The Serpent Strikes – The episode begins with Jenna Ross’s (Dawn Olivieri) mystery guest arriving by helicopter. The mystery visitor is revealed as Cain Ross, Ian Ross’s brother, in the next scene when he briefly meets with him in the medical tent. While he’s there, he shoots something into Ian’s IV bag. Immediately after stepping out of the medical tent, Cain is met by Jenna, who tells him that she feels like she’s losing control of the Homestead.  Despite their outward hostility toward each other, he agrees to help.

Elsewhere, Tom Reynolds (Sam Page) quickly says goodbye to Jacqueline/Jacq Reynolds (Jill Wagner) as he heads out for Army Training. Due to her being pregnant, he doesn’t take it so well when he learns that she is also training today. They joke about this for a few more seconds before he leaves.

Abe Eriksson (Tyler Lofton) is having flashbacks about a troubling event when Christian (Colby Strong) shows up to relieve him of guard duty. Christian can clearly see the despair on Abe’s face and tries to steer the conversation towards something happier like Claire Ross (Olivia Sanabia), which doesn’t help because they broke up. The conversation doesn’t get much further thanks to the attack siren. Seconds later, a guy on the radio confirms the Homestead is under attack. They are ordered to stand down, but Christian talks Abe into joining the action. Just as they come under fire and get separated, Jeff Eriksson (Bailey Chase) orders all Homesteaders to pull back to the apple orchard. In a scramble, Abe loses his radio. Shortly after that, he sees Claire and Tom. He yells and distracts Claire, which causes her to get shot. Almost immediately after this, Tom goes down also.

Abe is freaking out by the time Evan Lee (Jesse Hutch) and reinforcements show up. As soon as they find the opportunity, they race in and pull both Claire and Tom out of Harm’s way. Claire’s wound looks superficial, whereas Tom’s appears fatal and is later confirmed when the group arrives at camp. Jacq does not take the news well.

There is a huge disagreement in the medical tent when a doctor refuses to treat one of the enemy combatants, who will likely survive with proper medical care. Jeff solves the problem when he comes into the tent and wheels the man out. The nurse who wanted to save the man does not handle this so well. She is so upset that she begins packing up med supplies. Evan doesn’t handle this much better and tries to talk Jeff out of making the decision but ultimately fails. Cain sees the whole thing go down and begins teasing Evan once Jeff is gone.

Jeff immediately recognizes the man from the camp he poisoned when he takes him to the perimeter. The man also recognizes him and calls him out for poisoning his camp. Jeff tells him that’s what happens when you put your hands on his little girl. The man admits to watching the Homestead but claims he never touched Georgie Eriksson (Georgie White). Jeff leaves the man with the radio and tells him to call his people.

While Claire is revealed to be okay, the narrator from the first episode talks about building a graveyard on a bluff so their loved ones could look down upon them. She also claims this was the day that she realized the human heart was where the true battle raged.

Sometime later, Cain oversees the medical team packing their gear and leaving. He not only carefully makes sure they don’t leave with more than they came with but he also learns that it was the Homestead who attacked the supposed enemy camp first by poisoning their water. Shortly after this, Evan tells Jeff that word is out about his dead critter in the water stunt. Even worse, he learns that Tick (Kevin Lawson) and Bing (Emmanuel McCord) are leaving with the medical team. Just as Jeff and Evan are discussing this, Bing and Tick come by in a camp vehicle. There is a bit of a standoff but Jeff lets them leave without incident.

Claire is feeling guilty over Tom’s death and attempts to talk to Jacq about it. Much to Claire’s surprise, Jacq says that she’s been looking for her so that she could apologize for giving her bad advice about love. Jacq tells her that if you have an ounce of love like she and Tom had, you hang on and don’t let go because it’s all that matters.

The following day, Jenna asks Cain what he thinks Ian would do about the leadership in camp. He mockingly tells her that Ian would have the same problem as her, paralysis of analysis. She doesn’t take too kindly to this and reminds him that Ian built the entire camp. Cain admits that Ian was a great builder but says the camp needs a strong leader now more than ever. Jenna mentions instituting a committee, but he practically laughs in her face while telling her that won’t get her any further than she is now. After a bit more back and forth, he tells her that all she has to do is give him the order and he will execute it. For the moment, she tells him to do nothing.

Jenna discusses her belief that Georige is God’s messenger with Tara Eriksson (Kearran Giovanni) while they are picking fruit. Tara gives her a picture that Georgie drew of her missing son, Sage. Although he is being held hostage, Jenna chooses to look at the fact that he is still alive.

Abe visits Jacq for religious advice. He says he doesn’t even know if he believes in God and Claire’s family is so religious. Jacq practically tells him that it doesn’t matter, if she needs him to believe then he should believe. Although Jacq admits that she doesn’t believe, she tells him that finding God is as easy as looking at the sky and asking. Abe is right in the middle of doing this when Claire surprises him. She seems rather pleased when he tells her that he was praying about her and their family.

Even contacts Jeff over the radio to let him know that the homesteaders are meeting about what he did. Tara just happens to overhear this and advises him against raiding the meeting with Evan. He doesn’t agree with her, which leads to her following him to the meeting.  Evan, Jeff, and Tara arrive at the meeting just as Cain is getting the crowd rowed up. While Georgie steals a gun from Jeff without him knowing, Claire and Abe overhear Christian giving the order for someone to attack. Christian pulls a gun on them and Abe immediately jumps in front of Claire, but Georige is about to pull a weapon on Christian. At this point, things are getting really heated in the camp. This is practically where the episode ends.

 

Homestead: The Series Review

I am enjoying how each episode ends on a cliffhanger. Even though this entire episode was like a tinder fire just waiting to be lit, it left a lot to be desired. For starters, the episodes are entirely too long, even though each scene is only a few minutes at most. At times, this makes things so confusing that it’s hard to tell what’s going on. Although there aren’t that many characters, they don’t do a good job of introducing them. I get that every show needs a bit of mystery but then again, there is a point of making things confusing. Other than this, I enjoyed the story, regardless of how unoriginal it is. I’d still have to give the episode a 5 out of 10.

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