Wayward Pines 2.09 “Walcott Prep”

I’ve got no idea what to make of this episode. It features a surprise reveal that is great because it’s such a complete surprise (and it even makes sense within the particular fictional rules of this future world), but also horrible because it is so squicky and almost instantly an excuse for male hysteria.

And we’ve sort of had enough of that all season, with Theo, Xander, Jason, CJ, and the ghost of Pilcher vying for the moral high ground all along by throwing moody hissy fits around to get their various ways. Women (as is so often the case in fiction) in Wayward Pines seem to take the more practical route of getting shit done while accepting the inevitable rather than fighting over it.

That’s certainly what Margaret’s role as catalyst and threat has been about all season. She couldn’t have known what would happen once she snuck into town, whether she’d be instantly killed or worse. But she took the chance for her people.

Kate and Pam despaired of their failed attempts at appeasement and rebellion ever succeeding to save everyone, and each gave up in their own ways. Megan struggled to keep up with a world not going along with the rules in her head. Rebecca, designer of the physical world around them, accepted her status as a hairdresser in the new order, accepted that her old husband has been revived a few years too late, accepts that her founder status still has its perks and accepts that her pregnancy has bearing on her future choices.

But this week is about Kerry, and everything new we learn about Kerry (that she also is a founder of sorts, that she was chosen personally by Pilcher when he was shopping for a baby, that she was awoken by Jason based on his search for an ideal mate) supports the woman we’ve seen from the moment Dr. Yedlin was revived. Practical, efficient, decisive, willing to do whatever it takes to support Jason, the man who brought her back to life, the Chosen Leader of the future of Wayward Pines.

But therein lies the problem, because the idea of a Chosen One is another of Pilcher’s fantasies, as retrogressive and idealistic as his vision of the perfect suburban culture of “I Like Ike” families. It’s a part of his naïve hope that everyone he kidnapped will thank him for sending them thousands of years into the future and ripping them from their families and friends; and of his conviction that the Abbies were abominations to be exterminated.

“Walcott Prep” is the rich ground he searches for a baby about to be born with all the genetic advantages of the proven rich and successful class, but one that is sadly not wanted by his unwed mother.

And when the time for “departure” approaches, and his chosen princess miscarries, he has to move on quickly to a viable replacement in the vicinity. And that character, in a melodramatic reveal as she turns over in her hospital bed, is no one else but: Kerry!

Yes, this means she’s her own lover’s mother. They’re just weirdly the same age because he was revived as a baby and grew up while she was still in stasis. And it’s just a horrid twist of fate (and some falsified records) that made her Jason’s idea of the perfect girl without either ever knowing just how close they were.

Yuck! But, somehow not indefensible from the litany of Pilcher plans that crumble on encountering the actual reality of future existence. Tom Stevens does his best with Jason’s final scenes, a subtext-loaded talk with Rebecca about future plans, and a fatal confrontation with Kerry where both of their lives are too instantly at stake. Part of it is the pressure on them both as leaders during the Abbie threat. Part of it is Dr. Yedlin acting like a loon in Jason’s presence, while manipulating Kerry to fear for her life due to her infertility. And part of it is the dilemma that there aren’t enough working pods to save everyone already awake. Anybody would be on edge.

As usual, violence is Jason’s answer, proof again that even the Chosen are riddled with flaws and fears.