Wayward Pines: Betrayal
July 3, 2015 1:58 AM - Season 1, Episode 7 - Subscribe

After learning what's at stake, Ethan returns to Wayward Pines, but those he confided the truth are less than receptive to it. Meanwhile, he also discovers the fifth column threat is bigger, more aggressive and better equipped than he thought. Theresa discovers Plot 33 might be more than an empty plot of land. A biology class gets from awkward to creepy in a second.
posted by lmfsilva (9 comments total)
 
There's a lot of things in this episode that are slightly irritating.

WP is, at the very least, a thought control experiment. Yet, the whole police department is one guy and his secretary. He doesn't even seem to have immediate access to the cameras. Considering some people are borderline fanatical about the rules of the town, I'm sure getting a handful of voluntary, part time deputies wouldn't be that hard. Even Twin Peaks has a police department of at least 3 people, and the worst that happens there are occasional possessions and french-canadian drug dealers/pimps coming across the border.

Either the bomb misfired (maybe there was something missing to make a bigger bang?) or not a chance a bomb that failed to instagib (not even kill, ffs) two kids some 10 feet away from it would even dent a freakin' fortified wall.

For hardcore Fifth Columnists, Kate and Harold were surely quick to throw poor Beverly under the bus. And what would be the purpose of killing a sheriff that on his first speech promised to end the reckonings, and for all intents and purposes seems to be very close to Kate, to the point of (later) letting a confessed terrorist walk free because it's her husband? And considering everything is bugged, wouldn't a bar be the worst place to trade a bomb?

While the show is still fun, unless there's more plot twists to come, I sincerely hope there's no second season, because my belief by then will have to hear a jetpack to sustain itself.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:35 AM on July 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


For hardcore Fifth Columnists, Kate and Harold were surely quick to throw poor Beverly under the bus.

Agreed. If Pope had been at that dinner (if he can get into someone's kitchen to raid their freezer for butter pecan, he can certainly insinuate himself into a dinner party) then Kate and Harold would have had no choice. It might have been yet another way to show Pope's hold over the town and later on make it even more surprising that Pope's death changes nothing.
posted by mochapickle at 4:50 AM on July 4, 2015


Well, they were probably under surveillance. But could also simply played it out naturally (I don't remember if they made the call or not) like pretending they heard Beverly say she had a bun, a gun or some rhum. Beverly would have picked up on the faux-pas and not freak out like she did, while Kate and Harold would be in the clear, if someone was listening.
posted by lmfsilva at 6:04 AM on July 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


I honestly hit pause during the biology class and didn't start it again because I was really disturbed by the direction the class was going. I join lmfsilva in hoping there is no second season. I'm not sure I'll even finish this one. I was up for sticking it out till the end of this season but that biology class crossed a line with me and there isn't enough good stuff to keep me around.
posted by miss-lapin at 3:56 PM on July 5, 2015


It would seem that if the whole point were to repopulate, there would be some sort of social or remunerative incentive for having babies early and often, but that doesn't seem to be the case: Everyone gets a very nice house (you get a house! and you get a house! and you! and you!) and everyone has a job assigned to them somewhat arbitrarily (Harold was an accountant and now he's a toymaker; Arlene was a bus driver and now she's a secretary; etc.), and some jobs appear to be entirely just for show (the realtors).

So instead of a reward system everyone would easily grok with, the Powers That Be went with super-awkward biology classes. Bad call, Pilcher.
posted by mochapickle at 8:14 PM on July 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


In Pilcher's defense, he's not someone who really has a clue about human nature. At All. It's not surprising that he doesn't have a clue how to properly motivate teenagers to do the one thing teenagers can absolutely be counted on to do no matter what. But certainly the hypnotherapist should have come up with a more effective method like having a school filled with hidden make out nooks behind the bleachers and under stairwells. You know, like almost every school ever has.

It would seem that Pilcher left out the most important element to his plan, having a few people who really understand human nature to serve as advisers. It's like "What if there was a dude smart enough to save the human race physically, but so clueless about how people actually work that they died out anyway."If that's actually the plot of Wayward Pines, I would start watching again.
posted by miss-lapin at 11:15 PM on July 5, 2015 [6 favorites]


It bugged me (ha) that nobody we're following in the town seems to care about the audio surveillance any longer. I'd think Ethan would be more cautious about spilling the beans if he means to sort-of cooperate with Pilcher.
posted by trunk muffins at 8:13 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm barely hanging on, but I do still have one question: Does Ethan know that the kid knows the truth? Does the kid know that Ethan knows the truth?

("Truth" in big scare quotes there.)
posted by Etrigan at 5:18 PM on July 7, 2015


I've become the Most Annoying Person In The World now, watching this show. "Oh, so it's supposed to be 4028, and this little town and its people are all that's left of mankind as we know it? Is that coffee everyone keeps drinking? Where are the coffee plantations?

etc.

Where are the manufacturers of X, Y, Z? Where are the oil refineries, the farms, the lumber mills, the sewage treatment plants, the EVERYTHING? Except I don't say "everything," I point out every single thing (oh, hey, new Biology textbooks! Cool! Where are the paper manufacturing plants and printing presses?) so I never shut up. Husband is very patient because he is only going along with watching this show because I wanted to, and mostly just pretends to watch, and nods, and keeps saying "what's that guy's name again, 'Rob Lowe'?" In other words. It's pretty much a perfect TV night.

* Yeah, I sort of get that there's supposed (?) to be some kind of vast underground bunker of stuff that has somehow lasted 2,000 years or so, but come on... milk, meat, produce, fabrics/clothes, pharmaceuticals, wood, tires, ALL THE THINGS? ALL THE THINGS, ETHAN???? C'MON!!
posted by taz at 5:42 AM on July 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


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