As the second episode of Station Eleven begins, we see a young Kirsten (Matilda Lawler) sitting on the ground with her hand on the Station Eleven book. It is the 2nd year of the incident and Kirsten is all alone. She sees a woman sitting on a chair in the distance, pulls out her knife, and approaches her slowly. The woman quickly spins around with her gun drawn. She asks Kirsten her name before quickly realizing the girl isn’t a threat. Sarah (Lori Petty) introduces herself to Kirsten and offers her a drink of water. Then, she offers her a box of Cheez-Its while saying she played music before the sickness. Kirsten explains she was a Shakespearean actor and trained under Arthur Leander. Sarah believes they can move past that. Kirsten says they’re going to fix the ship and she will say goodbye to Arthur, Jeevan, and her little brother Frank. As they see someone in the distance, Sarah warns her the director hates children although they’re the only ones who can act.

Sarah reveals they’re The Traveling Symphony and travel for a reason. She says they burn the house down, go, and try to make the world make sense for a minute. Kirsten listens as Sarah says they blame you if you stay but love you like you saved them when you return. We jump to year twenty as an older Kirsten (Mackenzie Davis) walks around the camp and asks about Charlie (Clark Backo). She rides a horse and talks to other members of the group. Kirsten finds Charlie who is heavily pregnant. Dan arrives and Kirsten doesn’t seem thrilled to see him. He tells them he is going to audition again. Seconds later, Dan stands in front of the group and asks to do something besides Shakespeare. They only perform Shakespeare so they’re hesitant to let him do something else.

However, Sarah isn’t paying attention. Alexandra (Philippine Velge) convinces Dieter (Joe Pingue) to let him audition his way. Kirsten wonders if they even need a new player. Dan goes a skit about the Fourth of July, fighting for their freedom, and a likely battle. When he finishes, the group cheers and Dieter agrees to add him to the roster. Next, The Traveling Symphony walks through a little town and waves at the locals on the sides of the road. As the parade continues, Kirsten says she doesn’t like Hamlet and Sarah complains about the difficulty of composing a symphony. A little girl runs up with a basket in her hands and welcomes them back to St. Deborah by the Water. She asks about Kirsten who seems to be a favorite. Kirsten and Alexandra decide to do something together. While walking through the woods, Kirsten is asked if she is okay since the woods remind her of Jeevan.

They talk about the cellphone and a feature that helps them find a ride. Kirsten is confident that the phone will fit all of their plays. Alex says she wishes she could’ve had a phone. She reveals she asked Sayid (Andy McQueen) to come swimming with them as we jump back in time and young Kirsten tries to get in touch with her mother. Catherine isn’t there to take her call while the man on the television says there have been at least 10,000 deaths. Frank (Nabhaan Rizwan) recommends turning the television off as Kirsten tries calling her father. Jim doesn’t answer either. Frank believes everything will return to normal in a few days since the power is still on. While Frank and Jeevan (Himesh Patel) speak in Hindi, Kirsten sends a few text messages to her parents. Then, Jeevan invites her to use the spare bedroom to get some rest.

In the present, Kirsten and the others go swimming. Sayid asks Kirsten about seeing ghosts in the cabin this year although she hasn’t seen any. She admits it is like always since there has been no sign of him. Sayid thought his first 100 days were bad, but he believes Kirsten’s were worse since she walked across Lake Michigan. In the past, Jeevan and Kirsten begin walking toward the lake. Then, we hear Jeevan asking Frank whether it is okay to open the door. In the present, Kirsten asks where Alex went. She becomes concerned when she notices strangers in the distance. Kirsten rushes over to Alex who introduces her to David and his friend. Sayid rushes over and promises they’re fine before David tells Kirsten he saw her perform in Mackinac Island ten years ago. David’s friend says they saw Coriolanus and Taming of the Shrew.

They return to the swimming hole where David offers to give Kirsten mushrooms he picked on the way. Alex asks about Cody’s mother dying in Detroit and Dan confirms it. He believed they’d find some medicine for his wife. David confesses he isn’t sure he can raise Cody right without a mother although Kirsten argues he is pretty much already raised. Kirsten asks how old he is before Alex changes the subject to his wife’s name. She offers to sing a dirge for him later. David says her name was Rose and she was a good mother. He wonders if they would’ve been better off getting killed. They notice a flare in the air so Kirsten says they have to go since it is four hours until the curtain call. Before they leave, David asks Kirsten about her tattoos. She claims they’re for all the people she has killed. She tells Alex she is going to do a quick perimeter sweep.

As she walks away, David says, “To the monsters, we’re the monsters”. When she asks where he heard that, he claims it just came into his head. After Cody climbs out of the water, Kirsten decides to leave. As she rides back to the camp, she stops and notices a piece of wire tied to the bottom of a traffic sign. It makes her remember something from her past with Frank and Jeevan. They encourage her to run right now. Once she makes it back to the camp, she sits with August (Prince Amponsah) who gives her a switchblade. He checks to make sure she is okay. We hear a young Kirsten ask Jeevan what he would’ve done if he knew the flu was coming. He reveals he would’ve come home earlier from LA. As for Kirsten, she would’ve said goodbye to Arthur. She gets another weapon too before learning that Jeremy (Jonathan Kim) and Charlie are getting off the wheel. They’re going to stay for the year. Karen told Charlie that having a newborn out there on the road wouldn’t be safe.

Kirsten doesn’t like that and claims wolves could attack and eat the baby here too. She goes into labor so Kirsten begins yelling for Karen. Dan learns from Dieter that he is going to play Queen Gertrude tonight since there was an emergency. As Kirsten pushes Charlie in the wheelchair, they talk about Charlie’s decision. Charlies says she wants to stay although the Symphony is her family. Kirsten calls it selfish before saying midwife Karen (Lara Zaluski) can finish pushing her down there. As the play begins that night, we see a flashback of young Kirsten in her room alone. She walks over to Dan who insists he can’t go on. He doesn’t think he can do it because he isn’t a mother. Kirsten gives him the same advice Arthur gave her. She explains it isn’t about him and he should focus on the other person. During the play, he should put all his focus on her. In the past, Kirsten gets a message from her parents’ phone.

As young Kirsten gets up to check the message from her dad’s phone, the play continues in the present. Dan takes to the stage and performs pretty well. Kirsten remembers getting the message while he performs with Dan. Then, Jeevan and Frank talk about the fact she hasn’t eaten in several days. As the play continues, Jeevan and Frank try to get Kirsten to open the door. She begins screaming and throwing stuff around before unlocking and opening the door. Kirsten says she got weird texts. When Jeevan is given the phone, he learns that the body of the phone’s owner is located in the morgue at Lakeview Memorial Hospital. The last text message warns them not to come to the hospital. Kirsten admits she can’t remember how many days it will be until Christmas. Frank and Jeevan believe they have a calendar so they can figure it out. Jeevan comforts her as she sobs. When the play finishes, the crowd claps.

Later that night, The Traveling Symphony sits around and plays music. Once Alexander joins Sarah, she is approached by a man who asks if she is in charge. The man explains he is an emissary for a community that has never revealed its existence until now. He gives them an invitation to come perform for his community. It says something about the governing board of the Museum of Civilization inviting the Traveling Symphony to come and perform on Midsummer’s Eve. He laughs as he admits it is their first invitation. Sarah doesn’t like the idea and curses the past. She says they never leave the wheel and walks off. Alex hugs him and says she likes the name of the town. Kirsten holds Charlie’s baby. Once Jeremy walks away, Kirsten admits she was being selfish before although Charlie believes she was just sad. Charlie knows how difficult it is for Kirsten when someone leaves or dies. We see Kirsten and Jeevan leaving the apartment complex and walking onto the street. They discuss Karen’s involvement in the birth before Alexandra stands up and sings for David as she promised earlier.

A woman talks to Dieter and asks whether anyone is sleeping in his tent now. He admits he doesn’t have a partner. In a flashback, Frank finds that Kirsten has moved to the closet because she didn’t want to stay in there. She tells him about the book Arthur gave her and the fact it is the only copy. He sits down and looks through the book with her. It says he remembers damage and then escape. Frank says he loves a good comeback. In the present, Kirsten walks away from the crowd while a young Kirsten screams for Frank in the past. Kirsten sits next to David who keeps playing with his lighter. She reminds him that the island is pronounced Mack-in-aw. She also knows Chicken of the Woods doesn’t grow up north. When she calls him creepy, he claims she is charged with that Day Zero pain and it is like she never left.

He says she was incredible before admitting it is important for him and Cody to join the Traveling Symphony although they won’t be with them for long. She pulls out a knife and puts it up to his neck. She says no. He warns her that her friends are going to start disappearing. She stabs him in the side with the switchblade. As he lays back, she asks him where he heard the monsters line he mentioned earlier. As he squirms in pain, he says it was the prophecy. Once she pulls the knife out of his body, he repeats the line that he remembers damage. She leaves him on the ground and returns to Alexandra who is still singing. In the morning, Kirsten wakes up next to a friend and exits her tent. She checks the spot where she left David only to find that he is gone. She says I remember damage. We see that Cody has him in a wheelchair and says they need to get him home.

 

Station Eleven Review

As I previously said, Station Eleven would either transform into something great or a horrendous mess that viewers would hate. It seems it squarely fits into the latter category aside from a few stragglers who see something different than the masses. Insane critics likely paid for positive reviews have given the show mainly positive reviews referring to it as a masterpiece without really saying anything of substance.

It is easy really. Station Eleven could have expanded on the foundation of the first episode and continued focusing on young Kirsten, Frank, and Jeevan. The first episode was a bit slow but interesting, nevertheless. I was eager to see what happened and where these characters would go as Kirsten experienced childhood in a post-apocalyptic world with two men she barely knew. The last scene of episode one left me with a bad feeling that they were going in a different direction.

Sure enough, they did and it will likely prove to be a fatal mistake. I am not going to write off the whole show just yet since this is only the second episode, but the second episode was a major disappointment. It mostly took the success of episode one, threw it into the trash, and created a kaleidoscope of messy, jumbled scenes that meant nothing.

Matilda Lawler, Himesh Patel, and Nabhaan Rizwan were interesting in their respective roles. While their characters did some stupid things in the first episode, I could still see myself caring for them with more time and actually caring about their fates. The characters portrayed by Mackenzie Davis, Lori Petty, Joe Pingue, and the others were dull and a far cry from the others.

Perhaps the biggest problem is the way they decided to bunch everything together with constant flashbacks and time jumps. It was confusing, annoying, and ineffective. With 10 episodes in total, Station Eleven might transform into a worthwhile drama before the finale. After episode two, my hope is rapidly dwindling. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10 which might be a bit too generous. Station Eleven recaps can be found on Reel Mockery here.