The Caretaker – As the third episode of Night Sky begins, young Franklin (Lowrey Brown) chops firewood and jokes with Michael through the window. In the present, Franklin (JK Simmons) whittles a piece of wood while sitting in his car. When the pawnshop owner opens his store, Franklin goes inside to see what he has to say about the gold coins. Dale (Phil Tyler) believes it is a genuine Spanish doubloon. They’ve been made forever, but some are rarer than others. Although he suspects they’re 1700s, he can’t tell when they were minted. Franklin asks whether he thinks they’re stolen. Dale asks him the same question. The tall man (Piotr Adamczyk) talks to Toni (Rocio Hernandez) about meeting her when she was younger. He suggests her perdisco should be coming up.

Toni asks what that is. Stella (Julieta Zylberberg) tells her daughter to give a treat to Marmalade. When she is alone with the tall man, Stella admits it is different now because her daughter wants freedom, friends, and the Internet. He believes her perdisco would be a good thing because seeing where she came from might change her mind. He hands her something as Stella says she doesn’t want to be his first choice. He thinks she should be honored since it is her son. She is trusting Stella to take care of this. The man encourages her to take Toni along since she is ready, but Stella says that is her decision to make. She was around Toni’s age when Epi took her on her first trip. He reminds her that Toni is next in line. She cannot waver because it is too important and her sacrifice is greatly appreciated.

He threatens to take Toni with him if she doesn’t take her. Irene (Sissy Spacek) sits outside and exercises her legs. Once she goes back inside, she notices that the lights are blinking. Franklin returns home with clothes from the thrift store although Irene said Marshalls. Irene thinks they should stop treating him like a prisoner and let him wear Michael’s clothes. Jude (Chai Hansen) knocks on the door to tell them he is very hungry. They go to Jelinek’s where Irene decides to have breakfast for the first time in months. Franklin asks Jude whether any of his memories are coming back. He questions whether he has thought about moving on too. Although Irene doesn’t like it, Franklin mentions the fact that Jude never suggested they call the police.

As they drive away, Irene tells Jude about the pool hall that Randy owns. She thinks Frank could take him there sometime and warns him he is a pool shark. Franklin says it’d be a real shame to lose those gold coins. When Jude gets sick and vomits in the back, Franklin complains he spent $60 on that breakfast. A coworker invites Denise (Kiah McKirnan) to lunch, but she has to finish something for Mark’s group. Mark (Tommy Malouf) approaches her to say everyone liked her work. She says she likes it here. Mark tells her about an in-house research group they’re developing and how they could use someone with her drive and talent. Once she reminds him that she has a year left of her MBA, Mark agrees they can work around her schedule.

It’ll pay a heck of a lot better than what she makes as an intern. She agrees to tell them by the end of the end. Denise rushes to the bathroom to calm herself. Meanwhile, Franklin cleans the vomit from his vehicle. Irene knocks on the bathroom door to tell Jude she washed his old clothes in case he doesn’t like the new ones. The lightbulb above her finally pops. She gets on the floor to retrieve the baseball from under the bed. Jude looks at the cut on his leg where he removed the strange object. Irene pulls a shiny object in a jar out of the dresser drawer nearby. Once Jude exits the bathroom, he remembers someone attacking him. He goes downstairs where he thanks Irene for washing his clothes although he prefers the new stuff.

She invites him to sit down, have some ginger ale, and watch whatever he wants on television. Jude confesses he didn’t watch a lot of television growing up because it was really strict. His memories are starting to come back. Irene urges him not to push it. She always recommended The Count of Monte Cristo to her students since it has everything. She finds the picture of Gabriel in the book before Franklin interrupts to say the car is clean. He begins in her leg exerciser so she can use it when she watches television. Franklin drags Irene into the kitchen to ask her what is going on.

Jude listens as Franklin reminds Irene that she isn’t his mother and shouldn’t be waiting on him hand and foot. He hopes she doesn’t buy the whole amnesia thing. Franklin tells Jude that his wife believes they should get to know each other. Franklin says they could arm wrestle, but Jude thinks chess is a good idea. Byron (Adam Bartley) puts up campaign flyers when he gets a call from Lloyd who works at the town clerk’s office. Lloyd tells him that they’ve received a complaint that he forged signatures on his ballot eligibility petition. Byron curses and immediately suspects it was Franklin York, but Lloyd won’t say who. They offer to put the matter to rest if Byron suspects his campaign.

Byron gets upset and thinks about it on the bed of his truck. Roy (Steve King) asks Chandra (Beth Lacke) if she could talk to someone about his TV since the color is still a mess. He’d buy a new one if he wasn’t sending his whole government check to his nephew. Another nurse catches Chandra stealing one of his pictures. The boss tells Chandra that they talked about this before and she claimed the patients were confused. Chandra pleads with her boss not to fire her. Franklin notices that Jude is using an old strategy he hasn’t seen since his grandpa. Irene tells Frank to leave him alone. Once Franklin beats Jude, he says he needs to visit the lumberyard to pick up some supplies.

Frank tells Irene to stay home and keep working her legs. Byron goes to the bowling alley to blow off some steam while Denise sees Cliff at school. Jude waits in the car as Frank goes into the bank to talk to Kathy (Angie Shriner). Jude looks at the owl that Franklin whittled earlier. Franklin gets money from the bank with help from Kathy. Denise receives a call while walking across the street. Frank tells Jude he was a woodworker and that was his trade for 50 years. Another guy named Richard used to do it around here too. One day, he visited Frank to say he was excited about a guy in India who had a grove of Burma teak trees. Richard wanted Franklin to pitch in with him to buy the whole grove of rare wood. Franklin admits he didn’t do it because it sounded too good to be true.

Frank stops at a gas station where he tells Jude that Richard went bankrupt because those trees didn’t exist. He offers Jude $5,000 and tells him he ran a good con. Frank believes it was a mistake to tell Jude about Michael. He isn’t going to let Irene get hurt again so he asks Jude to take the money, walk away, and not come back again. Jude insists he isn’t after anything and won’t take his money. Franklin admits he will likely tell Irene that he ran away. Jude asks him to thank Jude for him. Franklin changes his mind before Jude can get on the bus. At home, Irene removes the glowing ball from the jar and holds it in her hands. She places it on the table and it begins making a loud noise. Soon, the table disappears.

She scoops the ball up and puts it back into the jar. Toni asks her mother whether the man is a friend of grandpa’s. Stella says kind of. Toni wonders if he was in jail with him since it seems like he was in jail. They discuss whether he is going to stay. Denise surprises Irene as she is rushing to clean up the mess. Irene manages to hide the blowing object. They get something to drink and discuss what Denise said about them selling the house. Denise finds the picture of Gabriel so Irene makes up a story to explain it away. Franklin returns with Jude who they claim is their caretaker. They tell Denise that she is the reason they hired Jude. Denise wants to make sure Jude is certified and qualified to do this. Denise pulls Frank aside to ask if they gave Jude $5,000 since she has banking alerts on her phone.

Franklin reveals they haven’t paid him anything yet. He thinks they can trust him and there is nothing for him to steal anyway. They managed to convince Denise to leave once she learns Jude is staying there on a trial basis. Jude walks her outside and reassures her that she can look in at any time. She warns him that he better not be lying to her because she has too much going on already. She gives him advice before leaving. Denise stops her car to call Katie to see if she still lives in Farnsworth. She turns her car around to go to Katie’s house. Franklin agrees that Irene was right and he should stop treating Jude like a prisoner. He suggests going to look at the stars since they haven’t had a moment to themselves since he arrived, but Irene doesn’t seem interested.

Jude joins them after finishing the dishes. Franklin goes for the cream with the ibuprofen because Irene’s legs are hurting. He notices that the table has changed. Irene claims she was just redecorating. She hopes Jude enjoyed his first full day in Farnsworth. He asks her why she is being so nice to him. Irene says she is a nice person. She says he is easy to be nice to, but Jude reminds her she doesn’t even know him. Irene admits she doesn’t know him yet. Jude tells her that Franklin told him what happened to Michael. Irene thought he might do that. When asked what he was like, Irene says he liked quiet and nature. He’d often make Franklin take him bird watching. He was intense and would get so excited about things that he could barely get the words out.

He was funny, sweet, and so dang frustrating. Soon, Michael will have been gone longer than he was ever here, but Irene often feels like he is waiting out of view. Once she asks Jude whether he has seen him, Jude says he hasn’t. Jude says his father left them when he was younger. Irene already knows about Gabriel. Jude doesn’t think he came here by accident since his father might be in Farnsworth. She agrees to help him find his father. Franklin finds the bloody knife in the bathroom cabinet. He hides it and begins watching his hands. As the water fills the sink, the object Jude pulled from his leg emerges. It sinks back into the drain before he can grab it. He returns to the others and finds Jude reading to Irene. Byron pulls up outside, gets out, and goes into their shed.

He finds the hidden door. Once he goes down the steps, he finds the door to the stars. The tall man finally leaves as Toni enters to ask her mom what he was talking about when he said the perdisco. Stella explains it is a part of being in their community or a rite of passage. She never thought her daughter was interested, but Toni can’t be interested when her mother never tells her anything. Stella tells her daughter to grab a bag because they’re going on a trip to somewhere far away. As they leave, Stella says they’re not going to take the truck since they’re going another way. She takes her daughter into the chapel to show her their secret. They go through the hidden door and walk down the stairs. Stella says think of it as an elevator except they’re the ones that move.

Stella slides the door open to reveal the elevator. She pulls out the shiny object and tells her daughter that this is how you pick a destination. Stella reminds her daughter that she always told her they were special and not like other people. Many years ago, their family accepted a sacred responsibility to take care of something incredibly magnificent. Toni is about to find out why. Stella holds her hand and tells her not to be afraid. Once they reach their destination, they begin climbing a ladder. Stella says they’re in Newark in the United States. Toni is surprised that they’ve had this for about 300 years. They meet with a man cooking dinner outside a camper who has been expecting them.

 

Night Sky Review

Once again, Night Sky is following the same formula of ending each episode with the best 10 or 15 minutes. The episode ends with just enough of a tease to drive viewers to watch just one more episode. There is a great deal going on in Night Sky with some stories being more compelling than others. I question how much some of the scenes will matter in the long run or if they’ll matter at all. At times, it feels like the writers are struggling to fill eight episodes and maybe six or five episodes would’ve been more fitting.

The jumping around often dampens the tenseness of the scenes. For instance, Franklin makes a startling discovery and seems ready to confront Jude only for the show to change to Byron. He discovers the door to the stars before we jump over to Toni and Stella. Night Sky has a good cast, an interesting story, and plenty of potential. With a few tweaks, it could be far better than it is right now. The third episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of Night Sky can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work at this link.