Hide And Seek – As the fourth episode of The Midwich Cuckoos begins, Jane Colter (Marianne Oldham) plays the piano while the kids sing at the school. Sam (Ukweli Roach) checks in on Hannah (Scarlett Leigh) as she sings. Paul Haynes (Max Beesley) watches a video of Sunny (Aditi Pothuganti) saying she doesn’t know where her mother went. Her mother kept crying and told her she’d be happier here before dropping her off at the house. They have CCTV footage from the parking garage, but it cuts out and stays like that for nearly six hours. They searched the hotel and vehicles although they found nothing. Amrita hasn’t called any friends or family members either. Every camera on the way to the house goes out for 30 seconds. The mothers only know that she left and Bryony (Cherrelle Skeete) would like to keep it that way.

During a group meeting, Rachel (Hannah Tointon) doesn’t understand how Joe can be the same as Lily Grace or Evie since he is her loving little boy. Dr. Susannah Zellaby (Keeley Hawes) says they’re still trying to work out how their minds work. If Joe learns something at school about Curtis, the others will know about it too. Cassie (Synnove Karlsen) believes it is time to accept the children for what they are which is an evolutionary step forward. Jane wonders why they need different parents if they’re one being. Mary-Ann argues that they need them and they’re not exactly the same. Cassie doesn’t think this should divide them. If the kids can live as one harmonious being, they should be able to do the same. While Nora (India Amarteifio) and some of the others agree, Rachel is living in a house divided because her husband loves one kid and hates the other.

Sarah (Amy Cudden) says Amrita’s daughter believes she is her mother. Cassie argues that Sunny wanted a loving parent and thought Sarah would be a better mother. She just knows that Evie is her daughter. After the meeting ends, Cassie tells Susannah that it was a good session. Susannah says she spoke beautifully. Cassie learns that they still can’t figure out where Amrita went. She thinks all she needs to know is that Amrita abandoned her daughter. Zoe Moran (Aisling Loftus) finds Hannah sleeping next to Sam because she had another bad dream. She believes Hannah should sleep in her own bed because this has been happening every night since Sunny arrived. Zoe didn’t go to the group meeting since she forgot. Sam thought it would be helpful, but Zoe insists she will never be like those women.

When Paul makes it home, Jodie Blake (Lara Rossi) asks about Amrita only to learn they haven’t heard anything from her. Paul confesses he is worried about her. Jodie admits she didn’t go looking for another place to live yet. Paul thinks it’d be better if Nathan stayed there with him for the time being. He pleads with her not to move out right now. Susannah checks on Evie (Billie Gadsdon) when she hears her moaning in her sleep. When Susannah touches her forehead, she sees Evie’s snowy nightmare. At the station, Paul asks Steve to get him the CCTV from the hotel again. He looks at the video of himself there with Susannah and the video of Amrita with Sunny. He notices that the vans in the mirror are different. Once he visits the motel, he learns that the van in the morning is the laundry van and comes every day.

The other one would be for frozen deliveries and it comes weekly. Paul goes to Interfreeze to see what he can find out about the van. A guy there tells him that the van is the broken one. While Susannah looks at Evie’s weird drawings, the van’s back doors are opened for Paul. The drawings include the one with the dead dog and what looks like Amrita near a van. Paul finds Amrita’s body in the back of the van. He tells Bryony that she was locked in because the wiring shorted although he doesn’t know how it stayed that cold. Bernard Westcott (Samuel West) wants to create a story for the warehouse staff and change the name. He’ll deal with the body. They’re instructed not to tell the mothers or Dr. Zellaby for now.

Paul suggests he’ll have to tell her because she was there that night. Bernard doesn’t think so. When Bryony leaves, Paul tells Bernard that he can’t expect him to ignore that a mother has died. Bernard doesn’t understand the gift they’ve received, but he knows they’ve had peace for two years. One incident that they know little about can’t be allowed to unravel everything they’ve done. Before he leaves, Bernard tells Bryony that he has orders to protect the asset. Sam checks on Nathan and Joe as they wait for their dads to arrive. When Curtis (Lewis Reeves) arrives with David (Dexter Sol Ansell), Curtis agrees to let him go on the swings. However, Nathan and Joe are already using them. Curtis makes Joe move so David can swing for a while. The boys make him swing too high until he gets hurt and his nose bleeds.

Susannah visits Zoe so they can talk, but Zoe doesn’t want to chat. Dr. Zellaby would like to continue their prior conversation before learning that Hannah has been sleeping in their bed. Susannah asks about the bad dreams only for Hannah to deny them. Zoe suggests otherwise though. Rachel rushes outside to check on David when he arrives home as Curtis promises to explain later. Susannah asks if they’re okay while Sam tells Curtis not to be hard on Joe. Curtis says no one is speaking to Joe because it is their business. He tells Joe that he wants answers while taking him inside. Sam claims that David just fell off the swings when asked by Susannah. Later, Zoe lets Sam listen to the voicemail message from Amrita saying she is leaving. Zoe explains that she said “we’re leaving” so she doesn’t understand why she’d leave without her daughter.

Zoe wonders which man visited her in London before Hannah interrupts hoping to get into bed with her daddy. Zoe won’t let it happen tonight and forces Hannah to go back to her bed. Hannah follows her into the hallway and makes her hit her head on the wall. Sam doesn’t want to believe that Hannah made Zoe hurt herself. Although he says she needs sleep, Zoe says she can’t because there isn’t any room in her bed anymore. In the bedroom, they argue about having the child as Zoe confesses she doesn’t love her. Sam says he does even though he isn’t her father. In the morning, Susannah tries to call Paul who doesn’t answer. Cassie tells her that Evie had another bad dream last night and was really cold. Susannah asks her if she is still cold. She tries to reach out and touch her forehead, but Evie stops her from doing so. Sam walks outside where he asks Curtis if Joe is coming to school.

Curtis says no because he is being punished. As Hannah walks by, she scratches Curtis’s car with the pin on her jacket. Curtis warns her that she’ll have hell to pay if she does that again although Sam doesn’t think she meant it. Zoe buys a train ticket to leave Midwich. She boards the train moments later. Susannah meets with Sam at the school because Ward 300 wants a psych report. She thinks it’d be better to do it without the parents so she suggests waking up Nathan. When Nathan sits down with her, Susannah says she wants to know what happened on the swings, but Nathan says nothing happened. The lights blink after Susannah asks whether David’s daddy made him angry. She asks if he could hurt her if she made him angry. Nathan says he doesn’t want to. She asks whether there is anyone else that he has hurt.

She claims the others won’t find out. Susannah questions whether Sunny’s mommy made him angry. Nathan says it was her fault. Susannah wonders if it was because she wants to take Sunny away. She asks about the bad dreams and about being cold. Nathan says Evie isn’t cold and Susannah is making him cold. The others begin waking up as Nathan repeatedly says, “let us out”. When Sam enters, Nathan insists he did nothing it was her. The other kids point at her through the window. Zoe gets off the train in London where she tries to call Amrita. When she doesn’t answer, Zoe calls Jamie Travis (Thoren Ferguson).

They meet up as Jamie tries to find out what is wrong with her. He asks whether she is having problems with Sam and what happened to the party girl he used to know. Zoe breaks down as she confesses she thinks she is going mad. She argues that the kid isn’t hers. Susannah tries to explain herself to Paul and Bryony. Paul reminds her that she doesn’t have any authority to speak to Nathan like that. When Paul says she scared the crap out of him, Susannah says that is because she found something out. She explains that the children are having a recurrent dream during winter with frozen ground. It is a room of some kind. The dream has been happening since Sunny came and the kids’ behavior has become more erratic. She argues that they’re scared of something they can’t tell us. Susannah wonders if it has something to do with Amrita.

She soon suspects they’re hiding something from her. Bryony won’t tell and instead worries the children might bring up her own memories. Although Susannah doesn’t think it has anything to do with this, Bryony says she has a tendency to see malign intentions. Susannah is asked whether her daughter knows what happened. Bryony instructs her to go home and leave the children alone because Paul is investigating Amrita’s disappearance. Once the doctor storms out, Bryony tells Paul there is something he needs to know about her. Zoe tells Jamie that they’re watched all the time and told how many visitors they can have. He can’t say anything about this because Zoe has signed NDAs. He promises that he believes her before they kiss. Jamie invites her back to his place. Zoe begins panicking because she thinks someone is watching them.

She thinks they wanted her to come here and wanted her to leave. After she reveals that Sam is the one they want, she rushes home. She reminds him not to say anything. As she leaves, Bernard watches her from a distance. Cassie asks her mother what happened at the school. Susannah insists she was only trying to figure out why the children are sleeping so badly. Cassie was supposed to go out with Nora but can’t now that she has to watch Evie who came home crying. Susannah promises she can take care of her. After Sam tries to call Zoe, he finds out that Hannah is upset because he let Curtis shout at her earlier. Sam goes out and tells him he doesn’t want him shouting at his kid. They get into a fight with Curtis getting the upper hand. However, Hannah stops him from punching Sam who has enough time to turn the tables.

Rachel screams for them to stop before Sam kicks Curtis in the face. Evie finds out where her mommy went and suggests Susannah made her go. When Paul gets home, Jodie tells him that Nathan has been asking for him because that shrink terrified him. She believes he is lying about something, but Paul says he just wants to see his boy. She reminds him that Nathan is her son. Paul goes upstairs, locks the door, and sits Nathan down. He asks Nathan what happened to Amrita and whether he had anything to do with it. He insists Nathan will tell him the truth if he loves him. Nathan promises that they didn’t do anything. Susannah listens to the recording of Nathan telling her they will find out. Evie frightens her to ask if they can go for a walk so she can tell her about her dream. She sings the school hymn as they walk through the woods nearby.

Susannah agrees to play one game of hide and seek before she tells her about the dream. Evie hides with Susannah hunting for her moments later. Nathan approaches Paul to tell him Evie is worried that Dr. Zellaby is going to hurt her. Cassie returns home because she has a feeling that she should be home with Evie. Paul arrives and asks about Susannah who texted Cassie to say they had gone for a walk. While Susannah searches for Evie, she hears voices including what Bryony said to her earlier. Once she catches up with her, Evie claims Susannah thinks they’re bad and want them to die. Susannah yells for her to get off the track, but Evie runs in the other direction.

The lights and signal turn on confirming that a train is heading toward them. Paul and Cassie arrive in the car. Paul tells Susannah he needs her to come with him while Evie claims she was trying to hurt her. Cassie tells her mother that Paul told her everything in the car. She calls her a liar who isn’t safe to live with. Zoe arrives home to find Sam has been beaten. Although he says Curtis did it, Sam admits it was his fault because he instigated it. He goes on to say Hannah made him do it. Once she agrees to stay with him for a bit, Sam begins asking where she went. Sam wants to get out of this although he isn’t sure how. Zoe insists they’ll find a way to get out of this as they begin kissing. Cassie and Evie leave with Bryony and Paul.

Paul returns home to Jodie and apologizes before they start making out. Sam and Zoe have sex.

 

The Midwich Cuckoos Review

As The Midwich Cuckoos drags on even longer, it is beginning to feel like the writers ran out of ideas midway through. The same points are being stressed repeatedly as if the viewer is an imbecile that needs to hear it countless times before it sits in. We’ve understood that the kids know what the others know from very early on, yet the doctor still believes she can get Nathan to discuss things without the others finding out. Besides Curtis who is over-the-top and unrealistic, the parents don’t bother trying to control their children.

The pacing is tedious with very little of importance happening during each episode. There is nothing creepy about this version of The Midwich Cuckoos and that includes the children. Unfortunately, I can’t imagine this getting any better from here on out, but I’ll likely finish it since I’ve come this far. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Midwich Cuckoos can be found on Reel mockery here. Find out how to support Reel Mockery at this link.