Opening flashback – Claire photographing Peter then
swimming with Peter, then kissing Peter then apparently having sex with him
while she discusses how her life changed course when she met Jack, giving up
her career as a photographer. She talks about her dreams becoming dreams for
her children.
So Claire and Peter were having an affair before Camille
died and she and Jack separated.
Despite her talk of her dreams changing, when she returns
home she seems to visibly steel herself before going in.
In the present we have another reminder with Camille that
the Returned are always hungry and Lena comes home. After a tense moment, the
sisters hug and Lena cries. Claire watches and seems relieved
The next day, Lena tells Peter, Jack and Claire about
Tony trying to hold her prisoner when she found Lucy’s necklace- implying that
Tony kidnapped her in the first place. Jack storms off seeking revenge and
certainly doesn’t listen to Peter when he tries to stop him (though he does
have a territory-marking “that’s not your daughter, not your family” line.)
Peter keeps following him
At the cabin Tony and Adam hear the cars coming and Tony
tells his returned brother to leave. Jack attacks Tony and only stops when Peter
smacks him with a branch – Peter seems rather bored by the whole thing
Back at the Winship house, Camille examines Lena’s wound
and it’s reduced to a small, faded scar. Lena puts it down to a physical
representation of her survivor’s guilt and it’s all gone because they’re reconciled
and together. It’s a good moment to see the sisters together again
Over to Tommy and Rowan’s house as the emergency services
cart out the body of Simon who Tommy just murdered. Together Tommy and Rowan
lie about what happened to cover up Tommy’s murder.
Tommy decides the best way to commemorate murder cover up
is with flowers, while Rowan has thrown out the carpet Simon bled all over. He
has a brief moment of panic where he thinks Rowan has hurt herself – but she’s
just resting and listening to music. Rowan helps Tommy justify murdering Simon –
because Simon was suicidal it’s totally ok to murder him, apparently (and can
we add how much worse this is since Rowan herself has tried to kill herself?).
Now time for post-murder wedding planning and sex.
At the police station Nikki is doing her own digging –
and finds the case in 1986 when Victor and his mother were murdered. With
photographs clearly showing Victor. She hurries to Julie’s in the middle of the
night to tell her about the zombie child she’s hosting. But Julie doesn’t want
to know, she says whatever terrible thing happened to Victor is in the past
(and yes we have a whole shed load of projecting here). She’s also decided she
has been chosen by fate to take care of Victor.
But Nikki has another bombshell – 4 years ago another
woman was in Julie’s position. She found Victor, silent and took him in. The
woman was a teacher at Camille’s school and died in the bus crash – after it
swerved to
avoid Victor as we saw in the pilot.
Flashback to 4 years where said teacher decided the appropriate
way to deal with Victor, or Zack as she called him, was to abandon him by the
side of a rural road. Really, lady? That’s not appropriate with a dog, let
alone a child! And this woman’s a teacher! Of course Victor stares creepily
after her. Three days after she abandoned Victor, the bus crashed swerving to
avoid him
In the present Nikki also adds that even if he wasn’t a
zombie, Victor is the creepiest of creepy kids and he scares her. Julie doesn’t
listen – and Victor overhears every word.
Tony is taking to the police station where he confesses
to Nikki and Tommy to killing and attacking all the women Adam attacked (Nikki,
doing a terrible job of questioning him, feeds him all their names).
Nikki calls Julie and tells her they have her attacker –
telling her she’s sure they have the right man and that she needs Julie to go
to the police station. She goes, taking Victor with her. Peter calls Claire to
tell her what happened though they talk more about how Peter stopped Jack from
killing Tony.
Julie goes to the police station but none of the jewellery
found is hers – she didn’t lose any. The thought of seeing Tony sends her into
a panic attack and Nikki has to help her stop hyperventilating.
Camille has been thinking about the Kratskis, another
family who lost a child in the bus crash and despite the awful timing with
everything else going on decides to take a trip over to them with Claire. They
find the door open and when they go inside they find their bodies, hanging.
Beneath them is a shrine to their dead son.
They go home because Claire doesn’t want Camille involved
with the police and Peter offers to go over and pretend to find them and it’ll all
be fine except, as Jack points out, Camille’s trauma which he blames on Peter.
Peter pushed Camille to tell the Kratskis about their son in heaven, to lie to
them, and they committed suicide on the strength of those lies. Claire agrees,
knowing how desperate they were after losing Camille. Peter tries to squirm out
of it – talking about his wish to help people and when Jack calls him out on it
Peter decides to tear into Jack for getting drunk and having sex with Lucy
rather than looking after his family. Classic deflection to dodge
responsibility and Claire stomps on that and kicks Peter out.
Jack, of course, follows to rub his nose into the dirty –
claiming Peter was a manipulator who preyed on Claire while she was grieving so
he could have sex. Of course Peter hits back with the news that they were
having sex before Camille died.
Lena concentrates on trying to comfort Camille, assuring
her that the Kratskis weren’t handling their grief in a healthy way even before
Camille spoke to them – but Camille is worried not just about them but how she’s
changed, how she doesn’t sleep, how she’s always hungry. She fears what she’s
becoming.
Tony returns to his cabin to find all his trophies
missing. Stressed and sweaty he goes to the police station and asks to speak to
a cop – distracting the woman watching Victor long enough for him to go
wandering. He finds Tony and stares at him through the one way mirror. The
lights in Tony’s room flicker and his mother appears yelling at him about how
to keep the secret and to make it right. Tony slams his head into the table
repeatedly. The police try to restrain him but he grabs one of their guns and
shoots himself
All the while Victor looks on creepily. Julie hustles him
out. Adam runs from the building
At Rowan’s, Chloe has a temper tantrum because she wants
her dad back
And in the morgue, Simon wakes up.
I want to know what’s going on with child services in
this world. A teacher decides to abandon a child by the side of the road. The
police decide to put a silent child in an adult homeless shelter with no
guardian, in a dorm full of adult strangers. What is wrong with these people?
Lord of the Flies had more appropriate adult supervision than this town!
The Krakski’s suicide is tragic – but also a powerful
exploration of unforeseen consequences, but really they should have been
foreseen. If you have proof, hard concrete proof of an actual afterlife and a
loved one you’re desperate to be reunited with (saying they hope to see you
again) then suicide must become a foreseeable option. Peter’s defence is also
hollow – he didn’t tell Camille to lie? No, but he shamed her and attacked her
for not providing comfort. He manipulated her into lying; together this shows a
side of Peter – no matter how good his intentions are or how much he hungers
for redemption, his “end justifies the means” mentality is not only dubious but
also arrogant and manipulative. He sees no problem in deceiving and using
people to achieve what he considers to be the greater good.
Rowan and Tommy’s justifications of Simon’s murder are
pretty repellent. Of course murder cover up is never pretty, but the moralising
the idea that killing Simon was ok because he chose to die in the past is
horrendous – this presents murdering people who have attempted suicide as
justifiable. And from Rowan of all people – a woman who has tried to commit
suicide before
