In the Flesh - S2E5 - Episode 5
Previously, on In the Flesh: “Episode 4”
In the penultimate episode of the season, it’s time to learn just what the hell Simon’s phone call was all about, and we immediately do. Simon is paid a visit by another of the Prophet’s disciples (I think his name is Julian), and this guy brings with him a video message from the Prophet. As Simon sits at the edge of the bed, eagerly awaiting the message to begin playing, the video begins, and it’s the Prophet telling Simon that he wants him to sacrifice the first-risen. As we know, the first-risen is Kieren. Will Simon do it? He looks reluctant.
After the other guy leaves, Simon slinks to the floor and really is clearly conflicted about his new mission. With that, we jump to a flashback of Simon being woken up by doctors. Apparently, he was one of the first-if not the first-to respond positively to the “cure”. He asks “Where am I?”, and then we hit the opening credits.
After the credits, Kieren’s family is having breakfast, and Kieren’s father is still reeling from what Kieren said he did while he was untreated. Just as mom gets dad to chill out, Kieren comes in without his coverup on. This causes both dad and Jem to leave the room. Before anything can really be said, Dean comes in and says he’s there to arrest Kieren for the vandalism of the hospital and the subsequent attack of the nurse. Apparently, Maxine Martin says he did it, even though everyone knows he didn’t.
Kieren is taken in front of a kangaroo court of three people who have already decided he’s guilty (along with Simon, who cannot be found). They demand Kieren make a taped confession to avoid being sent back to the treatment center. Kieren is all, “Bull fucking shit”, yells into the tape recorder “I didn’t do it!”, and throws that shit to the ground. I was like, “Yeah! Go, Kieren!” Then they call him a “monster”. These motherfuckers.
Back in Simon’s flashback, we find out Simon was definitely the first to respond to the chemical compound the doctors had synthesized to fight the zombiism. The doctors want to continue to experiment on Simon, and he agrees because he wants to be helpful. What follows is a “procedure” that look an awful lot like electroshock therapy. They begin shocking him until there’s a power surge that knocks out the power; during this, Simon receives a message from the Prophet (this is the first time he has ever heard from the Prophet; he tells Simon the doctors are lying to him). Simon later meets another “patient” who also heard the Prophet’s voice speak to him. This guy tries to convince Simon that he living are just using them.
Out of the flashback now, we see Amy. Her nose begins to bleed again, and she falls on the floor having a seizure. After she’s helped up and into her bedroom, she insists she’s fine. Once everyone is gone, she breaks down and cries.
At the Walkers’, Kieren’s parents are trying to convince him to sign the confession. These motherfuckers, too! He tells him he didn’t do it, but they don’t believe him; they think Simon put Kieren up to it, and Kieren went along with it to get in with the “cool kids”. I get that they’re supposed to be reacting this way because of Kieren’s outburst at Gary, but I mean, shit. As Kieren says, they’re his family; they’re supposed to have his back. They’re just throwing him under the bus like everyone else.
Meanwhile, Philip is still pissed off at his shitty toaster. After he does a “spot of DIY” on it (which just means he slammed it against the counter), Amy knocks on the door and asks Philip to join her on a little trip. We see that she was asking him to play crazy golf (putt-putt). After a moment of laughs, Philip notices Amy’s hands are shaking. When he asks is she’s okay, she pretends she is. Then she offers to kiss him if he gets a hole-in-one. He focuses really hard and tries to make the shot-a very easy shot-and he misses. He says he wanted it too much, and then Amy kisses him anyway.
Gary shows up at Maxine’s place and gives him Simon’s shit; he stole it. After she takes a look at it, Gary eagerly offers to kill Simon, but Maxine tells him to slow his roll. Once Gary has left, Maxine watches the video of the Prophet telling Simon to kill the first-risen.
Back in Simon’s flashback, he has now been given his contacts, and now he is expected to meet his family, even though the doctors had promised they wouldn’t see him before he was “fixed”. In a conversation between the doctors, we see the first moment when they mention that they have not been able to find a cure; only a treatment. This is also the moment when the euphemism “Partially Deceased” was coined, as they try to figure out how to get these undead back out into the public.
Simon is reunited with his father. It’s so weird to see Simon in this weak state, mentally. Emmett Scanlan does a great job here of completely erasing the Simon we’ve known up to his point and recreating him as this unsure little boy talking to his father. When Simon asks his father where his mother is, his father is like, “You don’t remember?” It turns out that, while Simon was in his “untreated state”, he killed his mother. Damn. His father can’t handle the conversation and leaves, when a shocked, saddened, and angry Simon yells after his father to tell him what happened, he is hit with a cattle prod. Simon’s back story is great and goes a long way to explain that character.
In present time, Kieren is now home alone and decides he’s tired of just sitting around; he walks out and right by the crack security team of Dean and just Dean. He goes to Simon’s place, but Simon isn’t there, of course. We see a shot of Simon pulling out a knife.
In the flashback, the doctors are now cutting into Simon on a surgical table. As they do this, Simon pleads with them that he doesn’t want to do this anymore. After they’ve left the room, Simon, once again, hears from the Prophet.
Meanwhile, Kieren is rummaging through Simon’s stuff when Amy walks in and catches him mid-rummage. She doesn’t care, and then he has to cut their conversation short to get back to his house arrest. She has a bag packed, though, and now it’s like she’s saying goodbye.
Bouncing right back to the flashback, Simon is now being released from the treatment center. His dad comes back to pick him up, and then we get to see an abridged version of what we saw Kieren go through with his first time being back home after being released from the treatment center. We see Simon’s old room where he had racing posters and typical teenager type stuff. This scene is overlaid with a nice song that makes this feel extremely melancholy. His dad gets them dinner, and we know Simon can’t eat it. Anyway, eventually, Simon tries to apologize about what he did to his mother, but his father doesn’t want to hear it. Later that night, as Simon lies awake in his colorful, childhood bed and listens to his dad crying in the other room. Suddenly, his dad bursts into the room, packs Simon’s shit, and tells him he to get the fuck out. Damn, Simon’s dad is a bit mercurial, isn’t he?
Boom, we go right back to the present and see Kieren coming home to his parents all pissed that he was out. Kieren’s dad has turned against him and admits he’s even afraid of him. The show has done a great job juxtaposing Simon’s falling out with his father-due to no fault of his own-with that the same incident between Kieren and his dad. As a viewer, you have no choice but to feel as though the two of them now seriously need each other. The problem? Simon’s supposed to kill Kieren, so that could cause some issues.
We now jump over to Amy sitting alone in a tent, in the middle of nowhere. She has a screwdriver, and she appears to be finishing up her last will and testament. Yikes. Just then, Philip shows up. She invited him here, and then she asks him if he’s ever killed anything; he hasn’t. She has him handcuff her, and then she tells him that she has become immune to the medication, so she will eventually turn rabid and not be able to come back. He doesn’t want to, of course, but she insists that he should put her out of her misery. Philip can’t catch a break.
At the B&B, the lady of the house is super excited to watch the finale of her favorite show; she’s so excited that she has kept herself locked in her bedroom all day to avoid any spoilers (the finale aired the previous night). She, her husband, the mother-in-law who hates her, and Maxine are all sitting down to watch the episode. The woman even pours everyone a glass of champagne for the occasion; she’s a huge fan of this show. Well, she pours everyone a glass except the mother-in-law; she’s a PDS sufferer, and the drink will just go right through her and puddle into a mess that will have to be cleaned up. As a result of this shittiness on the part of the woman, the mother-in-law spoils the show for the woman. This results in their entire family imploding. The woman starts crying and angrily confronts her husband about the fact that he’s never pleased her. I mean, this woman really loves this show. Anyway, in a roundabout way, it comes out the this woman witness the rising firsthand. Maxine actually starts to pay attention to this part of the conversation because it can help her with her bullshit.
Out in the tent of euthanasia, Philip is just about to stab Amy in the head with the screwdriver when a tear in the roof of the tent allows rain to drip onto her face… and she can feel it! She hasn’t become immune to the medicine; she no longer needs it! Presumably.
At the Walkers’, Kieren’s parents have decided that maybe going back to the treatment center would be good for him. These motherfuckers, again! Kieren overhears them talking about this and decides something for himself: he’s getting the hell out of there. He writes a note.
Back at the B&B, Maxine has the woman take a look at her wall of PDS sufferers in Roarton and point out which one was the first-risen. We don’t see which face she points at, though, which makes me think it wasn’t actually Kieren. We’ll see.
We take one more trip to Simon’s flashback and see he is now living on the street. He eventually makes the decision to call the Prophet. After making the call, he go on a sojourn that takes him what seems like miles and miles to what would look to be an abandoned city. In this city, He goes into one building, knocks on one door, and it welcomed into a room full of other PDS sufferers who smile and hug him. This is how runaway youths end up in cults and shit; they go from not having anyone who cares for them to having a whole group of people who profess to love them.
The episode ends in present time with Simon again looking at his weapons.
I can’t wait to see the finale next week!
