The Returned: The Horde
October 30, 2015 5:48 PM - Season 1, Episode 8 - Subscribe

Tensions are high between the living and the dead, as a newer, creepier wave of the returned descends upon them. With the townspeople in fear and the stakes higher than ever, everyone will have to choose sides.

A flashback to the date of Camille's reappearance at the dam shows many Revenants also appearing at the same time. Waking in their car, Victor tells Julie and Laure that a group of Revenants tried to take him from the car in the middle of the night. After Julie prevents Toni from attempting suicide by jumping from the dam, the Revenants appear once more, and the group make their escape. On their way to the shelter, Victor discovers that Toni killed his brother, in turn causing his mother's death, and uses his ability to create visions to make Toni shoot himself in the stomach; he dies shortly after arrival. Simon breaks free from his jail cell and visits Adèle again to tell her that she is now pregnant with another child of his, and he kidnaps his daughter Chloé with the help of Lucy. Thomas arrives at the shelter, and the group realise that there are other Revenants, and that they are coming for them. They arrive at night, led by Lucy, and demand Camille, Victor, and Madame Costa and promise to return Chloé. Madame Costa reluctantly leaves; Julie will not give up Victor, and decides to go with him; and Claire chooses to go with Camille. Chloé is returned, but Lucy then also demands Adèle, promising to go after the living if they do not hand her over. Thomas refuses, and the gendarmes lock the building down before engaging in a shootout. Inside, Chloé tells Adèle that the dead want her because she is pregnant with Simon's baby. In the morning, the Revenants have disappeared, along with every gendarmes, and the people in the shelter step out to discover their town flooded.
posted by gladly (6 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This episode rather split the household: my wife was hugely disdainful of the fact that stuff just happened and it doesn't make any sense, and I rather liked it - there's a sort of dream logic to it which I appreciated.

I still haven't watched any of season 2 - I take it this is a prep for that?
posted by Grangousier at 5:53 PM on October 30, 2015


The Returned returns on Halloween in the U.S. for its second season. I thought it might be easier to talk about the first season in its finale episode.

I found this show almost unbearably creepy but addictive. "The Horde" had such a feeling of dread and the end was scarier to me because of the hidden, bloodless violence of it. Lucy's confident smile is chilling when she tells Thomas that if they don't send Adele they will come for her.

I'm planning to post about the second season if there's interest. I will be watching close to when it airs, but if anyone else wants to post, I'm happy to share the duties.
posted by gladly at 5:58 PM on October 30, 2015


I am so on board for the second season. I feel like I should rewatch the first season, though. It's been a while.

I bought an iTunes season pass for the second season, but I'm not sure how long after the Sundance airing it will be until they put them on iTunes.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:18 PM on October 30, 2015


"The Returned returns on Halloween in the U.S. for its second season. I thought it might be easier to talk about the first season in its finale episode."

Oh! Firstly, this episode is the one I haven't watched. Not that I didn't want to, but I'd heard it was a little disappointing and the person I'd been watching the show with and I just didn't get around to watching it. We'd intended to do so in order to be ready to watch the second season. So I'll be watching this episode soon, I think.

But the important thing is that the second season is going to air in the US. I had no idea about that and I've been really frustrated in my attempts to find the second season episodes online. Almost all that I could find had spanish subtitles hard-encoded. So that means this problem will soon be solved and I'm so excited.

I really enjoyed this show but it's been almost two years since I watched it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:57 PM on October 30, 2015


I just binged the entire first season yesterday. And I'm glad I did because there's stuff I'd forgotten. I feel like if more Americans weren't disdainful of subtitles, this should've been a massive hit show here. (But Sundance is a very niche network, that isn't even as good as it used to be - used to be tons of indie/foreign films now it's mostly Law & Order reruns and, lately, 80s pop movies shown in edited-for-TV cuts. Then the even more 3rd-rate A&E network attempted an English language version and apparently failed, which is really too bad.)

Anyway. I like that this isn't "Walking Dead," brain-eating zombies. It's more eerie this way, I think, that they seem normal, except for the occasional decaying scab.

I noticed more problems and plot holes this time through. #1 is the scar on Lena's back that never gets fully explained and then stops being mentioned after she escapes from Serge & Toni's. All we get is maybe it had something to do with her father hitting her, but the incident is described as a year or more ago so how would a massive scar appear only now? But neither Lena nor Jerome ever explain what the incident was, and it feels like there's more to it that we're not hearing. And then when Lena confronts Camille in the pub she screams something about he hit her because of Camille?

There are a lot of creepy things thrown in - the lake dropping with no leak in the damn, the dead animals, the Horde, the scars appearing on some of the Returned, Lucy's clairvoyance, whether or not the Returned can sleep -- But there seems little in terms of an explanation of how all these things are happening, and I fear there's a bit of "let's just throw this in because it's eerie." I guess what I'm looking for is maybe not "explanation" but a little more clarity on what are the "rules" of this world, of what's possible.

Still very much looking forward to season 2!
posted by dnash at 9:28 AM on November 1, 2015


"(But Sundance is a very niche network, that isn't even as good as it used to be - used to be tons of indie/foreign films now it's mostly Law & Order reruns and, lately, 80s pop movies shown in edited-for-TV cuts. Then the even more 3rd-rate A&E network attempted an English language version and apparently failed, which is really too bad.)"

There may be fewer films than there were, but it's got some of the best television of the last couple of years. First and foremost, Rectify, which I consider to be in the top three television shows on now. And then they're showing Deutschland 83, which is excellent. And The Honourable Woman was some of the best television I watched last year (and was nominated for an Emmy for limited series). Finally, they had Top of the Lake. And this show. Seriously, that's a list of some amazingly great television.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:25 AM on November 1, 2015


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