Recap pages are Spoilers Off per policy and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned
- digestif
- an alcoholic drink (such as brandy or a liqueur) usually taken after a meal.
Note: The events of the episode are grouped by timeline, not by the order of scenes.
1996
Flashback before the flight. Coach Ben Scott is having a moment with his boyfriend Paul. Paul offers Ben a taste of the chowder he is making for the Bowman family cookoff (he insists it is not a cookoff, it is Chowderfest). They have a Big Damn Kiss. Paul follows up by holding up a set of keys: "Well, you said you'd move in after the holidays, and it's May now, so..." Ben's response is that he wants to, but there is too much going on, with the team just about to take the state championship. Paul does not get that reason, since Ben always calls the team members "vicious little monsters". Ben finally gets honest; if he moves in with Paul, everything in his life will change and he thinks Paul should not be the one to make that decision. Paul agrees, but he feels he needs "someone who's ready to live this life with me, all of it." Paul tells Ben to get out, presumably breaking up or at least having him leave in very bad terms.Canadian Wilderness, the past:
Natalie is sitting outside, staring at the pyre. Taissa exits the cabin, sees what remains of Jackie and freaks out, thinking some animal ate her. Van has the tough job of telling Taissa that they ate Jackie, and no, Taissa was not sleepwalking. "Taissa! We ate her." Taissa retches and screams.Back at the cabin, things are awkward.
Natalie is packing up Jackie's remains. Lottie reassures her she is doing the right thing. Natalie is all, yeah, whatever. She also declines Travis's offer to join her. Lottie then talks to Shauna, claiming that "It's what [Jackie] would have wanted. Maybe not for the rest of us, but for you. For the baby. I think some part of you knew that." Shauna is scared: "I mean, everything feels out of control, like... like I don't know what's gonna happen next." Lottie reassures Shauna's about her fears of harming the baby and brings up that they should start preparing. Shauna agrees to a baby shower.
The team members get busy making gifts for Shauna's baby shower. Akilah misses her oldest sister's son, who was four months old at the time of the flight and laughs at anything. Van makes fun of Mari for making what appears to be a lethal crib mobile. Off on their own, Crystal and Misty are trying to figure out what to do for a gift. Crystal laments that nobody listened to Misty's idea of broth, and makes a confession to Misty: "Okay, swear you won't tell, but... that wasn't the first time I've eaten a person. I actually absorbed my identical twin in the womb." On top of that, she doesn't feel guilty, because "I like to think I'm channeling her when I'm up on stage." She has a wonderful idea for Misty's gift. Coach Scott is too hungry to join crafting activities and his stomach is making audible noises. He looks at Gen and for a second he sees her gone feral, foaming at the mouth, and growling menacingly that she is still hungry. He blinks and normal Gen is back.
Natalie arrives at the plane and places the bundle with Jackie's remains inside the cabin.
Back at the cabin Crystal provides Misty with advice from her acting coach. On the attic, Van and Taissa are sleeping tied to each other. Van notices Taissa rising and asks for permission to join her if she unties Taissa. She follows Taissa and tries to get information from her, like, how does Taissa know where she's going?
Van: Is that who you always follow?
Other!Taissa: Only when she lets me.
Van: Okay, there's a "she," too? Am I "she"? Then who is "she"?
Other!Taissa: Taissa.
The coach has an Imagine Spot that takes place the day of the flight. Ben tells Paul that instead of flying to Nationals with the team, he got in his car to drive to the airport and had an epiphany:
In actual events, the team holds the weirdest baby shower ever, in Travis's words. Van gifts Shauna with a changing teepee, "To catch the pee." Misty's gift is to perform a monologue from Steel Magnolias: M'Lynne's gravesite rant after her daughter dies. Her team members are incredulous (if not surprised) at her choice of a scene about a dead daughter. Oblivious to their reaction, Misty presses on with her best Sally Field impression. Travis checks on the Coach, who is lying on bed in a semi-catatonic state. Getting no response, Travis gets back to the others.
Misty finished. Crystal leads a round of applause for the performance. Giving of gifts continues. Shauna thanks Lottie for the gift of a baby blanket but Natalie gets on Lottie's case for putting "that creepy symbol on a baby blanket? Or don't you remember how we found it all around a dead guy's fucking corpse?" Lottie says she thinks he was using it as protection, and "Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it's evil." The cabin splits between those who think Lottie knows what she talks about and the skeptics, which includes Taissa and Natalie. Shauna gets a nosebleed out of nowhere, with some blood drops falling on the symbol. Immediately, a whole bunch of thuds are heard outside. A bunch of birds have fallen from the sky. Natalie warns everyone not to touch them as they might be carrying disease. Misty speculates that the iron content in the ground may have "messed with the birds' navigation." But Lottie calls for them to "gather its blessings."
Present
Lottie's "intentional community" compound. Natalie eavesdrops on some group workshop led by Lottie, who instructs a weeping participant to "Breathe through your pain, Trinity." Natalie wanders around the compound and encounters Lisa the acolyte, a chicken on her lap. Natalie asks about a building decorated with a rack of antlers. It is "Charlotte's quarters", which she keeps locked.The cabin having a lock is explained away as Lottie still needing to protect herself. "As I'm sure you can imagine, emotions can run high in a place like this." Lisa beheads the chicken. Snidely, Natalie tells Lisa to avoid swinging "an axe that close to your hand. You could hurt yourself."
Hospital room. Taissa is at an unconscious Simone's bedside. She hallucinates Sammy asking if his mommy is gonna die and Simone sitting up, asking Taissa if this was what she wanted. Taissa shakes it off. A nurse comes up and gives Taissa the news that Simone is "not out of the woods yet." The nurse also notes the interesting design drawn on Simone's palm. It's THAT symbol. Taissa lies and says it is for good luck.
The docks. Misty walks up to a houseboat, where fellow Amateur Sleuth Walter Tattersall waits for her, and confronts him: "Do you stalk everyone on the boards or am I just lucky?" Walter first claims he was not stalking her, just finding a suitable nursing home for his mother, but then fesses up: "Look, if I'm being honest, I jumped at the chance to get out in the field with the incomparable AfricanGrey. I've been watching you on the boards. Your nose for analyzing evidence is unparalleled. It is an honor to meet you, Misty Quigley." He lives on a boat because according to him, "You never know when you might need to leave the country sans passport."
Misty makes it clear that this is her case, her witness, and she's the boss. However, the minute she sees the man they want to talk to, she balks; it's Randy Walsh and they have known each other since grade school. Instead of her questioning him, Walter will impersonate an agent and ask questions she feeds him via earbuds.
Jeff and Shauna are having a meal at a restaurant. Shauna notices that Jeff is very quiet. Out of nowhere, he busts out with "It was the strawberry lube." The waitress coming to check on them cringes at hearing this and does a 180.Said flavored lube was a gag gift at a bachelorette party. One day, Shauna proposed giving it a try, and he responded negatively, ("I think this stuff is for bisexuals and goths.") Jeff claims that was the moment he chose to be "this version of myself. But I could've gone strawberry. I almost did." Shauna tries to reassure him that her affair with Adam was not his fault, but he does not believe her.
Shauna: Okay, well, look, first of all, that's not why I slept with him, okay? I... It wasn't about you. I mean, sure it was exciting. Exciting... That's not the right word. Um... Okay. It made me feel like... I didn't know what was going to happen. And I liked that. I liked not feeling like this... boring version of me.
Meal over, Jeff and Shauna are going home, when he takes a sudden detour, shocking Shauna. Jeff is taking them to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, just to be spontaneous. He is so caught up in the idea of churning butter and other similar activities that he appears to hit a pedestrian. Both Jeff and Shauna get out of their van, prepared to call 911. But the pedestrian instead points a gun in their face and demands their keys. Jeff surrenders and tells him to get them from the ignition, but Shauna struggles with the carjacker and grabs his gun. Jeff cannot believe his wife nearly shot the carjacker and she cannot believe he just surrendered their van. To him, it is just a crappy vehicle, but Shauna lists all the things within that she values, like her purse, new shoes, and "Mr. Schwoozums, Callie's old toy that she loved probably more than she loved me? When she was six years old?"
The compound. Lottie encourages Natalie to sign up for something. Natalie declines, claiming not be a "joiner". Lottie shows her the compound apiaries, because of course they produce their own honey. In winter, the bees "cluster around the queen and they vibrate to keep her warm. When a new queen hatches, the first thing she does is sting all the other unborn queens to death."
Lottie: It isn't brutal. It's natural. It's simply what has to be done. Otherwise they starve. We all do.
Walter's boat, with Misty hiding in the head. Walter impersonates an FBI agent and starts interviewing Randy, who at first thinks this is about parking tickets. He is surprised to be questioned about Natalie disappearing from the motel ("Dude, I don't even remember what socks I put on today,") and figures she was just "in her room doing drugs."
Misty orders Walter to hit Randy. He makes an awkward excuse and goes to the bathroom where Misty is hiding. He thinks he should let him relax, but Misty convinces him to go "bad cop" by telling him that Randy was a bully. Walter returns and punches Randy, adding assault to the crime of representing himself as a federal agentnote . Then he hits Randy again. Misty advises him to lie and say they are in international waters. After some "Who's on First" shenanigans, Walter takes out a kitchen appliance resembling an immersion blender, and pretends that he is Jack Bauer:
Randy (and Misty): What the heck is that for?
Walter: It's a funny thing. Interrogating a witness on water. Those Al-Qaeda guys, they hated it.
The Gym. Jeff is pumping iron and notices that Kevyn is working out there too. Jeff decides it would be a good idea to confront Detective Kevyn Tan about coming in and talking to Shauna. Kevyn plays it cool, but Jeff pushes it: "Come on, man. You can't really think Shauna had something to do with this, uh, like, missing art guy, right?" In the process, he mentions that Kevyn really upset Shauna, and Kevyn catches on to that. Jeff seems to get he has said too much and then speaks some more, claiming he just meant she's confused.
Shauna gets a ride-share to the garage where her stolen van is and confronts the owner at gunpoint, demanding its immediate return. The owner claims not to know anything about stolen vehicles and tells her to put it down, thinking she is just a suburban housewife who is not capable of killing.
Shauna: Have you ever... peeled the skin off a human corpse? It's not as easy as you might think. It's really, uh, stuck on us. Skin. You have to roll back just the edges of it, so you can get a good enough grip to-to really pull. Which, again, isn't easy. People are always so sweaty when you kill them. Just, like, oily. There's a look people get... when they realize they're going to die. It's that one. My hand wasn't shaking because I was afraid. It was shaking because of how badly I wanted to do this.
At the hospital, Taissa has an encounter with her other self in the bathroom mirror. Other!Taissa tries telling her something, but no words come out, so she finally resorts to covering her eye in a manner reminiscent of THAT symbol. Taissa freaks out and gets out of the bathroom.
Taissa's campaign manager brings her good news: her tox report came back clean except for Adderall (stimulant used to treat ADHD) but "that's easy to spin. The cops want to get you on running the red light, but street cam footage will hopefully prove the other guy was speeding..." Taissa tells the manager to hand over the keys to her car (the manager's). She is dubious but obeys. Taissa immediately calls Jessica Roberts, unaware that Jessica was last seen succumbing to poison-laced cigarettes.
Misty and Walter discuss the disappointing results of interrogating Randy. Walter offers Misty a drink before she leaves, which prompts her to remember Randy's comments about the people in purple drinking up all the Fanta in the vending machine. If they used a credit card, Walter's hacking skills could come in handy to identify them. Walter takes the opportunity to ask Misty to ask why she is downvoting all his posts regarding Adam Martin's disappearance. Misty cannot tell him it is because she was involved in disposing of his corpse, so she makes up a more suitable story. She is friends with Adam's mother, who suffered a lot thanks to his addiction issues. Misty also speculates that he "probably took his own life or OD'd somewhere. And it would just kill Mrs. Martin if that information was out there in the world. So... I downvoted you because I wanted to do everything in my power to prevent that from happening." As it turns out, Walter did some deception of his own when he went to Misty's nursing home, because he enlisted Svetlana, an acquaintance who is getting evicted, to impersonate his mother. Misty just can't understand why he would go to all that fuss just to meet her.
The "intentional community" compound. Some group therapy exercise. Lottie compliments the participants for doing "powerful work" and then tries to get Natalie to participate. But Natalie is literally, no, thanks. Lottie insists. She tells Natalie to close her eyes and turn her attention inwards. "Is there anything in there that you would like to process with the group?" As expected from Natalie, she says no, followed by "I can't." Instead of forcing the issue, Lottie invites Lisa to come up. Lisa still bears the scar on her face of Natalie attacking her with a fork.
Lisa: I felt... fear. And disappointment. [...] I thought she knew I was trying to help her.
Natalie: I don't need anybody's help.
Lisa: We saved your life!
Lottie reassures Lisa, who has shared in the past that she "let[s] people walk all over you instead of expressing your anger. Instead of feeling it." She then encourages Lisa to lean into that anger, and hands Lisa the fork: "And if you feel the need... to hurt Natalie back, I want you to do it." Instead, Lisa drops the fork and hugs Natalie, saying she understands and that she forgives Natalie. Natalie's face does the talking. "WTF did just happen?"
At the compound, Lottie finds dead bees at the apiaries and pulls out a frame dripping blood. Then she hears the same words from the séance, "Il veut du sang." She is horrified, but the voice is just an acolyte asking if Lottie is coming to lunch. The blood was just a hallucination; the hives are fine.
Tropes present in this episode
- Bloody Hallucinations of Guilt: In the episode's final scene, adult Lottie goes to check the apiaries in the "intentional community"/cult compound and hallucinates finding one covered in dead bees. Inside, the frame is all bloody. For added points of horror she hears the same words she uttered during the séance, "He/It wants blood" in French.
- Due to the Dead: Nat decides to transfer Jackie's remains from the cabin to the plane and gives her a final eulogy.
- Gratuitous French: "Il veut du sang" (He/It wants blood).
- Heroic BSoD: Coach Ben seems to be in one after witnessing the girls eat Jackie's corpse, spending the days laying in bed fantasizing about what would have happened if he had stayed behind with his boyfriend instead of getting on the plane.
- I Have to Iron My Dog: While posing as an FBI agent, Walter is questioning Randy Walsh. Through an earpiece, Misty instructs him to hit Randy. Walter makes a quick excuse:Walter: Forgive me, I have IBS.
- Imagine Spot: The Coach pictures how things would have gone if instead of getting on the flight, he'd stayed home and accepted his boyfriend's offer of moving in together.
- Impersonating an Officer: Walter pretends to be an FBI agent to question Randy about Natalie's disappearance. Somehow, Randy does not catch on to the fact that Walter does not show him a badge, is interrogating him in an out-of-the-way location (Walter's boat) and resorts to hitting him.
- Mommy Mobile: Shauna refuses to hand over her keys when she and Jeff get carjacked and even wrestles the gun off the car thief's hands. She justifies it by saying her purse and Callie's old toy were in the van. When she retrieves it from the chop shop at gunpoint, the owner says it is "rusted to shit".
- My God, What Have I Done?: Having apparently been sleepwalking through the impromptu cannibalism, Taissa is the most vocally horrified of the whole group upon discovering the now mostly devoured Jackie. Van explaining that she ate Jackie's face results in some understandable throwing up.
- Shout-Out: Misty's gift for Shauna is to perform M'Lynn's gravesite speech from Steel Magnolias.
- Split Personality: Sleepwalking Taissa demonstrates that she is capable of laconic speech, stating to Van the "Man with No Eyes" shows her the way when asked where she's walking to in the woods, and that she does so when "she" lets her, calling said "she" Taissa. This and the trippy moment with present-day Taissa and her mirrored reflection, does seem to hint more towards her sleepwalking self being an outright alternate personality.
- Staged Pedestrian Accident: Jeff seemingly runs into a man in the middle of the street while being spontaneous and taking Shauna to Colonial Williamsburg. When he gets out and says he's going to call an ambulance, the man gets up and pulls a gun, telling him not to do that, and demands the keys to the minivan.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Shauna and Jeff have their minivan stolen at gunpoint, but she manages to grab the gun. Later she goes to the garage where her van is being kept and threatens to shoot the person in charge of the garage. He tries to call her bluff, to which Shauna responds by describing in detail what it's like to remove the skin from a dead body, and the tremor he interprets as reluctance is actually eagerness, showing him she's being serious.
