After a season that brought us major casualties, shocking discoveries and the ascent of a new republic, the finale episode of Wayward Pines chose to usher us out of the second season on a quieter note. It also left us pondering the most important question of all, what does this mean for season three of the summer series?
The "Bedtime Story" episode was incomparable to the first season finale of the M. Night Shyalaman thriller. Instead of offering blood and gore for fans pleasure, we were gifted with loose ends being tied and everyone getting along. The latter can be contributed to the fact that the town tyrant is near death.
The episode began with a frantic medical team transferring Jason’s lifeless body to the hospital to be saved and for a split second, we believe that the expiring leader may have a chance at surviving the gunshot wound his mother/girlfriend inflicted upon him. But this notion is debunked as Dr. Yedlin later announces to the town that their dictator is in fact, dead.
While relinquishing this news to the citizens of Wayward Pines and Dr. Yedlin delivered a speech about how they need to follow through with the plan to evacuate. While addressing the crowd, it’s very clear who Jason’s successor will be: Dr. Yedlin.
As we travel outside of the fence to a gathering amount of Abbies, it is inevitable that the aberrations are going to take over the rest of the world. Now, we just patiently wait for the strike. This season, showrunners decided to breath a new life into the creatures that we were petrified of when it kicked off last year. They are actually characters that we have grown to feel sympathy for. I would not be surprised if we saw season three focus solely on them.
The citizens are being readied to be placed back into their cryogenic chambers, but if you think this process is going to be uncomplicated, think again. Apparently people will be traveling to their safe haven in two groups. The second group has a extended wait to get to the pods, while the first goes almost immediately.
“Whats wrong with us” a little boy in Group B questions Frank. In a real tearjerker moment of the night we see Frank be torn away from his sister, Lucy, who is in Group A. It can also be inferred that Frank was placed in Group B because Jason had uncovered that the boy was gay, and the tyrant only wanted citizens who were fully “functional” to go on the trek to the future.
But we soon discover that Frank and Lucy will be reunited and that Frank will live another day in the future as Dr. Yedlin heroically found and allowed him to receive a pod. Dr. Yedlin also took his nemesis and Rebecca’s true love, Xander, who was in Group B. These actions from Dr. Yedlin enlightened us on the reasoning behind his unofficial new leadership.
So all of the characters that we have grown accustomed to over the past weeks, Frank, Lucy, Rebecca, Xander, Arlene and CJ, will be resting for a while in their cryogenic chambers. But what about the other two main characters that are still alive and kicking, Dr. Yedlin and Kerry?
Dr. Yedlin had no intentions for his life to be saved with the rest. Instead, he had planned on injecting himself with strains of diseases and plagues and be feasted upon by the Abbies and the citizens that could not travel to the future. This courageous act would allow him to clear the Abbie race. His plan would have been enacted if Kerry did not locate his voice recorder where he left a message about his goals.
Kerry instead convinced the doctor that she should be the one to administer the death sentence to her blood stream because the new life to where they were traveling needed more people like him and “less like her son.”
We end the episode with a new world that seems to only consist of Abbies. The camera panned in on a newborn that actually looked more like a human than his Abbie mother. It appears that Dr. Yedlin's strategy for survival, that Kerry enacted, worked. If the human baby is any indication, humanity will be normal again.
Well, that was what the season finale of Wayward Pines. And this episode should also serve as the perfect wrap up for the entire series. However, do not be surprised if I am recapping season three come next summer.