Salerno’s Essential Insights - “Persons Unknown” – Episode 1.03 – The Way Through- Recap

Episode three begins on the heels of a number of thwarted escape attempts from our intrepid group. The gang is frustrated, and understandably so. They are being played with by unknown captors who appear to have anticipated their every move. Thrown in, to add injury to insult, are the restaurant workers and night manager who appear to be free to come and go and yet they apparently have no answers. Who has employed them to work this ghost town? Why aren’t they assisting our victims? Why are have these 7 been brought here?

Digging their way out

The episode opens with our hostages having spent a week trying to dig their way out by going under the invisible microwave fence. After digging nearly 20 feet they strike a steel barrier. Alarms begin to go off and vents open up from the steel barrier spewing out a noxious gas that nearly kills Janet. Joe is just about to finally get a little mouth to mouth action with Janet when she suddenly comes too. Later, as the gang gathers in the Shanghai palace, Janet has her first of a several breakdowns she will have tonight. After Janet gets calmed down, Moira suggests a plan to build a signal fire (of course we know, given how remote this place is, that a fire will do little to get them rescued). The gang heads out of the restaurant to begin gathering items for the signal fire.

We next get a flash over to reporter Renbe who is now back on the case despite a dire warning and threats on his life from Edick (alias Members Only). Renbe convinces his boss there is an angle to explore with creepy grandma’s prior abuse of Janet and her now having custody of Meghan. We have to wonder just why Renbe is so enthralled with this case.

The Hell-icopter

As the group is looking for items to burn, Tori and Blackham find themselves alone in one of the shops. Blackham inappropriately shows his affection for Tori and she shows him some of her smoking self-defense moves. Tori reveals here she is definitely not the airhead blonde that she seems to be portraying herself as A pretty bruised up Blackham is next seen with Charlie claiming Tori nailed him with a shopping cart. This is just another deliberate lie by this guy who appears to be a bit more than just a used car salesmen. Dismissing Blackham’s rant about Tori, Charlie heads into a nearby shop. As Blackham is staring at an old television set in the shop window, a video clip pops up which shows Charlie clearly suffocating a woman. Oddly, this does not seem to even faze Blackahm. As we have been seeing each week, whoever has captured these people has also been watching them closely in the outside world. Additionally, each of our hostages seems to harbor a secret from in their outside lives which could be the impetus for being brought to this place.

As they attempt to start the signal fire, the Hotelies find that they cannot ignite the material (again the all knowing captors seem to have anticipated their move). At that same moment the sound of a helicopter is heard in the distance and our hostages believe they have been rescued. However, the unmarked chopper does not land and merely drops a smoking metal container in the town. As they investigate, the gang finds that it contains only three gas masks. After their recent brush with the noxious fumes in the tunnel, they all readily surmise that 4 of them are about to die. We now have confirmation that the captors are intentionally messing with these people. But why? Tests like this bring out peoples true character and the captors want each of our Hotelies to understand just who they are bunking with. Will we find that in one way or another all these individuals actually share some connection?

So you’re on a life boat with 3 gas masks….

As the group has a discussion about the masks, McNair willingly gives his to Moira. This is both suspect and very intriguing given which what will happen later. We also are graced with another appearance by the night manager who has recovered quite well from last weeks beating. He informs the group he has been promoted and while he does not have any more gas masks to aid them, he does have some complimentary umbrellas. Janet then tries to wrangle one of the masks from Charlie, who gives everyone a sob story that maybe he needs the mask to stay alive to take care of his sick wife. The wife that he apparently already smothered to death in the video Blackham saw.

We get a flash back into the “real” world where Renbe’s apartment has been completely ransacked. As he looks around he is greeted by Edick. Edick reveals that whoever he works for wants him dead, but in Edick’s opinions he’s too low on the totem pole to even be worth the trouble. After beating him up a bit, he steals his laptop as well as other information he has accumulated on Janet’s disappearance.

Following the discussion in the lobby, Blackham heads over to Charlie’s room where he then relates a fabricated dream he had of Charlie’s suffocating him. Charlie is noticeably upset, and we get a flashback of Charlie killing his already dying wife. As Charlie runs out of the room, the scene cuts over to Moira and McNair. McNair reveals to her that he worked a prisoner terrorist camp and failed to genuinely practice his Muslim faith until he got there. He also feels very guilty about what he saw while he was here. Moira indicates that she wants to learn from him. This is the second person Moira has now shown an interest in which makes her all that more suspicious and possibly the mole amongst the group.

While out gathering items for a do-it-yourself gas protection suit, Janet enters one of the stores suspecting someone is in the store. She finds Charlie in the back room drinking a soda. It seems slightly off that he just happens to know that his favorite soda was there. As they are chatting in the back room the doors suddenly lock and the alarms go off indicating an imminent poison gas release. Charlie’s dons on the mask, while they both struggle to exit the gas filled room. They are suspiciously able to get the door unlocked and escape out into the open where there is no gas. Once outside, Charlie screams in frustration seeming almost disappointed that there is not gas outside.

Meeting of the minds

As they are all back in the hotel trying to come up with a plan to stay alive, Janet breaks her second camera while bemoaning the effects the gas had on her. I have to question if it was even poison gas. Is Janet possible part of this whole event? Was she faking that the gas was noxious? If so why? Since Charlie had a mask on, she is the only one who really knows if that gas was indeed toxic. Additionally, this entire episode it seems like she really wants to appear to the others that she has reached wits end with her captors. To me, this all seem a bit disingenuous.

We next find Moira over in the Shanghai, where she uncovers the piano. After aimlessly striking some chords, she shows a conveniently appearing McNair that she has sports some major playing abilities. Again, we see that Moira is developing connections with McNair just like she did last week with Tori. Moira then reveals to McNair that she lived in a psychiatric hospital, but not because she was crazy, but rather because it was the only place she felt safe in. Moira is allegedly an orphan who merely played like she was crazy to stay at St. Mary’s. The question to me is was she a really patient or is she really a doctor? She just has way too much knowledge about things to have been nothing more than an orphan who hung out most of her life in a mental institution.

With a transition back to the real world, we see that Renbe makes the bold move of actually breaking into Edick’s office. There are a few interesting pictures of him which might hold some meaning. Renbe also finds manila files on both him and Janet and uncovers that both Janet and her mother are looking for the low-life ex-husband. While looking through his computer emails Renbe sees that 1k was transferred Edick by way of an offshore account. Renbe calls the number in the email and gets nothing but that crazy alien static that Janet got last week when she spoke with her daughter. His own cell then rings as he gets a call back from whomever he just called. Renbe quickly hangs up grabs his laptop and high tails it out of there.

It gas time

Feeling guilty Charlie seeks out Blackham and confesses to him about killing his wife, but the story does not seem to disturb him. He then reveals to Charlie that he saw it on the store TV. Charlie does not even ask him how he saw it on TV, which is pretty odd. Again, we find Janet alone with Joe at the ice cream bar where she suddenly notices that all the paintings on the wall are creepy posters of her mother with her daughter Meghan. Janet runs out of the parlor with breakdown number three and her second attack of the day on poor Moira. Joe again calms her down and comforts her.

The next day, as they all are hanging in the hotel lobby; McNair intelligently recognizes the psychological warfare that their captors have unleashed upon them. At that moment, the alarms again go off and the gas starts pumping into the room. Blackham goes berserk and wrests the mask from Charlie. The gang suddenly realizes that the smoke is not noxious and those that have the mask are the ones who are being poisoned. Janet is able to quickly get every mask off with a knife, saving all of those wearing a mask.

Finding a way through

After the gas mask incident Moira’s is again seen “bonding” with McNair as he recites his Muslim prayers. (I wonder who she will bond with next week.) Blackham and Charlie have a curt discussion about the gas mask battle. Blackham apologizes and as they trade a few verbal jabs he informs Charlie’s he does not believe his story about his wife. Blackham drops the bomb that he is not a car salesman, but offers nothing further.

We move on to yet another private discussion between Joe and Janet where they both decide that the best thing to do is not play along with their captors. Their plan of action is to just ride this deal out to its conclusion, whatever that may be. On the heels of this discussion, the night manager walks in and delivers a large vat of fortune cookies. Janet tosses these in the garbage to signal her defiance and independence. Both her and Joe walk out of the hotel lobby.

In the final scene Edick visits Gomez with information. He informs Gomez that he has located Janet’s husband. As Gonzalez pulls out the photo provided by Edick, we find a picture of Janet with Renbe, revealing him to be the former husband and alleged farther of Meghan. A cleverly photo shopped picture perhaps? We will have to just watch and wait for answers.

Thoughts

So where are we? Well I can’t help but still feel the possibility of an Alien dimension to this thing. After last week when the van ended up right where they began, I knew it not only reminded me of Dark City, but also an episode of the Twilight Zone. I could not recall the name however, my googling efforts located the Grassy Knoll website where the moderator had a similar feeling and knew the name of the episode. The episode is called "Stopover", and it involves a couple who wakes up to find themselves in a completely fake town (just like our heroes). During their time there they have an eerie feeling they are being watched. They manage to board a train which they think will get them out of the fake town. The train basically goes in a circle and they end up right back in town (familiar?) By then end, they find that they have been abducted by a gargantuan alien child who is keeping them as pets. Now I do not believe that a large alien is keeping our Hotelies, but the similarities are intriguing. One of the items that does bother me a bit is the focus on Janet. It appears that all the other characters are merely built around her. Additionally, on the outside the only thing we see is concern over her disappearance. Why no apparent concern about the others? Is the focus on Janet a red herring? Is it possible her daughter Meghan, creepy mother, and lowlife ex-husband have absolutely nothing to do with anything? There is also the very real possibility of a radical experimental program being conducted by the government on these individuals. Again, to what end and why these seven? There is still much too little information to become definitive, but things are getting more and intriguing.