Lake Diving
Franklin shows Byron the spacesuits he has been designing. Despite working on them for years now, he hasn’t been able to pluck up the courage to actually use them. Byron is determined to right that wrong and get these suits up to scratch.
Jude and Irene head off on their road trip to Michigan together. They arrive at the address in question, where Jude hands over the polaroid of Gabriel to the owner of this house, a woman called Hannah. She knows who Gabriel is but he’s long gone. He left 15 years back. Gabe and Hannah were romantically linked together but she has no idea where he went. In fact, he just up and left one day without a trace.
Irene is frustrated with her trip to Franklin. She’s not sure what the problem is and she’s getting tired of trying to communicate with Franklin. Hannah suggests they stay for the night before moving on. Irene struggles to get through to Franklin but hears a strange bang coming from upstairs. Hannah chalk it off to nothing but there’s definitely something suspicious going on.
It’s not long before we learn what’s going on. Hannah sneaks into a hidden room and sees a guy called Paul sitting at his monitor, watching everything. He plays Franklin’s voicemail and points out that he’s the same guy who asked about the coins. Hannah tells him they should make contact, before heading back to host the others.
Byron blows off Jeanine’s barbecue, but refuses to tell her what’s going on with Franklin. It’s here Jeanine admits she doesn’t want to be uprooted or humiliated anymore, which makes Byron realize that she’s the one who called in the anonymous tip about the forged signatures. Jeanine admits she just wants him to be ordinary, but for Byron, he’s always had big plans to do more with his life. ..
The truth is, Irene doesn’t believe Denise deserves her love. She’s wracked with guilt after what happened to Michael and believes she should have done more to help her father. “I’m sorry.” She says, tears stinging her eyes. The pair embrace, as more flashbacks involving Michael shed light on his crippling depression and spiraling condition.
Back in the present, Toni notices a video of Jude doing karaoke and speaks to Stella, who confirms that this is the “Apostate” they’re after. Stella begins tracing Jude’s steps and Toni rings Nick for help. ..
Franklin and Byron continue working on the spacesuits, with Franklin watching as Byron heads out into the alien landscape. As he trudges across the landscape, he chuckles and claims this is like heaven, communicating through a radio. He disappears out of view though, believing he’s found some furniture. “You won’t believe this Frank!” He excitedly chirps as he disappears out of view. He also stops communicating as well. ..
Franklin hangs his head in despair as he listens to the static in the observatory deck on his own. It seems that Byron has gone missing, and Franklin is struggling to come to terms with what has happened. Jude and the others return later on in the day, and Frank claims there’s nothing to report but he’s clearly wracked in guilt.
Irene takes Denise into the shelter to explain what’s been going on with her. She explains how it was hard for her to keep living after Michael’s suicide and believed that the portal was a way of helping her deal with the grief, scrambling to place some sort of meaning between the two events. Irene admits she just wanted to protect her from this portal but since Jude appeared, everything has been spiraling out of control. Denise is not happy about these lies and eventually walks away. ..
Chandra was asking for $3000 for information on where Jude was staying. Toni and Stella show up to see Chandra and this shadowy figure, who hands over the gold doubloons worth more than the $3000 Chandra is asking for in exchange for information. This shadowy figure finds out where Jude is staying, and breaks Chandra’s neck. Taking the gold coins back, he promises to make sure Stella doesn’t stay soft. And with that, he burns Chandra and her car, as Toni watches in shock from afar. ..
The Episode Review
The story of the show continues to progress, but it could have been shortened to 4 episodes and still told the same narrative. I appreciate the deliberate pace of this show, but there’s a fine line between doing this and just playing for time.
The Stella and Toni subplot has been a major disappointment, despite some early promise. It’s unclear how this will tie in with Irene and Franklin, one of the more frustrating elements of this show. ..
The show has a lot to say about the human condition and how we deal with death, grief, and existentialism. It’s an excellent way to explore these topics in a meaningful way and the acting is top-notch.
The ending of this book hints that there may be more drama to come. We hope this wraps up things with a satisfying finale.
