Season 3, Ep. 5: The Light of Day

1 — Donna enters the Colony House asking everyone to get out of the way. Boyd and Ellis carry Randall on their shoulders into the house. Ellis asks for fresh towels. They drop Randall on the couch and Ellis presses a towel against his face and throat to stop the bleeding. Marielle arrives and removes the towel — which pulled Randall’s skin along revealing that the skin that covers the left side of his mouth is loose and exposing the interior of the mouth, tongue, and throat.

Marielle says they will need to stitch his face back in place and need more towels, thread, needle, and something to clean the wound.

Randall is in intense pain and pushes Marielle away from him. Boyd steps in and holds Randall down and to stay calm. Randall looks Boyd square in the eye and says he did this. He fucking left Randall alone out there. He repeats the same multiple times.

2 — In the morning, Boyd, Ellis, and Marielle brought Randall to the clinic in the ambulance. Boyd is thoughtful outside the clinic. Suddenly, he sees Kenny and Jade carrying Kristi on their shoulders as support for her limp.

Kristi asks where the ambulance came from. Boyd says it has been a long night. Marielle runs out of the clinic and kneels to look at Kristi’s right leg, held straight and tight with two branches and towels tying everything in place.

Boyd asks where the food is. Kenny says that Dale and the others are bringing it to storage.

Jade asks what the hell happened — pointing at the ambulance. Boyd answers that Tabitha is back. She was in the ambulance when it came into town. Kenny asked how. Boyd responds that Tabitha went through one of those weird trees (Farway Trees) in the forest — which took her to a lighthouse. He says there is a meeting in the Diner this afternoon.

Jade runs away to search for Tabitha. Kenny asks Boyd to let Jade go.

3 — In the Colony House, Herny is looking through spare clothes for those who newly arrive in town. Donna says she sent some people out to look for Victor.

4 — Sara and Victor walk along the road. She thought he said Jasper the puppet was in the tunnels. Victor says yes, but they need to go elsewhere to get supplies before their journey into the tunnels. They need to make sure they don’t get lost.

Sara and Victor arrive at the Colony House and see Tillie washing blood off the couch. Sara asks what happened. Tillie responds last night was a bad night. Some people look at Sara. She decides to wait for Victor outside.

Donna walks down the stairs and sees Victor. He asks who died. She responds: “Nicky. And Randall got pretty torn up. He’s at the clinic now.”

Victory says he needs some things from his bedroom. Donna pulls him to the side to whisper. Something else happened last night. Tabitha returned and someone came along with her. Donna reveals his Dad is here.

Victor says that is not possible. Donna says his Dad is upstairs. She knows it is a lot to take in but–

Victor interrupts her and repeats “No!” over and over. Then he ran away from the Colony House. Sara waited outside and said that was quick. Victor didn’t stop running. Sara went after him into the woods. Sara shouts that he is not fair. He came to her house, made her go to the basement to be in his fort, brought her uphill to the Colony House to get ready for the tunnels and now he is making her chase him around. Victor stopped walking and turned out to say that Donna informed him that his Dad was here. Sara should go back home. They’ll get Jasper later.

5 — In Kenny’s house, Julie asks Tabitha what it felt like. Tabitha responded it was scary to wake up in that hospital, not knowing if it was real or if she was still dreaming.

Ethan asks if she really talked to Grandma over the phone. She says yes. Julie doesn’t understand how Tabitha traveled from a Lighthouse to a hospital in Maine. She doesn’t know how. Jim says the important thing is that Mom is back, and they are all together.

Jade breaks into the house abruptly and looks at Tabitha. He needs to talk to her. Jim stands up and pushes Jade away and asks him to back off. Tabitha tells Jim that it is okay. Jade says Boyd told him that she went through a tree?

Ethan says those are named Farway trees. There is a bunch of them in the forest but this one has bottles on it. Jim and Jade look at Ethan with curiosity.

Jade says the lighthouse. Was it the same one Miranda was looking for? Tabitha says it might be. Jade asks if she can get back to the lighthouse without the tree. Tabitha doesn’t know. Jade says then they have to go back to the tree.

Jim calls for a time-out. She just got back, and Jade wants to do what? Jade isn’t saying she should go through the tree again, but he needs to see the tree.

Jim says he has been to the tree. It was the first place he looked when she didn’t come back. Jade asks if there is anything special about the bottles. Jim says he took a few of the bottles down. There were some slips of paper in them with numbers written on them.

Jade shouts if he didn’t think that was important. Jim responds that this place does a very good job at messing with their heads.

Jade says that this is different. He knows this place is a giant mindfuck, but she went home. That’s not a trick or a dream. That’s real and there is a full town of people banging down your door demanding answers whether you have them or not. Jade asks to be led to the tree.

Tabitha says she agreed with Boyd to attend the town meeting. Jade says the meeting won’t solve anything, but going to the tree is a start.

6 — In the clinic, Randall grunts in pain. Kenny tells Boyd they had to leave some of the food back in the settlement. They must send another team to bring the food before the next snowfall. Randall warns Boyd there is something out there. Something different. They heard it bang the walls of the shack both times, walking around outside the cabins at night.

Kenny asks Boyd why would the monsters leave Randall alive. Boyd thinks they want the people to look at Randall to remember what is coming at night. Part of what keeps people sane is to pretend they are safe during the daytime. With Randall walking around, they don’t get to pretend anymore.

7 — Marielle tends to Kristi’s right foot and explains that she stabilized Nicky. One minute she was fine, and all of a sudden she wasn’t.

Marielle puts pressure on Kristi’s foot and she holds back grunting in pain. Marielle says there are no broken bones, but probably ligament damage. Her foot should be elevated. Mari will bring another pillow for her foot.

8 — Donna tours Henry to Victor’s room. For many years, every corner Henry looked at there was this sliver of hope that when he looked, his family would be standing there. Back home. Miranda, Eloise, Victor. That was the hardest part. Hope. As the years went by, he grew used to the idea that they were gone. “All that time, his son was here all alone. What kind of man gives up on his family? No wonder Victor doesn’t want to talk to me.”

Donna says to give him a little time. He’ll come around.

Tillie interrupts them to say people are heading to the Diner for the afternoon meeting. Henry asks what about. Donna responds people have a lot of questions about what happened. It was kinda a big deal that she left this place.

9 — At the Diner, the people are asked to take a seat. Boyd says there is no easy explanation to what happened. Dale demands to know where the hell is Tabitha. Boyd responds she is coming. Try to remember, she’s been through a lot.

Bakta says all have been through a lot. Donna says Tabatha is here. Jim and Tabatha walk down the road toward the Diner. Tabitha says there are some trees in the forest that aren’t like the other trees.

10 — Julie arrives at the Colony House, searching for Fatima. Everyone is at the Diner for the meeting. Julie reaches Fatima’s bedroom and finds it empty. She looks through the window and sees this desolate field and forest filled with snow. She remembers the day she arrived at this place. Fatima told her that if she climbed high enough, even a nightmare could look like a dream.

As Julie walked downstairs, Elgin almost hit her with a rod. The door was open and he knew everyone was at the meeting. He apologizes. Julie says it’s okay and says she actually needs some company.

11 — Sara talks to Victor by the field of cars. She says it’s cold out here. Victor says he never drew pictures of his father. He only drew pictures of what he saw in this place because he knew the pictures would remember. But he never drew pictures of what came before.

Victor told himself that what came before was a dream and that his Dad was..

Sara says none of that matters. His Dad is here and he is waiting for him back in town.

Victor says his Dad is waiting for a little boy who drove away a long time ago. Sara says she is supposed to tell Victor that it will be okay, and his Dad will love him no matter what. But she doesn’t know if that’s true.

Victor says Sara is really bad at this. She apologizes. She doesn’t know Victor, but he looks like a really good person and that’s something to be proud of here. She would give anything to feel like a good person again. Sara says Henry might be afraid of not being the Dad the little boy remembers.

Victor does something he has never done. He leans the side of his head on Sara’s.

12 — In the Colony House, Elgin smokes in the kitchen. Julie asks if Elgin sees this woman in a kimono when he is awake. She asks if the woman has ever tried to hurt him. Elgin says at first he thought so, but she hasn’t. He reveals that he saw the woman last night and asked for his help. He doesn’t know with what. If his grandma was here, she would probably say that this woman is an angel.

Julie says she would take the woman in the kimono any day over the shit she hears in her head now. Elgin laughs. He asks Julie what’s that she hears. Julie says mostly screaming but she can also feel it. Smoking weed is the only thing that makes those screams go quiet. Elgin asks but Julie says she hasn’t told her parents.

Julie says her parents are in the meeting at the Diner. She thinks her Mom was allowed to go to the real world because the best way to make everyone suffer is to give them hope. She doesn’t think the monsters will ever let them go.

Elgin says Julie is so depressing when she is stoned. Both laugh and cough out the weed smoke.

13 — At the Diner, Fatima asks Tabitha if she contacted anyone in the real world. Did she tell the police about this place? Tabitha said that she wanted to. A resident in front of Dale says: “Are you fucking kidding me?” Dale rolls his eyes back. Jim threatens the guy to watch his mouth.

Tabitha says they don’t understand. The police would never have believed her. Donna says she doesn’t know that. Henry responds to Donna, all due respect, when Tabitha told Henry, he thought she was out of her mind.

Fatima says that eventually, Henry believed her. Henry says his circumstances are a little different than the average person’s.

Officer Acosta chimes in: “I was in the ambulance when she was begging us to turn around, and we thought she was hysterical.”

A female resident asks what’s Acosta even doing in the meeting. She killed someone last night.

Boyd says guys that was an accident. Dale counters that everything is an accident unless it is somebody that Boyd or Queen Bee (Donna) here don’t like.

Clara says she is sorry but Tabitha had an opportunity that none of them have ever had before, and she blew it.

Jim asked Clara what exactly she would have done.

Fatima says to Tabitha that she was out there in the real world where people can help. How could Tabitha not take advantage of that? You said you thought they would think you were crazy, but what if they didn’t and somebody believed you?

Tabitha said that someone believed her and look where he ended up. Henry is sitting right here with us. Tabitha apologizes she couldn’t do a better job than anything they think the could have done. She can’t do this. Tabitha leaves the Diner.

Boyd says the most important part of all of this, the thing we shouldn’t lose sight of is Tabitha got out.

Tillis says for all the good it seems to have done.

Boyd says it is not about the fact that she is back here. It is that someone got home. It is not just hoping and wishing anymore. We have concrete proof it is possible.

Dale stands up and says great. Where is the tree?

Boyd tells the people they have to think about it. Bakta responds what else is there to think about. Tabitha went through the tree and got home. Why aren’t we lining up to do the same?

Boyd says it is not that simple. We can’t just run out there into the forest and hope into the first tree that we see.

Fatima asks Boyd why not. She doesn’t want to be here a second longer than she has to be. Even if there is a slight chance that this tree can get us all home, what are we waiting for?

Even Ellis slams his Dad with questions. Boyd replies that everyone is assuming that this tree is some kind of magic door. It is not. Boyd says he went through one of those trees, and he ended up in a chimney underground. Almost kills himself trying to climb up by hand.

Kenny says it wasn’t the tree what got her out of this place. Tabitha said it was the lighthouse.

Dale says fine let’s go to the lighthouse then we get home. He is tired of his plans and his fucking rules. Dale wants to go home. Dale leaves the Diner after inciting the beehive.

14 — In Kenny’s house, Ethan asks Jade why he didn’t attend the meeting. Jade responds one thing you will learn when you grow older is that going to a meeting with more than three people is basically pointless.

Tabitha and Jim are back home. She tells Jade they can go to the tree now. Jim protests. Tabitha says she has nothing to tell those people. They are right to be angry. She went out and she came back with nothing. She owes it to the people to find a way out.

Jim takes Tabitha to the other room and says she needs to think about what she is doing. She says she is.

Jim says they thought Tabitha was dead. Her children thought she was dead. Jim doesn’t give a shit about what Tabitha thinks she owes these people in the Diner. Tabitha owes it to her kids to be here now.

Tabitha says all she is going to do is guide Jade to the tree. That’s all. She won’t go into the tree. She will be back. She promises.

Jim agrees but says Ethan stays here in the house with him. Jim tells Tabitha that Ethan ran off looking for her when she was gone, almost at nightfall. Does she really wants to show Ethan where the magic tree is?

Tabitha goes back to the living room and tells Ethan he is going to stay in the house with his Dad. Ethan protests that he wants to help. She says he helps by staying in the house.

15 — Boyd walks out of the Diner and heads back to the Sheriff’s Station. Ellis runs behind Boyd shouting him to stop. Seconds later, Boyd stops and turns around. He points at Ellis and says what the fuck is wrong with you? We are sitting on a powder keg in there, and Ellis and Fatima are lighting the matches.

Ellis defends that Fatima is upset. Boyd mocks him. Everyone is upset. What they need is for people to calm down.

Ellis cuts him off and says that maybe what they need is for someone to start doing something instead of sitting around worrying about what could go wrong.

Boyd takes that personal, that his son characterizes him as sitting around.

Ellis says maybe what they need is to start to take chances. Boyd holds Ellis tight by the shoulders and turns him around facing the people coming out of the Diner.

So you wanna take chances? Whose life are you willing to take a chance to gamble on? You wanna do something, right? So tell me! Who’s next in line to go through the fucking tree to take a chance. Who is your pick? Exactly. What happened in there is a dangerous thing. Boyd turns around and leaves Ellis standing there.

16 — Elgin takes Julie to the Colony House’s basement. Says this is where they put the surplus of weird. Julie didn’t know about his room.

Elgin says one night he couldn’t sleep and he found this chest with a bunch of hats. Julie says this is the vintage motherlode. A captain’s hat among them and an 80s jacket.

Julie says could you imagine a person walking through the woods with 80s fluorescent spandex? Elgin says with their big ass hair getting caught in the branches? He snorts and laughs.

Julie opens another chest and finds an old Polaroid camera. Elgin wonders if it still works. Julie takes a picture of Elgin as the camera shutter clicks and whirs. They look at the Polaroid as it slowly reveals the photo.

Julie says this photo is for her. Elgin takes the camera and takes a photo of Julie. Julie takes the photo and says this one is also mine. He takes it from her and says, no, this one is mine. He is taller and she can’t reach his hand high in the air. She says it’s not fair and both laugh.

17 — Acosta enters the Sheriff’s station. She thanks Boyd for what he said in the meeting at the Diner. She can’t take back shooting at Nicky by accident. But she thinks she can help. If he wants people to take their minds off the tree, he should give them a project to focus on. They had this big storm that hit the coast last year, and it flooded half the town, and knocked out all the power. People were scared and angry. The precinct captain got everyone out to sandbag the marina.

The worst of the storm had already passed, but it gave the people something to focus on and made them feel like they had some sort of control.

Boyd says she is been here less than a day and already she’s got the solution to their problems. She thinks he stuck up for her there and now they are buddies? She killed someone and left two people to die in that ambulance.

Acosta says she is sorry. Boyd says, good, go feel sorry, and don’t kill anyone else. Let me worry about my own damn town.

18 — Fatima enters the greenhouse and kneels down to grab some of the rotten vegetables from one of the buckets set aside for compost. She chews them with gusto. Ellis enters the greenhouse, following her.

She hears the door and tries to clean her face and pretend nothing is going on. Ellis asks her what she was doing. She says nothing. Ellis says he is trying to be supportive but she evades him. He is trying to help. Fatima says he can’t help her. She kicks the bucket and points at it. This is all she is able to hold in her stomach. Fatima says she thinks there is something wrong with the baby. He stands there in disbelief looking at her and back to the bucket of rotten vegetables.

19 — Ethan exits Kenny’s house and asks Henry what he’s looking at. Henry is looking at the Motel sign. There is a pool. Where is the Motel?

Ethan asks if he is Victor’s Dad. He confirms. Henry asks if he is Ethan. His Mom told him a lot about him. Ethan thanks Henry for bringing his Mom back. Ethan asks Henry if he wants to accompany him to the barn. Along the way to the barn, they continue to talk.

Ethan asks if he has already seen Victor. Henry says he thinks Victor is not happy his Dad is here. He ran away when he found out.

Ethan says Victor does that sometimes. He gets really grumpy. Henry says he knows Victor very well, huh? Ethan responds Victor is his best friend. Sometimes he gets so grumpy that he says they aren’t friends anymore, but he thinks that’s just because he is scared.

Henry asks what Ethan thinks he is afraid of. Ethan responds Victor is afraid that Ethan might die. Everyone he ever loved in this place died.

Sara and Victor return from the field of cars. Suddenly, Victor stops walking and looks at Ethan with an old man who can only be his Dad. Ethan turns his head and tells Henry that’s Victor. Both look at each other for several seconds. Henry begins to walk in Victor’s direction. Sara tells Victor that it is okay. Victor listens and starts to walk in Henry’s direction.

Both embrace each other. Victor tells his Dad that he didn’t know how to get home. Henry says it is okay. Victor sobs.

20 — Boyd enters the bus. Bakta sees him do from the Diner. Randall is thoughtful looking through Randall’s belongings. The carved face in a piece of wood. The drone. A book.

Bakta enters the bus and asks Boyd what he is doing here. Boyd says trying to assuage his guilt, he guesses. Bakta says what happened last night wasn’t his fault and she apologizes for not being supportive at the meeting.

Boyd says people have a right to ask questions. He is just tired of being the guy without any answers. Bakta chuckles. Boyd asks if he said something funny. Bakta apologizes. Boyd just sounds like her sister. She was someone who tried so hard to make everything right and always ended up feeling like she was wrong. That meeting felt like everyone else wants to go home but Boyd doesn’t.

Bakta understands that Boyd tries to prevent people from doing something stupid. Bakta will have his back next time. Boyd thanks Bakta.

21 — At the Bottle Tree, Jade is trying hard to unhook bottles from the tree with a large branch. Tabitha is inspecting the bottles he managed to unhook so far. She sees a lot of numbers on paper slips in each of them and she says these numbers make no sense. Jade smiles with an open mouth and proves her wrong. Shows some of the slips of paper he stored in his jacket. Every piece of paper has 4 numbers.

Jade tells Tabitha what if these are not just numbers? What if they are dates?

Tabitha looks at him unimpressed: “This one says 2659. I don’t know Jade. Maybe Jim is right.”

Jade loses faith in his theory as he hadn’t seen one date that far along in the future.

Jade says to Tabitha that he saw her freaky kids. She turns around and asks where. Jade saw the children down in the tunnels. He went there the day Tabitha left. He was hoping to find something that could help Julie. Instead, Jade saw the symbol. Jade tells Tabitha it turns out it wasn’t a symbol. It was a hole in the ceiling, and these slashes were roots. Those children were laid out on slabs of stone, repeating that word over and over again: “Anghkooey.”

Jade says he never felt fear as much in his life, but he also saw this glimpse of something that he knew was there but he couldn’t– he felt like he could now understand threads that were starting to connect. Tabitha asks connect how. Jade says trying to piece things together is like trying to get hold of water. These bottles and these numbers, they might seem like this tree. There is no denying what this tree did, and the fact that someone took the time to put these bottles here, to put these numbers here, it only looks like chaos. Until you understand the pattern.

Tabitha and Jade are startled by a whistle nearby. Dale must have followed them from the town. Dale asks if this is the mysterious tree. Bottles are a nice touch.

Tabitha asks what Dale is doing here. Dale ignores her question and asks if this is it (pointing at the hole in the tree). Dale comes closer and looks deep into the hole. Dale asks if he just goes in the hole.

Jade tells him he wouldn’t do it if he was him. Dale says you are not me, and that’s why you are going to be sitting here with a thumb up your ass while I’m back home figuring out how to get help for everybody back here. See, that’s what a smart person would do.

Jade shouts at Dale repetitively not to enter the tree. Dale says someone has to try anyway. Dale stepped into the tree and was gone. Tabitha and Jade approach the three and he is just gone.

22 — Boyd and Bakta exit the bus. Bakta says if Boyd ever needs anything he just needs to– commotion ahead of them interrupts their talk. People screaming.

Boyd jumps down into the empty pool and approaches Dale who is stuck in the pool’s wall. The tree teleported him into the wall. All that can be seen is his face, his left hand, and left leg. Boyd says he is sorry this happened to him. Boyd decides to unsheathe his gun but Dale dies before he puts him out of his misery.

Boyd asks who is next? Anybody else wants to go through the tree? Go ahead, then! Boyd tries to convince everyone looking at Dale’s fate to understand he is trying to keep them safe and alive. They need to learn more about how to leave this place before going blind and suffering a fate like that. Donna arrives at the scene with horror and fear.

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