Wayward Pines: A Reckoning
July 17, 2015 5:10 AM - Season 1, Episode 9 - Subscribe
Theresa gets a hand from Nurse Pam. Ethan is pressured to execute Kate. Harold and the bomb plot conspirators get a visitor bearing gifts.
Next week will the be the series finale, but a second season is still not ruled out, although very unlikely to feature the same cast as contract options expired.
Next week will the be the series finale, but a second season is still not ruled out, although very unlikely to feature the same cast as contract options expired.
Well, thank god that security guard lady happened to spill her coffee at the EXACT moment that mom was about to smash the security camera. It's coincidences all the way down.
This show is absolutely bananas, but in a very enjoyable way – it's like something 13-year-old me would have written, thinking it is so profound with all of its insights into climate change and free will and commercialism and what not, and then hastily thrown away, embarrassed, when I found it in a drawer four years later.
Young Angry Dead Poet's Society's friends sure turned on him pretty easily at the jail, didn't they?
And that big emotional scene with the crowd at the end: I think the idea that someone telling The Truth to a crowd can change their minds in the face of a lifetime of institutional indoctrination might be the most sci-fi thing about this whole show.
posted by jbickers at 8:00 AM on July 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
This show is absolutely bananas, but in a very enjoyable way – it's like something 13-year-old me would have written, thinking it is so profound with all of its insights into climate change and free will and commercialism and what not, and then hastily thrown away, embarrassed, when I found it in a drawer four years later.
Young Angry Dead Poet's Society's friends sure turned on him pretty easily at the jail, didn't they?
And that big emotional scene with the crowd at the end: I think the idea that someone telling The Truth to a crowd can change their minds in the face of a lifetime of institutional indoctrination might be the most sci-fi thing about this whole show.
posted by jbickers at 8:00 AM on July 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
Still think that such a trimmed down police force doesn't make a lick of sense.
In my headcanon, the police were Volunteers, and they were either killed in or severely traumatized by the fall of Phase One, so Pilcher made the decision to just go Panopticon-and-Reckoning instead, with the knowledge that the First Generation would help enforce his rules soon enough.
But it does reveal one thing that I just cannot accept as is -- the timing of people's introductions into Wayward Pines. We know of at least five people who were "accidentally" recruited: the Burkes, the woman from the Biergarten, and Kate. I understand why Ethan's family had to be reawakened a little after him -- to match up their perceived timelines -- but why did Kate spend a decade awake before they thawed Ethan?
posted by Etrigan at 9:20 PM on July 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
In my headcanon, the police were Volunteers, and they were either killed in or severely traumatized by the fall of Phase One, so Pilcher made the decision to just go Panopticon-and-Reckoning instead, with the knowledge that the First Generation would help enforce his rules soon enough.
But it does reveal one thing that I just cannot accept as is -- the timing of people's introductions into Wayward Pines. We know of at least five people who were "accidentally" recruited: the Burkes, the woman from the Biergarten, and Kate. I understand why Ethan's family had to be reawakened a little after him -- to match up their perceived timelines -- but why did Kate spend a decade awake before they thawed Ethan?
posted by Etrigan at 9:20 PM on July 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
with the knowledge that the First Generation would help enforce his rules soon enough.
Ah, yes, but quoting the words of notorious asshole poet S.P. Morrissey, How Soon Is Now?
He was treading a fine line from the get go as far as controlling people would have. Having a couple of his uniformed, machine-gun carrying and highly trained goons working as regular deputies turning into a paramilitary quick response team unit would be far more useful to prevent things such as "trucks blowing up" and "stolen trucks ramming the gates" than having Ethan/Pope (although he may have been a lot more effective and ruthless than Ethan) alone running towards the action. But at this point, it's safe to say it's less of a plot hole and more that Pilcher knows shit about what he's doing. I think the story pushed in that direction.
posted by lmfsilva at 5:13 AM on July 20, 2015
Ah, yes, but quoting the words of notorious asshole poet S.P. Morrissey, How Soon Is Now?
He was treading a fine line from the get go as far as controlling people would have. Having a couple of his uniformed, machine-gun carrying and highly trained goons working as regular deputies turning into a paramilitary quick response team unit would be far more useful to prevent things such as "trucks blowing up" and "stolen trucks ramming the gates" than having Ethan/Pope (although he may have been a lot more effective and ruthless than Ethan) alone running towards the action. But at this point, it's safe to say it's less of a plot hole and more that Pilcher knows shit about what he's doing. I think the story pushed in that direction.
posted by lmfsilva at 5:13 AM on July 20, 2015
This show's biggest mystery is why Pam has two completely different personalities. If Evil Nurse Ratched Pam is just a character Nice Pam Pilcher plays when she's on the ground in Wayward Pines, Ethan wouldn't have encountered Evil Pam after being shown The Truth. Why would she demand Ethan perform a bloodthirsty reckoning, but then later tell her brother reckonings were a thing to be reluctantly tolerated? I feel like neither 'Evil Pam is a character' nor 'Pam is more rational and humane than her brother and must lie to him to prevent him going Full Hitler' really explain her unpredictability, so I hope there's an actual reason for it in the next episode (though somehow I doubt it).
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 7:15 AM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 7:15 AM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
The logical explanation is that she believed her brother was right and that people needed to be afraid to be docile and controllable, but after witnessing WP 2.0 slowly turning into WP 1.0 again, she bailed out, but I wonder if some scenes were cut and the transition is steeper than intended, or she was just poorly written.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:52 AM on July 21, 2015
posted by lmfsilva at 7:52 AM on July 21, 2015
But it does reveal one thing that I just cannot accept as is -- the timing of people's introductions into Wayward Pines. We know of at least five people who were "accidentally" recruited: the Burkes, the woman from the Biergarten, and Kate. I understand why Ethan's family had to be reawakened a little after him -- to match up their perceived timelines -- but why did Kate spend a decade awake before they thawed Ethan?
I'm sticking with the ending that I would write if I were writing this story: It's still present-day, and there's another wall around the walled-in city to contain the Abbies, and the whole thing is some kind of meta-level experiment in what humans would do under very weird circumstances.
posted by jbickers at 9:14 AM on July 21, 2015
I'm sticking with the ending that I would write if I were writing this story: It's still present-day, and there's another wall around the walled-in city to contain the Abbies, and the whole thing is some kind of meta-level experiment in what humans would do under very weird circumstances.
posted by jbickers at 9:14 AM on July 21, 2015
Yeah, I think it is (or should be) present day as well, and Wayward Pines is an experiment—or, rather, proof of concept. In flashbacks we see that Pilcher's biggest concern is that people don't believe his predictions about the future of the human race. Perhaps he went ahead and engineered the Abbies himself/created Wayward Pines as a way to find solutions to this particular problem.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 9:57 AM on July 21, 2015
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 9:57 AM on July 21, 2015
The present-day explanation doesn't fit the one guy (Kate's partner?) who we saw got to the ruins of the Golden Gate Bridge, though. That wasn't someone else telling the story, as I recall, but information presented to us.
The present-day theory doesn't adequately explain the time jumps, either -- how does Kate think it's been a decade since she came to WP if Ethan thinks it's been a few weeks?
(I'm not discounting the writers trying to do it anyway; just saying that it would be a huge hole if they do.)
posted by Etrigan at 10:52 AM on July 21, 2015
The present-day theory doesn't adequately explain the time jumps, either -- how does Kate think it's been a decade since she came to WP if Ethan thinks it's been a few weeks?
(I'm not discounting the writers trying to do it anyway; just saying that it would be a huge hole if they do.)
posted by Etrigan at 10:52 AM on July 21, 2015
Pilcher lost Pam when he decided he had to punish one of their own.
I like this episode, because it went from Pilcher being misguided but mostly trying to do what's right for people to showing us that no, he's really the control freak Ethan said he is.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 10:05 PM on August 4, 2015
I like this episode, because it went from Pilcher being misguided but mostly trying to do what's right for people to showing us that no, he's really the control freak Ethan said he is.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 10:05 PM on August 4, 2015
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So, Nurse Pam finally got fed up with his brothers power trip? Somehow, I think she started to see the same pattern emerge. I wonder if WP1.0 failed not because people turned against each other, but because Pilcher saw his grip on the town getting loose, and decided to turn off the juice and open the gates. Also: is Pilcher an altruist that lets perfection gets in the way of good enough (let's be honest, people looked confused but accepting of the truth), or a control freak convinced he's god?
Yay Theresa for slapping Megan. A shame there were no shovels, thumbtack gloves or a baseball bat with a rusty nail. Also a shame the kid also didn't die of a broken heart or something. That's how much I like the glee club of the damned / Pilcher Jugend part of the show.
Still think that such a trimmed down police force doesn't make a lick of sense.
posted by lmfsilva at 5:36 AM on July 17, 2015