In the Flesh - S2E6 - Episode 6

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Previously, on In the Flesh: “Episode 5”

A week after it aired on BBC Three in the UK, it’s time for BBC America to bring the season two finale of In the Flesh across the pond and let the rest of us know how this season’s stories come to their conclusion. Let’s get it going!

This episode begins with us meeting two agents of some sort on their way out to Roarton to do some “collections”, which “never go easy”. That’s the cold open; after the title card, we are in Kieren’s room. As he goes to leave, he (and we) learn that his door is locked from the outside; his dad opens the door and informs Kieren that they have decided to let the council send him back to the treatment center so he can “get back to his normal self”. Kieren is like, “This is my normal self”. His dad scoffs and locks the door back. I’m really hating Kieren’s dad here. This motherfucker. Then dad goes and wakes Jem from nightmares she is having about the “rotter” attack at the school. Man, the parents are so focused on Kieren and the problems he isn’t having, they don’t see the genuine problems Jem is having.

Kieren had said to his dad that he wanted to see Amy, and his dad said no. Now, we jump out to the field where Amy had nearly succeeded in asking Philip to mercy kill her before realizing she’s not turning permanently into a zombie, but is instead beginning to regain sensation and feeling in her body; she’s becoming more human. Philip starts trying to get her to tell the doctor what is going on, but Amy rightly tells him they won’t like this, and they’ll just send her back to the treatment center. Philip agrees.

Back at the Walkers’, Kieren is still trying to convince his parents to not send him back to the treatment center, but they’re completely and annoyingly unfazed by his pleading. His parents are just going about their day like they’re not about to send their son off to a fucking torturous facility just because they don’t like that he isn’t pretending everything is like it used to be anymore. I am so over them, now. In the course of this season, they seem to have gone from being totally fine to being shitty people, but it’s more likely they were just faking it at the end of last season. When dad goes to lock Kieren in his room again, they pass Jem, and she won’t even look at Kieren; at least she has the PTSD as a reason for being shitty.

Next, we see Simon praying before his big day of presumably preparing to kill Kieren, and this is juxtaposed with Maxine Martin also praying about whatever she’s doing today. First, with Simon, he goes to leave and his followers want to come; he’s like, “I have to do it alone.” Plus, they’re wondering what it’s going to be like when the dead come back to life, again, today. With Maxine, she exits the B&B and is met by Gary; he wants to go after Simon, but Maxine insists Simon isn’t a threat. Hmm…

Gary doesn’t listen to Maxine, and he goes to Simon’s place, anyway. Once there, he had to knock the door down because nobody is there. On the wall, he sees “and the dead shall rise” (paraphrased); he scribbles this down and leaves, visibly perturbed.

The two people we met in the beginning of the episode have now made it to Roarton, and they are speaking with Amy’s doctor; they’re looking for her. The doctor doesn’t know where she is, but we do. We go back out to her and Philip, and they’re still coupling things up on their walk back to town.

Outside of the Walkers’, Jem actually shows concern for Kieren, as she and dad are leaving. She asks what’s going to happen to Kieren and hopes the treatment center isn’t going to lock him up and do “things” to him. Dad is in denial and just thinks they’re going to “get Kieren back to his old self”. Ignorance is no excuse, though!

We get a nice scene of Philip standing up for Amy when the two of them show up at the city hall (?) for an event. I still feel like the character of Philip has had the best development of the season. Really fantastic.

Meanwhile, Maxine Martin is out at the newly completed fence leading a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Gary shows up at Kieren’s and meets Kieren right as Kieren has just managed to unlock his door. Gary throws Kieren on the bed and demands to know where Simon is. We know Kieren doesn’t know, and Kieren knows Kieren doesn’t know, but Gary doesn’t know that. I love this scene, because it’s funny and exposition.

Back at the shitty fair (that’s what I’m calling it because I didn’t catch what the hell it’s actually called). Philip’s mother shows up and we see that the living are beginning to notice that Amy has started to be able to eat. They don’t know what the fuck to think. Philip’s mom approaches, Amy pretends she forgot she’s not supposed to eat and is now sick, and then mom tells Philip he “done good”. Aww.

Back at Gary and Kieren’s slumber party, Gary is tearing Kieren’s room apart looking for any evidence or just anything he can pretend is evidence. Eventually, he finds some blue oblivion and determines that Kieren was planning to take it and go “rabid”. So Gary drags Kieren outside and throws him into his truck. Simon sees this happen. Gary takes Kieren out into a field, pours the Blue Oblivion into Kieren’s neck port thing and sets him free to run out into the woods. Simon also sees this.

While all of this has been going on, that ceremonial ribbon-cutting ceremony actually had kicked off a march toward the cemetery, where the citizens of the town (at least those who showed up) are planning to use crude weapons and HULK SMASH rabids or whatever. On the way, Maxine Martin had excused herself and left Jem in charge of the march. Well, now, the march has reached the cemetery and who is there? That’s right: Simon’s cohorts. They’re there chanting to have the dead rise again, and they set their sights on keeping the townspeople out of the cemetery. How are they going to do this when they’re so outnumbered? They’re going to take Blue Oblivion and go rabid. Now, it would seem Kieren is going to make his way there, and we’re going to see Jem get another chance to kill him. That can’t happen, right? I don’t know!

Elsewhere, we see where Maxine Martin has gone: the other graveyard where the grave she’s been visiting is: it’s her little brother, and she wants him to come back.

Meanwhile, Gary radios Jem and tells her Kieren has taken a lot of Blue Oblivion and is in the graveyard of which she’s right outside. She goes in, gun drawn, and finds Kieren all rabidding-out. Who else goes in? Their dad. He gets between Jem and Kieren and insists Kieren recognizes him. Dad seems to have a way of redeeming himself in season finales. Kieren fights the deadening for a bit, as Simon looks on. Suddenly, Simon makes his move, only to be grabbed by Gary; fucking Gary. Kieren now has two guns on him, but he continues to fight it. Simon breaks free from Gary and runs, full-sprint, toward Kieren. Is he going to kill him? No, of course not; he leaps in front of him and takes the bullet that would have killed him. They’re both okay, and Simon helps Kieren up (with Kieren’s dad). I should point out here that Jem still didn’t shoot Kieren; the bullet came from the other person’s gun. As Simon is helping a shaken Kieren walk away, Simon’s cohorts are like, “The second rising; what about the second rising?” Simon is over that; he made his choice: Kieren over the second rising; love over duty, and all that. Then everyone lived happily ever after, right?

Nope. Remember how Maxine was in the other graveyard? And you remember how she was conducting her own investigation? Well, it turns out Kieren was not the first-risen; it was Amy. Makes sense, in hindsight. Amy and Philip show up at the graveyard, unaware Maxine is there; she comes up behind them, just after Amy has begun to feel her heart beat again, and she stabs Amy in that heart. See? That’s what Simon had been meant to do to Kieren and couldn’t; Maxine had no qualms with killing Amy.

At the hospital, Kieren and Simon are talking; Simon says he has never seen anyone right the effects of Blue Oblivion. Before we have a chance to see what this scene can lead to, Philip comes busting into the ER carrying Amy’s lifeless body.

Maxine has made her way to the shitty fair, covered in blood, and looking more disheveled than ever before; she was so well-put together, but not now. Now, she is insane. She gives a speech about her brother dying when he was young-due to an accident that was her fault-and then she says the second rising must happen. Since she killed Amy and it didn’t happen, she doesn’t know which person was the first-risen. That means every PDS sufferer in Roarton must be “destroyed”, so they can be sure to get the first one. She gets off the stage and goes toward the B&B lady’s mother-in-law, before she can do anything, though, she is hit with a cattle-prod and taken down.

Back at the hospital, the doctor is perplexed by the fact that Amy is bleeding. After a few intense moments of not knowing if she’ll be saved (complete with Keiren pleading with her not to die because she is his “Best-Dead-Friend-Forever”), the doctor pronounces her dead, again. I absolutely love this scene because-in Kieren, Simon, and Philip-you have three men who all love Amy in very different ways and for very different reasons; they are all devastated in very different ways and for very different reasons. Knowing just as much (or as little) as we know about the relationships she has with these three people, you can read everything on their faces. This is awesome.

We next flash-forward to the day of Amy’s re-funeral. Kieren tells Jem that Gary isn’t invited, and we learn that Jem has since broken up with Gary; she says “If it’s his word against yours, I choose yours.” That’s nice and all, but she better not go back on that shit next season. I’m going to need the issues next season to not deal with Jem or Kieren’s family turning against him; two seasons of that is good enough. After the funeral, we see that Philip has refused to leave Amy’s graveside, a revelation that results in something else awesome: the preacher (or whatever) says “You gotta have faith.” I love that. In this world, “faith” has now extended to the idea that your loved ones may come back… again.

After we see Maxine’s room (and her wall of photos) being dismantled and moved out, we jump to the pub. The living are still quietly shitty about the dead, and the dead are still quietly plotting to find the “first-risen” and bring about a second rising.

At the Walkers’, we rejoin Kieren in the bathroom being all sad and morose, until he sees something out of the corner of his eye; it’s a bracelet. He takes it to Jem and asks her about it. She says Gary made it for her, but Kieren explains that, no, Henry made it. This leads to Jem tearfully confessing that she killed Henry and then telling Kieren she needs help. I’m glad she finally asked for help.

Kieren goes back downstairs to Amy’s wake and talks with Simon. Simon is like, “We should leave Roarton after this and go far away.” However, Kieren is finally happy with himself, so he’s like, “I don’t want to run.” After recalling what Amy had said to him about “How many miles do you need to run away before you will be okay with yourself?” So, Simon agrees to stick around, and now Kieren’s parents are okay with him. You know, Kieren mentions that it’s not Simon’s fault that Amy’s dead; he says it’s Maxine’s fault because she killed Amy over some crazy belief. That’s the same belief that almost led Simon to kill Kieren. It’ll be interesting to see if Kieren ever does find out Simon nearly killed him; if Kieren does turn out to be the real first-risen, that’ll probably come up next season when the rest of the Prophet’s disciples continue their mission.

In the final scene of the season, we go back out to Philip. He’s still sitting beside Amy’s freshly covered grave… until he does finally give up. He leaves Amy’s stuffed animal on the dirt and walks away; he hears something and turns around to see that the stuffed animal has fallen over, but then he just turns around and continues walking away. Okay, now, this is where I have to say he should have gone back to the grave. I mean, given the fact that you know people have come back by pushing their way out of graves, it would make sense that you might think she’s doing that. He doesn’t, though. Once he’s gone, we see a car is parked just a little while away: it’s the two people who were looking for Amy, earlier. What the fuck?! They’re like, “Geez, finally.” They thought Philip would never leave. They begin digging Amy up, and they say “There’s still time.” That’s how the season ends.

I mean, that’s how the season ends? Goddammit! Cliffhanger of a fucking cliffhanger. What the hell is going on with Amy? What are these people doing? I don’t want to wait to know!

But I have to; we all have to. I’ll be right here next season to find out what the fuck this shit was all about, and I hope you will join me again in 2015.