Wayward Pines - S1E6 - Choices
Previously on Wayward Pines, ‘The Truth’
The Ruins of Wayward Pines
Pilcher walks down the middle of Wayward Pines’ main street. Everything is in ruins. Buildings are on fire. People are dead in the streets. A group of people run ahead of him into the night.
What.the.fuck? From his hair, I’m gonna say this is a flashback and not a flash forward.
In present day, a little girl rides her bike down the main street. She stops and stares as a helicopter flies overhead. Wonder if she’d ever seen it before.
The chopper takes Ethan, Pilcher, and Pam to the Complex, the building behind the curtain. They pass people working, exercising, making clothes, and answering the phones. One phone operator apologizes to Mr. Johnson (Theresa’s first “customer”) about his wife not getting back to him. I guess now we know who Ethan was talking to every time he tried calling the bureau. Pilcher explains all of these people are volunteers and vital to Wayward Pines. Then he is called away and Pam takes Ethan somewhere she can tend to his wounds.
Lot 33
At home, Ben is struggling with the weight of what he knows. Theresa notices and asks if everything is okay. Ben admits he used to feel pretty small and insignificant when he thought about how large the world was; now he wonders what if everything he did DID matter. Theresa is all, “Why the hell are you thinking about this all of sudden?” (Paraphrasing) He blames it on science class. Theresa accepts that answer even though she should have been wondering what the hell they were teaching her son in his new, weird school.
At her store, Kate signs for a package from delivery man Ted. He asks about a package her husband Harold should have for him in the back. Kate is confused, but takes him back to see Harold anyway. When all three are in the office, the couple light into Ted for arranging the meeting. Ted isn’t sorry. They need to talk about something Peter had, that they need. It wasn’t in his house and Ted doesn’t know how he’s supposed to get it from Peter’s office with the new girl and Bill in there.
Speaking of “the new girl,” Theresa witnesses Henrietta quitting her job at the realty office. She wanted Peter’s job, but they gave it to Theresa instead. Theresa’s like, “I don’t even want this damn job.” (Again, paraphrasing) But Henrietta is fed the fuck up and storms out with her box of belongings. Theresa follows and again tries to apologize. Henrietta warns her to keep her head down; don’t be like Peter believing in Lot 33. Huh?
The Complex
As Pam stitches the cuts on Ethan’s arm, she kinda apologizes for being such a twat. She asks if he now sees why she had to be the way she was. Uh, no. I’m still not sure why she had to be all creepy and making nasty remarks about him banging his wife, but okay. Pam is called away to the CRU - the same place Pilcher went. When they say her last name over the loudspeaker, Ethan asks if she’s Pilcher’s wife. Nope. She’s his sis. She leaves Ethan in the exam room. After a few moments, he hears a scream and follows the sounds to a locked room with a glass door.
Ethan finds an abbey. It slams against the glass and scares the shit out of him.
PIlcher arrives and explains how he saw the mutation coming and tried to warn the global community, but they were all, “Bye, Felicia.”
Via a flashback, we see the aftermath of one of his failed lectures. Pam tells him he shouldn’t worry about the doubters. He insists that even with the support of the whole world, it may already be too late. She vows to help him, but it will take time. Pilcher still doubts: He’ll be a laughing stock and she’s a former drug addict. In the end, he realizes he can’t save the world, but he could save some people. As he drives into his company’s parking lot, he passes the guard on duty, Pope.
Pilcher takes Ethan to a girl who’s awakening from her cryogenic state. On the way, he admits that the Secret Service was looking into him not because of the money he was using to fund his project, but because of the disappearances.
The Package
With “Lot 33” on the brain, Theresa starts looking at surveyor maps in the office. Bill puts a stop to it and is kind of an asshole about it. Kate enters and asks if she and Theresa can speak in private.
Kate and Theresa sit in a coffee shop. Kate doesn’t want any tension between them since it’s a small town and it would make life really hard. Since Theresa doesn’t expect to be in Wayward Pines forever, she doesn’t think it will be a problem. Kate hits her with a, “Life doesn’t always work out the way you think, sis.”
Meanwhile, over Theresa’s shoulder, Ted enters the realty office and says he has a package for Theresa. He goes to sit it next to her desk while Bill pours a cup of coffee. Instead of setting the box down and leaving it, he sets it on top of another package - one Theresa was going to look through earlier - and completely covers it. It’s hollowed out. He then picks them both up and turns to find Bill peering at him over the lip of his mug. Ted pretends he got mixed up and the box actually needs to go elsewhere. He then takes it to the toy store and has Harold sign for it.
Kate sees him leaving and covers her interest by spinning some bullshit about her and Theresa needing each other.
The Burden
As the girl stirs awake, Ethan asks Pilcher how many people he has. Pilcher doesn’t answer, but takes him to the giant room Johnson spoke of, and there are many, many hibernation capsules.
Ethan points to several people asking Pilcher how could he have stolen their lives. Pilcher refers to his decision as a burden. He lost people too, and he had to break up families to make this work. He had to decide who would “live” in the future.
Flashback to Pilcher meeting Megan Fisher, the principal/hypnotherapist at a book signing. She realizes he doesn’t have enough people to join them and pleads with him to find a way.
He once again passes Pope at the gate and this time asks him to take a ride. Parked in a lot in the rain, Pilcher reveals he knows all about Pope’s life and how the death of his mother started a downward spiral on what was a good life. He’s not going to fire Pope for having a criminal past. He wants his help.
Pilcher has picked a doctor who lost his license, reputation, and family, and sends Pope to kidnap him. We then see that the doctor was the first person (after Pilcher’s team) defrosted in the future.
Theresa goes to Lot 33 after Bill leaves for the day, because of course she does. It’s just an empty lot behind a metal fence.
They Can’t Handle the Truth
Via flashback, as Pilcher explains, Pilcher and his team awaken after being asleep for 2,000 years. His calculations were right and the environment has reset itself so that the world is habitable again. It took them two years to clean up and get Wayward Pines in running condition. Pilcher then makes excuses for spying on people, saying there were spies on the street when America was formed - and traitors were publicly hanged.
As Pilcher speaks to Ethan, we see Kate closes up the toy shop and meets with Harold in the back. Ted delivered a timer, but whatever Harold is building isn’t complete yet. He hesitates, worried about killing innocent people. Kate points out that they’ve witnessed the town murder so many people over the years. Kate is fed up and wants to leave. They need to know what’s out there and she won’t leave without him. He assures her he is still down with their plan and gets back to work.
In his fancy office overlooking the town, Pilcher tells Ethan he and his family, and everyone he’s met in Wayward Pines are part of Group B. Group A were defrosted and told the truth. They couldn’t handle it. They tried to leave, they committed suicide, they trashed the town. He can’t let that happen again. He needs Ethan to protect the town until the new generation is old enough to take over. Ethan realizes his son already knows the truth about Wayward Pines.
Pilcher then warns there’s another threat: a group of rebels are about to do something and he doesn’t know who they are or what they’re capable of. Ethan promises to protect the town from this group and the Abbeys, he also promises to protect everyone from PIlcher. Back at the toy shop, Harold has completed his task: the music box bomb is complete.
Overall Thoughts & Questions:
- You would think someone as smart, rich, and prepared as Pilcher wouldn’t have been so careless with his kidnappings that they drew the attention of the authorities.
- Theresa’s being way too #TeamObvious.
- Interesting that they (PIlcher and company) went to sleep in 2014 and not later.
- It looks like it’s fall, but just a few days prior, Kate was at a picnic dressed like it was summer or spring.
- Also should note: I can’t get a read on what Ben’s thinking when he’s considering what he just learned and flashing back to the candle ceremony. Is he scared? Happy? Will he try to tell his parents for real?
