Wayward Pines episode 4, “One of Our Senior Realtors Has Chosen to Retire,” left us with some burning questions, as most episodes of the series tend to. We look at our top five.
Last week, we considered what we knew after three episodes of Wayward Pines, but this week we’re looking at the far larger — and ever-growing — category of what we don’t know. Here are our five biggest questions after “One of Our Senior Realtors Has Chosen to Retire.”
Why was Ethan promoted?
After killing Sheriff Pope at the end of last week’s episode, Ethan returned to town to discover he’d been appointed the new sheriff after Pope’s sudden “retirement.” Not only does it seem odd that Ethan is getting so many chances after breaking just about every rule the Wayward Pines Powers That Be have established (while poor Beverly was reckoned for daring to miss her daughter), perhaps even stranger was his discovery of a box of files about each citizen of Wayward Pines and their lives prior to Wayward Pines.
What larger game is afoot here that it makes sense to give Ethan more power and information when he’s shown no indication that he will cooperate?
What is the school doing to the children?
According to the mayor of Wayward Pines, the true motives of The Powers That Be are related to the children of the town. Wayward Pines Academy is concerned with shaping the minds of future generations. This week, we were introduced to Megan Fisher, a teacher at the academy who, in her former life, was a hypnotherapist. In her dealings with Ben Burke, she seemed focused on confusing and undercutting the trust Ben has in his parents.
But to what end? What is the endgame related to the malleable minds of the future?
Bonus question: Should Ben trust Amy, the girl who befriended him after his first day of school? (Our guess is no.)
What is the significance of the realty office?
Ethan was not the only one who found himself with a new position in Wayward Pines in this episode; Theresa was informed that she has been selected as a new realtor because, well, “One of our senior realtors has chosen to retire” (read: Peter McCall died for writing subversive graffiti). Considering the size and insular nature of Wayward Pines, though, it doesn’t seem like a town that would be in desperate need of a stable of realtors. This tells us that there is likely more going on in that office.
So, what will Theresa find when she arrives at the realty office? And why was she chosen for the position?
Why was the fence built?
Peter McCall brought Ethan out to the electrified fence at the end of this week’s episode, and he pondered whether the electrified fence was keeping people in Wayward Pines or if it’s keeping something out. Something came out of the wall to take Pope’s body, so there’s definitely something out there.
But how does the giant fence relate to that mystery — and why, if there are dangerous creatures of some sort out in the woods of Idaho, are people being continually brought into Wayward Pines?
What is out in the woods?
Perhaps this is a sub-question for the above, but we’ve seen two instances now of there being something beyond the wall. First, a figure came out of the wall to take Pope’s body. And at the end of this week, Ethan scaled a cliff overlooking the wall, and the episode closed with a shot of an eerie figure watching him through the trees.
But what exactly is out there? Monsters? Aliens? Genetically-engineered… somethings? The creepy possibilities seem almost endless, leaving viewer imaginations spinning.
We were promised that we’d get the major reveal from the first Wayward Pines book in episode 5, while the subsequent episodes would focus on the second and third books of the trilogy. We’ll be curious as to which questions are answered next week — and what new questions will arise.
Wayward Pines airs Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET on Fox.