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Wayward Pines: Betrayal

"This fake little town is all that's left."

Ethan had a really tough day at his new job, what with the pipe bombs and all.

Kate is the leader of the Wayward Pines Resistance, which used to be the Wayward Pines Encounter Group, people just getting together secretly to talk about what they're not supposed to talk about. Not surprising that it eventually evolved into something a bit more action-oriented.

Ethan is good at the cop part of his job, but not so good at making both of the women he loves believe outlandish and impossible things that happen to be true. Ethan told Theresa and Kate the truth about Wayward Pines, and they both thought he'd drunk the Kool-Aid. I realize it's hard to accept the truth when you're not actually looking at defunct cities and stasis chambers, but why didn't Ethan say to Kate, hey, take a good look at me. You're twelve years older than when we were together, and I'm not. Do the math, Kate.

It's a little frustrating because the audience knows the truth and most of the characters don't. It's also inconsistent plotwise that the last thing Pilcher told Ethan before dropping him off was not to tell anyone, and we know there is constant surveillance. Why weren't the Wayward Pines volunteers yanking Ethan back to the mountain for a serious scolding?

Even Nurse Pam is now rah rah Ethan and wants to be friends. Ethan was clearly unthrilled by the prospect. Hey, come on, Ethan. Pam was actually whistling "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and smiling about pregnancies. How bad can she be? And how about that annual mandatory fertility consult? Have babies, y'all, or else. Like people are going to happily bring babies into the world when they're trapped in this weird little town and don't know why. Plus I bet Kate and Howard are just friends, anyway.

Which brings me to "Procreation is a beautiful and blessed thing." And I thought regular old sex ed was embarrassing. Megan Fisher was practically shoving her high school biology students into bed together. If possible, it was even weirder that Amy was confiding her sexual intentions toward Ben to Megan. Is birth control even available in Wayward Pines? It's starting to feel like Utah.

Cliffhanger. Ben was unconscious on the street after the music box bomb went off. I doubt somehow that Ethan's only child is going to die, because TV shows don't usually do that.

And just one more thing. Twelve years ago after she was captured, Kate was able to reach her boss Adam Hassler on the phone and he told her that Wayward Pines was some sort of government thing and stay put undercover, or something to that effect. Back in the pilot episode, we saw Adam Hassler talking with "Dr. Jenkins" after Ethan disappeared. Conclusion: Adam Hassler is an ally of David Pilcher's and is probably somewhere in the mountain with the other volunteers, ready to pop out and guest star. Right?

Bits and pieces:

— Parents aren't allowed in the school at all. That actually makes sense.

— Plot 33 is still a thing. There was a clang when Theresa hit the ground with her shovel.

— Franklin Dobbs, explosives engineer, was played by Ian Tracey from Continuum.

— Ben got out of his room easily by sliding down the ornamental gables. That looked like fun. Possibly not in the winter, though.

— The strange and sexist Big Bill described himself as "Crispy as a cracker." I have never heard that one before.

Even with the bombs and the creepy sex ed, this episode was more weird than good. Two out of four secret biology textbooks,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

4 comments:

  1. I was searching for the word why I was so frustrated by this episode.

    You said it Billie. Inconsistent.

    Pam!! In the first episode she was promising Ethan she would kill him, now it's all lovey dovey. Sigh. And I'm guessing that Adam Hassler won't be returning anytime soon. I fear this show has already forgotten about him and don't mind the inconsistencies by him not returning.

    At this point, I can't wait for this show to be over...which is a terrible thing to say. Sorry.

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  2. Don't apologize, TJ -- I get it. I'm not sure why, but I'm really enjoying Wayward Pines. Maybe because it's one of the two quietest times of the year, TV-wise, and there isn't much else to amuse me.

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  3. The real question for me is: How did all those volunteers that help run Wayward Pines come out of their 2000 year slumber and feel okay with the state of the world? Why not do the same thing with everyone else? Or even, why not have the volunteers re-populate the world, and forget about trying to wake everyone else up?

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  4. Anonymous, I guess because he's crazy? Who knows.

    Honestly, the psychology here is so deviant and ludicrous I have a hard time taking it seriously. Throughout history humans have shown themselves to be resilient in even the worst situations, like being stranded in hostile lands with no hope of ever returning home, or living under constant shelling and bombardment, or living under the threat of nuclear annihilation, or (for most of human history) living under the continual threats of starvation and disease and pestilence and war. The idea that the first group would have just run amok and killed themselves because they were the last humans on Earth (safely ensconced in a high tech gated compound, I might add) is preposterous in my opinion. The whole "second group living in a creepy Lynchian Gestapo town" feels highly contrived; even if the first group HAD failed, the current setup seems 100% counterproductive, like it's deliberately set up to DRIVE people crazy. The "last people on Earth" thing is supposed to be a payoff for the "creepy Kafkaesque town" thing, but I really can't make any sense out of the reasoning that leads from one to the other.

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