ASHGROVE – directed by Jeremy LaLonde – SPOILERS

It is a tale of two couples. Jennifer Ashgrove (Amanda Brugel), a scientist tasked with solving the mysteries of a worldwide plague, is married to Jason Ashgrove (Jonas Chernick), a writer who has learned to play the ukulele. (Jennifer finds learning a “random instrument” frivolous, and keeps referring to it as a banjo.) Elliot (Shawn Doyle), last name unknown, a scientist who works with Jennifer, is married to Sammy (Natalie Brown), last name also unknown, whose area of expertise is undefined. Sammy will soon give birth. A weekend on the Ashgrove’s farm develops rapidly into couples therapy, with kitchen scenes reminiscent of ORDINARY PEOPLE, and a personalized trivia game in which everyone tries to answer questions about Jason. (It is soon apparent that Sammy knows a lot more about Jason than anyone else.)

At the very start of the story, Jennifer is being interviewed on the radio, and we learn that she is “one of the many scientists around the world trying to find a solution to the water problem”. There is a virus that somehow bonds to water molecules; all of Earth’s H₂O has been infected; and so have all the people. Sixty million have died, and it is projected that everyone will succumb within five years. Toxicity increases with the amount of water ingested, so the death rate would slow down if people carefully rationed their water intake, but few are willing to do that. Of all the teams working on the problem, Jennifer’s is, according to rumour, the one closest to a solution. The radio guy doesn’t get his terminology straight, but Jennifer refrains from correcting him.

Then the story has yet another beginning. Crying in the bathroom, Jennifer notices something about tears. She has a eureka moment, jumps in the car, calls her boss, and leaves a message saying: “I figured it out.” Next thing she knows she is in bed and a Dr. Lakeland (Christine Horne) tells her (in an Australian accent) that she’s had a stress-induced blackout which has caused a “little bit of dissociative amnesia”. She has forgotten the past two days.

She goes to work where her boss (Frank played by Sugith Varughese) tells her she’s not supposed to be there. “You had a blackout a month ago,” he says. “Green team is still working on your new toxicity formula. Geneva needs two days to send them the bacteria results.” Jennifer is a workaholic, and has convinced herself that she cannot afford any distractions from saving the world (for which she seems to believe herself solely responsible). Frank insists that she take a couple of days off, and threatens to call the MPs if she doesn’t.

The most fascinating character in ASHGROVE is Elliot, whose role in Jennifer’s science project is completely undefined and about whom we find out almost nothing except that he once worked in Colombia. We discover this after Jason, who apparently loves to cook, makes Bandeja Paisa for everyone, which he describes as “the unofficial national dish of Colombia” but actually was named that country’s official national food in 2005.

The next day, the Ashgroves have a fight. Jason tells Jennifer about his one-night affair with Sammy, and Jennifer responds by telling Jason that the miscarriage he thought she had was actually an abortion. Jennifer spends time in the bathroom to compose herself, then storms out of the farmhouse and at the end of the laneway is prevented from leaving. She is told that the entire weekend has been a simulation of the events that immediately preceded the discovery she made (and left a phone message for Frank about) before she blacked out and forgot the whole thing. The charade was conducted in hopes of making her remember.

Frank, who seems also to believe that Jennifer’s hunch is the planet’s last best hope, is faced with the choice of subjecting Jennifer to more hypnotherapy, which may or may not work, or giving her a drug that is successful 90% of the time, but is more often than not fatal.

This brings to mind the situation in the Star Trek episode YESTERDAY’S ENTERPRISE (STTNG Episode 3.15), where Picard tells Captain Garrett “If you go back, it could be a great deal more helpful. The war is going very badly for the Federation, far worse than is generally known. Starfleet Command believes defeat is inevitable. Within six months we may have no choice but to surrender.” Garrett decides to return to her own time and fight a probably suicidal battle against the Klingons. The difference is, Picard gives Garrett the choice rather than making it himself.

Jennifer gets twenty-four hours to put her affairs in order before being required to take the drug. (Frank has spoken.) Will Jennifer survive? Will she cure the plague, or will someone else manage to do that? Will her marriage survive? The ending is abrupt, and resolves none of those questions. A traditional Welsh song “The Ash Grove” suggests that the ending might be a sad one.

“Ye echoes, oh, tell me, where is the sweet maiden?
“She sleeps, ‘neath the green turf down by the ash grove.”

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ASHGROVE can be streamed on TUBI.