The Wayward Pines finale, “Cycle,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
Failed experiment
With the power down around Wayward Pines, people begin panicking. Ethan calls up to the base and Pam warns him that six Abbies have already breached the perimeter. Theresa goes to the hospital to get Ben while Ethan directs the townspeople to the bunker under Plot 33.
Kate and her rebels join Ethan at the sheriff’s station to arm up. One of the rebels still has a bomb that hasn’t been set off. Ethan and Kate agree to meet in the bunker and split up. While the rebels exit, Jason taunts them. They leave the kids locked up.
Meanwhile at the hospital, a backup generator kicks in. Amy wakes up, much to Ben’s relief. Theresa arrives and gets the doctor, who says they shouldn’t move Amy since she just had major surgery. When the generator goes out, the doctor checks it. He gets to the utility room, where he’s killed by an Abby.
Pam goes to Pilcher’s office, and he hugs her. Pilcher is preparing to awaken Group C, but Pam is determined to protect Group B; her brother gone too far. She pleads for him to turn the power back on and send guards down to help the people. Pilcher, though, orders the guards to re-freeze Pam and the other workers.
To the ark
Abbies swarm the town, and people flee in panic. Kate and the rebels arrive and open fire on the Abbies, saving some, including Arlene, who they direct to the bunker.
In the hallway, Theresa sees an Abby and realizes it’s time to go. She and Ben get Amy out of bed, and the trio begins their escape attempt. An Abby finds them and Theresa fends it off until Ethan arrives and kills it.
In the mountain base, Pam tries to talk the guards down, but she’s tased before she can finish speaking. The workers are forced into their cryo-suits.
Some other students arrive at the sheriff’s station and free the locked up teens. Jason is determined to make it to the ark, as everything depends on it.
Survivors
Kate retreats into the toy store but is followed by an Abby. She hides in Harold’s workshop, but an Abby falls in through the roof. Kate kills it. Back on the street, she sees a fellow rebel being eaten. He’s still alive, though, and he points to the bomb. She grabs it and runs.
People swarm to Plot 33. Ethan brings Theresa, Ben, and Amy, and Kate arrives just as Ethan is closing the doors. Ethan then confronts Megan about the tunnels. She refuses to help, saying Pilcher will rescue them. Ethan, Kate, and even Ben point out that Pilcher obviously did this. Ben’s words apparently get to her, and she reveals that a western tunnel leads to an elevator that goes up to the mountain complex.
While preparing to move everyone, Ethan shows Ben how to use a gun, and Ben apologizes for what he said. Ethan promises that they will get through this. Megan, though, refuses to join everyone else because she believes there may be survivors among the First Generation. She promises to meet her husband there.
At the Academy, the students have gathered. There are tons of supplies — their ark.
In the tunnel, Kate keys in the code at the elevator. She and Ethan check it out and promise to call back via radio once they know it’s safe.
In the base, meanwhile, Pilcher watches Pam re-frozen.
The death of the savior
When they reach the base, Kate and Ethan take down some guards, which alerts more guards. When most of the guards leave, one orders Pam unfrozen. Ethan and Kate subdue the guards and call down to Theresa to bring people up.
Megan, meanwhile, hears banging on the bunker door. When the door comes open, Abbies come down. The Abbies quickly make it through the secure door. Most, but not all, of the survivors get on the elevator, including Amy; Theresa and Ben stay behind. Realizing this, Ethan takes the pipe bomb and goes back down. He tells Kate to find Pilcher and make him turn on the power.
Back in the tunnel, Ethan gives the remaining survivors cover to get to the elevator, and they start up, but the elevator stops partway. The Abbies are in the elevator shaft. Ben gets up on the top of the elevator and sees a ladder.
The final survivors exit the escape hatch and climb the ladder. Ethan and Theresa embrace, and Theresa climbs up. Ethan promises Ben he’ll be behind him. As the survivors make it to the top, Ethan plants the pipe bomb in the elevator. Pilcher watches and taunts Ethan over the intercom, just as Kate arrives. Pilcher tells her that his ideas will outlast him.
Pilcher suddenly drops, shot dead — by Pam. The awakened guards get the power back on.
Ben makes it up to the top and embraces Amy while Ethan waits in the elevator. Ethan thinks about his family as Abbies tear through the bottom of the elevator, and he sets the bomb off. As the explosion rings through the elevator shaft, Theresa cries while Ben looks over the edge but is knocked out by falling debris.
Kate finds Pam and says she wants to help, but first she needs the truth. Pam shows her the cryo-chambers and says she wants to make things better in the future. Because they are all that’s left.
Cycle
Ben wakes up in the hospital with Amy at his bedside. She’s dressed as a nurse; she graduated two months ago. When Ben demands to know how long he’s been asleep, she hesitantly — because they are being watched — replies it’s been three years, four months.
Ben and the adults were put back into suspension, and the First Generation took over, reverting the town to the way it was. Ben was put in suspension because the First Generation hates Ethan, who they blame for Pilcher’s death. Ben reclaims his clothes and wanders around town, much like Ethan did in the first episode, and finds Wayward Pines practically the same.
We close with a look at a statue dedicated to Pilcher and a body hanging from a pole.