Flashback opener – to 6 years ago. Rowan is a waitress
and Simon a much less mopey musician in the bar. And it’s the night before Rowan
and Simon get married. Simon also teaches the much younger Lena how to play the
drums and Rowena takes a picture
Rowan also tells Simon she’s pregnant – he says he’s
happy about it but doesn’t look convincing and when she can’t see him, he
cries.
At the wedding he’s a no-show – instead they get the sheriff
telling Rowan about his death. Now that’s a pretty awful wedding day.
In the present Rowan is preparing to marry again (to sheriff
Thomas who told her about Simon’s death at that), same church, same preacher.
They’re all wedding planning when the sheriff is interrupted with news of Lucy’s
attack.
We also get a little ominous with Rowan’s daughter Chloe
turning on a tap and getting ominous black sludge.
When they’re alone Rowan can talk to the pastor about her
misgivings and concerns about the wedding – not that she doesn’t want to be
with Tommy, but because she’s still hallucinating Simon and feels too disturbed
for it all. That pastor gives great advice which would totally be relevant in a
world where the dead hadn’t come back to life.
Meanwhile Camille is realising she actually died and Lena
is more than a little freaked out by her back-from-the-dead-and-unaged twin. Especially
since their parents are desperately trying to pretend all is normal and that
Jack has moved back in for the night. She storms out and Jack tries to stop her
(and make sure she doesn’t loudly talk about their resurrected daughter where
everyone can hear), grabbing her arm. Lena asks “are you going to hit me again?”
Lena ends up at the bar where Simon is eating and she
calls him out on just ditching her on his quest for Rowan. He decides to ditch
her again (and walk out on the bill for his meal). Coupled with his general less
than fun demeanour means the patrons (Hunter) tell the police about him when
they come asking questions about Lucy’s murder. But a drum kit stirs Lena’s
memory – she searches the wall collage and finds a picture of young her and an
unaged Simon.
Simon keeps stalking Rowan to her library and she talks
to him like he’s her hallucination and her inability to let go as the pastor
advised. Until the point where she says she can’t let him go and she’s glad to
be hallucinating. Simon disappearing when her back is turned and also refusing
to say anything really isn’t helping in her whole hallucination theory.
The police take Tony, the bar owner into the station for
questioning because 7 years ago he was a suspect in the stabbing of another
woman in very similar circumstances – and she was just one of several, notable
only because she survived. The female police officer, Nikki Banks, gets very
angry while talking about them.
Sheriff Tommy, meanwhile, finds and arrests Simon where
they discover he is supposed to have died several years ago. Tommy asks about
his connection to Rowan and has Simon locked up (ostensibly for identity theft)
while Nikki gives him a very dubious look.
When he goes home that night he looks through Rowan’s photos and finds one of Simon – and sees just how much like Simon the new Simon looks.
Back at the Winship house, Claire discussing with Peter
(the psychiatrist) the possibility of her and Jack getting back together (the
implication being that it was Camille’s death that drove them apart – or was
the straw that broke the camel’s back anyway). Peter advises against it for
very sensible, solid reasons (and because he has a thing for Claire). Camille
isn’t super happy to see Peter though he is good at putting the most positive
spin on things. Camille also has some rather huge survivor’s guilt as the only
living kid from the bus.
Camille decides to sneak out when she sees Peter and
Claire kissing and Claire finds that Camille has torn up Lena’s room. Claire
calls Jack in a panic over losing Camille again – but the jarring smell of Jack’s
drinking snaps her out of it. She finds Camille crying outside the bar, upset
that Hunter, her one-time crush, no longer even recognises her; everyone has
moved on but her.
Julie goes to the police station to try and find out if
Victor has been reported missing. For some bizarre reason Julie decides to make
up a story about how she saw Victor rather than tell the policeman “hey I have
a semi-silent child at home”. While at the police station she has a shocked
recognition moment with police woman.
She goes home to talk to Victor and ask why no-one is
actually looking for him. No talking but bonus hugs – and she still has a nosy
neighbour, Annie, who really needs a hobby or a blunt instrument to the skull.
Her gossiping does tell Julie about her suicidal patient who jumped off the
dam.
When they go to bed Victor draws creepy pictures of the town falling into a whirlpool while Julie cries before getting into the bath – her scars showing she is the woman who survived the attack Tony was questioned for.
We have the beginning of the ongoing themes that slowly
built up so excellently in the French version of this show – ominous water and
the Returned constantly eating and not sleeping. I’ll give them points for
using the same subtle build up as the original but that, again, is part of the
problem that comes from having watched the French one first; I’m looking for
the first hints of things that probably should be sneaking up on me.
In some ways I wish I hadn’t watched the original because
I think I’d appreciate it a lot more. I’d appreciate Camille’s horror that not
only has everyone gone on aging, but they’ve gone on living. This idea that she
has disappeared from their lives and they’ve all got up… and moved on. Her
sister, her mother, her classmates – about the only one who hasn’t started
building a new life is Jack. That has to be jarring for her and add to her not
feeling like she belongs in their new lives. And equally there is Simon,
reduced to being a ghost in the life of his fiancée. Though I think they need
to accelerate some revelations about him so his reluctance to speak makes sense
All of this is good but a nagging voice in the back of my
head keeps saying “but that was better”. Which is really hard to get past and
appreciate this show for what it is. Especially since it is such a direct copy
I will repeat that this show has increased the racial
diversity – not just with Julie but the Pastor as well. Tommy is latino in this
show while his original, Thomas, was North African and one of the few poc on
the original show.
