Bridge Over Troubled Waters
REVIVAL – Season 1 Episode 2 – (speculative recap) ⁓
Blaine Abel
When the Sheriff (David James Elliott) finds Cooper (Hudson Wurster), the boy explains that he was drawn into the woods by a sound. “Do you hear it?”, he asks. “There’s something out there.” The sheriff does not hear it. Before his dad found him, Cooper walked into a trip wire which was not attached to a snare and met a man who was standing near a dream catcher hanging from a tree. The man was friendly, and pointed Cooper in the direction of his father.
According to Decibel Pro, most children can hear sounds from 20 to 20,000 Hz. For most people over 25, the upper limit drops to about 15,0000 Hz.
Cooper and his father
At the hospital, Dr. Ramin (Andy McQueen) is preparing to autopsy the remains of Adele Stankewicz (Nicki Guadagni), but Adele, who is missing the top of her head, waits for everyone to leave the room, then opens her eyes and begins to regenerate brain matter. The entire Cypress family has made its way to the hospital, and are in a nearby waiting room. The Sheriff is angry that Dana (Melanie Scrofano) involved her sister in an active crime scene, and Dana is not happy that her father temporarily lost Cooper while doing something similar. Em (Romy Weltman) just wants to be left alone, and says as much. Dr. Ramin tries to quietly get the Sheriff’s attention because Adele is awake and violent.
Em’s dorm room
Adele heads for the maternity ward and picks up a baby. She calls the child Terry, which was the name of her own daughter. (This could indicate incomplete restoration of memory in the regenerated brain tissue.) The Sheriff tracks Adele to the parking garage and find the baby in the arms of Blaine Abel (Steven Ogg), who does a passable imitation of Jack Nicholson as he hands over the child and quotes Luke 10:19. “Behold,” says Blaine, “And I have give you permission to tread on the serpents and the scorpions.” And finishes with “The gates of Hell have opened.” There is no sign of Adele, and Blaine is also the man that Cooper met in the woods.
Questioned by Dana about how she died, Em tells her sister: “I went to the bridge on Mom’s birthday, I’m working through some stuff and a friend said it would be a really good idea to get some closure there and it just, it got — a lot — and I got really anxious, so, yes, I got high and then I woke up in Wolf Falls.” Pressed for details, Em continues: “It was nine, or nine-thirty. I think I saw, like, a car headlight, or something.”
Before her death, Em was addicted to oxycodone and was thought (erroneously) to be recovering. Since her revival, the drug doesn’t get her high anymore.
Jeannie
Dana returns to the Sheriff’s office for her morning briefing with Em in tow. In the background, a woman with long blonde hair and wearing a coat indoors uses the photocopier. Then Em steals Dana’s squad car. All the other vehicles are tied up in the search for the fugitive Adele, so Dana persuades Dr. Ramin to drive her around in search of her missing sister. Dana tells Dr. Ramin that Em was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (type 1). She also explains that her mother was born on 18 December and died in a car accident two years ago. Both Dana and Em were in the car when the accident happened, but Em was driving.
It is implied that the bridge that Em visited on 18 December is also the scene of the crash that killed her mother.
Aaron and Nithiya Weimer
At Nella’s bar, Em runs into Professor Weimer (Gianpaolo Venuta). He is with his wife Nithiya (Gia Sandhu), whose blue bandana could mean she is being treated for cancer. Weimer says Em sent him a bunch of scary texts on the night of 18 December and he had to block her to keep his wife from finding out about their affair, which he had ended a while previously. Em tells him that on the morning of 19 December, she woke in shallow water near Wolf Falls, then coughed up a gold ring she thought was Weimer’s. (His wedding ring is still on his finger, so it wasn’t his.)
That morning she returned to the bridge, which was not far away, and found her right shoe lying in the road. Her coat was still where she had left it, draped over the bridge rail.
Em and Rhodey
Em picks a fight with Clarice (Kara Wooten) and takes a beating. No one — not Professor Weimer and not even the bartender — intervenes. Rhodey Rash (Kaleb Horn) sees what’s happening, picks Em up and carries her out of the place, with Em signalling to everyone that she’s all right.
Rhodey is also a reviver and doesn’t think it’s so bad. He shows Em a poster for a show at which he will be performing called “November Dismember“. (This is purely speculative, but if revivers can regenerate a brain, they can probably regrow limbs as well.) She leaves a note for Dana on the back of the poster, and takes off with Rhodey.
Nella
When quizzed by Dana, Em’s roommate Kay (Maia Jae Bastidas) reveals more of what happened on Revival Day.
KAY: “Like she [Em] was all strung out as hell and she’d been really depressed and then it got bad. And so we were just going to help her get a quick little fix and then, and then…”
DANA: “What do you mean a quick fix? What? What? What did you do?”
KAY: “No, no. It’s what she did! Look, I heard you guys talking. I know Em is a reviver. And I knew I shouldn’t have taken her there.”
Dana presses for more answers and Kay finally says: “You’re asking the wrong questions. I know who killed Em.”
Sheriff Cypress has a drink and tells bartender Nella (Lanette Ware) his problems. Nella is sympathetic and encouraging. “Wayne, you are a good egg,” she tells him. “Your job, this town? They elected you. They trust you. So now you need to trust yourself. So you just get on out there and do what you think is right. The rest will work itself out.” Inspired by the pep talk, the Sheriff phones the Governor and calls in a favour.