Warning: Spoiler Alert
Season One of the FOX Network’s summer series “Wayward Pines,” felt like being submerged in a tank of ice-cold water when David Pilcher revealed to Ethan Burke and the audience, that they now lived in the year 4028. Realizing that they couldn’t shock their audience in Season Two, the show’s creative staff used a different method of telling their story. Their new method could be best described as putting the audience in another tank of water and slowly turning up the heat in each episode. We’ve watched as the writers slowly peel back the layers of the onion and discovering the ways that David Pilcher, fulfilled his vision.
Much of Episode Nine’s story takes place in our era as Pilcher goes searching for his “Chosen One,” a child that will enter cryogenic suspension shortly after birth. This child will be groomed to become Pilcher’s hand-picked successor, groomed from day one to become the eventual leader of Wayward Pines. After much research, Pilcher discovers the perfect candidate at a toney girls’ school, Walcott Prep.
The mother-to-be comes from a prestigious family, her father’s a Senator. The child’s father’s in his first year at Harvard and they both just want to get through this “inconvenience” and go onto their lives of privilege. After meeting with school officials, Pilcher meets with the parents and then privately with their daughter Abigail.
Pilcher’s extremely awkward in his meeting with Abigail and he attempts to keep his composure when the teenager tells him she expected he’d be younger. She’s reading Orwell’s Animal Farm and David’s face lights up when he realizes what she’s holding. He takes the book from her and reads a passage that talks about the animal’s conception of heaven. She responds with a passage she’s memorized from the end of the novel, that alludes to the fact that the previously warring factions, now looked exactly alike. Pilcher says it’s an idealistic novel, Abigail replies that it begins in an idealistic tone, but then goes dark.
Returning to 4032, we watch the Abbies attempting to save Margaret, they cauterized the wound with fire and then wrap her injured arms in leaves. We watch as she takes nourishment and we can feel the concern the Abbies have for their leader. Once again we see a humanity displayed by the Abbies, that’s absent in the last human outpost.
There’s been no greater transformation of a character this season than Dr. Theo Yedlin, who got revived in the season opener to save the life of rebel Kate Hewson. After completing the surgery, Yedlin found himself unceremoniously dumped outside the protective fence along with Xander Beck and Ben Burke. Kerry Campbell got gutted by an Abbie, which led to Jason Higgins sending soldiers to rescue him. Theo originally thought that he’d been the target of Team-Pilcher’s capture, but he soon found out that his wife Rebecca had designed the town for the visionary madman and he just got snatched up in the bargain.
Yedlin originally wanted no role in the new reality he found himself in, but without a properly trained medical staff he realized his medical skills were needed. He challenged Higgins authority from the start, telling the leader that Theo could fill Jason’s role, but Higgins couldn’t perform surgery. Yedlin’s authority and power’s increased with each episode and the doctor who stopped using guns due to the damage they caused gave way to a man wanting vengeance. He decides to enlist the man now married to Theo’s former wife Xander Beck, to help carry out his mission.
Yedlin enters the ice-cream shop and Beck comes out of the back room expecting to argue with Theo over Rebecca, but the surgeon makes it clear that’s not the reason for his visit. He tells Xander that he wants to take out Higgins and asks for his assistance. Beck replies that he’s fine with the regime change, but he asks Yedlin if he’s got a plan of what they should do after killing Jason. Theo remains silent, showing us all that he’s not thought about anything but killing the boy-king.
CJ Mitchum walks into the shop and tells Yedlin that Higgins has summoned them both to the mountain. When they arrive, Jason tells them he’s decided that the only way to save the community’s for them all to go back into cryogenic hibernation. He asks Mitchum to check the pods and make certain they’re all operational and he tells them he’s going to address the town and tell them of his decision.
Turns out there’s a fly in the ointment, CJ informs Higgins that powering the fence and the town has drained many of the pods batteries and they’re now inoperable. Mitchum tells Jason that only 571 pods can operate, leaving about half their citizens to die by starvation or at the hands of the Abbies.
Higgins tries to pull a fast one on Yedlin, but he soon confesses what Mitchum told him and asks Yedlin to go through the medical records of the residents and divide them into groups. Theo refuses to go that route telling Jason that the only fair way to choose who survives, is by lottery. Higgins dismisses the idea saying that people who are needed could be left to die. Theo then brings up the fact that Kerry can’t get pregnant and reminds him that Pilcher would have allowed her to die.
Yedlin decides to use the situation to his advantage and meets with Kerry and tells her about the lack of working pods. He tells Campbell that Jason’s going to leave her behind because she can’t get pregnant. She loses her composure and tells Theo she doesn’t believe him and Higgins loves her. Yedlin responds that he loves Pilcher more and that she’s got to take Jason out. Theo keeps his hands clean while achieving his desired results.
We flashback to 2017, and watch as Team-Pilcher does its final preparation check before they enter their cryogenic hibernation. Mitchum tells David that all the pods are in working condition and they’ve got some extras if Pilcher decides to add any last-minute guests. Pilcher’s cellphone rings and his face turns ashen when he finds out that Abigail miscarried and his “Chosen One” died. He’s crushed, they’re scheduled to all be frozen within days and he’s lost his successor.
In desperation Pilcher heads to a hospital in Boise and finds an unwed mother who doesn’t want to keep her son. David makes a huge donation to the hospital and gives the mother a huge amount of money. He asks the physician if he could possibly talk with the child’s mother, but he believes she’s asleep. A girl’s voice rings out from the bed that she’s awake and the young mother’s Kerry Campbell.
Campbell’s from a town about 30-miles outside of Boise and she’s had a hard-knocks life. We find out the father of her child’s a boy she knew since she was seven, but she says she guesses she never really knew him. Pilcher asks if he hurt Kerry and she smiles that he tried to, just like her step-brother and father did, but she didn’t let them. David asks her what she’s going to do with the money and she starts beaming and telling Pilcher about all the places she’s going to travel to beginning with Paris.
Turns out Campbell’s infatuated with the writings of Marcel Proust, author of a seven part epic entitled In Search Of Lost Time. She’s mesmerized by his words after taking a bite from a cookie and the memories it evokes within him. We can see that Pilcher’s captivated by the young woman and we realize why he asked her to join his new society. Unfortunately he never expected that her son would see her file and that Jason would conclude that she’d be the perfect mate for him. Unaware that the woman he’d chosen was actually his mother.
Higgins goes through all of the files of the town’s residents and discovers that Kerry Campbell has an alternate file telling the true story of her past. He sees that she had a son and that the child got renamed Jason Higgins. Unlike Oedipus from the Greek Myths, Higgins does not react to the news by tearing out his own eyes. He decides he’ll end this twisted relationship by killing Campbell.
Kerry walks into Jason’s office right then, fearing he’s going to leave her behind because she’s defective, but putting on a brave face. Higgins naturally loses his composure quickly and tells Kerry about the problem with the pods. He then says he’s glad it’s out in the open, that they share everything with each other. He then asks why she never told him she had a baby and she thinks Jason believes that’s why she can’t get pregnant. She tells him it was 2,000 years ago and Pilcher saw something special in her and asked her to join his society. Higgins asks her what happened to her son and she told Higgins what Pilcher told her in the hospital, he got sent to Texas. Jason asks how can she be sure and she replies Pilcher told her.
Who actually made the first move’s hard to say but soon the couple were locked in a battle to the death. They both struggle for Jason’s pistol, then we hear a gunshot and we go to commercial. When we return we’re watching one of Higgins memories. We see him pick Kerry’s file to become his significant other and then we watch as Jason’s the first person Kerry meets in Wayward Pines.
We jump back to 4032, and find Campbell and Higgins lying next to each other on the floor. We see by the blood streaming from his chest that Jason got shot. His dying words to Kerry are that they taught her well at Walcott Prep.
Our final scene takes us back outside the fence and we find that Margaret’s getting stronger and will survive her shooting. The leader of the Abbies sits upright and growls and soon the thousands of Abbies that surround her follow suit.
