Bellamy wakes up, gasping for breath, in the middle of
nowhere. He remembers running with Jason – and soldiers taken Jacob from him,
hitting him in the process. He runs back to town and staggers to the Langston
home. He tearfully tells them he couldn’t keep Jacob safe – and Jacob comes
downstairs.
At breakfast he remembers only that he was locked up in an interrogation room, injected with something – then he woke up in the middle of nowhere. In Arcadia, all Returned with loved ones got to go home to them – the rest are still in government hands and Lucille thinks they’re being spied on. As an added bonus, the media is reporting the whole incident as a hoax so it has been well covered up. Bellamy is also missing a week of memories and has stabbing chest pains.
When Marty tries to call his boss he gets a strange woman
who is eager to learn where he is – he hangs up on her which is wise but likely
pointless.
Rachel, who has Returned twice, is still pregnant and she
and Tom see Dr. Maggie Langston for ultrasound; Tom has “claimed” her so she
wouldn’t be taken away. Maggie is also not speaking to her dad the Sheriff
which doesn’t surprise me at all – and she and Bellamy have a happy/shocked
reunion. She checks him over and finds no health complaints. She does offer her
couch to sleep on since he no longer has his room at the inn and he intends to keep
investigating this mysterious government agency.
He stays with her to increase the whole “will-they-won’t-they”
that may be sneaking in, a great scene
on how the Returned have affected them and Bellamy shares the full story of the
case we’ve seen flashbacks – a boy was a witness in a human trafficking case
who was killed. More revelations are interrupted by Bellamy’s boss, Toni,
calling with a cryptic request to meet him so she can give him some answers.
Sheriff Langston is getting flak from the people of
Arcadia for calling in the army (whether because of the hoax story that made
them look like fools or the hassle or the removal of the Returned – hey there’s
lot of reasons to be pissed at this guy). He stomps around like a bad tempered
child on the discovery that his actions have consequences. He also hits the
bottle. He tries stalking his daughter and “apologising” for something completely
different rather than admitting his wife and nephew are back – enraging Maggie.
When Bellamy appears, the fool Sherriff even tries to attack him (alas, Maggie
is sensible enough to stop it) and Bellamy just pins Fred before he hurts
himself.
Time for a new Returned – Jacob’s grandma! The mother of
Henry and Sheriff Fred. Time for Henry to pull out his best acting chops for
another stunned reunion. They talk and Henry reveals that Fred is, alas, an
arsehole. Henry tries to sugercoat it, but Lucille isn’t playing along – Fred tried
to have Jacob taken away and she’s not pulling any punches.
Henry tries to call Fred but he’s busy drinking at the bar where Elaine works (she may be the last person in town who doesn’t hate Fred) and refuses to even consider his mother is back. The drunken Fred takes Elaine riding in his car, playing with the sirens, breaking abandoned building windows and being the worst Sheriff ever encouraging Elaine to shoot things. And then Fred ruins even that rapport by trying to kiss Elaine which she quickly puts a stop to
Bellamy goes to his clandestine meeting with his boss in
Chicago only to have a belated flashback that his boss was also in on the
secret government agency round up – and that she’s brought goons; Bellamy runs.
He confronts her later and she claims she was told Bellamy
was unstable, especially since she bought the idea there was a hoax. She’s
convinced he’s mentally ill.
When he goes home, Tori is waiting for him, again. She wants him to go back to Arcadia and spy on the Returned. And if he refuses, he’ll be locked up with the other Returned. Yes, other. Bellany was shot trying to escape and died – and Returned. His body – his other body – is in a secret morgue.
Back to the Langstons and grandma Langston advises Jacob
to keep his ability to sense other Returned quiet before she and Henry discuss
how Fred has always been an arsehole. Granny goes to see Fred who is about to
do something unwise with a gun. When he says she’s not her she slaps him (go
granny!) Repeatedly doing so every time he denies she’s his mother. She takes
his gun off him and holds him while he cries. Awww, c’mon, one more slap?
Intriguing. More twists with Bellany returned – with Bellany
newly returned anyway. And we have some promising family drama with the
Langstons which they already did so well with Jacob coming back. I do wonder
how they’re going to do this without going over old ground or rehashing the
same emotional turmoil.
What I am a little leery of is the whole mystery of the
Returned now risks being supplanted with the mystery of a government conspiracy,
what they’re doing, what they’re planning etc. Especially sicne the big mysteries
of last season - that Bellamy was already a Returned, perhaps the first
Returned, has now been hurriedly shuffled under the rug.
