We pick up right where we left off with Dark Tai taking Van to a tree that has the symbol on it. Van wakes her up and tries to convince her that they should speak with Lottie because, perhaps, she can make some sense of all of this. The degree to which Tai absolutely refuses anything supernatural or “other” is interesting and I do hope we get the full reason one day, but until then, we will have to settle with Tai’s unplanned road trip.
Jeff and Shauna having a regular morning conversation in their kitchen was hilarious. Shauna goes from holding someone up at gunpoint to get her minivan back to talking about a sale on socks at Kohls: this, basically, sums up the job of Mom. Moms get shit done.
Misty and Walter are on a road trip and while the obvious green screen and Elijah doing some piss poor fake driving is distracting, it does allow for Misty to call him out on possibly being someone obsessed with the Yellowjackets. Walter claims that it’s the least interesting thing about her and, instead, flatters her Citizen Detective skills. I don’t trust Walter and I’m shocked that Misty isn’t more suspicious of him.
Walter is a millionaire who, seemingly, has nothing else to do but stalk Misty and eat ham/scrambled egg tacos. When he explains that “Today is Tuesday! Come on with that luck!”, after the waitress tells them that the purple people sell honey on Tuesdays, dude is lying. He fully knew that when he suggested the road trip.
Back in the 90’s, Shauna says someone is stealing bear meat. Between this, the number 2 bucket, Mari hearing a dripping noise and then Crystal finding a mouse and saying, “How long have you been in here?” It kind of seems like we have the answer of where Javi has been this whole time. When Van and Tai find a tree that has melted snow around it, they also find Javi, but he definitely did not want to be found. After what he witnessed at Doomcoming, I wouldn’t blame him from hiding from the girls. He’s probably been living in some hiding spot in the cabin this whole time.
Mari starts some shit, because that’s what she’s good at, and everyone finally argues about Lottie and whether or not she has special abilities. Her and Nat are sent out to see who can come back with food because that will somehow prove which one of them is better at providing for the group. Lottie becomes desperate and offers a blood sacrifice to the altar, but it’s Nat who finds the white moose. Unfortunately, the white moose that we met last week has proven to not be a good omen and this face off between Nat and Lottie seems to only further divide whether or not there is something supernatural going on. If you choose, you can believe that Nat found the moose because Lottie made the blood offering. Or you can choose to believe that Nat found the moose because she has become an excellent tracker and hunter. Either way, neither of them comes back with any food, but Lottie does have an interesting near death experience. At least now we know where the visuals of the underground bunker come from.
Nat and Lisa go on a road trip that, mostly, feels like a time suck, but I am sure it will all make sense at some point in the future. It’s a good vehicle for Nat to call out the cult environment and for Lisa to explain what she’s getting out of it. We also get to meet Lisa’s mom and she is a real See You Next Tuesday that begs the question, did Lisa simply go from one controlling woman to another?
Dr. Graham is on a sabbatical and Lottie is five weeks early for her regular six month appointment, hoping to have her meds upped. The doctor that Lottie is speaking with seems pretty nonplussed about catching up on Lottie’s history. She comes out of nowhere, reads up on Lottie and feels totally cool with telling her she doesn’t need more medication and, maybe, she should listen to her visions and ask herself what they’re trying to tell her? Lottie responds with, “Nothing, because they’re not real.” Now I have to wonder if this substitute doctor is real or one of Lottie’s visions. Later that day, Lottie is going through the daily affirmations of her cult members and right underneath one that says, “I am grateful for my friends,” she sees a Queen of Hearts card. If you’ll remember from season one, the card deck in the cabin was missing all of the Queens.
Shauna finds out that Callie has, in fact, not been sleeping over at her friend’s house and this allows for Shauna to discover what Callie has been up to and in a truly questionable moment of parenting, Shauna tells Callie everything. When she tells Jeff about this, he talks about how they only have ONE chance to raise a kid. (Um, did he not know she was pregnant in the wilderness?) Well, at least Callie is being nice to her parents again: maybe secrets will bring them together.
One final thing: Ben was reading The Magus by John Fowles. Fowles is most notable for his novel The Collector which is, unquestionably, the inspiration for myriad horror novels and films. (Highly recommend reading.) The Magus focuses on Nicholas Urfe who is working on the Greek island of Phraxos: here, he becomes bored and depressed and contemplates suicide, but one day he wanders onto the estate of a wealthy recluse and they have a strange friendship that, ultimately, deals with Nazi’s and Greek myths. The Greek mythology seems to be running strong on this show, but like Van’s map, I’m not sure how to connect the dots yet.
Sidenotes:
– Ben with the shade: “If it had been me, what exactly would you do about it?”
– Mari would make an excellent Real Housewife.
– The montage of Walter and Misty doing the exact same things at the bed and breakfast was pretty cute.
– While You Were Streaming is a great name for a video store.
– If Javi has actually been living in an underground bunker with Desmond, I’m gonna go full Shauna on this show.
Music in episode:
Rainbow Tour – Evita Original Cast
Won’t Waste a Day – James Donald Davies, Martin Jackson Day
Angst In My Pants – Sparks
Novel featured in episode:
Ben was reading The Magus by John Fowles. Fowles is most notable for his novel The Collector which is, unquestionably, the inspiration for myriad horror novels and films. (Highly recommend reading.) The Magus focuses on Nicholas Urfe who is working on the Greek island of Phraxos: here, he becomes bored and depressed and contemplates suicide, but one day he wanders onto the estate of a wealthy recluse and they have a strange friendship that, ultimately, deals with Nazi’s and Greek myths. The Greek mythology seems to be running strong on this show, but much like Coach Ben’s map, I’m not sure how to connect the dots yet.
Lisa Fremont
haddonfieldhorror.com 
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