We open with naked people. Ah, yes, it’s on HBO.
A naked pregnant lady, caveman chic and an Earthquake to
be exact. She gives birth during the quake which leaves her all alone in a
prehistoric landscape…
…am I even watching the right show? Seriously I know it
was going to reboot but what’s with the prehistory prequel?
Cave lady is bitten by a snake saving her new baby and
eventually dies, leaving her baby to be found by another cave lady.
We move from this ancient scene to the same pond in the (presumably)
modern world and several teens playing in the water. We meet Dr. Brian
Goodheart (who is doing science in the water) and Evie. There are, oddly, lots
of signs declaring the water forbidden to none residents and forbidding the
taking of water.
Evie goes home to the rest of her family, brother Michael,
mother Erika and father John (who is a deep sleeper with a cruel cruel family).
The water Evie brought back is still treated as super special. Even after a
short time I think these guys are kind of fun.
Ok, time for some more randomness – including a crack in
the road that is covered in a protective glass box and a woman watering her
garden in a wedding dress (hey, why pay all that money for a dress you’re going
to wear once? Good on her for getting her money’s worth!) and a hermit on a
pole with “miracle” carved into it (well, sort of helmet) all of which combines
with the cave man opening to make me think we’re playing a game of Madlibs.
Michael delivers breakfast to the hermit and gets a letter in exchange.
Definitely madlibs
Michael sets up among several market stalls catering to
tourists – and the tourists are there because Miracle, Texas, is the only town
in America which had no Departures. No-one vanished. Michael is there to sell
water from the Jaden spring the (pond at the beginning). The tourists arrive
and it’s clearly a religious experience for many and others – especially the
sick and disabled, are definitely there for miracles like some kind of Texan
Lourdes. The tourists even come from outside the US (so I take it this town may
be the only place in the world without a Disappearance). Michael is offering
his water – but won’t set a price and refuses to say it is more than a “souvenir”
when people clearly want magic super water. He also tries to encourage them to
attend a church service.
John goes to see his friend Isaac who is selling psychic
woo-woo finger painting to a huge crowd of tourists for a whole lot of money. John
does not believe Isaac’s schtick (though it may be real since Isaac predicts
some kind of terribad thing to happen to him). John calls him on his fraud but
Isaac insists – it’s real.
Interlude to a big religious song of praise for Miracle
being spared and then more naked women (HBO) jogging through the woods. Bad
idea, you’re just asking to snag on some branches or stones or bears or other
terrible nature thing. It’s all fun until someone steps on a racoon. I’m not
quite sure what the naked jogging is about – more madlibs.
All through these madlibs we keep getting ominous music
playing. I am not impressed by ominous music without ominous stuff happening
John is a fireman and he and his fellows suit up and
quite numbers which apparently connect to Isaac somehow (much to the other
firemen’s objections). They go to Isaac’s house, kick Isaac out brutally and
burn his house down. Apparently because he’s selling fraudulent woo-woo.
Isaac is treated by Erika who a) tries to get him to
leave town and b) is not even slightly impressed by an apparent psychic who
couldn’t predict his own house been burned down. He still insists something bad
is coming
The next day Eika digs up something in the woods – a living
bird. A living bird that was buried and is still alive when she digs it up – it
flies away. After that she goes home and the family goes to church where
Michael is preaching and the preacher stands up to say he’s going for surgery
and Matt is going to take over his church while he’s gone – that’s
Matt from the first season, the first recurring character, the priest who
lost his church to the Guilty Remnant. His wife is also there – in a wheelchair
but has recovered from her comatose state. Ominous music plays as it seems he
attributes that healing to the town (we also focus on John) and the current preacher
is quick to cut him off.
After the service, John catches the two preachers to try and
draw Matt out but Matt is cagey.
Church service over the Murphy family goes to eat and
someone brings a goat into the restaurant and sacrifices it in the middle of
the room. No-one considers it to be especially weird, even if they do see it as
slightly annoying.
Also John may believe the ominous warnings of Isaac she
he was leery about fishing something out of the garbage disposal. Though that
could just be common sense
Michael again goes to feed the Hermit and rides into the
park where we see non-residents trying to get in and being stopped by the
police with tasers. Inside the restricted area Michael meets a guy who lives
there and they pray.
The next day John wakes up to random pie on his doorstep
(while I’m always a fan of pie – I’m not a fan of random doorstep food). Would
anyone actually eat doorstep pie – and sees
Kevin Garvey and family move in next door. Erika follows my reasoning and
suspects poisoning (though she thinks it’s a joke. No way I’d trust it.) John
decides he’s going to invite them to dinner and Erika calls this “working” in
his birthday (it’s his birthday which may explain the pie, but not why inviting
people to dinner is work).
So he goes to invite them – the Garvey family also
includes Kevin’s partner Nora
Durst, baby Lily (Christine
and Wayne’s baby?) and at the BBQ we have full introductions and the last
Garvey, Jill. Evie and Jill seem to bond as friends when Evie makes a grossly
rude comment pointing out the obvious – baby Lily is Black. We also learn that
all new residents get armbands that allow them into the park (until they’re recognised
and the arm bands are unneeded). Nora fills in on the family connections and tells
them that Matt is her brother while Kevin is spaced out and kind of creepy
More awkward dinner time and we learn John was in prison
for attempted murder. “I didn’t try hard enough.” We also learn Evie has
Epilepsy and occasionally goes into fugue states. The BBQ goes well, if
awkwardly.
And we get another Earthquake during the night – this one
much much worse, but it does reveal Evie didn’t come home with her friends
despite it being 3:00am. Not only that but her friends, Taylor and Violet are
also missing. There’s a lot of worry and Michael takes his dad to the lake
where Evie and her friends swim.
They find her friend’s car – and Evie’s phone inside. And
the pond has dried up. Evie is nowhere to be found.
Isn’t it a trifle bizarre to have a white man replacing a
Black preacher in an entirely Black church? This church isn’t even a tiny bit
racially mixed, every member of that congregation is Black – they couldn’t or wouldn’t
find a Black preacher to fill the old preacher’s shoes? I’m not a church goer
by any stripe but that seems odd.
I’m curious about John – so fiercely against people
selling snake oil in his town. Now, I’m generally very leery of anyone who is
against “fraudulent” mysticism but happy to support a church that hands around
a collection plate (since it’s less a matter of fraud and more a matter of
which belief systems have power and are granted a veneer of respectability) but
the ominous music when he looks at Matt implies he has a similar attitude to
Matt claiming Mary’s health miracle.
I’m still confused as to exactly why John is this
passionately furious about people selling Miracle’s miracle. But then I’m
curious about a lot of this show – which is kind of where I am at the moment,
curious and a trifle confused. We had a whole lot of random in a short space of
time. And while it’s clearly a complete reboot of the first season, I’m leery.
The first season contained a whole lot of random woo-woo (the dogs, the deer,
the take-away-pain-guy) which didn’t go anywhere at all. Shows that just throw
out lots of mystery with no answers have increasingly got on my last nerve
At first glance this show seems to have several very
prominent Black characters – even protagonists. I’m not praising yet though, I’ve
seen a whole lot of shows that started with hugely racially diverse casts then
killed half of them off or pushed them into the background. Similarly I’m going
to wait and see what is happening with Mary and if she’s just going to be a
catatonic woman people talk down to – but we also have Evie as an epileptic
with no apparent tropes.
