Warning: Spoiler Alert
Underestimating one’s opponent can prove to be a fatal flaw, a lesson that goes back to Biblical Times, when a giant took on a scrawny kid with a slingshot. Jason Higgins, the hand-chosen successor to David Pilcher, to become the leader of “Wayward Pines,” can’t bring himself to accept the truth. Despite the mounting evidence Higgins refuses to accept that the Abbies are capable of thought, let alone be humanities intellectual superiors. His refusal to alter his mindset has put the 1178 residents of the town in a possible deadly situation. However this episode begins with a flashback that shows the viewers how the conflict between humans and Abbies originated.
The first images of the evening shows what looks to be an idyllic society of Abbies in the wild eating and playing together and showing signs of affection and a mother with her newborn. Suddenly one of the Abbies looks to the sky and starts snarling, we soon see a helicopter hovering above them. Without any warning the chopper starts firing on the Abbies with an automatic weapon and wiping out most of the tribe. When the helicopter lands, Pilcher emerges and we hear someone tell him the area’s now clear and they can start building their fence. Once again humanity starts off with an Original Sin.
We cut to Higgins and Kerry’s bedroom and Jason tells her they should have a baby and at first she seems pleased with the idea. However she soon starts focusing on the problems of the town and any thoughts of romance between the couple that night quickly dissipates.
Theo’s trying to get drunk from the less than satisfactory liquor at the Beer Garden when Rebecca walks in and sits down on the stool next to him. She says to Theo that she really tried to find him, whether she’s being truthful remains a mystery, as one would think that as the town’s designer she’d have some clout. She says that at first her and Xander’s marriage was comparable to two prisoners sharing a cell. Yedlin asks her if she still got feelings for Xander and she responds she chose Theo first. He says that doesn’t answer his question, but just then they see hundreds of people walking briskly through the town square.
Outside the fence Adam Hassler carves a stake, while many of the scouting party sleep. Suddenly, he sees the flames of the corn crops on fire and yells for everybody to clear out. However some of the Abbies already breached the camp and they kill some of the scouts while also suffering losses. Hassler runs into Theresa Burke’s tent and sees one of the Abbies mauling her, Hassler stops the Abbie with two shots to the head but Theresa’s badly injured.
In Megan Fisher’s lab suddenly all the male Abbies start snarling and shaking the bars of their cages in an effort to break free. Fisher looks over at Margaret the female Abbie and sees that she’s standing perfectly still but she’s glaring at Fisher and it causes Megan to feel quite uneasy.
Theo and Rebecca find out that the Abbies have set the cornfield on fire and there’s a woman’s voice on a loudspeaker asking for all able-bodied men to report to the fire-station. Kerry pulls up and tells Yedlin she needs him at the hospital, he asks her why they’re recruiting civilians and she responds to fight the fire while the soldiers fight the Abbies.
Yedlin addresses his staff and tells them they’ll set up a triage unit and treat victims by how severe their injuries are. He then tells the staff he’s got confidence in them to handle the situation. Oscar the senior medical student starts praising Yedlin and the surgeon tells him to shut up.
Jason and the soldiers gear up to battle the Abbies and Higgins says if they can’t save the cornfield they’re all dead. However the Abbies lit the four corners of the field realizing the flames would spread to the center. The soldiers are badly outnumbered and 35 people die at the hands of the Abbies, while the crops got burned to the ground.
The hospital’s a scene of barely contained chaos with blood everywhere and the screams of pain from the victims fill the air. CJ and Hassler arrive with Theresa and Yedlin realizes she’s got a collapsed lung. Theo tells Burke why she can’t breath and says that she’s going to feel pain but this will help her breath, then sticks a syringe into her chest. Theresa winces in pain but soon she’s breathing normally.
Jason’s having an episode of self-doubt and Kerry calls him out on it, telling him he’s acting like a sniveling loser. She says she thought he was the man that was trained from birth to lead Wayward Pines and he says she’s correct. Kerry then tells him to never display a lack of confidence in front of the others, because then they’ll lose their faith in him.
Jason and Kerry meet with Mitchum, Yedlin, Mario and Fisher to assess the damage and discuss their options which CJ says don’t exist. He says that the Abbies learned to use fire, after the soldiers killed some with flamethrowers and says that they knew what they were doing when they set the crops on fire and when they ambushed them. Higgins won’t accept the fact that the Abbies are capable of thought and reason and gets agitated when someone suggests otherwise.
Mitchum says that even if the Abbies were to retreat from the fence, the soil they used would need months to recover. CJ tells them that they’ve got less than six weeks worth of food in storage. Then Yedlin hits them with the second punch, they’re dangerously low on antibiotics and somebody could possibly die from a sinus infection or tetanus. Theo says he could possibly synthesize a penicillin type drug, but that’s about it.
Hassler was also badly injured by the Abbies and wakes up after his surgery and sees Oscar standing over his bed. Adam asks if Theresa’s alive and Oscar says he can’t discuss other patients with him. Hassler flashes back to Seattle in our era and he’s sitting on a city bench when Megan approaches the bench and sits next to him. He asks where Pilcher’s at and she says he couldn’t make it so she came instead. She says that Ethan Burke belongs to the future and that Adam can now pursue the woman he loves Theresa. Then she says Pilcher told her that Hassler tried to call it off and asks him if he’s in love with Theresa why would he do that. Hassler replies that his feelings don’t justify his actions and walks away.
Hassler leaves his room and starts looking for Theresa and he sees her in a room comatose and hooked up to a ventilator. He walks over to her bed and takes her hand and apologizes for destroying her life. He then flashes back to our era and we see that he witnessed Ethan and Theresa surprising Ben with a birthday cake in the park, then he sadly walks away. Right then Burke wakes up momentarily and pulls her hand away from Adam then closes her eyes again. We see that she’s having the same memory of surprising Ben and then she flat-lines.
Theo heads to Fisher’s lab and Megan’s got Margaret in an MRI chamber per Yedlin’s request. He tells Fisher he wants to examine Margaret’s brain to determine how large her center of language and advanced thought is and then the surgeon gasps. He says a chimpanzee’s brain contains a center that’s one-third the size of a human and that Margaret’s center’s twice the size of a human’s. Megan asks if that means she can understand them, unaware that Margaret’s actually communicating telepathically with the Abbies outside the fence.
Theo heads back to the hospital and starts questioning Hassler about female Abbies, when Adam asks what Theo knows about the females, he replies they’ve got one in captivity. Adam’s eyes show his fear and he asks Theo if the female has a raised brand on the palm of her hand.
In the final scene we watch the radar detector pick up more and more Abbies gathering around the fence, the amount of dots on the screen increase from about a hundred to what looks like thousands. Suddenly the sound of the Abbies outside the fence permeates the air, causing everyone to come out to the street. As the hospital staff stand in front of their building, Arlene asks Yedlin if they’re going to be alright.
