First Things First…
Dan’s father showing up in the footage from the Visser, then seeing that Virgil has Dan under surveillance, was crazy. That ending sucked me in at the end of the first episode. I’m ready to learn more about Dan’s connection to all of this. Plus, they already laid the groundwork for about 20 different mysteries in both the past and present. I’m ready to start unraveling them.
4 Things I Like
4. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
I loved this book when I was a kid. In fact, you’ll probably see the review here on Geeksbury eventually. But for now, I just thought it was cool that it got a shoutout.
Also, there’s probably something more to the fact that Melody has the movie in the past, and now that movie is in the compound in the present, where Dan watches it. How much other stuff from the Visser is in that facility?
3. Alone?
Whoever was in the red jacket in the woods in episode one is back. But this time, Dan spots them.
He later dreams (or maybe hallucinates) that it’s his father in the red jacket, and he’s there inside the facility. In reality, though, Dan never catches up with whoever it is.
I’m assuming the person he sees in the woods isn’t a hallucination, though. So who would be there spying on him like that? Virgil already has him under surveillance. So I’m not sure it makes sense that it’s someone from LMG. Who else is connected to this?
2. Is Prince Charming a Sex Cult Leader?
My suspicion from the first episode was right — that “random” guy Melody catches on camera as she’s about to enter the Visser the first time, who also is in the footage that Dan’s father is in, is Samuel. Presumably the same Samuel who Jess mentions when she asks Melody if that’s who brought her to the Visser.
Samuel is charming and charismatic. Sophisticated. Thoughtful. Translates poetry in multiple languages. He and Melody hit it off.
But there’s clearly much more beneath the surface, which we’re about to get to.
1. Spying on the Cult
So there IS some kind of cult in the Visser. And Samuel seems like he’s probably its leader. I don’t know what kind of idol that is that they’re worshipping. Is it a satanic cult? A sex cult? Both?
(This show isn’t exactly filled with laughs, but Mark referring to the song we keep hearing as “the Visser Historical Society’s sex cult theme song” made me LOL.)
The true nature of the cult remains to be seen. But the scene where Melody finds them worshipping in the community room, sitting around doing some weird breathing ritual, sounding like they’re hyperventilating, with eerie music playing in the background, is super tense.
Melody films the whole thing and almost gets caught when it suddenly ends. Then she investigates the idol but has to hide again when Samuel and Tamara come back in the room. The two of them have sex right there in the room while Melody hides, even though she was about to share a nightcap with Samuel a few hours earlier. So I’m guessing the shine is off of Samuel at this point.
This whole scene is really well done — creepy, scary, tense. But it still isn’t enough to get Melody out of the building.
2 Things I’m Mixed On
2. A Secret Passageway to… Customer Records and Filing Cabinets
Dan literally breaks down a wall inside the pantry, discovers a secret passageway leading to a hidden section of the compound…
And it’s filled with customer files from a DNA company.
I realize how valuable those files would be — to government agencies, social media platforms, and marketers who all want everyone’s info — not to mention how dangerous.
But it’s not the most exciting discovery.
I’m sure the records will factor in more later, though. The episode is named after this company, Wellspring, that Virgil founded. It does make me wonder what he was really collecting the information for. (Because it can’t be just for a legitimate business to help people, right?)
The part of this I’m more into is that Dan also finds a small church or worshipping area. And when Virgil barges in on him, he talks about having done debate team back in the day and arguing that the death of Jesus saved the world — not because of the resurrection, but because Jesus was a demon who would’ve led to the world’s destruction.
So if Virgil is part of the cult, maybe he is a Satanist.
That could make sense. Because so far, there’s no indication of how he’s connected to the Visser, or why he cares about restoring Melody’s footage.
1. Melody’s Real Motivation
The reason the cult doesn’t scare Melody away is because she’s not just there filming a project for her dissertation. She’s there to find her birth mother.
This comes out of nowhere, since there hadn’t been any mention of her being adopted.
The reason she’s searching for a woman named Julia Bennett is because she received some kind of notice of Julia being her birth mother — and the Visser is her last known address.
It’s not clear why she was notified of this now. But I’m wondering if she was lured there — if there’s a reason someone wanted her there.
There’s also the suggestion that the mysterious person who might or might not live in Apartment 4G — and who might or might not have an overflowing mailbox on the regular — could be Julia.
There’s potential with this part of the story. I’m curious about Julia and the empty apartment.
And it’s obviously powerful motivation for Melody. She says to her roommate…
She just left me there. Without a name, without a family, without a birthday. My whole life is a fucking fiction. It’s a lie… It’s been eating me alive my whole life. If there’s any chance that she’s here, I need to find her. I don’t care if she doesn’t wanna see me. I need to know who I am.
But the idea of her looking for her birth mother still feels like it came out of nowhere.
2 Thing I Don’t Like
2. Friendly Advice?
Mark is such a devoted friend in episode one, and continues to do everything Dan asks him to do in this episode — even though Dan can be pushy.
So I was surprised that in the beginning of this episode, when Dan tells him his father was on the tape and there’s obviously a bigger reason Virgil hired him, that Mark doesn’t push him to quit and get the hell out of there.
Instead, he tells him he’ll never find out the truth if he doesn’t see the project through. And that if he loses his shit on Virgil he’ll get fired (as if that would be so terrible). I realize $100,000 is at stake, but this is just too shady. That’s not what a friend would say.
I hope it doesn’t turn out Mark is just a POS looking for podcast fodder. But at least that would make sense. His advice here feels out of character based on what we’ve seen from him so far.
1. Who’s Knocking on Melody’s Door?
I hope there’s not some sort of weird, ghostly, out-of-space-and-time connection between Dan and Melody.
I’m not even sure what to call it. But Dan dreams about being in her hallway at the Visser, knocking on her door, and her calling out “Who’s there?” Then, after her late-night sex cult discovery, as she’s explaining everything to her roommate, someone knocks on her door and she calls out “Who’s there?” but no one is.
They splice those scenes together in a way that makes it seem like they’re connected. But this hasn’t shaped up to be that type of horror so far. I like that type of horror, but it feels out of place in a show where the cult — humans — are at the center of everything that’s wrong and sinister.
Final Thoughts
The Wellspring stuff and Melody’s search for her mother are big pieces of the puzzle that aren’t hitting yet. Hopefully those parts of the story pick. Because they’ve got a great creepy, eerie vibe, and I’m totally in on finding out more about the cult, and what Samuel’s deal is.
And the episode ends on a major cliffhanger (thanks, Netflix), as Mark tells Dan that Melody is alive and well. So maybe he can get answers from her about the Visser, and about her relationship with his dad.
Tim Matassa
