"Feral"
Directed by: Manny Coto
Written by: Manny Coto
Years after a young boy goes missing in the woods, his parents (Aaron Tveit & Tiffany Dupont) receive a tip that their son may still be alive... and Bigfoot might be involved.
"Feral" contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Jay is implied to have become this after Jacob's disappearance.
- Asshole Victim: Bill Birch deserves to die. He fakes the photo and having Jay's compass. Then he makes a deal with the cartel to lure the Gantzs into the forest and have them killed so he can get their $10,000. Birch claims he needs the money, but it's never shown why.
- Body Horror: Many of the ferals are incredibly deformed; one has a mouth instead of an eye, and one has wire-wrapped club hands.
- Camp: It's essentially a cross between C.H.U.D. and the true crime documentary Bigfoot, so while the episode is played mostly straight, it's definitely tongue-in-cheek from a conceptual standpoint.
- Cassandra Truth: Invoked by Vogel as he tells Jay and Addy if they ever talk of what they know of the ferals, he'll deny ever saying it and who's the public going to believe: Two people who are suspected of killing their son or a park ranger?
- Convicted by Public Opinion: Jay and Addy are this as most of the public believes they killed their own son and made up the story of him vanishing in the woods to cover it up. Neither can keep a job and face eviction, making them desperate enough to go along with this.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Or you'll get eaten by deformed cannibals.
- Downer Ending: Jay and Addy find Jacob, but discover he's the leader of the feral creatures and fall victim to them under his orders.
- Government Conspiracy: Turns out the entire National Park System was designed to contain the ferals and keep their populations under control. Vogel says it's done so A) the public doesn't know there are things the government can't control and B) the park system generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the federal budget.
- Grief-Induced Split: Jacob's disappearance led to Jay and Addy's divorce. Nevertheless, they unite to follow a tip on their missing son's whereabouts.
- Hope Spot: Just as Addy and Jay are surrounded by the feral creatures, they look up see Jacob, who has somehow become king to the creatures. Jacob seems to recognize them, and one of the creatures asks (in their own language) him who Addy and Jay are, only for Jacob to reply that they're "dinner."
- Missing Child: Jacob goes missing while on a camping trip with his parents, which leads to their divorce.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Vogel notes no one is sure what the ferals are, with theories abounding from being there when the Vikings first arrived to Civil War soldiers who never surrendered to his personal belief they're once-normal people who fell off the grid.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The feral creatures in the forest effectively function as mindless zombies.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Seemingly inspired by the Missing 411 conspiracy theory.
- Wham Line:Tall Feral: Who are these people?Jacob: Dinner.
