Wayward Pines season 2, episode 2, “Blood Harvest,” featured the continued machinations of the First Generation to keep the town functioning.
“Blood Harvest” was much of the same as the season 2 premiere of Wayward Pines. Dr Yedlin is quickly rescued from behind the wall because Kerry is injured by an Abbie and he’s the only doctor in the town — which seems like poor planning on the “brilliant” Dr. Pilcher’s part.
However, Xander and Ben aren’t so lucky. Xander is quickly eaten by Abbies. Ben survives a bit longer — long enough to send one final transmission back into the town, though Jason and his inner circle are the only ones to see it — but is eventually set upon by Abbies as well. His final words are, “I’m sorry, Dad,” and I’m definitely bummed by this turn of events.
Because, honestly, Ben leading a rebellion against the dictatorial Jason sounds like a more interesting story than rehashing a grumpy male protagonist being unhappy with the town of Wayward Pines. We did it once with Ethan, and it worked. We’re retreading a lot of ground in season 2 with Theo to less successful results. But, I suppose, Kate killing herself in the season 2 premiere set the tone for what is going to happen to season 1 holdovers — those who know the truth and aren’t thrilled with it.
Ben’s death, though, is likely to come back to haunt Jason. It’s repeated over and over again that the first rule of the First Generation is that its members cannot harm one another. Jason sentenced Ben to die, and even if he didn’t do the dirty work, Ben’s blood is on his hands.
It already seems to be crawling under Kerry’s skin, too. She checks herself out of the hospital and returns to Jason, but in their first meal together, she’s already showing discomfort with what happened to Ben and what that will mean for the town. And if Kerry, Jason’s most loyal lieutenant, is starting to have doubts, it’s likely that will trickle down. The rebellion he worked so hard to contain may find root in a new generation.
Speaking of season 1 holdovers, we also see Theresa Burke. She’s living in the town and is concerned when she starts hearing rumors that Ben was sent outside the fence. She goes around looking for her son and is quickly escorted home by members of the First Generation, but not before sewing some seeds of doubt of her own. When she learns of her son’s death, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her follow in her husband and son’s footsteps, leading a movement against the powers that be. You’d think those in power would know better than to mess with the Burkes by now.
As for our new characters, Rebecca reveals to Theo she’s been living in Wayward Pines for three years — she was clearly awakened shortly after the First Generation took control of the town. She went from being an architect to a beautician and is toeing the party line. Theo, meanwhile, is unhappy about, well, everything. Because that’s what Ethan 2.0 should be. So, that marriage continues to go about as well as it was going in the flashbacks.
To Theo’s credit, though, he recognizes his position of power pretty quickly. Unlike Ethan, Theo provides an essential service to the town that no one else can as a doctor. Ethan was awakened for his leadership potential — and because Sheriff Pope was on the way out — but that is not something impossible to find in others. On the other hand, no one else has the training Theo does, so killing him damages the entire town and its chances of survival. Theo knows it and doesn’t shy away from taunting Jason with the fact. That makes me like him slightly more, though I continue to find him mostly bland.
We also meet a new character in CJ, one of Pilcher’s proteges that we conveniently didn’t meet last season. CJ has been in charge of planting and farming the town’s food supply. The town is running low on food because the planted food hasn’t been harvested. CJ and Co. use flame throwers against the Abbies. The Abbies don’t like this and the group is able to harvest successfully.
The Abbies continue to act strangely in this episode as well. At the end of the previous episode, the Abbies began running into the electrified fence. It turns out they’re creating a hill with their corpses that other Abbies can climb in an effort to get over the fence. Though the soldiers of the First Generation are able to stop that attack, Jason later looks through surveillance footage and strangely finds no Abbies in sight. That’s never happened, he says.
So, it seems as though there is more to the Abbies than them being feral, thoughtless abominations, evolved from humans. There seems to be some level of higher thinking — which indicates they may have some agenda of their own. And that’s an intriguing prospect.
Overall, two episodes in, we’re retreading a lot of ground from the first season, but seeds are being sewn for some interesting stories to be told around the Abbies in particular.