Index › Episodes

S2E8 — "Forest for the Trees"

Air date: June 11, 2023 · Director: Brad Turner · Writer: John Griffin & Vivian Lee

Synopsis

Kenny Liu dreams that he is back in his family home. The phone rings, and when he answers, a voice chants, "They touch, they break, they steal. No one here is free." In the dream, cicada-like creatures crawl out of the cooking pot. He wakes disturbed — the dream carries the first hint of the threat building around the town.

The episode then follows several threads that have been running since the bus arrived. Boyd Stevens and Kenny burn the body of the Smiley creature in the clinic basement, hoping to learn something from it; they discover no bugs inside — the blood-worms that killed it are gone, and the corpse offers no further answers. Meanwhile Randall Kirkland continues to stoke fears of a conspiracy, suggesting to anyone who will listen that some residents may be in on the town's captivity. Jim Matthews, who has been working with Randall on the drone project, becomes entangled in his schemes. When Jim goes into the forest he finds Donna Raines tied to a tree; Randall admits he bound her there to test his theories about the town and its creatures.

Tabitha Matthews shows Jade Herrera the tunnel entrance where she saw the symbol and heard the chanting children during her earlier journey with Victor. Jade, obsessed with the symbol, presses Victor Kavanaugh for the truth, but Victor refuses to tell him everything: in his long experience, people who ask questions and look for answers do not come back. Instead, Victor leads Tabitha to the car graveyard and shows her the drawings he made as a child, which chronicle the town's terrible history. Looking at them triggers a flashback to the day of the massacre, when his mother Miranda Kavanaugh and his sister Eloise left him in the cellar. Among the drawings is one of the tower, and Victor tells Tabitha that this is where his mother went "to save the children."

That night, Boyd and Kenny hear the sound of cicadas. Reggie, a resident of the town, flees his house screaming as the episode ends — the entity's attack on the town has begun.

Key Events

  • Kenny dreams of the phone ringing in his family home; the voice on the line chants "They touch, they break, they steal. No one here is free," and cicadas emerge from the cooking pot.
  • Boyd and Kenny burn the creature's body in the clinic basement, finding no worms or bugs inside it.
  • Randall spreads suspicion that residents may be complicit in the town's captivity, stoking conspiracy fears among the townspeople.
  • Jim finds Donna tied to a tree in the forest; Randall admits he did it to test his theories.
  • Tabitha shows Jade the tunnel entrance where she saw the symbol and the chanting children.
  • Jade asks Victor about the symbols; Victor withholds the whole truth, warning that those who seek answers do not return.
  • Victor shows Tabitha his childhood drawings in the car graveyard, including one of the tower.
  • A flashback reveals Miranda and Eloise leaving young Victor in the cellar on the day of the massacre.
  • Victor tells Tabitha that his mother went to the tower "to save the children."
  • Boyd and Kenny hear cicadas as Reggie runs screaming from his house at night.

Characters

New Information / Reveals

  • The chant "They touch, they break, they steal. No one here is free" is first heard in Kenny's dream; it will prove to be the signature of the cicada entity.
  • The creature's corpse contains no trace of the worms Boyd carried out of the dungeon — the parasites have vanished.
  • Victor's drawings document the town's past, and the tower drawing is central to his mother's story.
  • Victor's survival rule: asking questions and looking for answers gets people killed, which is why he withholds the truth about the symbols.
  • Miranda and Eloise left young Victor in the cellar before they died in the massacre.
  • Randall's conspiracy theories escalate into direct violence against Donna.

Locations

Deaths

  • None.

Lore & Mysteries