Good Night, Milkman’s On His Way
FROM – Season 2 Episode 2 – (SPOILERS)
Mari and Kristi
In the diner after dark, Mari (Kaelen Ohm) has words with Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot). “We were supposed to have lunch,” she says accusingly. “I was on my way to meet you. We were supposed to have lunch. Have you been here the whole time? It’s been six months. You never called…This whole time you’ve been less than two hours away.” If she was on her way to meet Kristi, what stopped her if Kristi did not call? Most people, finding themselves suddenly marooned in a small town with their inexplicably vanished fiancée would have more (and different) questions to ask.
Meanwhile, Boyd (Harold Perrineau) is trying to free Martin (Robert Verlaque) from his chains. Martin is an ex-marine like Boyd, and says he is from a small town called Millbrook. Co-incidentally, the small town of Millbrook, Michigan (population 1,122) is a little over an hour by bus from Grand Rapids.
Julie (Hannah Cheramy) allows herself to be comforted by Deputy Kenny (Ricky He). Later, she will have an emotional meltdown that finally convinces bus passengers in the diner that Donna and the other townspeople are telling the truth.
Martin suddenly asks the Sheriff: “You ever wonder if Abby was right? What if it’s all just a dream?” Boyd is startled by Martin’s mention of his deceased wife, but continues his rescue attempt.
A music box starts playing, causing Martin to warn (in ominous tones) that “they’re coming“. He tells Boyd: “You have to get out before the music stops.” Atop the music box is a twirling ballerina with the lower half of her right leg missing. The scene somehow brings to mind “The Steadfast Tin Soldier“, a tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a toy soldier with one leg who becomes infatuated with a ballerina whom he believes (erroneously) to also be missing a leg. A goblin (or possibly a gust of wind) sends the soldier on a strangely circular journey ending with his death by fire.
A faux cowboy (Will Lang) tries to lure Fatima outside. The actor playing his companion is uncredited.
Martin wounds Boyd, then dies, saying “my blood is your blood now.” Boyd, who now sees worm-like things moving under the skin of his wounded arm, opens a door and finds himself in the woods again. The Sheriff is forced to hide from monsters wandering the forest, including someone dressed in an oversized milkman’s uniform complete with bow tie and cap. Boyd finds the truck in which Victor (Scott McCord) and Tabitha have taken shelter for the night, and joins them inside. A few minutes later, the milkman and his friends chase Elgin (Nathan D Simmons) in the same direction. Boyd is hesitant, but ultimately allows Elgin inside the truck.
Bus driver Bakta (Angela Moore), the last non-believer, makes a grisly discovery.
The episode is titled “The Kindness of Strangers” which is a partial quote from Streetcar’s Blanche Dubois suggesting (euphemistically) that all acts of kindness are motivated by self-interest. Perhaps to illustrate this, Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori), newly-arrived Randall (A J Simmons), and Julie (Hannah Cheramy) each must, in turn, be prevented from trying to help the unrescuable folks outside.
Earlier, Brick (Seamus Patterson) and Tom (Reid Price) try to help Jim Matthews (Eion Bailey) rescue Tabitha, who is believed trapped beneath his house, and both of those good Samaritans die. (Tom is killed by a very restrained night monster who only attacks after Brick dies from injuries sustained when the house collapsed.)
Another couple from the bus, Kelly (Phoebe Rex) and Brian (Taras Lesiuk), take cover inside the local gas station. When someone knocks at the door asking for assistance, Brian opens the door. We are not shown what happens to these two as a result, but Boyd seems to suffer no ill effects from allowing Elgin inside Victor’s truck, so they might have survived.
Alone and apparently safe inside the gas station, Brian and Kelly hear a knock at the door.
As Elgin wakes up in Victor’s truck at sunrise, the Buck 65 version of Leonard Cohen’s song “Who By Fire” plays on the jukebox in the diner.
“And who by fire? Who by water?
Who in the sunshine? Who in the nighttime?
Who by high ordeal? Who by common trial?
Who in your merry merry month of May?
Who by very slow decay?
And who shall I say is calling?”
After learning that her house has collapsed on top of her husband, Tabitha (Catalina Sandina Moreno) hurries back to town but might be heading in the wrong direction. Boyd sees those worm things still crawling around in his arm, and puts on a jacket so no one will notice.
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