Wayward Pines season 2, episode 9, “Walcott Prep,” revealed a shocking twist in Jason and Kerry’s relationship.
The penultimate episode of Wayward Pines season 2 would have thrilled Sigmund Freud, the psychologist who originated the Oedipus Complex — according to which young boys unconsciously desire to have sex with their mothers. In this story, Jason becomes the Oedipus figure — which, upon further exploration, is eerily appropriate, even without him sleeping with his mother.
(Yes, Kerry is Jason’s mother. She gave birth to him and Pilcher told her the child was adopted by a family in Texas. Pilcher then recruited Kerry to his ark. Unknown to her, her child was Jason. He was raised to become the next leader of Wayward Pines and eventually Jason chose Kerry as his partner without knowing she gave birth to him 2,000 years earlier.)
In Greek mythology, Oedipus was a tragic hero who was prophesied to kill his father, Laius. His father’s attempt to thwart this by sending him into the wilderness to die as an infant led to the unfortunate events in which an adult Oedipus, who was rescued and raised by the king and queen of another land, killed Laius and married his mother, Jocasta. They had four children before Oedipus learned the truth and blinded himself.
Jason, like Oedipus, is haunted by parental issues. Oedipus was unaware of the prophecy, but it shaped his life from infancy. Similarly, Jason’s path is shaped by the way Pilcher and Pam raised him. Both, after coming to power through apparent heroic actions (though both are questionable, with Oedipus killing Laius and Jason murdering “rebels”) become partners with their mothers, though neither know it.
And when both discover the truth, they meet tragic fates. Oedipus blinds himself while Jason, in a struggle with Kerry, is shot.
Despite the similarities, though, I find myself with far less sympathy for Jason than Oedipus. Many of Oedipus’ actions were ignorant of the truth while Jason was in the know all along (except for Kerry being his mother, obvs). But he was raised by Pilcher, the man he considered his father, and his obsession with the man led to his many abhorrent actions, such as executing Harold in cold blood in season 1. Oedipus, on the other hand, was unaware the shadow his father cast on him for most of his life.
Was Jason thrust into power before he was ready? Yes. But what he did with the power was, at times, sickening. When thinking about whether he deserves forgiveness, I have a hard time getting the image of him strangling Pam to death out of my mind.
If Jason dies from the gunshot wound he suffered at the end of the episode, I won’t shed any tears. The true tragic hero is, in fact, Kerry. And that’s a twist I can get behind; I’ve never connected to Jason. The show has tried to put certain male figures at the forefront — Jason, Theo, Hassler — but it’s really the women at the center of season 2. We have Kerry, Rebecca and even Margaret. They are the ones to make things happen.
Kerry reveals in the flashback that she was abused by male family members and tells Pilcher that we carry the past with us, and that cannot be changed. Though Pilcher promised Kerry a new life moving forward, it turns out that the past indeed came back to haunt her, in the form of her son.
The fact that she immediately fought back when she recognized what was happening proved she is no damsel; Kerry will fight to survive — for the future — and I hope that will serve her well in the finale as the town tries to avert human extinction at the hands of the Abbies.
This soap opera takes place against a backdrop of Jason declaring the town will go back to sleep to try to outlast the Abbies, who are preparing to attack as Margaret recovers. However, when CJ runs tests, he discovers only 571 people can be saved. In other words, only about half the town can be saved.
Theo has started to hatch a plot to take control of Wayward Pines from Jason (though Jason being shot seems to make that plot unnecessary), and he pits Kerry and Jason against each other — which likely contributed to the quick escalation of the conflict between the two.
Overall, as shocking as the Oedipal reveal was, the episode as a whole felt like a diversion — and one that the season didn’t have room to take. So many aspects of the story have needed more development this season, and this twist felt like something that was done more for shock value than actual narrative purpose.
And that issue falls into a pattern Wayward Pines season 2 has suffered from since the beginning: focusing narrative energy in strange places while underdeveloping or cutting short other stories that could have some juice, particularly with season 1 characters.