Mada – As the fourth episode of Moonhaven begins, Tomm Schultz (Joe Manganiello) finally recovers and removes the branch from his eye. A group of masked people enters and begin fighting with Bella Sway (Emma McDonald) and the others. Tomm is injected in the neck with something as Arlo (Kadeem Hardison) knocks down one of their attackers. Bella tells Arlo to leave Tomm because Indira (Amara Karan) is out there alone. Once Bella catches up with Indira, she finds one of the attackers trying to inject her with something. She stops him, but he throws dust in her face before disappearing. Paul (Dominic Monaghan) and Arlo join them. The fire crew arrives to deal with the fire. The men use some type of technology to create a shield around the fire and put it out.

Once they learn that Tomm is gone, Bella suggests this was an extraction instead of an attack. They need him to finish whatever they’ve been planning. Bella wonders if this is what Chill’s warning was about. Paul reminds her that the First Wavers are being celebrated tomorrow so all of Moonhaven will be there. Bella would expect an attack or bomb on Earth, but Paul believes IO can prevent that. He argues they’ll be destroyed by doubt. After the intro, the First Wavers gather for a speech as they’re warned they’re sailing into a storm. Wish (Josh Tedeku) and the others learn they’ll be two days from footfall on Earth when they leave on the transport ships. They’re told not to forget their mission and that they will create new beginnings. As they find out more about the landing zones, one guy shouts that it is a trap and the Earthers will kill everyone when they land.

Bella joins Indira who suggests Tomm has been working on this for a long time. He was Ultra Ops in the war and worked alone but told her that his nickname was The Battalion. Bella believes he could’ve lied about everything since he was Ultra. Indira admits she is glad Bella is there. Bella learns that the Council Chair is refusing to let the transport ships land. Indira believes Maite Voss (Ayelet Zurer) is looking for leverage since she wants to remain in power. Indira pulls out Tomm’s gun and asks Bella to shoot her. Humankind is fallible, but IO is not. She puts the gun in Bella’s hand and pulls the trigger. The bullet is stopped before it can hit Indira in the chest. Indira explains they’re fighting for this so they can save themselves from themselves. Bella thinks she can get close to Maite and help.

At home, Paul talks to Wish about landing in the Sahara. Wish says most landings are kept secrets so they can protect the IO until it can protect them. Lone (Elaine Tan) argues it is lucky that he doesn’t have to enter the cities to teach the locals, but Paul thinks it would be a good thing. Fritz claims they’ll find out the truth about Earthers soon enough. We know more about Earthers than they know about themselves and fix everything for them. Elna (Martha Malone) claims they’re the same while Fritz tells her time for child-speak is past. Paul asks Wish if he has nothing to learn from the Mother. Wish says he would listen if they spoke, but the hungry only talk of food. Paul claims Wish has learned from Fritz because the arrogant swagger isn’t the boy he raised. Fritz reminds Paul that his son is a man now.

Paul tells Lone that her silence is loud although he says their son needs to learn how to survive. Although she doesn’t think a good heart is enough there, Paul thinks a good heart is enough anywhere. Paul wants Wish’s life to be proof that they should survive. Fritz tells Lone about the attack and fire this morning. There are Earthers among them causing trouble. Paul insists Bella is helping them while Mooners have turned against the Bridge. They’ve shed their marks and it spreads like poison. Wish storms out of the room. Paul follows him out while saying this is the panic and crumble that comes with change. Wish believes he is being sent to fight a war. After Paul says he isn’t like Fritz, Wish agrees because Fritz isn’t a fool. Once Wish leaves, Paul receives a letter. Bella visits Maite to ask her why she won’t let the ships land.

They’ve given people on Earth hope so Bella hopes she can see the risk in that. If she takes that back now, their hope will die for good. Maite wants to make sure it is safe before letting the ships land because some on Mother profit from her destruction. After she says she wants to see what trouble IO saw ahead, Bella says it saw her. Bella leaves. Sonda talks to Maite about her conversation with Bella. Maite believes Bella is the message she has been waiting for. She is told her blood sister, the Mooner, worked with those who wished to stop the Bridge. Delaying the ships only aids their cause. Maite says their cause is just. They doubt and are hot-riled by fear, but she is not afraid. Something bigger and better is coming to save them all. Sonda (Yazzmin Newell) promises they’ll follow her wherever she goes.

Bella tries to hide something from Lone who tells her it is Paul’s Palmi. His blood mother is going to air so he has gone to see her. They meet at our birth and their death. Lone suggests going to him because Paul wouldn’t want to be alone. She asks what happened this morning since nobody will tell her anything. Bella tells her that Mooners have turned against the bridge and the Envoy’s guard is involved. She can’t say what it is doing it for though. Then, they begin accusing one another of prejudices. Bella claims it only took an operative ten minutes to get them to turn against one another, but Lone says they’re not broken so easily. Lone confesses she should rip out her mark and plead with them to stop the bridge. She won’t because she wants her child to go. She wants him to make things better for Earth.

Paul visits his blood mother and gives her something to drink. He admits he is lost and trying to hold it together. She sees strength in a man who is mad. Paul’s son is going to Earth and they’ve been talking about it since he came to them seven years ago. He sees the man he will become, but told the boy inside to trust Truelune, and their purpose. Although he taught his son to leave, he now has doubt about it. His blood mother reminds him all children leave. This isn’t the first time Truelune has been tested. We sometimes feel lost, but it always comes back. Paul tells her Wish’s name and his name before she reveals she was called Gnoc. As Bella arrives nearby, Paul begins lifting Gnoc up. Bella approaches Paul to comfort him. As they leave, she asks why they meet their blood parents. Paul claims it is a tribute to the old days when blood was more important than water.

The rebellion was 143 years ago before the blackout. The first settlers were quick to divide on family lines. Once one tribe tried to control IO, Earth shut it down. It was decided they should try again so new settlers arrived. Water families took over because a family would lead to a tribe which would lead to a nation and war. Sonda visits Indira to say she begged Maite to change her mind and let the ships land. Indira warns her that Maite is leading them over a cliff. Indira believes she should stand up in Maite’s place since she is her second. When Sonda leaves, she is confronted by Tomm in the woods. She is glad to see he is okay as they begin making out. Bella shows Arlo what she found when she and Paul went back to the spot where Chill was killed. It is a synthetic flower petal. He uses a magnifying glass to learn that it was ripped from the base.

Bella wonders where the rest of the flower could be. Arlo asks what Strego said to Tomm before he got shot. She remembers him saying, “where one world ends, another one begins”. He was upset because he said he had done something terrible. She told him that Chill was her sister before they heard Tomm and she told him to stay hidden. Arlo agrees to continue investigating the petal while she deals with something else. Sonda tells Tomm that it is creating an opportunity now that Indira wants Maite removed. It is just as he predicted. Sonda couldn’t believe he was waking up from the Singer since no one has ever taken that much. Tomm saw monsters in this world and they saw him in theirs. Every bad choice he ever made happened all over again.

Tomm believes it was a gift because he saw where he has been and where he is going. He saw their future on the new moon with crowns and thrones. Arlo watches Chill’s murder over and over. He notices that Strego had something in his hands before Paul scares him. Arlo shows Paul the flower that he had and suspects it was made by a Mooner. Before the murder, she goes into the woods and uses the flower to guide her. Arlo doesn’t think it’ll work without the other petal. Paul speculates that Strego went to the ship to give Tomm the flower, but Bella got there first. Tomm didn’t want anyone to know he was working with the rebels so he tried to kill both. The flower has to be on the ship somewhere. Strego could’ve remained hidden, but he came up.

Arlo wonders if he wanted to die. They question whether he came up because he wanted to give Bella justice once he found out that she was Chill’s sister. Arlo suggests Strego was talking to Bella instead of Tomm. He wants to visit CAT to see if he can find the flower. The First Wavers are honored as they prepare to depart. Bella confronts Maite. She believes Maite opened the door before because she wanted her to see the flower. Bella accuses her of working with the rebels. Maite shows her a painting of the flower while saying Chill’s life flows through everything in this room. Bella’s does too. Maite claims she is with her even if she doesn’t see her by her side. Bella repeats it with her before realizing the letter was to Maite. She tells Bella that her mother painted the flower and all of this was Loa’s. Maite describes her as many things, including Earther, Mooner, Seeker, Maker, Dreamer, and Lover.

Maite says she was mine. Elna and other children perform for other Mooners. While Arlo searches the ship, Bella tells Maite she has been looping here for five years. Maite says she couldn’t tell her earlier because she was hidden from her until Chill died and IO tagged her as blood. She cannot explain how Loa knew Chill was her daughter although Loa would wander off into the Glades and into Primo. Maite suspects she might’ve gone over the wall into the Fringelands. One day, she wanded back and knew. Bella asks what she was looking for even though Maite doesn’t think it matters. Wish leaves the performance to check on Paul. Wish confesses he is scared. Paul tells him that Truelune will never let him down if he chooses the right way and the hard way.

Paul will always be with him no matter where he goes. Bella tells Maite that she only stumbled into this mess and wanted nothing to do with it. She believes the Bridge has to happen and the First Wave has to leave. Maite thinks they can cross the Bridge a different way since others have arrived. Bella asks if they’re aliens here for IO. Maite says her mother was the first to make contact even though she didn’t believe her initially. She reveals that Bella’s mother didn’t die and instead wandered off to never return. Although IO marked her dead, Maite believes she is with the aliens. It is time to find her. They hear something before Maite disappears. Mooners look at Earth as a fiery symbol appears on its surface. Arlo finds the flower hidden in a locker on the ship and puts it back together. When he closes the door, Tomm thanks him.

 

Moonhaven Review

At times, Moonhaven shows signs of being a competent science-fiction series with a deep plot and complex characters. Some of the special effects and sets look great. Unfortunately, the pieces just don’t fit together well enough leaving a convoluted mess with terrible dialogue. In the first couple of episodes, some of the main characters were obnoxious, but they’ve started settling in now.

The pacing is so slow that little of importance is happening in each episode. I think we’re all waiting for the first wavers to either depart or not, but it needs to happen soon. The dialogue is a big problem. Some characters speak in riddles that make no sense whatsoever while others say cheesy things. It feels like you’d need a translation reference book to figure out exactly what some of the characters are trying to say when they just ramble.

The problem is that would take too much effort and Moonhaven isn’t worth it so far. Aspects of the episode were good, but these issues are impossible to ignore. The episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Moonhaven can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support us at this link.