These Fragile Lives – The episode resumes at the hospital where Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) has just learned that she isn’t pregnant. Tensions are already high and only get more strained when Ellis Stevens (Corteon Moore) convinces Fatima to tell Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot) and Mari/Marielle (Kaelen Ohm) about the cravings. It’s not long before Fatima becomes frustrated and storms off. As Mari makes plans to spend the night at the Colony House, Kristi lets Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau) have it for not telling her about Fatima’s cravings beforehand. His defense is that it wasn’t his place.
Things are going no better for Victor (Scott McCord) as he has practically reached his end with Jasper. Henry (Robert Joy) attempts to intervene but only makes matters worse, leading to Victor taking Jasper and storming off. At the same time, Elgin’s (Nathan D. Simmons) camera randomly takes a photo on its own while he’s speaking with Tillie (Deborah Grover). Although the picture is not revealed at the time, it appears to shake him to the core.
By this time, Mari has got Fatima set up on an IV drip, but Fatima isn’t showing gratitude. Mari’s attempts to relate to her using her own experiences only make matters worse. The tension only increases once Ellis arrives and brings up Fatima’s emotional breakdown the night the bus appeared in town. This only affirms her belief that no one believes or understands what she is saying. Elsewhere, Boyd and Donna (Elizabeth Saunders) about Fatima’s situation isn’t going any better. It certainly doesn’t help when Donna hints at asking Fatima to move out of the house for the safety of the other residents.
Jim Matthews (Eion Bailey) and two of the Colony House Residents (Nancy Kenny) are finishing up their foraging trip when Jade (David Alpy), Tabitha Matthews (Catalina Sandino Moreno), and Ethan Matthews (Simon Webster) show up out of nowhere. Jim immediately assumes the worst until Ethan explains things in his own excited way.
While Elgin’s random photo leads him to the cellar Victor hid in the night the entire town’s population was wiped out, Julie Matthews (Hannah Cheeramy) moves into the hospital where she encounters Randall (A.J. Simmons). Elgin’s investigation eventually leads him to a hidden red door that appears to previously have been used as a small bedroom.
Acosta (Samantha Brown) becomes frustrated and ends up at the diner where she meets Kenny Liu (Ricky He). She spends several minutes raving about the enigmatic design of the town while he tries to calmly explain to her that she is only asking the same questions that everyone asks when they first arrive in town. As he offers her tea, Ethan accosts Jade with a barrage of similar questions at the warded site while Jim pulls Tabitha to the side for a personal conversation. It doesn’t take long before this leads to an argument that is practically ended when Jim agrees to back off and let her investigate.
Much to his displeasure, Julie accompanies Randall on a Chaga mushroom foraging expedition. She spends the majority of the time ranting about her family life, which explains her bunking at the hospital. Although she attempts to inquire about his background, he isn’t very chatty, other than revealing the fact that he was on his way to Detroit when he landed in the town. Despite this, he does appear to have something up his sleeve when she mentions that she never had a chance to even get her learner’s permit back in the real world.
As Kenny does his best to help Acosta make sense of things, he inadvertently unloads his own burdens by telling her how he lost both his parents to the town. She doesn’t appear too enthused to speak about her family. The conversation immediately takes a turn for the worse when she starts ragging on Boyd and Kenny comes to his defense. Before she storms off and nearly collides with the arriving Bakta (Angela Moore), one of the small table jukeboxes begins playing the Five Stairstep’s 1970 hit, ‘O-o-h Child.’
By the time Bakta approaches Kenny about reopening the diner, Elgin has discovered a skeletonized corpse in the hidden cellar bedroom. This scene abruptly ends with him looking at the Kimono Woman (Shuoxin Fu) and enigmatically asking her if this is where it happens.
Victor shows up with Jasper at Sara Myers’ (Avery Konrad) house and asks if he can use the basement to get Jasper to talk. At the same time, Randall gives Julie a brief driving lesson while Henry searches for an adult beverage at the Colony House. Acosta takes Boyd by surprise when he returns to find the station wrecked. This leads to an immediate argument and only worsens as she demands her gun back. This will go on for several minutes until he returns the weapon, removing the bullets beforehand. This appears to be enough for her.
Henry and Donna’s search for alcohol leads them to the bar where they briefly discuss Victor. He appears to be uneasy with the fact that he wishes Tabitha never found him because believing Victor was dead was easier. At the same time, Tabitha continues to explore the warded site while simultaneously sharing her childhood dream with Jade, Ethan, and Jim.
Ellis shares the news of Fatima’s pregnancy with Tillie when their attention is drawn upstairs to Fatima’s pained wails. Seeing her in pain eventually leads him to the hospital where he attempts to steal pain meds. This causes a heated fight with Kristi that Boyd just happens to walk in on. It takes a bit of convincing but Boyd convinces him to hand over the medicine.
Randal and Julie’s driving lesson appears to be going much better and he’s nearly ready to turn the wheel over to her when he starts seeing the giant locusts. The encounter embarrasses him and eventually ends with him storming off into the woods with Julie trailing after them. Much to both their surprises, his little tantrum leads them to the ruins of the castle that Boyd escaped from last season. By this time, Randall is not only calm but almost frightened whereas Julie is intrigued by what she describes as some type of physical attachment. It’s clear that he feels it too but is hesitant to acknowledge it.
Fatima returns to the greenhouse where she briefly battles with eating the rotten vegetables. She has enough willpower to resist but it hit with a burst of pain upon trying to leave. Tillie soon arrives with the intent to help but in her confused state, Fatima ends up stabbing her with gardening sheers. Right before Ellis arrives to watch her perish, Tillie tells Fatima to run.
From Review
I am not entirely sure how I feel about the episode. Besides the season premiere, I had been happy with the way the season was progressing, even excited at times. Unfortunately, I am kind of left up in the air. Victor’s little bit of air time with Jasper left a lot to be desired. I am already sick of hearing about Fatima’s faux pregnancy and feel that they are relying too heavily on this story. On top of that, I certainly do not want to see any more of the music box visions/dreams or ancient ruins.
Acosta and Boyd’s confrontation was grade-A cringe-worthy. Tabitha’s journey to the warded site was somewhat intriguing but poorly executed. Jim’s acquiescence makes his already emotionally weak character even weaker. I am also tired of Henry’s feeling sorry for himself about wanting his life to be easier, who doesn’t? Honestly, I guess there just wasn’t much good to say about episode 7. On the positive, I can only see the season getting better from here. It would be incredibly hard to undertopple this blunder of a filler episode. I’d have to give it a low 4.9 out of 10.
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