FROM S1 Ep8 Broken Windows, Open Doors

FROM S1 Ep8-Broken Windows, Open Doors

We’re racing toward the finish line of season 1. The season’s been uneven so far, but overall, it’s been an intriguing show. Let’s see what episode 8 brings us! Here’s episode 8’s running diary.

We open the show with Boyd and Kenny inside the police station. Boyd is in the backroom, packing up for his journey. Kenny states that he’s gotten all the Colony House residents squared away (after last episode’s blood bath). The Colony House and the rest of the townsfolk are now living together, and Kenny has taken on some additional house guests.

Boyd’s still shook by Father Khatri’s death. So am I. The character was growing on me.

Boyd needs Kenny to “man up” and start becoming the leader he was born to be.

Meanwhile, Boyd’s got business with Sara. He wants her to take a walk with him. Looks like he’s going through with the plan he and Father Khatri had set up before Khatri’s untimely death.

That’s the prologue. And we’re off and running.

We begin the episode with Lyle Lovett’s “If I Had a Boat.” Not a fan of this song and I’ll be glad when they retire it from this show.

Oh, it’s a flashback to before Boyd arrived at the town! That’s a nice surprise. He’s with his wife, Abby, and their son, Ellis. They’re talking about a boat. Boyd really wants one. We also learn he was nicknamed ‘Mr. Fish and Loaves’ in the army because he could stretch a buck. His wife was nicknamed Iron Abby. Ok, so we have a military couple here. We know his wife doesn’t survive long and I’m assuming we’re about to find out how she died.

And just as his wife and son reveal that they bought Boyd a boat for his retirement, they’re stopped in the middle of the road by a fallen tree. Well, that moment of happiness certainly didn’t last long. We hear the murder of crows and ominous music plays. It’s not going to end well for Boyd and his family, we know that.

In the present day, we see Boyd and Sara hiking through the forest. Sara wants to know where they’re going but Boyd won’t tell her (or the audience). Boyd avoids the question from Sara about where Father Khatri is and instead tells her (us) that the monsters used to shriek before they discovered the talismans. After the discovery, they began to whisper. I wonder what that means? Boyd wonders too and wants to know if the voices that speak to Sara ever tell her anything useful. He’s not happy with her. Finally, he reveals to her that Father Khatri is dead. She doesn’t take it well. Boyd, though, isn’t here for her tears.

Back in The Town, Kenny’s showing a few of the Colony House residents their new digs. Jade isn’t happy about it. He doesn’t like house guests. Neither do I, Jade. Jade storms off to find Victor.

Over at the Matthews’ house, Julie is recounting her escape with Victor from the monsters over at Colony House during the massacre the night before. She and Victor escaped through one of the holes in the trees. She tells them that Victor told her “It was starting” but she doesn’t know what that means. Ethan says they escaped through a Far Away Tree and that Victor must have ended up somewhere else. It’s their job to go and find him, Ethan says. Julie has had enough and just wants to know what’s going on. Nobody knows, Julie!

Jade walks in and interrupts the family story time. He’s got news to share but Jim doesn’t want to hear it. He just wants Jade to stay away from his daughter. Did I miss something? Why is Jim angry at Jade? This is one of those scenes that just doesn’t ring true, in my opinion. Anyway, Jade and Jim discuss their radio experiment. Jim states that they need to get the signal up over the tree line and that they need to find higher ground in order to do this.

Back to the past, with Boyd and his family. They're now driving through The Town. I already love this scene. Anytime they show someone arriving at The Town for the first time, I’m here for it.

They (literally) run into Father Khatri, who begs them to listen to him for their own safety. It looks like it’s getting dark outside. They need to get to safety, Khatri says. You better listen to him, Boyd!

And we hear a shriek in the distance. Terrifying! Father Khatri says, “That was death, and it’s coming, right now.” Boyd and his family don’t have to be told twice as they follow Khatri into an underground hiding space. Donna and one other townsfolk, the drunk balding guy from the Colony House party in episode 7, are there with them. It doesn’t seem that they’ve discovered the talismans yet. We hear people above ground screaming as they are slaughtered out in the open.

In the present time, Ellis is being treated by Kristi, the medic. We haven’t seen much of her lately. I like her character and wish they’d do more with her. Fatima is also with them.

Kenny walks in and gives Kristi a book. Kristi kisses Kenny on the cheek and thanks him. Kenny looks smitten. One thing I like about this show is all the romantic interests. They keep it interesting.

Donna is picking up body parts from the massacre at the Colony House grounds. Jim and Jade approach her, asking if they can build an antenna on the roof of Colony House. She seems a little preoccupied with body parts, but she eventually agrees to the plan.

In the forest, Boyd and Sara continue on their journey until they come to a shack. Boyd tells Sara that she is to sit tight inside until Boyd gets back from town, as he’s got to pick up some supplies. I’m assuming he didn’t just pick up the supplies on their way out because he wanted to hide Sara from the townsfolk, just in case they want some good old mob justice. Sara promises she’s not going anywhere and that the handcuffs Boyd brought with him are unnecessary. She wants to help, she says. I believe her.

In the past, it’s now daylight as Boyd and his family emerge from their hiding space with Father Khatri. They were inside hidden room covered by a trap door in one of the yards of the buildings. They’re shocked by the dead bodies they see on the surface. The other townsfolk emerge from their hiding spaces as well. Donna says, “Welcome to your worst nightmare” as Father Khatri says he’ll explain more to them over at The Diner.

The next scene is Boyd questioning Father Khatri about the townsfolks lack of plans at The Diner. Seems that before he got there, they weren’t very organized. It’s time they had a leader. Enter Boyd and his family.

Boyd’s got a system. Nobody hides in the same place at night. Everyone looks out for each other. “You build from there,” he says.

Boyd begins taking charge as the townsfolk begin bringing supplies into The Diner. Donna will be in charge of supplies, while Abby will be in charge of where they all spend the night. They’re going to start rotating where they sleep so that the monsters can’t pick them off so easily.

Back in the present, Ethan is looking through some drawings. The camera lingers on one of a man walking a dog in the forest, but the scene quickly switches over to Julie and Tabitha. One of my main complaints of this show is how quickly it jumps from scene to scene without giving viewers room to settle in.

Julie is in the basement, staring at the hole Tabitha dug. Tabitha wants to know if she’s eaten and does the whole “mom” thing. Julie brings up whether her mom and dad are going to be getting a divorce. I’d totally forgotten this was a story line. Frankly, I don’t care about it and I highly doubt many other viewers do either.

They have the typical mother/daughter conversation about marriage and divorce before discussing Thomas’s death. Thomas, you might recall, was the Matthews’ families' third child, who died as an infant. We got this tidbit of information in a previous episode. Again, this is a storyline I just don’t care about and am impatient for them to move on. It adds no value to these characters and feels forced.

I’ve said it before, and I still believe it now, that Tabitha is easily the least interesting character on the show. This divergence into her past trauma isn’t helping. Let’s just get this scene over with.

Back at The Diner, Kenny’s mom is attempting to keep the townsfolk from raiding the storage area. Apparently, the Colony House residents have been taking supplies from the other residents’ homes and a small mob has assembled. Boyd shows up and shoos them away.

Back in the past, Boyd and Father Khatri are discussing whether the monsters roam the forest during the daytime. Boyd wants to venture into the forest to gather resources.

Father Khatri asks Boyd how long he was in the military. Boyd tells him thirty years and also that Abby was a marine. “She’s the bad ass in the family.” Abby looks on from the distance with a worried eye.

In the present, Boyd has changed his mind about going on his journey because of the panicked masses he just shooed away at The Diner. Kenny thinks this is a bad idea and finally finds his backbone. He gives Boyd the talking to that Boyd’s been waiting for Kenny to deliver, and decides to go on his journey, confident that Kenny can handle things back home while he’s gone. Donna stands in the doorway, listening to Kenny grow up. He tells her to get over the massacre at Colony House and to be the woman of strength they know her to be.

(Out of Kenny, Boyd, and Donna, one of them is not making it out of season 1 alive. Book it. My money’s on Kenny but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Donna. Maybe both. Boyd would surprise me, simply because Harold Perrineau is the star of the show.)

Good speech by Kenny. After he exits stage left, Donna wants to know where Boyd is going. Boyd tells her that he’ll explain on the way.

In the past, Boyd found a goat in the forest, along with some other farm animals. He wants Father Khatri to grab some townsfolk and start rebuilding the pen outside the barn. He hands the goat off to Khatri because Ellis wants to talk to him in private.

Ellis tells Boyd that Abby is having a mental breakdown. He tells Boyd that he’s not seeing it because he’s spending all of his time out in the forest. Boyd says he’ll come look after “Iron Abby” tonight. He sends Ellis off to look after his mom and heads off into the forest. We already know Abby doesn’t survive and I think we’re about to find out why very soon.

Out in the forest, Boyd is carving directions into tree trunks so that he doesn’t get lost. A German Shepard shows up and starts growling at him. Remember the photo Ethan was looking at earlier? It was of a man and a dog.

Boyd wonders where the dog came from and believes it must belong to someone. He follows the dog through the woods for a short distance before getting lost. Not smart, Boyd!

The sun’s setting low in the sky now and we know what that means. Monster hour. As time passes, Boyd frantically looks for a way through the forest. He hears a shrieking in the distance. Time to get the hell home, Boyd, before it’s too late.

As he stumbles through the darkened wood, gun drawn, he falls backward through a doorway of a small stone hut. Just then, the monsters show up. However, they leave him alone and walk away. He’s not sure why so he examines the walls of the hut.

Boyd discovers the talismans nestled inside the walls. So that’s where they came from. They’ve got crude markings on them. Who made those?

Back in the present, Boyd is at the clinic to check on Ellis. He wants Ellis to know that he’s about to go off into the woods to help them find a way out of this place. I’m surprised nobody else in The Town has ever had this idea. Hasn’t Boyd been there for a few years now? They’ve literally never come up with a plan to explore the woods more thoroughly?

Ellis isn’t happy with Boyd leaving to go back into the woods. It didn’t work out well last time, he says (I’m assuming we’re about to find out exactly what he means by this remark). Fatima excuses herself so that Boyd and Ellis can talk privately.

Boyd wants Ellis to know that if he doesn’t make it back this time, he wants Ellis to know that he loves him. He’s proud of the man Ellis has become. Ellis manages to muster up nothing more than an “Ok.” Whatever happened to Iron Abby, it’s clear that Ellis blames Boyd.

Outside, Boyd runs into Donna. They have a conversation about their relationship. Boyd thanks her for looking after Ellis, and Donna says she hopes he comes back from his journey. There sure are a lot of goodbyes being made here. I’m not quite as confident as I was that Boyd makes it out of season 1 alive now.

Fatima walks back inside to give Ellis a lecture. She says that what happened (presumably to Abby) wasn’t Boyd’s fault. Or Ellis’s. It was “this place.” She wasn’t there, she says, to know exactly what happened with Abby, but Boyd is a good dad. She also knows that if Ellis doesn’t go after his dad, he’ll regret it the rest of his life.

In the past, it’s now morning and Boyd has gathered all of the talismans and is taking them back to The Town. He hears gunshots as he approaches The Town and runs to see what’s happening.

It’s Abby. She’s shooting people! Oh, she snapped. Looks like Ellis had reason to worry about her after all.

Abby lines Donna up in her sites as Boyd tries to get her to put the gun down. Abby says, “It’s not real. It’s a nightmare. The only way for us to go home is to wake everyone up.”

Boyd pleads with Abby to stop. Abby finally hears him and lowers her gun. She doesn’t believe, though, that Boyd could have survived the night out in the forest. She states, “It’s time to wake everyone up” and starts singing “If I Had a Boat.” She’s truly lost it.

Ellis runs up to them and Abby points her gun at him. Boyd screams “No! No!” and then shoots her dead. Now we know why Ellis blamed Boyd for his mother’s death all this time.

In the present, Boyd is back at the police station. He takes his badge off and puts it on a table with some clothes. I don't’ think he believes he’s coming back from this trip into the forest.

Boyd rummages through a box of clothes and finds a zippo lighter in an old coat. He then takes something out of his back pocket and puts it into the old coat, along with putting back the lighter. What was that in his pocket? I couldn’t tell even upon a rewind. Are we supposed to know?

Now in the woods, with a large backpack on, he makes his way back to the shack where Sara is hiding. Ellis, though, catches up with him. He’s been following Boyd since he left town. He’s got some things to say to his dad. Don’t we all.

Ellis tells Boyd that what saved himself and Fatima from the monsters during the Colony House massacre was the talisman on the door. He’s thankful that Boyd was able to bring the talismans back from the forest, back when he found them. Back when Abby went crazy and shot up the town. Ellis says he know that it wasn’t Boyd’s fault what Abby did. They embrace. Boyd tells him that it’s not a final goodbye. I’m not so sure!

That’s when Ellis sees Sara. Boyd tells him that he’s got to take Sara with him into the forest and that Ellis has to trust him on this. Nobody can know she’s with him. He sends Ellis back to town and they say they love each other. Good times.

Back in The Town, Kenny is holding a town meeting. He’s become the leader Boyd wanted him to be. He wants everyone to keep themselves together while Boyd is out in the forest. They’re no longer going to be living in separate houses.

Donna tells the townsfolk that Jim has a plan to get the radio working. Jim tells the people that they need supplies and people to get this project off the ground. Cue another round of “If I Had a boat” while the townspeople work together to bring supplies to the Colony House. I’m really tired of this song.

Ellis walks back into town and finds Fatima, who embraces him.

Boyd and Sara head out from the shack to wherever their journey is to take them. Boyd puts the hand cuffs on her as they move out into the forest.

And that’s the end of the episode.

Do we have any idea where Boyd is going or what he is going to find? I sure don’t. Maybe we’ll get answers as to what the meaning of the dog in the woods is, or maybe who made the talismans.

Overall, a good episode. The show’s been rolling these past few episodes. We’re headed toward a good finale, I believe. We’ve only got two episodes left, so I hope they make it count!

See you next time!