Wayward Pines season 2, episode 8, “Pass Judgment,” followed the aftermath of Margaret’s escape. And it was not pretty.
At every turn, Wayward Pines season 2 seems to be exploring the idea that the true monsters left in the world are not the Abbies but the humans. After murdering Megan Fisher and escaping at the end of the previous episode, Margaret is on the loose during “Pass Judgment.” Wayward Pines quickly goes on lockdown — and the townspeople have different views on how to deal with the threat of her being loose as well as the increasing number of Abbies outside the fence.
On one side of the debate is Jason, fresh of killing the captive Abbies — the action that set Margaret off in the first place. He believes, as his mentor David Pilcher did, in wiping the Abbies out. He also plans to lock himself and Kerry away if the Abbies invade, allowing them to survive while everyone else dies. So much for the captain going down with the ship. (I’m not going to lie; I thought he was going to kill Kerry after she confessed to not being able to have children with him. That’s how little faith I have in him.)
Jason’s soldiers are also part of the problem; as members of the First Generation, they’ve been indoctrinated as much as Jason has. They have their weapons out, ready to kill Margaret once she is loose. And when two armed civilians arrive to help, the confusion created leads to Mario and one of the civilians being shot. Mario survives, thanks to Theo, but the civilian dies on the street.
Tensions are not only raising between the humans and the Abbies but between the humans themselves. Humans seem inherently unable to join together to survive, even when things look like they are lost. Once again, it seems like perhaps humanity isn’t the group that should survive.
On the other end of the debate is Theo. He wants to communicate with Margaret. He empathizes with her after discovering Megan’s body; he knows why she is acting the way she is and doesn’t seem to blame her. And, as he and Adam Hassler go out looking for Margaret, he refuses to call her hypothetical corpse a trophy.
Adam Hassler, on the other hand, is a bit hard to read. He acts like he wants to kill Margaret, but when he comes face to face with her, he lets her escape the town. And then he follows her outside of the fence. In reciprocation, Margaret keeps the gathered Abbies from harming him. What he’s going to do outside the fence, though, I have no idea.
But lest we think that Theo is a paragon of goodness and reason, we see him embroiled in this continued love triangle between him, Rebecca and Xander. Theo confronts Xander about arming civilians — and I don’t actually disagree with his point here — and the two have a testosterone-fueled confrontation before Theo storms off.
Oh, and because this plotline wasn’t tired enough, it turns out Rebecca is pregnant with Xander’s child — meaning they’ve slept together recently. Oy.
Moreover, we see Rebecca’s pregnancy contrasted with the revelation that Kerry is unable to have children; being attacked earlier in the season led to scar tissue that keeps her from carrying a pregnancy to term. And Kerry is nearly broken by this because she feels her duty to Wayward Pines is to have children to keep the human race alive.
She has a confrontation with Rebecca, who tells her not to let the man she cares for define her. And that would be a great message if several of the stories this season, such as Theresa’s, didn’t define women by their connections to men.
On a more macro level as well, Kerry’s struggle is one that shows the mindset of Wayward Pines is toxic. It is destroying its citizens — the ones they are aiming to help survive and prosper. When procreation becomes our most important purpose, we’re no more than animals. We’ve lost that which makes us human.
With the humans, in their ways, acting as monsters, they are contrasted to Margaret. We see Margaret stalking through the streets, but she doesn’t kill everyone she sees. She leaves children alone. She doesn’t attack Rebecca when she realizes Rebecca is pregnant. She protects Hassler after he let her escape. She kills a man, but he is one of the soldiers who was trying to kill her.
Margaret, in acting this way, ironically seems the most human of all. And I’m more and more convinced that the series needs to end with the destruction of humanity.