Season 3, Ep. 4: There and Back Again
1 — The unit 4-5 ambulance stops after finding the fallen tree on the road. The driver radios back to request mechanical assistance to remove the tree. He only gets static, which means they have already crossed the threshold into the place.
Acosta asks where is everyone. There should be at least a little traffic this time of day. Tabitha exits the ambulance and sees the fallen tree on the road. She can’t believe it is happening again. She can now hear the crows approaching and cawing nonstop.
Officer Acosta asks the driver to drive back to find a detour. Tabitha says that’s not going to work.
2 — In Kenny’s house, Ethan browses through a bunch of crayon drawings that belong to Victor. One looks like a tent surrounded by candles. Possibly, dead crows and blood on the ground. A man and a woman holding possibly weapons.
The phone rings. Ethan is startled and stands up to pick it up. Static crackles and a voice says: “Ethan? It’s Thomas. Mommy is in trouble. She’s in an ambulance. You’ll see. She’s on her way, but you have to help her. You can’t be afraid.”
Ethan asks who is talking. The voice says he already told him. He is Thomas. Jim enters the kitchen and asks Ethan what he is doing. Ethan says a voice is talking on the phone. Jim picks up the phone and warns the voice to leave his children alone. The voice says but they are not his children anymore.
Jim pulls the phone out of the wall in rage and discovers the phone was never attached to a cord inside the wall. Julie enters the kitchen and asks what’s going on.
Jim asks Ethan what the voice said to him. Ethan says the voice told him that Tabitha is alive in an ambulance and that she needs their help.
3 — In the Colony House, Nicky is cleaning the blood from the wall and asks Bakta to pick up the dead crow. She refuses to touch that thing. Nicky says what is she worried about. The crow is dead. Bakta says that the crow just went kamikaze through a plate-glass window to get inside the house. Whatever bad juju that thing has, Bakta doesn’t want any part of it.
Bakta stops by Tillie and asks if she thinks it’s really smart to be reading Tarot cards in a place like this. Tillie apologizes. Donna interrupts and says that’s enough. They got plenty to worry about without people sniping at each other.
Donna asks Elgin if he is alright. He says he’s good.
4 — Upstairs, Marielle visits Fatima to check up on her health. She heard about the crow breaking through the window and jokes she didn’t know things were so exciting in the Colony House. She asks Fatima to open her mouth. Fatima says it is not necessary to check on her. Marielle says there is nothing to worry about. Sarcastically, she makes sure to examine all her patients after they have had encounters with psychotic birds. Besides, it takes her mind off worrying about Kristi being out at that lake.
Fatima says she shouldn’t worry. They have shelter and talismans, but if it was Ellis out there, she would be feeling the same way as Marielle does.
Marielle says it feels good to take care of a pregnant mama bear again. Fatima looks much better. Her skin color has improved. Marielle asks if she has been eating a little more. Fatima says she finally found something she could keep down in her stomach. Marielle responds good, keep that baby nice and strong.
5 — In Sara’s house, Victor tells her Eloise and Victor used to play in this house. Not in the evening, though. Everyone had to hide and there were no talismans back then. But during the daylight, his sister and he played inside the houses. Eloise liked Sara’s house the most. He never knew why.
Sara asks if his sister lived in this place, too. Victor says his Mom too, but both died. Just like Nathan, except he didn’t murder them.
Sara winces at the tactful comment. She asks Victor if these blankets are enough. He inspects them and confirms they are. Sara doesn’t understand what Victor is up to with these blankets. He explains it will help him remember. She asks what he wants to remember.
Victor responds that when he was a little boy, his mother Miranda tried to save everyone, but she died. Then everyone died. Victor can’t remember how or why they died. Victor thinks he needs to remember soon. Sara asks why. Victor responds too many things are changing. It has never snowed in this place before. They have to go to the basement to begin his quest. Up here is for daytime stories. The basement is for secrets.
6 — The ambulance has driven too long through the road in the woods. An EMT paramedic asks Officer Acosta what the GPS says, they have been driving for a long time and they should have been back in the city a while ago by now. Officer Acosta turns around and asks the driver what the GPS says. The driver responds the same thing it did 10 minutes ago: data unavailable.
Nightfall arrives. The EMT says they must be driving in circles and asks the driver to go around back the way they came. Tabitha asks them to continue to drive forward. If he turns around he will be driving away from the town.
The driver asks what town, they are trying to find the highway. Tabitha tries to explain and to find the words. She says it is not safe to stop out here once it gets dark, but there is a town up ahead, and people there can help them.
7 — Boyd and Randall keep watch from the bus as the nightfall begins. Randall asks Boyd if he is going to get a sense of how the monsters move and what they do as an insight into how to capture one. Boyd agrees with his assessment. Randall sarcastically says nothing terrible is gonna come of that.
Boyd is bothered by Randall’s comments. He asks Randall why he is on the bus. He offered to switch accommodations. He could be fast asleep in the Sheriff’s station while Boyd is in the bus. Boyd asks again: “Why are you here?”
Randall brushes him off. It’s none of his business. Why does Boyd care. Boyd responds if he is going to spend all night listening to Randall’s rants the least he can do is answer the question.
Randall responds if there is a chance whatever Boyd is trying to do can get him home, no matter how stupid or ill-advised, he wants to help. Boyd mocks Randall. Now out of a sudden, he wants to be a team player.
Randall says if he had seen the things he has seen, Boyd would too. Boyd asks what he means by that, considering Boyd has seen quite a lot over a year and a half.
Randall says he, Marielle, and Julie were trapped in their sleep somewhere in a tower. Everybody in the town talks about how afraid they are of dying. Randall doesn’t think that’s the worst thing that can happen to them in this place. He wants to leave this place.
8 — In the old settlement’s shack, Kristi wakes up and asks Kenny to go to sleep. Tomorrow, it will be a rough day carrying the food back to town. Kenny was writing something in a small notebook. He asks if he woke her up. She says the throbbing pain in her ankle did.
Kenny asks if there is anything he can do to help her pain. She says there is nothing he can do until some of the swelling goes down. Kristi asks what he is writting.
In Chinese culture, they write letters to the dead on high holidays. Kristi says Tian-Chen would really like that. Kristi says she meant what she said earlier. Kenny is not alone here.
Kenny responds things are different now. That’s all. He has lost both parents to this place. But everything he thought he was fighting for is gone. The only people he thought he could talk to about going home was his Mom and Kristi.
Kristi says he still can talk to her. Jade says with an annoyed attitude can you maybe talk in the morning? Kenny apologizes for waking him up. Jade says fuck it. I’m awake now. Jade sits up and drinks from his flask. Kristi signals him to pass the flask. The alcohol would do good to tolerate the pain in her ankle. Jade asks both if they wish to hear something crazy.
9 — In Sara’s basement, Victor finishes building a tent out of all the blankets Sara provided to him. Victor says the night everyone died, he was in the Root Cellar. His Mom, Miranda, told Eloise and him to hide there. Eloise didn’t listen and ran after their Mom. But he did and stayed in the Root Cellar until morning. Then he came out and found bodies everywhere. That was the day that he met the Boy in White.
Surprised by the revelation, Sara asks Victor if he knows the Boy in White. Victor says he was his only friend all those years that he was alone. The image below shows the Boy in White on the Go-Merry-Around and suddenly he disappeared.
It's probably my imagination as this hasn't been confirmed anywhere in Season 1-3. The Farway Trees teleport you to different locations. The Farway Bottle Tree takes you to the Lighthouse. What if the Merry-Go-Around when in motion works as a way to jump to different times?
The fact the Boy in White disappeared while the Merry-Go-Around was in motion when Victor was young, and that Victor told Ethan recently that he had not seen the Boy in White all those years until now ... it could mean the Boy in White is a time hopper.
What kills somewhat the theory is that the same dog young Victor saw when everyone died is now in the present too. I don't think the dog used the Merry-Go-Around in motion to jump in time. That dog helped Boyd at the Tower Ruins to find Victor's hideout at night in the Canned-Goods Truck.
Victor says he couldn’t bury them all alone. They were just lying there in the street for some time. The Boy in White told him to gather things that were precious to them. To bury those, instead. Victor opens a luggage filled with those objects. A Poker card set, glasses, a purse, a watch, a small world replica, a case with 2 cigarettes and two earrings, and other items.
Sara asks Victor if this stuff will help him remember why the deaths happened. He thinks so. Sara asks why they are in this tent in the basement. Victor says because it is a fort.
She asks why he needs her. Victor says because he doesn’t want to do this alone. He might have to remember some scary things and Sara is the scariest thing here, so his memories won’t scare her. Sara scoffs at the thought as if playfully regretting to have asked.
10 — On the bus, Randall walks back and forth through the aisle. Boyd snaps and asks if he is always this fidgety. Randall responds something is wrong. Those monsters should be all over the place by now. Randall knows their individual patterns to heart.
The monster in the nurse uniform visits Randall first at the bus every night. She stands by the window to hum for 10 minutes, tapping at the glass with her fucking smile.
There is another monster that likes to sit by the swing next to where the collapsed Matthews house used to be, letting his legs dangle.
Another couple of monsters like to sit over there by the pool.
Boyd is surprised and asks if he really watches these monsters closely. Randall jokes well, there is no TV. Plus, everyone in town gets to draw the shades at night. He can’t do the same on the bus. The point, Randall says, is that the monsters got patterns, and routines, all of which should be happening right now. Boyd turns thoughtful on why then the monsters aren’t here.
11 — In the ambulance, Officer Acosta says Tabitha isn’t making any sense. Tabitha says she knows this road. There is a town up ahead. The people there can help them find the highway again. Tabitha can see the barn.
The driver says they are doing fine and he won’t stop in the middle of nowhere.
12 — Boyd and Randall are startled by the arrival of an ambulance and stand up.
13 — In Kenny’s house, Ethan looks through the window and announces it is the ambulance, just like the voice on the phone said. Jim immediately stands up from the sofa when he sees the ambulance’s rotating lights illuminate the window.
14 — Boyd opens the bus’s door, but the ambulance drives past them. Boyd sees Ethan run out of Kenny’s house after the ambulance. Boyd runs across the street and grabs Ethan. Jim tries to take Ethan from Boyd’s arms, but Boyd decides to carry the kid back to Kenny’s house. Randall and Jim follow Boyd back inside.
15 — In the ambulance, the EMT says he won’t tell her to sit down again. The driver stops the ambulance and the EMT asks what’s wrong now. There is a woman lying on the ground, blocking the road.
16 — In Kenny’s house, Ethan confronts his Dad: “What if Mom’s really out there?” Boyd asks what he is talking about. Ethan responds: “The voice on the phone said she’d be in an ambulance.”
17 — In the ambulance, the driver says he will assist the woman lying in the middle of the road. Tabitha stands up and shouts that’s not a fucking person. Officer Acosta stands up and abruptly forces Tabitha to sit down and cuffs her to a handle on the wall.
The EMT stands up to open the back door to assist the driver. Tabitha asks him not to go. The EMT scolds her. Officer Acosta asks Tabitha to calm down and grabs both her shoulders. Tabitha says both the driver and the EMT are going to die.
The driver asks the EMT to help him roll the woman over. The EMT can’t find a pulse. Officer Acosta leaves the ambulance and tells them the lady is really freaking out back there. The woman on the ground smiles at them. They freak out and the woman transforms into a monster, slashing the EMT’s throat, then ripping the driver’s belly. The monster screeches loudly. Officer Acosta unsheathes her gun and points it to the monster. The bullets do no harm.
18 — In Kenny’s house, Boyd hears three gunshots. Jim runs to the window. Julie says those were gunshots. Randall says which means the monsters are already out there.
19 — Officer Acosta shoots the monster a fourth time and realizes the bullets do nothing to it. A second monster is seen behind Officer Acosta, approaching her not aware of it until she turns around to flee the first one which is slowly closing in on her.
Officer Acosta shoots the second one and he doesn’t look hurt either. She gives up and runs away, leaving Henry and Tabitha behind with cuffs trapped in the ambulance.
Tabitha unfastens Henry’s head strap and calls his name to wake him up.
20 — In Kenny’s house, Jim puts his jacket on and tells Boyd if there is even a chance that his wife is in that ambulance, he must go and help her. Boyd can do whatever he wants. Boyd tells Ethan he must stay inside the house. Whoever is in that ambulance, Ethan will be putting them in danger if they have to worry about him going out there. Randall and Boyd leave the house to assist Jim in helping the ambulance occupants.
21 — Tabitha tells Henry they are in real danger right now. There are things in this town that will hurt them if they don’t get inside one of the houses. To sell the warning, Henry hears a loud screech. Henry is fully awake and scared after hearing that.
The ambulance backdoor opens loudly and Tabitha panics. Jim enters the ambulance and kisses Tabitha and then hugs her. Tabitha asks Jim to help her free her cuffed hand. Jim asks if she knows where the cuffs’ keys are. She doesn’t know. Boyd and Randall catch up to the ambulance and yells for everyone to leave the ambulance now.
Boyd and Randall are stunned to see Tabitha in the ambulance. One, she has been gone for more than 4 days and survived. Second, she is in an ambulance that just arrived in town from the real world — which in the back of their mind suggests she found a way out.
Jim asks for Boyd’s keys as if any keys can open all handcuffs. Boyd says he doesn’t have them on him. Randall says there is a toolkit on the bus.
22 — In the Colony House, a resident rings the alarm bell shouting: “Runner on the hill!” Nicky looks through the window and sees Officer Acosta running on the snow. The bride monster approaches and Acosta fires at her. The first monster continues to pursue Acosta and screeches loudly. Acosta shoots at her too.
Nicky announces she thinks the runner is a cop. The cheerleader monster joins the second monster (the mechanic). The businessman monster approaches from the Colony House’s porch. Officer Acosta shoots in his direction but misses, hitting Nicky through the window.
Marielle comes to Nicky’s aid. Ellis asks what happened. The window was shattered with that bullet. Someone asks for the window to be boarded immediately to prevent monsters from breaching the Colony House. Marielle asks for help to carry Nicky to the couch. Nicky was shot in the liver area.
Marielle asks for help to roll Nicky to her side. She sees no exit wound, which means the bullet must be removed.
Officer Acosta knocks on the door fearful for her life. Clara confronts the guard and opens the door to allow the cop to enter the house.
Marielle asks everyone to search for tweezers, pliers, alcohol, and towels. She must do the bullet extraction because Kristi is by the lake’s nearby old establishment for the night.
Officer Acosta sees everyone attending to a wounded woman and realizes she accidentally shot a person.
Officer Acosta walks toward them and says those things were coming at her from all directions and apologizes. She didn’t mean to wound someone in the house. Donna tackles the cop to control her and asks the cop to back off.
Officer Acosta is in denial saying none of this is real. It’s impossible. Over and over. Donna asks the cop if there is anyone else out there and how she got here. Acosta says they were in an ambulance. There was this tree.
23 — Randall enters the bus and looks for the toolkit. He suddenly sees one cicada, but ignores it and keeps running back to the ambulance.
24 — Boyd searches the driver’s corpse for the keys to Tabitha’s cuffs.
25 — Randall’s path to the ambulance is blocked by four monsters.
Randall pulls the talisman from his pocket and asks the monsters to get the fuck back. They smile at him. The old lady responds: “Oh, sweetie, it doesn’t work that way.”
Boyd couldn’t find the keys and walked around the back of the ambulance, finding the 4 monsters and Randall.
Randall throws the toolkit toward Boyd. He shouts at Randall to get back to the boss, but the buzzing of cicadas overwhelms his mind. He is surrounded by the cicadas and he falls to the ground swatting at them desperately.
Boyd goes to the front of the ambulance to give Jim the toolkit. Jim grabs a Phillips screwdriver to pry the cuffs open. Boyd shouts he can’t find the ambulance’s keys.
Another monster stands right behind Boyd and with a smile asks him if he is looking for these keys and invites him to take them. They get to keep Randall, though.
Boyd turns around and unsheathes his gun: “Motherfucker!”
Randall is overtaken by cicadas that only he can see. The monsters surround Randall.
The monster taunts Boyd saying that he can’t save them all.
The cicadas disappear and Randall realizes he is surrounded by four smiley faces above him.
Jim tells Boyd they must now leave back to Kenny’s house. Boyd decides to take the keys from the monster’s hand and leave Randall behind. Boyd turns on the ambulance’s ignition and leaves.
Randall shouts at Boyd not to leave him behind. The monsters screech at Randall.
26 — In the Colony House, Marielle begins to extract the bullet from Nicky’s torso. She asks Ellis to grab Nicky’s legs still and pours alcohol over the wound. Nicky screams in pain. Fatima places a stick in Nicky’s mouth to bite down. Marielle removes the bullet with plyers.
27 — Officer Acosta explains to Donna there was a woman in the ambulance. There were two paramedics outside, and she didn’t know where she was, but this was probably 20 minutes–
Everyone is interrupted by the ambulance parking outside the Colony House. Jim finally pries the handle off by unscrewing the four screws, not the cuffs. Jim opens the backdoor of the ambulance and helps Henry out. Then Tabitha. Boyd leaves the ambulance. All run to the Colony House.
Everyone in the Colony House looks in disbelief at Tabitha. They all know Tabitha disappeared over 4 days ago without a talisman and she is still alive.
Boyd looks at Nicky on the sofa and the pool of blood. He asks Donna what happened. Donna responds it seems it was a long night for everyone.
Officer Acosta walks toward Tabitha and removes her cuffs with her keys. Tabitha reprimands Acosta: “I fucking told you.”
Jim interrupts Donna, and she tells them to follow her to one of the empty rooms upstairs. Tabitha asks Henry if he is okay.
28 — Upstairs, Tillie talks to Elgin. She laments what happened to Fatima and the crow. What if it was a bad sign?
Elgin looks toward the kitchen door and sees a mummified woman in a kimono suit.
Tillie asks Elgin what’s wrong. He is intently looking toward the mummified woman. He asks Tillie if he is awake. The mummified woman turns around and walks away. Elgin stands up to follow her. Tillie asks where Elgin is going but he ignores her.
The mummified woman leads Elgin to a hallway, turns around, and asks Elgin’s help — extending her hand toward him. Elgin walks away horrified and bumps into a resident who walks past him. Elgin apologizes for colliding with the guy. The female spirit is gone.
29 — In Kenny’s house, Ethan asks Julie if she can see the ambulance. She says no. Ethan asks what if they don’t come back? Julie turns her eyes from the window and looks back at Ethan with a scolding look: “Don’t think like that. They will come back.”
Ethan asks Julie what happened to her. She wonders what he means. Ethan says: “Ever since you fell asleep and your eyes got all white, you’ve been different. Are you sure you are okay?”
Julie says she is fine. Ethan doesn’t believe her. He is no longer a baby. She can tell him things. Tabitha responds she’s really scared. She saw things that she doesn’t really understand and some she can’t remember. All she remembers is being more scared than she has ever been in her entire life. She hasn’t told anyone but Ethan now. She’s trying very hard to be okay.
Ethan asks if he can help Julie.
Julie chuckles and smacks his head: “Hey, I’m the big sister here. I’m the one who takes care of you.”
Ethan says if their parents don’t return, it will be only the both of them alone. They need to start taking care of each other from now on.
Julie hugs Ethan and assures him their parents will come back.
30 — In the shack near the lake, Kristi asks Jade if the rod was through the man’s eye. Jade says only when he was impaled against the tree. When the spirit walked up to him with a skull full of blood, it was just a bloody empty socket. So yeah, that’s what his life has been like lately.
Kristi asks Jade how long these hallucinations have been going on. Jade responds pretty much since he arrived in the town. Jade asks Kenny if he remembers that day in the Root Cellar when he told him he saw the corpse and the symbol in the ceiling. Kenny thought he was crazy. Tian-Chen saw him in the Diner drawing that symbol over and over again, losing his mind. First, she made tea for him, then took him to the storage room and she pulled out Cristopher’s notebook with those symbols. Jade thought he was smart enough to figure out this place.
Kenny says his Mom really liked Jade. Jade says she tolerated him more than anything. Kenny insists. She only frowned at people she liked. Others, she would just ignore them. Jade asks Kenny to add in his letter to his Mom that both of them say hi.
Thudding noises are heard outside the shack in the middle of the night. Kristi asks Jade if he is sure the things he saw today were hallucinations.
31 — In Sara’s basement, Victor removes a watch from a man horribly eaten up, with a massive hole in the torso and his backbone and inner ribs exposed.
The watch belonged to Mr. Gerber. He always smelled like onions. Those grew wild in the woods and he would eat them raw.
The cigarette case with earrings belonged to Delores. She always cried a lot.
Victor looked through the luggage and couldn’t find anything that belonged to Cristopher. Sara asks who he was. Victor responds he was a friend. He was nice, but then he started seeing that symbol and he started to get scary. Victor seems to have remembered something about Christopher and starts to put all the objects back inside the luggage, saying it was a mistake and he doesn’t want to do this anymore.
Sara insisted but Victor turned violent repeating No multiple times and destroyed the tent he said was a fort in the basement of secrets. Sara says it is okay. He doesn’t need to be afraid. She is the scariest person in town.
Victor has a glimpse of an old memory. He says he knows now what is missing. Cristopher’s puppet… named Jasper.
32 — In the Colony House, Boyd tells Donna privately that he fucking left Randall behind. He tried to save everyone, but he couldn’t. What the hell was Tabitha doing in the ambulance?
33 — In a Colony House room, Jim asks Tabitha if she is certain that man is Victor’s father. She responds she stood in the house where Victor grew up in. His mother, Miranda, saw this place before she even got here. She had these paintings and she thinks that was the reason that she was sent to Camden, Maine. The Boy in White in the Tower wanted her to see or find something.
Tabitha starts to sob and apologizes. Jim says she has nothing to be sorry about. She is back, safe, and that’s all that matters.
Tabitha asks what if that was their only chance to go home.
34 — Nicky shouts in pain and starts to vomit blood. She is bleeding internally. Nicky dies. Marielle tries to perform CPR, but she’s gone.
Boyd gets angry and lashes out at Officer Acosta for what she did. She shot the bullet that injured Nicky. Acosta says it was an accident. Boyd aggressively pulls Acosta toward Nicky. Ellis tries to intervene, but Boyd pushes him off and says get the fuck out. Donna yells at Boyd and commands him to go upstairs to her room right now.
35 — Upstairs, Donna asks Boyd to close the door behind him. He says he’s not in the mood for a lecture. He gets no response. Donna breaks into tears facing her mirror. Boyd’s attitude disappears. Donna cries out why this is happening, one thing after the next. Why don’t the monsters leave them alone? She says she is so fucking scared. Both hug each other.
36 — In Sara’s basement, Victor says that Jasper belonged to Christopher. He used to be much fun and would make everyone laugh. Back then most people didn’t laugh until he arrived in town. But after Christopher started seeing the symbol, he changed and didn’t make them laugh anymore. He spent more and more time alone, and one day Victor found Christopher and Jasper the puppet talking. Victor says Jasper could be the one to tell him what happened.
37 — A resident and Ellis carry Nicky’s body upstairs wrapped in a blanket. Fatima feels she was mean to Nicky the other day in the bathroom. Ellis says everyone has been on edge lately. Fatima wishes to stay alone with Nicky and Ellis leaves the room.
Fatima unwraps Nicky’s blanket and removes her bandages then presses the wound. Fatima inserts two of her fingers into Nicky’s wound and smells the blood, then licks her fingers.
After tasting the blood, she inserts her two fingers even deeper into Nicky’s wound for more blood and sucks her fingers dry.
38 — Donna and Boyd drink alcohol and make a toast: “To better fucking days. Hear, hear.” (clinks)
Both suddenly notice the ambulance’s rotating lights coming into the room through the window’s curtain. They look out the window and see Randall on the windshield, bleeding.
To Donna and Boyd’s horror, Randall is still alive. The right side of his face and throat were mangled.
| 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 |
