Tweetable Takeaway: Ethan has to foil a bomb plot and weak narrative in this week’s #WaywardPines Tweet
Airtime: Thursdays on FOX 9/8 central.
By: Jeff Iblings, Contributor
We are now seven episodes in, and WAYWARD PINES is beginning to feel a little tired, and a little lazy. The plotlines of this episode are so extremely choreographed, that all of the power the final scene was supposed to relay to me was lost.
Ethan the firebrand, the renegade, the man against the system, has now become an active member of the system. He’s a cog in the machine because, truly, there’s no other real option for him. If the world really is destroyed and there’s nothing outside of the walls of Wayward Pines other than mutated human monsters, it’s either go with the flow or put a bullet in your own head. Ethan is a family man, so he decides to go with the flow, and protect what little humanity is left inside of the pigpen of Wayward Pines.
So the twist in his character is a 360° turn in his drive. Instead of escapee, he’s now protector of the status quo. He’s asked by Pilcher not to tell anyone about what he knows, and also to stop the insurgents from blowing up the wall. Surprise, surprise, he attempts to tell both Theresa and Kate what he’s witnessed and both of them think he’s either crazy or had something done to him to alter his memory. So now Ethan’s running completely against the grain of everyone he once trusted.
I liked the Ethan who tries to escape better. I’ve gotten a little bored by the twist of suddenly being 2,000 years into a post-apocalyptic future. I have a feeling we’re going to find out Pilcher is responsible for whatever wiped out humanity and modified human genetics to create the monsters. I also feel that no matter what Ethan tries to do, the Wayward Pines experiment is going to end like the first one, in fire and destruction. Perhaps Ethan and a few others survive to create their own humanity in the aftermath of another Pilcher failure? Either way, the show has lost me already while strangely there are talks of a second season floating around.
Mrs. Fischer’s real job comes into play very prominently in this episode. She’s not just a teacher, or a truth teller to the children of their plight, but also a matchmaker and sex-ed enthusiast. Her real role in Wayward Pines is to encourage the kids to pair up, get it on, and start having babies as fast as possible. The children’s children will then be known as “The Originals” and will have a large role to play in the future of mankind. Mrs. Fischer pushes Amy and Ben together during a sex talk.
Ethan’s big welcome back after his excursion beyond the walls is a pipe bomb in his truck. Now that he has access to the files of all of Wayward Pines residents, he quickly finds the person who used to be an explosions expert. Seriously, couldn’t they have made Ethan earn that discovery? Am I the only one who finds the convenience of this incredibly lazy?
Either way, he follows the culprit Franklin Dobbs right to Kate’s husband Harold. It takes only moments of questioning Harold for Ethan to know Kate is the leader of the subversive group, and once he confronts Kate and gives her an ultimatum it’s pretty obvious she’s going to try to blow up the wall right away before Ethan can stop them. But he knows, that they know, that he knows, so he stops Kate and her crew in the attempt to blow up the wall. Only she uses her group as a decoy, while Harold has a second bomb.
Amy asks Ben to go out on a romantic excursion so they can practice making babies, and of course they hitch a ride in the truck of the guy carrying the bomb to the wall. Right as Amy takes the bomb hidden in a music box out and starts it up, Ethan figures out that the bomb is in the delivery truck. While Amy and Ben make out, Ethan races against time to catch the truck before it approaches the wall. Is anyone else surprised he doesn’t make it in time? When it detonates it sends both Amy and Ben out of the truck. She’s fine, but Ben may be dead. Boo hoo.
More thoughts:
- Theresa and Lot 33, who cares? We know there’s nothing on the outside, so what difference does it make if there’s a way out of Wayward Pines through Lot 33? Unless it’s all another lie, and Wayward Pines is just a psychological experiment with deadly consequences for those involved.
- Pilcher has a feeling it’s all falling apart again. His only hope to hold things together is Ethan. I can’t be the only one who hopes Ethan fails, can I?
- I really hope there’s no way Wayward Pines gets a second season, because I truly don’t see how it would be possible. Look what happened to Under the Dome. It never should have lasted past one season, and now it seems to be a tutorial for narratively shitting the bed.
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For six months out of the year Jeff is holed up in his home with nothing to do but shovel snow, watch television, write, and dream of warmer climates. Twitter: @OfSoundnVision
Keep up with all of Jeff’s Wayward Pines reviews here.
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