By Sara Ashton
THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS.
The episode begins as we learn Nicole has been ‘AWOL’ all weekend (Simon’s words) as she tries to finish her application because of ‘STRESS’ (Nicole’s words) but it only makes the audience more sceptical of the teen and the possibilities of her having something to do with what happened to Maddie.
Simon replies with a very cold “we’re all a little distracted” and the tension between these two is very evident. Simon wants to accuse her of something, but he doesn’t.
Nicole is defensive though he doesn’t actually accuse her. He explains that he doesn’t believe it was Mr South. And honestly, we’re with Simon on this one! Things only get weirder when we see Nicole has taken loads of photos of Maddie to use for what appears to be her portfolio, but she later burns these photos when Simon makes a comment alluding to this as being something that is weird.
Meanwhile, the dead club are back and are witnessing a mock trial in the school. None of them really seem bothered about it and this seems to bother Mr Martin. He acts in a controlling manner towards these dead individuals, and sometimes it’s a little uncomfortable in the land of the dead.
Wally remains supportive of Maddie as he wants to help discover what happened to her.
We also see that Maddie’s mom, Sandra has fallen back into her alcoholism which is sad to see but it portrays this cycle of grief and emotion that she is experiencing.
Maddie is trying to find a trigger to help her remember what exactly happened to her. The dead club help her and pitch ideas involving music and food (none of this helps, but at least the thought was there – right?) – scenes particularly involving Milo Manheim and Sarah Yarkin are comical. Their characters couldn’t be more different but they are funny in their own ways.
This then results in the suggestion of an ‘anti-seance’ to help Maddie truly discover what happened to her… Sounds dodgy, right?
Simon has a college interview, and practically messes it up on purpose as he doesn’t want to even go to college without Maddie as it was their dream. When Maddie later asks Simon about this he unravels in an emotional scene. Kristian Flores who takes on the role of Simon does a great job in harnessing the words from the script and making them very impactful for the viewer. Peyton List plays off this and their chemistry is undeniable as she replies with a heart wrenching one liner: “you can’t stop living because I’m not.”
This episode also sees a team up from Xavier and Simon as they want to clear Mr South’s name. Claire gets involved in helping them do this. They discover it was not Maddie’s footprints found in the forest, Simon believes it to be Nicole’s doing. Simon is one of the smartest characters in the show, there is no doubt.
Again, all fingers are pointed in Nicole’s direction. Kiara Pichardo does a marvellous job in conveying a sense of urgency and desperation from Nicole. It pours through the screen any time when Nicole is present. A mixture of emotions compile as there is one question: Is Nicole grieving or is she resentful for something?
Maddie’s mom and Mr South have an unpleasant encounter outside of a gas station and in dead club Mr Martin almost seems to lose his cool with Rhonda when she tells him what they’d been helping Maddie with. He says he longs to keep Maddie ‘balanced.’
We are subjected to Dawn’s unfortunate death and her story as she opens up to the other spirits. It is an emotional, dark exchange between these spirits as their expressions speak louder than words. Dawn later passes on, and the spirits admit that never happened last time when Janet passed on. So what exactly happened? How wasn’t it the same experience?
Nicole then admits she recorded the video of Claire and Mr Anderson in order to blackmail the teacher for money. This was something we saw coming, as she previously mentioned money in earlier episodes. But it was satisfying to know she claimed to have nothing to do with what happened to Maddie.
Claire comes out of her shell in this episode as she stands up for Xavier when Sheriff Baxter (his father) enters a store he’s in and calls him names. She’s quick to stand up for him and shows maybe she’s not all that bad after all when she does so.
The episode concludes as Simon and Nicole go to find the money she’d buried, but it’s no longer there. There is a mysterious, hooded figure in the woods with them and at the very end Maddie begins to have flashbacks to the day she died. And she blames her mom for what happened to her…
Cliffhangers are a staple on this show and the mystery is slowly unravelling. The drama is constant and the mystery seems to be permanent. Let’s wait and see what the final episode has in store!
Cobra Kai Kompanion 