Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: D+ | 121 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT And Then!
By Monty Ashley | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 09.16.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The group that was abandoned by the Evenki make it through the scary forest to rejoin the group at the Science Institute, but they have to cut through a minefield to get there. Irene is trapped on top of a mine for a few minutes, but Daniel frees her through the brilliant stratagem of telling her to step off it. If you're keeping track, this is the second trap that Irene's stuck her foot into. Then everybody hangs out in the Science Institute for about an hour until the next plot twist stops by: there are Russian soldiers roar up in a truck and make everybody kneel in the snow. Joyce gets tied to the hood of the truck and is about to be executed when mysterious noises from the forest interrupt the program. Everyone gets stashed in one of the buildings so the soldiers can fire guns and blow things up off screen. Johnny and Daniel were hiding from the soldiers, so they're able to rescue Joyce.
After some hiding, everyone decides they might as well try escaping. A convenient soldier runs in and gets killed, so they even have a pistol. Johnny gets drives the truck and almost everybody else gets in the back. Except for Annie, who gets tragically killed. Sorry, Annie. Now that they have the truck, everyone else is looking forward to getting to the town that was on the map. Unfortunately, the truck skids into a snowdrift for no apparent reason, forcing everyone out to start pushing it. Esther connives her way into the driver's seat, and when she's free of the drift, she just drives away. Miljan explains that she had the $500,000 prize money from the Revealer, so she's not coming back. That's inconvenient!
Also inconvenient: the town has been abandoned. Empty stores, cars, and apartments are everywhere. There are telephones, but no dial tones. The Russian soldiers' truck is there, but Esther is gone. They find an apartment that still has power, so everyone relaxes a little. There are sandwiches, kisses, and naps. And then the Russian soldiers catch up to them, which isn't hard, because they're all in the only lit apartment in town.
And right at the end, the Aussie Host from the beginning of the series walks in. Joyce recognizes him, and he says, "You're not supposed to be here." So...that happened.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The Evenki have left our Siberians, and everyone walks into the forest. Neeko claims there's a road, but it's under three feet of snow. He sees a warning sign that is conveniently labeled in Russian and English, so he knows it's a minefield. This is a weird place for a minefield, isn't it? Historically, any army that got stuck this far into Siberia was in enough trouble without adding land mines to the mix.
Science Institute. Sam tells Daniel that he'll buy him a steak dinner when they're safe. Joyce and Johnny come in to ask what the deal is. The deal is that they haven't heard anything on the radio. Everybody but Sam goes out to check on the antenna, and it turns out that a wire has broken. Joyce runs off to get some tape while Johnny and Daniel position the ladder. Joyce seems distracted by something in the lab. Johnny's up on the ladder pointing at another possibly broken wire, when he also sees something. There are four people walking up the road! And the road looks like it's been plowed fairly recently. Just thought I'd mention that. It's the other Siberians! Neeko, Miljan, Sabina, and Annie! Not Irene or Esther? Ah, Daniel and Johnny go running off into the snow, where Esther is pointing at Irene. She's standing on a land mine. Sheesh. This lady can't go two minutes without sticking her leg in a trap.
Daniel says he'll figure out what to do, and Johnny is more concerned with how everyone else got through the field without stepping on a mine. It's a good question, since you'd think people could just all follow the footprints in front of him. Daniel's plan is for Irene to just walk off the mine, but Johnny and Neeko both seem pretty sure that it's the kind of mine that blows up when you step off it, not when you first step on it. Sabina assures Daniel that she knows more about mines than he does, and he ignores her. This guy, am I right? He walks carefully out into the field. Even Crazy Miljan is shaking his head at how dumb Daniel is. Daniel takes Irene's hands and promises her that the mine is a dud and she just has to step off it. He slowly counts to three, and she steps. The soundtrack gets that tinnitus sound effect, but there's no actual explosion. Everyone is very happy. That was some nonsensical fake-drama that did nothing but eat up twelve minutes of the season finale.
So now everyone's in the Institute buildings getting caught up on each other's adventures. Johnny got electrocuted by the tower and got CPR from Sam. Sam's foot got frostbite, and he was also saved. He claims that he closed his eyes and saw Natalie at the fishing river. Annie is affected by him talking about Natalie, and she leaves. Sabina has to share the story of Natalie being mysteriously dead in the snow. So Sam goes off and finds Annie and tells her about how he lost his wife. He's really good at cheering people up! The point of his story is to tell Annie that Natalie will always be a part of her.