The Waking Dream is the penultimate episode of The Mist. More than any other show that I've watched this season, I cannot wait to see the back of The Mist. It's been horribly homophobic as well as sexist. The characters have jumped from zero to world ending panic in a fashion that makes absolutely no sense. In short nothing the writers have come up with to expand the scope of King's novella are sensible or make The Mist even somewhat entertaining.
The Tunnel
When last we left Nathalie, she was leading Conner, Ursula and Trevor through The Mist in an effort to reach the mall. Having chased a few suspects through the sewers, Conner is confidant about them finding their way. Conner talks about a suspect finding himself covered in rats and being horrified. Thanks for telegraphing what the characters are going to face writers. At any rate, Trevor falls, breaking his leg badly and so calls out for help. Nathalie is insistent that there's nothing they can do because they cannot carry Trevor. Ursula argues to save her husband, suggesting that they could go and get help but still Nathalie will not relent. As Ursula pleads for Trevor, Nathalie and Connor keep exchanging looks.
Ursula begins to climb down some stairs to get to Trevor and after one last look at Nathalie, Connor approaches Ursula. Promising to help Ursula, Connor moves closer as he pulls out his knife. Connor promptly stabs Ursula and pushes her down the stairs, causing her to land on her husband with a thud. The two start to beg for help but Connor and Nathalie will not be moved. Rats approach Ursula and Trevor and start snacking on the couple like they've been presented with an all you can eat buffet. Nathalie explains to Connor that this is all part of the cycle of life and death. They've now provided nature with food which it will recognise as harm and allow them to pass by unscathed. Nathalie picks up a passing rat and then passing it to Connor, encouraging him to feel the love.
I don't feel any pity for Ursula and Trevor mainly because they existed only to be killed to cement Connor's loyalty to Nathalie. Furthermore, Ursula and Trevor participated in locking people in the church and burning them alive. Clearly the scene with the rats was to intended to meet The Mist's weekly quota of creep factor.
Adrian, Mia and Bryan
As we know, Adrian took a shot at Kevin and then took off to the car, claiming that his father killed Kevin. Bryan and Mia talk about going back to ensure that Kevin is indeed dead but decide to push forward, not wanting to take the risk and believing in Adrian's assurance. When they arrive at the mall, they agree to go their separate ways since Mia and Bryan are technically criminals. The moment he's by himself, Adrian practices what he is going to tell Alex and Eve about Kevin's supposed death. This is clearly meant to remind us of how calculating Adrian is.
The mall continues to be a cesspool of panic and nonsense. Having blamed Alex for Shelly's death, Gus is now in a corner. The residents of the mall want to hunt Alex down and make her pay for Shelly's death based solely on his lie about seeing Alex running away from Shelly's body. Jones tries to tell the mall cop that this is getting ridiculous but when the mall cop makes it clear that someone is going to have to pay for Shelly's death, Gus gets on side pretty quickly.
Mia and Bryan take shelter in an outdoors store and they talk about what might have happened if they hadn't gotten together because of The Mist. I don't care how hard they try to sell these two as a couple, I simply don't buy it. When Bryan closes his eyes to daydream about the whole white picket fence scene he has created, Mia opens up her duffle bag which contains a shit ton of money. Mia wants Brian to agree to run away with her. Bryan agrees to this and to look for supplies. Is anyone going to wonder how far the Mist extends cause if it involves more than their small town, that money is going to be useless to them?
