Victor says that pictures are for things that are gone. Ethan asks what if something happens to me? You forget a lot of stuff. I wouldn’t want you to forget me. Victor asks Ethan not to talk like that. Ethan says if he doesn’t keep the drawing, he won’t keep the coat.

6 — At the Colony House, Boyd complains that Ellis should be in bed. Ellis says he won’t be doing push-ups anytime soon but he feels great. Boyd asks if Ellis has visited Kristi. Ellis replies she is surprised about his recovery as well. Boyd asks what about Dale. Ellis says Donna locked him up in his room. Ellis says he has good news for Boyd. Donna interrupts and says Corey informed her that Boyd wanted to talk to her.

Ellis tells his father they will talk about the good news later and sends him off to Donna. Out of camera, Boyd asked Donna something. Next Donna opens the door to her room to talk in private and shouts at Boyd if he is out of his mind. Boyd says he wants Donna to take Sara as a resident of the Colony House.

To give Sara any task to do. Anything. She just wants to be useful. Donna agrees but they have much bigger problems now than Sara being bored. Donna has a bunch of people on their last nerves and a madman locked up in his bedroom. Last night, Elgin almost drowned in his sleep. Boyd: “He what?”

7 — Boyd knocks at Elgin’s door and comes in. Boyd tells Elgin he heard about what happened to him last night. Elgin ignores him and says he found a knitting kit in the storage closet and knitting relaxes him. Boyd is interested in listening to Elgin’s nightmare.

Elgin says he was in the bathtub in his dream, and something pushed him under the water. Then he guesses that someone shook him awake and he started spitting up water. How is that even possible? Boyd asks Elgin if he told anybody about what happened at the Clinic.

Boyd tells Elgin they have sorta some good news. They managed to pull something out of the monster’s corpse. Boyd shows him the bottled bile. Elgin asks if he thinks it can be used as a poison. Boyd says it could be a poison but the only problem is they need to figure out how to get the bile inside one of those monsters to test if the bile can be used as a weapon to kill them without getting themselves killed in the process.

Elgin says Boyd has a gun. So make some silver bullets. Boyd goes: “Huh.”

8 — In the Diner, Victor tells Ethan he is making that up. Ethan asks Julie to tell Victor that it is true. Julie asks what is real? Ethan says… the Internet. Julie says yes, that’s a thing. Ethan says to Victor: “Told you.”

Victor goes to the kitchen to help Tian Chen after she asks for his help. Julie asks Ethan if he is going to wear that coat all day. He says he likes it. Julie says the coat is musty. Then smiles.

Ethan picks the coat side and smells it deeply. Ethan notices something in one of the pockets. He shows it to Victor and asks what it is. Victor had no idea it was in the pocket when he gifted the coat to Ethan.

This toy triggers Victor’s memory. When he was a child, Victor’s mother gave him two crayons and the toy. She told him to be brave.

[This is the first time Victor's mother is shown onscreen. This scene might be important at a later time. In Season 3, it is revealed that his Mom had dreams about this place long before she and Victor got stuck there. That's relevant because in Season 3 it is also revealed that Tabitha had dreams about this place when she was a child. I don't know at this point whether the toy is just a toy, or whether his mother gave it to Victor for a reason -- considering she is some sort of dreamwalker that potentially knows the rules of the game and how to play it.]

Jade enters the Diner and shouts there Victor is. Jade tells Victor they need to talk. Victor says he has to go. Jade grabs Victor by the neck and says we had a deal, remember? I play you the song, you tell me about the symbol. Julie asks Jade to leave him alone. Victor says I told you about the symbol. Jade asks Victor if he is sure he told him everything? You didn’t tell me you saw it in the walls down in those tunnels!

Ethan asks what tunnels. Victor leaves the Diner. Jade goes after Victor and asks him to give him one reason why he wouldn’t tell him that he saw the symbol on the wall down in those tunnels. Victor says it is not important.

Jade grabs Victor by the jacket and forces him to stop walking. “I’m done fucking around! You don’t get to pick and choose what you tell us! Tell us everything you know, everything you have seen, it all matters, because that may be how we go home. Wouldn’t you like to go home?”

Victor says: “This is my home.”

Jade is stunned at that answer. Victor walks away.

Tabitha pulls Jade and asks him what’s wrong with him. Is it just physically impossible for you not to be an asshole for longer than 10 minutes?

Jade snaps at her: “Great, you’re yelling at me again. That didn’t take very long.”

9 — Jim and Randall enter the Church. Sara is holding the broken pieces of the Christmas figurine that Kenny broke a few days ago. This is the only thing Nathan gifted her that she owns in this place. They want to talk to her. They ask where she was going when she and Nathan arrived to this place. Sara says they were heading back to Boston.

Randall asks where they were coming from. Sara asks why does it matter and what’s going on. Jim responds they are looking for any patterns to how people end up here. Sara responds she was living in New Hope, Pennsylvania but it wasn’t … (she hesitates explaining her relationship there) Nathan came to bring me back home.

Jim asks about that day at the barn. Sara says she doesn’t want to talk about that. Randall asks if Nathan is still alive. Sara turns around and gives him a confused look. Donna enters the Church and interrupts them. Randall says it is convenient that Donna showed up here out of nowhere the moment they confronted Sara with questions.

[Randall is completely out of his depth here with his conspiracy theory. He thinks Sara and Donna are in on the big government experiment that has them trapped in this place with psychological tests and fake monsters.]

Donna asks what the fuck he is talking about. Jim says Randall means nothing.

Donna tells Sara that she spoke with Boyd. That she learned Sara wanted something helpful to do. Donna has a bunch of clothes that need stitching. Sara knows how to sew. You can start with this bundle. You two, get the fuck out.

Randall confronts Donna and calls her a toll booth operator. Jim intercedes and asks Randall to leave with him.

Sara wonders why they were talking about Nathan and think that he is alive.

A few yards from the Church, Jim and Randall walk down the road. Jim asks Randall what the hell that was. Jim saw Sara’s face when Randall asked about Nathan. She doesn’t know anything. Randall says Donna might. Jim tells Randall that’s exactly what they shouldn’t be doing. To assume every little thing and accuse everyone of complicity with the big experiment. They just need to watch.

Jim says they need to find out what people do when they don’t know they are being watched. Jim tells Randall to go back to his bus, go about his day, and when it gets closer to dark sneak out and meet me at the RV. They will stay the night at the RV to see if there are things they don’t want them to see.

10 — Jim enters the Diner. Julie is now the Diner helper. Jim asks about Tabitha. Ethan says she went to the Colony House. Julie tells her father that Victor and Jade were in there and Jade started yelling at Victor. So Julie thinks her mom went to check on Victor. Jim sighs. Julie asks if he is alright. Jim asks her to follow him to talk for a second.

Jim tells Julie that he won’t be home tonight. He got an idea. Something that can get them out of this place. He just needs time to figure it out. He has a talisman. He is going to be inside the RV. He is telling Julie so that they won’t worry. Asks Julie to let her Mom know.

11 — Jim leaves the Diner and Donna intercepts him outside. She wants to talk to him. Donna asks if he is some kind of moron. “What is wrong with you?” He responds he is just looking for answers, just like everybody else. Donna asks: “By taunting Sara? You asked if his brother is still alive.”

Jim says he tried to talk to Donna. She tries to figure out what he is talking about. Then she realized this krap is all about the CB Radio. Donna says: “Don’t even tell me you put this shit in Randall’s head. That guys is a fucking powder keg. If you start putting ideas in his head,”

Jim says he did not talk to Randall about the voice in the Radio. However, agrees that talking to Sara was stupid.

12 — Victor is in his bedroom. Staring at the toy that Ethan found in his old coat’s pocket. Victor had forgotten the toy was there. This toy was given to him by his Mom many years ago. He remembers again his mom gave him the toy and two crayons. She asked him to just draw his pictures and no matter what happens, you don’t come out until morning. Victor’s mom said she loves him, then goes up the stairs and closes the Root Cellar shut.

Victor’s memory lane is interrupted by someone knocking at his bedroom door. Tabitha asks if she can come in. She wanted to thank him for the coat he gifted Ethan. She grabs the toy from the table and says she remembers these toys. Ethan told her he found it in one of the coat pockets.

Tabitha asks Victor why he didn’t tell Jade about that symbol in the tunnels? Victor replies because it is not good to ask questions. People shouldn’t go looking for answers. She asks why not. Victor says because people who go looking for answers don’t come back.

Tabitha says that looking for answers is their way out of this place. Victor replies he doesn’t think there is a way out.

Tabitha says she knows that he thinks bad things happen to those who look for answers, but bad things happen here no matter what. If he knows something that could help them.

Victor says his Mom told him that they were going home the night that the bad things happened. He doesn’t remember what his Mom said next. He stayed silent for a few seconds. Then said that Pictures might remember.

Tabitha says his pictures were in the Matthews’s house when it collapsed.

Victor says not those pictures. He put the pictures that might remember what his Mom said somewhere else. Victor put those pictures away somewhere where he would never have to look at them. So that I would never have to remember. So that no one else would die.

Tabitha asks him if he remembers where he put the pictures. Victor nods yes.

13 — Boyd knocks Kenny’s door. Boyd asks what happened to his left arm. Kenny says he doesn’t know. Somehow he managed to burn himself in his sleep. Boyd says Elgin had an interesting idea about how to test their Monster Bile theory. Silver Bullets. They take the bullets. Dip them in the bile, coat them, fire from a safe distance. Then we see if they work.

14 — Boyd and Kenny enter the Clinic. Kristi is comforting Marielle who looks in bad shape with the withdrawals and the nightmares. Kristi says something happened a few minutes ago in the basement. Marielle heard something in the boiler room, where the monster’s corpse is stored. Boyd and Kenny approach the boiler room slowly. The door is shut. They can hear some rustling and fluttering noises. Boyd lifts the sheet covering the corpse and finds many cicadas coming out of the corpse.

Kenny tells Boyd this is what he was talking about the autopsy, bringing this evil thing into the clinic. Kenny says he saw those cicadas in his dream.

Kristi tells Boyd and Kenny that Elgin shared with her that in his dream he was drowning in the bathtub and then when someone woke him up, he started spitting up water. Now you had nightmares about those bugs and now they are swarming in that thing downstairs.

Kenny says it wasn’t just the bugs. When the music box started playing, one of the bugs jumped out of the pot on the stove and burned his left arm. Marielle asks if he means that their fucking dreams can hurt us now?

Donna shouts asking for Kristi. Donna comes to the room and says they look glum. What the fuck’s going on?

15 — Victor and Tabitha walk into the woods. Victor brings her to the area where he drove all the cars of the people who died when he was a child. He put these cars here so he wouldn’t see them again, as it reminded him of the massacre.

Victor stops at one of the cars. He says Tabitha is a nice lady and Ethan is his friend and he wants to help. But Victor is afraid to remember.

Tabitha says she knows he is afraid, but she needs him to be brave.

Victor says that is what his Mom said to him that night.

16 — Boyd brings Donna outside the boiler room. Donna tells Boyd she talked to him less than 2 hours ago. When the fuck was he planning to tell her about the dead monster?

Boyd said well, I’m telling you now. Donna argues no, she caught him. It’s not the same. Boyd said he just didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. He needed to test if he could kill those monsters again.

Donna asks since when is she just “anybody?” He apologizes and says it won’t happen again.

Donna asks about the Bile he pulled out of the monster’s corpse that can help kill the rest. Boyd says that it is something worthy of trying, but he needs to test it first.

Boyd says this monster’s corpse was covered with hundreds of bugs. The door was closed and there is nowhere the bugs could have escaped through. Boyd and Kenny saw the bugs. Now they are nowhere to be found. Donna asked Boyd to burn the corpse immediately.

17 — Kenny and Boyd load the monster’s corpse on the cart outside the Clinic.

Donna asks Boyd to burn the corpse far enough that people won’t see the smoke and get curious. Kristi brings a red container of gasoline.

Boyd says they will burn the monster’s corpse, and hopes that takes care of the nightmare dreams. But it would be a good idea to sleep in shifts to make sure.

Boyd says it would be a good idea to bring Sara, Kristi, and Marielle to the Sheriff’s station to sleep in shifts.

Boyd tells Marielle he has seen withdrawals and that’s about to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

Kristi says she won’t stay under the same roof as Sara. Kristi prefers to stay at the Colony House.

Donna asks before she forgets if Kristi has any Aspirin. Donna says great. Fucking monster bile and no aspirin. Boyd suggests a compress. Donna tells him fuck right off. He chuckles.

Randall had been hidden nearby looking at them load the corpse on the cart.

18 — Victor opens the car’s trunk to show Tabitha the location he hid the very old crayon drawings when he was a child.

The drawings fill in the blanks of some of the memories he had forgotten.

He can see his Mom in his mind. “Victor, I need you to be brave. I’m counting on you. No matter what happens, you cannot leave. You need to protect your sister.

Eloise: Please, don’t go Mommy.

Victor says these drawings aren’t mine. They are not mine. They were Eloise’s.

Victor’s Mom to Eloise: You just draw your pictures, okay?

Victor’s Mom to Victor: And you stay here all night, and when I come back, we’re gonna go home. I love you.

[This is a lot to unpack. Not sure everything has been revealed yet. I wrote this summary when MGM was broadcasting mid-Season 3. In Season 3, Tabitha exits the place and lands in the world outside. She has Victor's lunch box and finds in the interior wall of the lunch box Victor's home address. There she finds Victor's father. I won't say the whole thing here but suffice to say Victor's father tells Tabitha his wife had dreams about a place. She was obsessed about it before his wife and son disappeared and never returned home. Eventually, Tabitha and Victor's father find the fallen tree in the road and he gets to meet Victor as adult. I am not sure what the eff is going on with the production writers because Victor's father never mentioned Eloise or a daughter. He didn't ask Victor where Eloise is either. In Season 3, also, Tabitha visits an ancient settlement near a lake that noone had seen before in the forest. There were three ritual rocks in that settlement. Tabitha says that she saw these 3 rocks in a dream when she was a child. Either Tabitha was like Victor's mother who also had dreams about this place in the forest... or ... Finkle is Einhorn. Einhorn is Finkle (Ace Ventura quote). Tabitha is Eloise. Wild theory. Not proven until the show reveals what happened to Eloise. If... Tabitha turned out to be Eloise, the way I could think that Victor's father wouldn't know about Eloise is that his wife was pregnant and he didn't know. If Eloise was born in the place and Victor and his Mom lived in this place years until Eloise was as old as shown in the image above. A lot of ifs and wild theories. Keep that in mind.]

Shortly after Victor’s Mom closed the Root Cellar’s door, Eloise ran into the forest after her Mom. Victor did never see Eloise or his Mom after that. It was still daylight.

Eloise: “Mom! Please, I wanna come with you!”

Young Victor: Eloise? Eloise, come back!

[present] Victor reels in pain, kneeling in front of the car’s trunk. He remembers he lost his sister Eloise. That’s why he hid Eloise’s drawings in this car’s trunk. To forget the pain of her loss.

The important thing to know is that as far as I am aware, Victor never said he buried his Mother or his sister. Therefore, it is up in the air whether they are still alive. Or in this case, if Tabitha is Eloise.

19 — Randall intercepts Donna coming back to her van. Randall apologizes to her. He knows they got off the wrong foot. He hopes they could talk. “We are all in this together.” Donna measures him and agrees.

[Not sure it had been revealed up to this point where Donna and his sister came from before they found the fallen tree on the road, other than they were on their way from hunting deer. The van's plate here is Garden State: New Jersey.]

20 — Boyd is pouring gasoline over the monster’s corpse — hidden in a sheet and tied up for easy handling.

Boyd grabs a lighter from his pocket. He is ready to light up the torch but holds back and asks Kenny if he wants to do the honors.

Kenny says he had grown used to being scared of the monsters. But now monsters attacking them in their dreams, that’s another level of scary…. causing physical harm to them. Elgin spitting up water from his lungs when he woke up after he dreamed of drowning. Kenny with a burn on his left arm after he dreamed a cicada hop from hot water to his skin.

21 — Victor tells Tabitha that his mother told them to hide in the Root Cellar. He was supposed to take care of and protect his sister Eloise. But she was so scared that she ran, and he was so afraid. He should have run after her.

Tabitha says he was just a little boy. Victor didn’t come out until the morning. Tabitha looks at the different crayon drawings made by Eloise and asks Victor what this one means.

Victor says that Eloise told him that the Lighthouse is where their Mom went to that night. She went to save the children locked in the tower.

<Big fucking revelation here. Allegedly, Victor's Mom went to this lighthouse to save the children locked in the tower. One that showed up in dreams or a vision. That this is how they get home. Completing the quest. Earlier in Season 1, Episode 10, Boyd and Sara found the Lighthouse. At the end of Season 2, Tabitha finds the lighthouse and the Boy in White throws her out of the window -- sending her into the outside world. Does that mean Victor's Mom landed in the outside world? Is Victor's Mom in a different time? Is she held captive in a dungeon like Martin was? Many questions. Below is an image of Boyd and Sara in Season 1, Episode 10.

22 – Boyd and Kenny return to the town, dragging the cart. Tian Chen, Julie, and Ethan exit the Diner, locking the door behind them. The night is 20 minutes away. They meet Boyd and Kenny in front of the Diner.

Kenny is listening attentively and asks everyone if they can hear that. Cicadas chirping.

They hear a man scream in the nearby house. The man asks for help as the cicada chirping intensifies. The man leaves the house with blood on his hands, shirt, jacket, and face. But it doesn’t look like it is his blood.

23 — Jim walks toward the RV to rendezvous with Randall as agreed. However, Jim is concerned to see Donna’s Volkswagen van near the RV and blood in the back seat with the backdoor wide open.

Jim shouts for Randall, but Donna shouts his name, instead.

Randall tied Donna to a tree and threatens her with a knife. Donna’s forehead is bleeding. Randall tells Jim: New plan.

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