Written by Tim Minear
Directed by Allan Kroeker
"Once any temptation is introduced, it will spread like a cancer and all will be infected."
We start out in Pleasant, Arizona, at Dillard's Auto Service. We hear Daxton playing on a boom box. "She's in trouble all the time like a runaway train." The mechanic shuts it off as a bus full of smiling cult members singing a hymn pulls up. They smile and sing their way into a store with a list of supplies as the mechanic and other Bubba-types watch menacingly. It's tense. The mechanic tries to start a fight, calling one cultie (Brother Seth) Osama bin Gandhi and asking what they need duct tape and rope for. Local law enters, and things calm down as they take their stuff and leave. Officer comments that it's the smiling more than the singing that's unnerving, and I have to agree. Then they see the back of the grocery list has the words SAVE ME written on it.
Shots of yoga in the DH as a man VOs: Happy? No. This is something quite apart from happiness. Call it a kind of bliss. An unquestioning serenity. True happiness requires some measure of self-awareness." And we're in DeWitt's office with Senator Boxbaum. "We're talking about people here who have their very wills taken away." DeWitt and the senator acknowledge the irony of this. DH will continue to be compared to the cult's Temple throughout the episode, as we continue to try and figure out what description we think best fits the DH.
The senator tells DeWitt that the ATF finally got a warrant to check out the Temple based on the note asking for help, but it's only for a quick look inside to see if further action is called for, and he doesn't think anyone can get inside that quickly without being a true believer. DeWitt is concerned about working with a federal agency, saying their association with the senator usually works the other way around, but takes the case.
Short scene with Ballard at the FBI, asking his fellow agent, Loomis, possibly his only friend left in the bureau, to run Caroline's picture using her high clearance. I know Minear talked about a shoutout to himself in this episode, and I keep thinking it must be Inside-related so in the FBI parts, but I haven't figured it out yet. Need to listen to his commentary at some point maybe.
At the DH, D&D are walking and talking, as they do. Mr.D is concerned that Echo is more adaptable than predictable and accuses DeWitt of liking her too much. Jerk. DeWitt goes in to see Topher and Doc Saunders as Echo is leaving her exam. Turns out that for this assignment, they're going to operate on Echo to make her into a human camera. They make it sound plausible. Echo herself will be blind because the images will bypass her brain and be piped to a monitor for the ATF to see. We see here that Doc really is concerned with her patients and willing to stand up for them. Topher is all excited about the possibility, says Echo will see no evil, but she's concerned that even a sneeze could cause Echo to go into a seizure. DeWitt deems the risk within acceptable margins.
The ATF bunker is apparently 6 miles outside Pleasant. The AIC is Agent Lilly (Mark Totty). Oh, Joan of Arcadia is where I know him from; that's right. Anyway, he's briefing his crew on Jonas Sparrow (Brian Bloom) the leader of the cult who's been in and out of federal prison and had a conversion experience that Lilly doesn't buy. He says he could be involved in anything from gun running to human trafficking. Like the DH? Boyd is there and introduced as a private consultant there to help them. They have 48 hours to prove cause for a more comprehensive search warrant.
Boyd explains that he works with Esther Carpenter, "an extraordinary young woman," but "just a girl," who can infiltrate the closed group. As he's talking, we cut back and forth from him with the ATF to Echo, looking all Giger as she gets her eyes operated on.
Now we're in a car with Esther and Boyd. She's been hitchhiking across country from New Hampshire and he's giving her a ride on the last leg of her trip. She's got a good sense of humor for someone on a religious quest. They talk about Saul of Tarsus (who had a vision and turned into Paul), and Boyd asks her if she wants to become a new person. "More than anything." Having done this recap after watching the next three episodes, I can definitely see how that statement is of continuing importance to Echo and the other Dolls, but more on that later.
Esther arrives at the Temple and feels up Jonas' face.
Credits.
Ballard is scoring drugs as Loomis approaches him. Asking Mellie to bring him his meds, I mean. Cute. Anyway, she can't find Caroline.
Jonas is questioning Esther, and she describes having a vision of him, crying with the remembered awe of it. The culties are convinced and Jonas accepts her in, but you can tell he's not buying it yet. We never really get an answer as to whether he is a criminal needing a cult as a front, or whether he really converted but is still dangerously unstable. It's played with refreshing subtlety. Pan up to the ATF bunker on the hill overlooking them.
Then Jonas and his #2, Seth, have a talk about whether Esther's on the up-and-up. BTW, Seth is hot. Jonas says he needs to test for all of the signs. "If a serpent should enter, we must crush it underneath our heel...we must keep the garden pure."
Here comes the snake...as we cut to the DH and Victor and Sierra are talking in the shower. Victor feels good, and Topher, as he's talking about the Valsalva mechanism for some reason, notices the entrance of the serpent. He goes and talks to Doc, having some homosexual panic about having seen Victor's "man reaction." He says that in the Doll state there's a limpness so that this shouldn't happen. Doc thinks it's a byproduct of Victor having been imprinted with his persona for Miss Lonelyhearts for the 8th time. Apparently she thinks that's a bad idea, but according to Topher, no one reads her reports. She decides they need to search the shower footage of Victor. Can I help?
Esther is being introduced to the group by Kris, a cultie who takes her under her wing. Seth comes for her to take her to Jonas.
The ATF is running photos of the culties they got from Echo's camera, just like Ballard is running Caroline's. It's interesting that Agent Lilly here is a mirror for Ballard. Boyd is interested in finding out who wrote the note so they know who would help them from the inside, but Lilly just says they can't assume they have help. The mini mystery here is really well-played; you can sense Lilly's obsession, but only by the end know its extent. Their monitors go dark, then flare with indecipherable light.
Jonas has Esther is a dark room and is shining a flashlight into her eyes, trying to see if she's really blind. She has no reaction. "I do not come into this garden a pure being, Esther. I come into it the way Adam left: broken, corrupted, impure." And Jonas is something of a mirror for DeWitt, so I think we get some idea of her backstory in the things he says. "But those whom I shelter, they are not corrupted. They have not walked in the world the way I have. They have not seen the things that I have seen. And against this world they are defenseless. So I will protect them. And any who seek to harm them, to foul this garden, shall fail." As he says the last, he puts a gun right to Esther's face, and she doesn't blink. He welcomes her to the Temple, kisses her head and leaves. And we pull back to see a nice sized arsenal of guns, enough to get the snake rising amongst the ATF.
Mellie brings Ballard his meds and some more "leftover" manicotti. Also, she was handed an envelope by the mail guy (presumably) that's another gift from Alpha. It's the video yearbook he was watching in the first episode. "This is real. I mean, this is who she was. Just a girl." Ballard and Loomis watch, and Mellie leaves as Ballard forgets she's there.
Doc and Topher play spot the tumescence and finally figure out that it's Sierra that Victor is reacting to. Doc: If it had been a snake -- please pretend I didn't say that.
ATF are preparing to go in, which Boyd thinks is premature and dangerous to Echo. We find out Lilly busted Jonas once when he was a cop, and Jonas got out in a couple of years because of mishandled evidence. Based on what we learn later, could have been Lilly messing with things even back then, or maybe he fell down the slippery slope after that defeat. Anyway, Boyd gets now that he's obsessed with taking Jonas down, and he calls Mr.D for permission to pull Echo. Mr.D gets all assy about Echo again, accusing her of screwing up and not letting Boyd pull her out.
Jonas is sermonizing to the group about the Esther in the bible, inducting our Esther into the Temple as the ATF begins to sneak in. I like how the cult scenes are played. There's humor and intelligence there, like with real people, not stereotypes. And again, you can't tell if he's for real or playing to the crowd or both. Jonas asks Esther if she's willing to "forsake the world of men, to give yourself, your life, your fidelity and your industry" to the Temple. "Return to the temple; a new beginning." Just like the offer DeWitt made Echo at the beginning of episode one. There's a nice bit of scoring over the ensuing hugs intercut with the approaching ATF that captures both emotions.
Then the ATF trip a wire and flood lights go on. Jonas and Seth turn out the inside lights and run to the arms shed for weapons. They return, and Jonas turns on Esther and asks if she did this, then slaps her in accusation. When he goes to slap her again, she stops him. Her sight is back and the ATF monitors are out. Way better miracle than a sneezure.
Come back on a morning seige. Culties are scared and aren't happy about the guns, but still trust Jonas. He keeps staring at Esther, trying to figure out how it couldn't be a miracle. He talks with Seth and comes to a decision.
Meanwhile Boyd is arguing with Lilly again about trying to find their ally inside the compound as the press pulls up.
Jonas says he had the weapons stored in case of attack, but Esther is a sign, and they won't be taking up arms. That's not reassuring to me at all.
Ballard sees the report on the seige on TV and sees Caroline, wonders if he's seeing things.
Boyd investigates on his own, talking to the shop keeper about the note and asking to see the security footage. He finds out that Lilly, disguised as "extra with baseball cap covering face" in scene one, was the one who wrote SAVE ME on the paper in the first place, planting evidence to get his warrant in his obsessive need to bring down the DH--oops, wrong agent--I mean, Jonas Sparrow. Boyd confronts Lilly, saying that "nobody ever asked to be saved, not by you."
In the chapel, Jonas is sending Seth out to do a job he needs faith for, and has Esther read the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three men who were thrown in the furnace for not bowing down to a false idol and survived unburned. As she's reading, Seth is siphoning gas, tossing it on the walls of the building, and setting it on fire. Esther is putting it together and not looking happy. At the smell of smoke, Kris tries to leave but Jonas urges her to have faith that they'll survive the flames if they're righteous. And he seems to be planning on staying there with them. So he either really doesn't want to go to jail, or his conversion was real, or he had a conversion right here because of Esther's miracles. Who knows?
Lilly is talking to his #2, trying to smear Boyd in case he uses what he knows against Lilly. You get the slight sense that #2 is not totally convinced, but still following orders. Lilly says they should take Boyd down if he's inside. And we see he is inside, knocking out one of the ATF agents.
Smoke is getting thick, and Esther appeals to Jonas, saying you can't force a miracle. He slaps her again, which is just one time too many, I guess, because when he kneels to pray she knocks him out with a honkin' big candlestick. She then orders Seth to get people out, saying her message from God is "Move your ass!" Iilya, one of the other talking culties, doesn't want to go. Esther says she doesn't think God gave her back her eyes so she could just watch, which I think is kind of a cool thing to say, but Iilya disagrees. He spits in her face. She punches him and has Seth carry him out.
Jonas wakes and grabs his gun, but then an ATF agent walks in and guns him down. Boyd! No. Psych! Mr.D it is. He plans to get rid of the Echo problem by having her die in the fire. Bastard!
Lilly is also happy to have Boyd and Echo die in the fire. He pulls his people back, and again his #2 is looking at him a little strangely. I would love to read his report of all this. Esther wakes as this time it is Boyd who enters. She doesn't know how she knows him, but thought he was an angel. He carries her out in full view of the cameras as Lilly is saying he doubts anyone else survived. He sees them and says, "Thank God." Heh.
At the cinders of the Temple, Lilly is wandering around looking surly as Ballard drives up. Apparently, he's no longer the AIC, hence the surly. He won't tell Ballard anything, saying Caroline could be anyone. And as far as we know, he never caught a good luck at Echo anyway. He won't "unofficially" help Ballard because he doesn't do that underhanded stuff. "Get a warrant." Ha.
VO of Jonas--oops, wrong head of household--I mean, DeWitt. "A place of safety, of untroubled certainty, of purity. This is the world we must maintain." Over more yoga/tai chi/DH stuff. "It is imperative that nothing disturb the innocence of life here. Once any temptation is introduced, it will spread like a cancer and all will be infected." Religious metaphor or scientific one, take your pick. She orders Victor scrubbed (his mind, not his body) and watched. Doc looks sad; Topher a bit too.
D&D walking and talking, as they do. She knows he went to Arizona and probably suspects why. He's unrepentant, accuses Echo of glitching again (she didn't, jerkoff), and wants her in the attic. DeWitt is not happy with him.
Echo wakes in the chair with Topher and Doc. Doc asks her, "How's your vision? Can you see okay?" Echo looks across the DH and focusses in on Mr.D. "I see perfectly." Ooh.
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