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Well. Here's what's going on: there are no people at the producers' base camp. But there's a lot of blood all over the place, so something ominous clearly happened. And for some reason, Sabina is lurking around in the production truck. There's a radio, but something's jamming the signal so they can't call for help. Johnny loads up all the supplies he can find and they get out of there. When they get to the camp, the Revealer gives them a gas mask, which everyone finds kind of worrying. They knock the Revealer down and crack it open, but it's apparently operated by clockwork, so it distributes things on a predetermined schedule. It also has a label that says "Behavior/Reward Simulator Test Group C," which isn't good news no matter how you look at it.
For a while, everyone works together to build a giant signal fire, but Sabina puts the fire out two seconds after it's started. So the only real effect is that everyone learns that Johnny has a lighter. Sam finds Miljan's secret notebook, which causes Miljan quite a lot of distress. But Sam can read some of it, so he lets everyone know that in 1927, there was a dangerous group of natives they need to avoid. So that'll come in handy if they find themselves in 1927, which might not be as crazy as it sounds.
Daniel is sad that Irene is so injured, and he wanders into the woods to be unhappy. And it's a good thing he does, because he sees a mysterious tower with a flashing red light! The day, he, Johnny, Sam, and Joyce (née Carolina) set out to walk what they think will be about ten or fifteen miles to get there. But on the way, they come upon what looks like the site of a giant explosion. In Tunguska? That's crazy!
Oh, and they come up with a flimsy excuse to justify the camera crews all continuing to film everyone. The idea is that they're going to want evidence when they get back to civilization. This doesn't explain what the cameramen eat or where they sleep or anything, but at least it's a nod in the direction of realism.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Johnny, Sam and Joyce (no longer Carolina) went to the producers' base camp to see what was up.
Now: the base camp has been vacated. There are some blue pieces of paper on the ground, but no one seems interested in examining them. Joyce wants to go back to Irene, but Johnny has the good sense to insist on picking up all the food and water they can find. The people operating the cameras keep doing their jobs, rather than displaying any concern about all their coworkers vanishing and their food being taken in front of their eyes. Johnny finds a producer's notebook, which suggests that Joyce and Johnny have a love story. He's not thrilled by this.
Joyce checks a tent and screams. Johnny runs over, and there's blood all over the place. Clearly, this place has undergone a catastrophe of some sort. Specifically the cheap sort, since it took place off screen. They start to go back to their own camp, and there's a noise from what looks like a mobile production office. Everyone takes tent poles (they're the only weapon available) and investigates. Sabina's inside! Well, that's weird. She sure gets around, huh? She says she doesn't know anything. Aside from her, there's a computer with blood on it and a radio. The existence of the radio distracts them from the lack of bodies. Sabina tries to send a few distress signals, but there's no answer. She says, "Someone's jamming the signal."
Opening credits! They still list Joyce as "Carolina." But they're already committed to keeping the credits unchanged, since various dead and exited people are also still included.
Neeko, Annie, Miljan and Esther are sitting around the campfire. Everyone's mad at Esther for tricking the other crowd into quitting, but she's quite pleased with herself. And then the other crowd appears out of the woods, carrying Irene. Now everyone's yelling at Esther. Even Joyce is mad at Esther for lying, which is a little rich, coming from the person who's been lying to everyone since the first episode. Esther insists that it's not her fault the helicopter didn't show up. It's true; she may have used Irene's injury for her own benefit, but she didn't cause it or make it worse. She just thought other people would be taken out of the game along with Irene. Johnny tells everyone that the panic button is fake. Miljan points out that it worked before, which is a good point. Johnny can't explain that, and he doesn't even try, because the button clearly doesn't work now. He also relates how the producers' base camp is also a wreck. Neeko thinks this could all be a lie, which is not unreasonable at this point. People have been lying to Neeko a lot. Johnny shows him the backpack full of supplies he got at base camp, which goes a long way to justifying his claims. You'd think Neeko could just go look for himself. It might not be a bad idea to go see if they missed any supplies. They might want those tents later on.
A flock of geese flies by.
Miljan asks what it means that the radio was jammed. Sabina and Sam explain the basic concept of a signal jammer. Essentially, it means someone was jamming the signal. Johnny speculates that the production company could be screwing with them, and then some other group could be screwing with the production company. Sam wants to make sure there's proof of what happens to them and Johnny agrees on the theory that if the game breaks down, they can sue the production company. And this is important, because it gives Sam an excuse to tell the camera crew to keep filming so there's a record of everything. So that's going to be the justification for the camera crews still doing their jobs, although it seems like at least some of the camera operators have vanished.
And then! The Revealer horn starts up! That's interesting, because it's not clear who's controlling it. Johnny gets there first and finds an old-timey gas mask. That's a little worrying. Johnny demands to know if the game's still on, but the camera crew won't answer. He stomps around and throws a ladder and generally flips out. Then he directs his anger at the Revealer, which is a much better idea. Sam helps him knock it over and now everyone's trying to pop it open. Sam says the back is now revealed, which is not entirely accurate. I mean, it's revealed, but it was revealed before. It was the side Johnny was pushing on! Anyway, if the panic button doesn't work, I think they're within their rights to try to find out what else is in the Revealer. And the answer is: gears. Daniel claims that it works automatically and opens at preset times. No one's controlling it. There's a Russian label, which Sam translates as "Behavior/Reward Simulator Test Group C." That's not reassuring at all! I don't think anyone's pleased about that. I wonder if Test Groups A and B are more interesting.
Everyone sits around the fire and argues about what to do. Johnny wants to leave, although he doesn't explain how he wants to manage that. Sabina thinks they should stick around and find a way to defend themselves. In the cabin, Irene tells Daniel she wants to go home. So does he! He promises her that he won't let anything bad happen to her. He'll keep gangrene off of her leg with the power of True Love! Outside, Sam tells Esther that he believes she was expecting the helicopter to come. He's willing to forgive her if she asks. Hey, good for him! She says Irene won't forgive her, but Sam says that's not in Esther's power. That's a very understanding move by Sam. I like that he reached out to Esther here.
Back to the fire. Annie suggests that they build a giant signal fire, which you can see for miles. I guess it's more reliable than the jammed radio, but Siberia is a bigger place than just "miles." Daniel comes out of the cabin and gets the news from Joyce. He joins the group that's going to go get wood. And Miljan is shown sitting alone. He sneaks into the cabin with Irene and looks up at the stationary camera in the corner. He walks up to it and carefully puts his jacket over it, which seems like a waste of time. I mean, it's not going to record his actions, but it will be obvious that whatever happens in the cabin will have been done by Miljan.
Sabina creeps through the woods. As she does. She examines the trap that got Irene and pulls the arrow out of the deer head. Then she grabs the bow.
Sam catches Miljan coming out of Irene's cabin. He tells Miljan to stop screwing around and help with the bonfire. Out in the woods, Daniel apologizes to Joyce for busting her. Everyone's carrying large tree trunks back to the campsite so they can be sawed into bits for the fire. They should have done this much earlier! And it's getting cold and rainy as the fire gets put together.
Sam goes into a cabin and finds a leather-bound notebook of the kind sold by Barnes & Noble. You know the ones with the really long strip of leather that wraps around it? He investigates. Then he confronts Miljan about it, asking how come he has a notebook full of Russian if he doesn't speak it? Miljan tries to attack him, but Sam is a big guy with experience, so Miljan just bounces off ineffectually. He keeps trying, though, and everyone runs in to get involved.
After they're separated, Miljan yanks back his book. He explains that he found it in the ground, and he's not happy about Johnny and Joyce flipping through it. He repeats that he doesn't read Russian and I should remind you that he's supposed to be a DJ from Montenegro. And Montenegrin isn't Russian, but it at least uses the Cyrillic alphabet, so I bet he could figure out a word or two. Anyway, Sam has it and he's puzzling it out: "Our guides were frightened by the sight of the abandoned… outpost. Fearing what they called the… valley man." No one likes the sound of these valley men. It's dated 1927 and it's signed by someone called Kulik. Miljan is quite a distance away, and he's pacing and getting farther away. Neeko doesn't care about any of this, because he wants to build a giant fire.
Daniel voiceovers that you don't know people until you see them in a crisis. And he wants to believe that people are good. This segues into Johnny revelation that he has a lighter. People are a little disbelieving about that, but he figures he might as well share the technology at this point. So he lights the fire… and then Sabina runs up and throws a bucket of water over it. She tells them that they don't know what's out there in the woods, and it's a bad idea to advertise their location. She could have expressed this opinion a few hours ago and saved everyone the trouble of getting all this wood. And does she really think their location is a secret? The Revealer keeps emitting huge howling noises every few days! And a helicopter landed just around the corner when the game started; wouldn't the imaginary enemies have noticed that? But everyone agrees that they can't start a signal fire and that's that.
Irene is still alive, although she's trembling. Annie peels back the bandage and says it's getting worse. She thinks it's infected, although it actually looks pretty good to me. I will take her word for it, though, since it certainly should be infected. Irene suddenly site bolt upright and emits some nonsense syllables! She slows it down enough to say, "I'm so sorry." Daniel gets her to lie down, and she asks if the helicopters are coming. He assures her they'll be here in a day or two. She tells him he's not a very good liar.
In the other camp, Sam is reading Miljan's notebook. Johnny doesn't think they can just walk in a random direction, but he also doesn't want to stay here. Neeko suggests that whoever took the rifle admit it. Sabina says she has the bullets. And she's not remotely sorry about it, either. But there's no rifle.
Daniel tells a sad story about the time some guys jumped him and his girlfriend. He ran and his girlfriend got stabbed six times. So now he needs to prove to Irene and to himself that he's worthy and good.
Annie takes the scythe and carves Natalie's name on the cabin wall. I'm not convinced Natalie's really gone. I mean, if the helicopters don't come when the button's pushed, she's still here somewhere, right?
Daniel is out in the woods, being sad. Then he pulls himself together and walks a few feet and sees something in the distance. It's a flashing red light on a hill! How convenient! It's a little strange that this is the first anyone's noticed it, since they've been out at night a lot and a giant flashing red light is hard to miss when it's the only electric light for hundreds of miles in any direction.
Sam has more information! There's a nomadic tribe called the Evenki. They're very scary, although he wants to make it clear that he's not trying to scare anyone. He blames the spear and Irene's trap on the Evenki. And then! Daniel bursts into the cabin and makes everyone follow him. There's no time to explain!
He leads them to a clearing where they can see the light tower. He insists that they all have to go to it right now! He's got the tactical planning of a moth. Sam says it looks like it's about ten or fifteen miles away. Miljan says the forest is full of dangerous stuff. Daniel now says they should get up in the morning, get food and water and go there. Johnny thinks it's a good plan. Neeko objects that they don't know that anyone's there, although that doesn't make it any worse than the place they're in now. The discussion leads them to decide that some of them will go there and some will stay with Irene. Sure, that makes sense.
In the women's cabin, Sabina says that the woods are dangerous. She wants to just barricade themselves in the cabins. Annie thinks someone other than the local production crew must know where they are. I guess they didn't know exactly where they were going, but their families must have known they were going somewhere.
The morning, Johnny loads up his backpack with supplies. Irene tells Daniel that if he sees anything scary, he should run.
Before the expedition sets out, Sabina gives Daniel her knife. I hope she's not expecting that back. Sam will be joining the party, so it's Daniel, Johnny and him. Before they leave, Daniel wants to do a confessional with one of the camera crews. With no producers, the Siberians have to instigate these themselves. Sam and Johnny also take crews off for confessionals. We see Esther standing outside the women's cabin and then she goes inside. So there are at least five camera crews still operating. What do they eat? Where do they sleep? How much film do they have? How are they keeping their batteries charged? And so on.
Esther asks Annie if she can talk to Irene alone. Irene feebly says that it's okay, so Annie goes outside. Esther apologizes to Irene and says she didn't mean for any of this to happen. She says she got caught up in the game and is really sorry. Irene turns away and Esther leaves.
It's time for Daniel, Johnny and Sam to leave. There are a lot of hugs and handshakes. And there's one shot that's clearly from a crane that doesn't exist in the show's reality. I wish they'd try to keep track of these things. Either don't bring the cameramen into the show's reality or put some effort into remembering that all the shots have to be accounted for. Joyce tells Sabina to take care of everyone, and then she runs over to go with the away team. The only one with water is Johnny, and I imagine he would have appreciated knowing how many people he was packing for.
Guitar-based sad music plays as we get lots of close-ups. Annie's really good at sketching. Sabina is accounting for all their supplies. Irene has her rock. And Miljan likes his homemade tattoo. As the song ends, Daniel sees a lot of birds in the sky and Sam says the birds are leaving wherever it is they're going. The group reaches a ridge and looks down at a blasted landscape. It's like a giant explosion happened here! And there's no tower to be seen.
Well, the good news is that if they've traveled back in time to 1908 (just after the Tunguska Event), the place is going to be crawling with scientists in a few years. I mean, World War I and the Russian Revolution are going to get in the way, but eventually someone will show up to try to find out what the heck happened. And then they'll be rescued!
Follow Monty on Twitter at @monty_ashley and read his blog, Mysterious Exhortations.