Season 6, Episode 12:
In Dreams
Directed by Michael E. Satrazemis
Sixteen years in the future, Grace awakens to find that she had died giving birth to her daughter Athena and that her friends are all thriving. Traveling with Athena, Grace notices inconsistencies in the world and realizes that she is actually unconscious and dreaming following an explosion set by Riley and the doomsday cult who are seeking the mysterious key that Morgan had taken from Emile. Hunted by the cultists, Grace makes her way through her dream world, bonding with her daughter and evading Riley's forces, convinced that she needs to wake up to give birth to Athena, but that she won't survive it.
In the real world, Morgan takes shelter with Grace in a veterinarian's office and stables, killing Riley's men and forcing Riley to flee. As her heart stops in the real world, Grace says goodbye to Morgan and Athena and walks into the light only to revive in the real world. Riley returns and demands the key at gunpoint and Grace has Morgan give it to him, convinced from her dream that her daughter will bring everyone together and it won't matter. Grace gives birth to Athena, but Grace and Morgan are devastated when Athena is stillborn due to absorbing the deadly radiation in her mother's body.
Tropes:
- A Death in the Limelight: Subverted. The episode makes it look like Grace will die giving birth to her child, since she is the only one who hasn't aged in her dreams. She actually survives the process, but at a high price...
- Downer Ending: Riley successfully retrieves the submarine key from Morgan, and Grace's baby does not make it. Need we say more?
- The Ending Changes Everything: All those dreams that Grace got to witness with her presumed future daughter, Athena, weren't signs of her own impending demise. They were actually her baby's.
- Tragic Stillbirth: Grace's baby is finally delivered... albeit dead, rather than alive.
- Wham Line: After Grace has given birth, Morgan is holding the baby, while he has his back turned from her. What she asks shows that Morgan had a good reason to do this.Grace: Why isn't she crying?
