Between - S1E5 - End of the Rope
On day twenty of the quarantine, it is safe to say that these poor kids need some serious help. The episode opens with an injured Creeker, who was evidently attacked by a velociraptor judging from the size of the infected gash on her leg. Pat sends Wiley into town to retrieve antibiotics. The catch: They’ll be holding on to her baby to insure that she returns. Because why wouldn’t you run from the attempted rapist and his creepy family?
After the title card, Adam is inspecting all of his research on the virus and its origins. After tacking Miss Symmons’ yearbook photo on his wall of deceased, he studies the device he pulled from the pocket of Art Carey a couple of weeks ago and then never mentioned or looked at it again. He decides to go search Art’s abandoned house and finds Art was a prison guard, so he takes his search to the prison.
At the farm, Gord talks with the Mennonite he and Frannie found in a field at the end of last episode. They talk about the past and how she used to attend school with Gord, but then disappeared. She’s slightly cryptic about life with the Mennonites, but is clear that she doesn’t want to return to her village, so Gord offers her a place to stay on his farm. Just then Frannie comes to inform them that something is wrong with the cows, which turns out to be mastitis. Mennonite girl suggests some liniment oil from her village. Frannie volunteers to drive her because Gord is summoned to town. Have we not learned our lesson about children operating vehicles yet?
In town, Gord finds Chuck and his crew huddled around Vince, who violently vomited the contents of his stomach a little earlier in the episode. After poking him in the stomach a couple of times and causing him to puke again, Gord diagnoses him with a ruptured appendix because he’s also Doogie Howser, M.D. Gord and Chuck agree Vince needs a hospital, but Chuck decides that he is going to fly Vince in a plane over the wall to take Vince for help. Gord is not here for this plan, but Chuck doesn’t care and Kevin, who actually has flight experience, volunteers to take him in the family plane.
As they are deciding what to do, Wiley arrives at the pharmacy where they have been evaluating Vince. She is looking for the antibiotics for the Creeker girl with the velociraptor leg, but Chuck basically tells her to fuck off since Ronnie stole all of the good medicine from the pharmacy and therefore the Creekers don’t need any additional medicine. He sends Wiley back to the Creekers to retrieve the Oxy that Ronnie stole and bring it back for Vince and trade for the antibiotics.
Wiley runs into Adam heading to the prison. His hair has gotten increasingly more ridiculous as each episode passes. They both apologize and make plans to meet up later and they both continue on their way, with Adam going to the prison. The prison guard who is in on this whole virus/quarantine situation is holed up there and reviewing information on her phone about Adam. When she discovers that his father is Clarence Jones, she is alarmed and then picks Adam up on the surveillance cameras and locks all of the prison gates so he is trapped.
Out at the creek, Ronnie is suffering through the DTs because not only does he steal all of the Oxycontin, he also takes all of the Oxycontin. Evidently his family found out and took away his drugs because he is shaking and sweating in his bed like a fiend. After a confrontation with his sister, he flushes the remainder of the pills and his sister and he have a moment over his addiction battle. When Wiley returns, Pat and the sister lament the loss of the pills because they needed them to trade for the antibiotics.
At the plane hangar, Chucks talks to Kevin as they get ready to taxi and take off. After the plane gets a very bumpy and shaky start, just as it clears the tree line a rocket comes and blows it the fuck up. I’ll be honest, my jaw dropped at this moment. I did not see that coming. At all. Shortly, Gord shows up to yell “I told you so!” at Chuck and his friends, so Chuck decks him. They fight and both get a few knocks in before parting ways on bad terms.
Back at Chuck’s mansion, Amanda realizes she accidentally left the door open and therefore their dog, Jack, escaped. Amanda goes on a search for Jack and sees Harrison’s (the kid strapped to the pole all of last episode) sister walking Jack down the street. Amanda has no chill, so she runs up to her screaming that this is her dog. The girl explains she was on her way to their house from the address on Jack’s collar to see if his owners were still alive. Amanda waxes poetic about her brother Chuck and changes this girl’s mind about how much of a dick Chuck is. Hint: He’s still kind of dick, he’s just having a really, REALLY bad day.
Back at the creek, Pat and his sister debate what to do to get the antibiotics since they no longer have the Oxy to trade for it. While Pat articulates his plan, Wiley packs up her baby and gets the fuck out of dodge. Unfortunately, she is stopped by Ronnie in the driveway who ends up giving her the keys to the car and telling her that they need the meds whether she stays or goes. She drives off, but then turns around and comes back to get Pat and once again leave her baby with their sister. Not to be judgemental, but this baby does nothing but scream with her, so I am thinking a new sitter needs to be found.
Chuck arrives home devastated because he just watched two of his friends get blown the fuck up in front of his eyes. When he gets home, Amanda wants to play Crazy Eights and he is just not in the mood, so he tells her maybe later. Amanda is all about times, so she insists on him giving her an exact time of when they can play and he snaps on her to stop acting like a baby. She yells back to the effect of, “Right back atchya,” and then runs out. She takes Jack with her for an evening walk but when they stop at a bench, Jack gets spooked and takes off with his leash so Amanda takes off running after him to catch him.
At the pharmacy, Wiley and Pat search for antibiotics. They find some just as Melissa comes in to get some medicine for her orphanage kids. Melissa is judgey as Melissa is apt to be, so they part ways and head back to the creek with their medicine. As they drive, they discuss Ronnie and how boneheaded he is, and Pat gets passionate and takes his eyes from the road for a second and plows into Amanda who is still chasing Jack. Wiley attempts to help her, but Amanda bleeds out and dies in the street and Pat convinces Wiley that they need to leave or Chuck will shoot them, so she apologizes to Amanda’s body and they leave.
Melissa stops by the bar to have a nightcap, and when Pretty Eyes asks her about the orphans she says they are down for the night so it’s totally fine that she’s out at the bar. Seems legit. They chat for a bit and she leaves despite Pretty Eyes trying hard to convince her to stay. As she walks home, she comes across Amanda’s body in the street. Someone sends for Chuck, who is at home having a nice evening with the sister who comes by to apologize for getting mad at him last week when Chuck strung her brother up. His buddy comes in tearfully to tell him and he goes out to the street to find everyone gathered around her. Poor Chuck is having a really shitty day.
Out at the farm, Gord stands in the barn remembering his father hanging himself from the rafters. Anna (the Mennonite) comes in with the liniment oil that her and Frannie retrieved and they talk about their parents. Anna patches up Gord’s busted face and they kiss because blood is so romantic. Later, they sit down to dinner with Frannie and Gord suggests that they just stay on the farm from now on and that the kids can come out from town and get the milk every day, but that they need to stay safe and secure on the farm. Later as Gord checks on his cows, a Mennonite man walks into the barn looking for Anna and says that she’s his wife. Ruh roh.
At the creek, the poor baby is still screaming his little head off and this is not helping Ronnie get through his detox. He finally loses it and comes out into the living room with a knife and at this point, I wouldn’t put it past this show to kill that baby, but his sister stops him. She then stops him from cutting his own wrists and he collapses and asks her what is wrong with him. I know this was supposed to be a touching moment, but I am still having a hard time with Ronnie being all rapey in the last episode.
While all of this chaos is happening around town, Adam is still locked in the prison with the unhinged and armed prison guard. He hides in the kitchen for a while, but she tracks him down and asks him some questions at gun point (barrel point?). He tells her that he thinks that Art Carey is behind the infection and that he found the device in Art’s pocket. He tries to convince her to come with him and help him figure everything out, but she slams his head into the oven and says she is on Art’s side.
She looms over Adam with her shotgun once she has ascertained that he hasn’t told anyone else about his theories or findings. As she is about to shoot him, she is shot from behind by an older man. He walks up to Adam and it turns out that this is Adam’s father.
This show has really picked up in the past week or two for me. The plot lines are still a little all over the place, but they are starting to weave into each other much better to make for a very interesting story. I’m definitely excited to see where we go next week!
