The Passage
“I Want to Know What You Taste Like” (Episode 106)
February 18, 2019

Last week’s The Passage ended with serial murderer, David Winston, breaking free from Dr. Pet’s Viral control experiment and Amy saving Brad’s life by harnessing a new found sonic scream that essentially immobilized Winston. It was an episode packed with a ton of action and information, catch up on the entire episode with recap here.

Now, on to tonight’s all new The Passage … BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!!

We pick up tonight’s episode right after the end of last week. Brad and Amy (who is still out cold) are trapped in an elevator.  As Amy starts to wake, Richards calls out to them and say he can get them free. Brad turns to Amy and tells her that the scream she did? Awesome sauce but she can’t tell any of the Project NOAH people what she can do.

“The mind reading or the crazy scream, none of it. I don’t trust these people.”

In response, Amy tells him she just wants her book back (you’ll recall that Amy left her copy of A Wrinkle in Time in the blood cooler last week). Brad forgets sometimes that Amy is a 10 year-old kid and not a spec ops buddy. That book is her only remaining tangible memory of her mother.

Clark and his Goon Squad free them from the elevator and Richards informs Wolgast that Winston is still on the loose. He orders them taken to a safe room.

Up in Dr. Lear’s room, he and Elizabeth continue their reunion. Even though sirens are still blaring like crazy throughout the compound, you can’t really hear them in here. But Jonas knows that Winston is on the loose so, he’s being VERY calm. Elizabeth asks what happened to her and Jonas gives a simple reply of, “you were sick.” They hug and exchange “I missed you’s.”

Level 4B. Sykes, with Guilder hot on her heels, enters 4B and has a sad over the dead Dr. Pet. Guilder is all, “gross, what a mess” which causes Nichole to wheel around and scold him. She blames Horace for everything that’s happened, she told them the Virals were dangerous and that they didn’t understand them.  Guilder disagrees. From his POV, tonight’s events are the first real proof that they are actually doing something useful “on this The Island of Dr. Moreau.”

Goddamn it, if Guilder isn’t growing on me just a bit.

Major Sykes is incredulous at how flippant Guilder is being over the death around them but he’s totes ready to call her on her bullshit.

“This hypocritical line in the sand you’ve suddenly drawn? Please, you’ve been experimenting on humans for three years. And if Winston eats half of Colorado? The tab for that meal will be picked up by you and Dr. Lear.”

Guilder leaves her there with her hypocritical outrage and that’s when she makes MAJOR eye contact with Shauna, still in her cage.

Flashback Time!! Six months ago at Project NOAH, Shauna hadn’t yet turned full Viral and was still rocking a normal bedroom (like where Amy is now).  She gets a check up from Nichole and complains to the good doctor that she’s super bored with life in Telluride. She asks for Dr. Sykes to bring her a horror movie to watch and some pizza would be great too. She tries to learn a bit more about Sykes but the Major deflects by agreeing to doing a movie night.

FYI, movie nights are the best!

Nichole is roused from her memory by a lackey who tells her she has to head upstairs. Sykes leaves … but not before getting some good eye fucking from Shauna.

In the war room, Richards and Guilder are gnashing their teeth about Winston being off of the compound property and what a disaster it’ll be if he makes it to a populated area.  Amy is there with Brad and she starts having flashes, visions through Winston’s eyes.  She speaks out loud that she thinks she is seeing what Winston is seeing. Brad is all, “Amy, shhhhhh” but she’s kinda super pissed at him about not looking for her book so she’s not in a listening mood.

Guilder jumps all over the proof of concept, he KNEW she had powers. He gets all excited that Amy can semi-describe Winston’s location and tells Richards they are taking her with them to locate the rogue Viral. Wolgast gets to his feet all, nope, not happening but Amy overrules him by saying she can help find Winston.

“Think about all people he might hurt.”

Brad declares that if she goes, he goes. Guilder leaves that up to Amy who gives a nonchalant shrug. Guilder is cool with it if she is but make no mistake, Amy is riding with Guilder!

Out on the highway (that Amy saw in her vision), Lila and her captor are stopped by a car in the road. The soldier (I can’t tell if it’s Agent Phil from the Pilot or not) gets out to investigate and finds the driver of the car dead, his necked all chomped on.  Winston jumps the solider from behind and chows down on the Soldier too! Lila, seeing how this is going to end, gets out of the car and runs off into the woods.

Run Lila, Run!!!

Title Card and Commercials.

We come back from break and Brad, Amy, and the Project NOAH Goon Squad roll up on the now two deserted cars. As they approach the scene, Brad lays out a massive list of rules for Amy to follow, most of which revolve around her staying by Brad’s side and not volunteering anything to do with her powers to anyone other than Brad. He IMMEDIATELY contradicts the first rule by telling her to stay back as he goes to look at the dead bodies.

SMH at you Brad. Shaking My Damn Head. Amy is too; she calls him on his bullshit. Brad snips back at her to just listen to him and she’s like, I AM listening to you!

Brad investigates the second car and finds Lila’s ID. He confronts Richards about bringing Lila to the compound. When Clark refers to her as a “liability,” Brad punches him in his fool mouth.

“How much damage are you gonna be responsible for?”

Brad goes on to start another, “if anything happens …” threat but Richards cuts him off by saying he’s got it, Brad will murder him. It’s the Clark Richards version of “yada, yada, yada.” As they squabble, Amy has a flash and speaks up again to the group.  Brad scolds and she’s all *shrug.*

The group heads off into the woods to follow Amy’s visions. Amy takes off running into the woods. Between her and Brad, they broke ALL of his rules within a 2 minute span. Impressive.  B T Dubs, Amy’s speed is not lost on Guilder.

Project NOAH. Elizabeth and Jonas lay in bed, sexy times style. They talk about what it was like inside her head when she was sick. When she mentions that Tim eventually came to her, Jonas is VERY interested in what his bestie had to say. Elizabeth replies that Tim told her that he’d save her. Elizabeth isn’t a dummy and knows that NO ONE comes back from Alzheimer’s so what is that Jonas needs to tell her that he hasn’t yet? He begins with, “remember the Bolivia expedition?” …

Back into the woods, and Amy still running all out like she’s in the Olympics! When she stops to get her bearings, Brad catches up to her and yells at her for not listening to him. He reminds her of the damage Winston did to the dead guys back by the cars (she doesn’t know because Brad wouldn’t let her see) and he’s all, for fuck’s sake, just do what I say, dammit!

As any Dad does from time to time with their child. But Amy has had enough of taking orders …

“Why? You’re not my dad. You’re just some guy that tried to kidnap me.”

Ouch, you know that one hurt Brad deep in the feels. Guilder interrupts them and earns more points in my book for his well timed humor …

“I had to interrupt this daddy-daughter-agent-foster kid teaching moment but we got to keep going.”

With Guilder’s prodding, Amy gets back on the path of locating Winston.

Project NOAH. Jonas has clearly gotten through the hard parts of The Passage by the time we come back to him and Elizabeth. How can I tell? Because they are both fully dressed and on opposite sides of the room.  Elizabeth thinks she’s stuck in some elaborate prank, wherein the punchline is she becomes a blood sucking immortal in 48 hours. When Jonas doesn’t say, “gotcha!”, Elizabeth continues to process all she’s heard. Ending with the fact that Tim Fanning isn’t really dead though she went to his funeral and Jonas is involved in work that has put a little girl in harm’s way.

Jonas justifies himself by saying that every step felt like the last step, like they were always just, almost there. Elizabeth definitely agrees that it feels like the end now …

Cut to Lear filling Sykes in on Grey injecting Elizabeth with the virus.  Jonas quickly gets passed the part where Grey is being controlled by Sykes (Nichole, girlfriend, get with the picture on the mind control already). Nichole tells Jonas that when Amy screamed at Winston, Fanning’s EM power flat-lined; ergo, Amy is more powerful than Fanning. They brainstorm that maybe if they use Amy’s blood, it’ll force out Fanning’s bad blood. If it works, it may keep Elizabeth from turning and keep the Alzheimer’s at bay.  Worth a shot.

Out in the woods, we come to the cabin Amy saw in her vision and we see Winston making a meal of a woman (Francine Locke).  His mind is pulled back to The Cells for a pow wow with Fanning. Tim berates David for fucking up his plan, Carter was 12, they were so close and now, the “sadistic hillbilly” has ruined everything. Winston defends himself saying that Tim was right, they are the top of the food chain – why should Winston have to live another second in captivity?

“It’s good to be the king.”

Fanning gives Winston some real talk, Amy is leading the Goon Squad right for Winston and so, Winston needs to find a way to kill her before she can find him. Winston has a confused, why would they kill Amy – isn’t she part of the “family”? Tim sets his minion straight and says that he doesn’t know what Amy is but she’s certainly not on #TeamFanning so figure it out!

Y’all. Tim is SCARED of Amy and her power. If he wasn’t, he’d be intrigued to study her and her potential. But he knows, he KNOWS, what she’s capable of doing, especially after that scream took his power off line last week.

Back in his Viral body, Winston knocks off his feast early and heads out to find Amy. His victim is left all twitching on the floor.

Commercials.

Flashback Time! We come back from break to Project NOAH, six months ago. Nichole comes in with a copy of The Fly AND pizza! Shauna is so excited! Nichole goes to leave but Shauna asks her to stay. She’d like the company and besides, she makes the argument that Nichole has to be almost as bored as she is in this place. Despite saying she doesn’t like horror movies, Nichole agrees to stay for 10 minutes. Shauna Babcock … she’s a charmer!

Sometime later, the movies has finished, the pizza’s been eaten and Sykes stayed for the whole thing. Shauna asks Nichole what she thought of the movie?

“I am filled with dread and nausea. I wish I could unsee that, so thanks, Shauna.”

As the ladies sit on the bed, Shauna notices that Nichole has a semicolon tattoo on her arm.  Sykes puts up a defensive wall but it comes down just as fast when Shauna shows Nichole her matching tattoo.  They share their suicide attempts and tell the other that they’re glad the suicide wasn’t successful. Shauna asks Nichole for another favor, as “botched suicide sisters” in arms. But, we’ll have to wait to see what that favor was.

Back in the present, Nichole comes out of her memory and refocuses on the blood sequencing she’s working on.

Lila arrives at the cabin in the woods. She finds the near dead lady (whose name is Margo) twitching on the floor and goes into Doctor Lila mode, trying to save Margo’s life.  “Just stay with me,” she tells Margo.

Project NOAH. Jonas comes to Nichole to check on her progress. She tells him that she’s about to mix the blood and hopefully, Amy’s blood kicks the crap out of Fanning’s. Jonas also learns about the two dead so far in the search for Winston.  Sensing the stress levels pouring off of Dr. Lear, Sykes asks after Elizabeth. Jonas tells Nichole that Liz is hella pissed, imagine coming out of Alzheimer’s only to find out that this is a reprieve before “something so much worse.” He blames himself for all they’ve done but, to her credit, Nichole say they both did it together – she’s been here from the beginning, she reminds him.

Jonas begins to spiral, wondering aloud how Guilder and the DOD can ignore the dangers going on and Nichole is all, “dude, chill the fuck out.” (this is a paraphrase but the implication was the same). Nichole sends Jonas back to Elizabeth so she can finish her experiment in peace.

Flashback Time! We’re still six months ago at Project NOAH but this time, Nichole has gone to see Clark. She asks him for clearance to leave the property so she can go to the movies. Clark raises his eyebrows high but is all, “you’re the boss around here so you don’t need my permission.” When he refers to her as Major Sykes, she corrects him that after two years, he can probably call her Nichole.  He agrees but only if she’ll call him Clark. They meet cute and all that.

Clark asks what movie she’s going to see and has a little tizzy when she hears that Nichole is going to A Quiet Place so she can report back to Shauna all about the movie. Nichole agrees that getting close to Shauna is a horrible idea any yet, “it’s what’s happening” so … Before she can leave, Clark invites himself along to the movie, as moral support as it’s a scary movie.

At the cabin in the woods, Margo is looking decidedly undead. She’s sitting up and tells Lila she feels amazing. Lila has a confused over the amount of blood loss and the fact that Margo’s wounds have healed. With a dawning realization of what’s going on here, Lila starts to back away from Margo but Margo’s hunger has kicked in. She goes to attack Lila but Clark and the Goon Squad come in guns blazing Just.In.Time! Bullets aren’t enough to bring Margo down so Richards has her dosed with sunlight. RIP Margo, you were a short lived child of Winston.

Commercials.

We come back to Brad, Lila, Amy and the Goon Squad outside the cabin. Brad has put it together that Virals can make Baby Virals by biting them – same as how Fanning was created down in Bolivia, Richards adds. Lila is all righteous in her anger at Clark and his apparent loss of all moral direction. His impotent response is that Lila shouldn’t even be there.

While they bicker, Amy gets some flashes of a meter and pipes and dripping water. While Brad makes major dad face, Guilder is all over her visions.

“This is So.Damn.Wonderful. You are a marvel.”

Clark deciphers what she’s calling “clocks” as a water meter and says that there is a pumping station not too far away. Alright-y roo, Guilder says, let’s go check it out.

Project NOAH. In Dr. Lear’s bedroom, Elizabeth is paid a mindscape visit by Fanning.  Elizabeth has the sense to ask if she’s really there or somewhere else. Fanning is all, “good question but, it doesn’t really matter.” He wants to see how she is doing. Liz is testy given what she learned from Jonas but Tim is more glass half full about the whole thing. He tells Elizabeth that everything they’ve done, Bolivia, Project NOAH, the tests on 4B … it was ALL to save Elizabeth and they did it. “I did it,” Fanning clarifies.

Elizabeth is having a confused because the feel goods are only temporary, she says. Not true Mon Chéri, Tim says. He’s feeling great and powerful. And very optimistic about the future. Liz thinks he means optimistic about Jonas finding a cure but Tim corrects her.

“No, Lizzy, the virus was the cure.”

Elizabeth is suddenly wary of Fanning and he picks up on it. He asks Elizabeth what Jonas said about the 4B Fam. Liz tells Tim that Jonas called them all monsters.  Fanning gets all worked as he spouts about how the doctors that conduct experiments on people are the real monsters.

“The Monsters are Jonas and Sykes. We are not the monsters.”

Tim finishes his monologue by saying that Elizabeth has joined the ranks of the “lucky ones” because, believe it or not, she’s been invited to join a selective club which has a “spectacular future” and not everyone gets an invite. With that, Fanning disappears and Elizabeth is back in the real world of the empty bedroom.

Out in the woods, Lila is trying to import to Brad the seriousness of the Viral transmission capabilities. One Viral can infect an infinite number of people with only one bite.

“I know, it’s bad.”
“Brad, it’s catastrophic.”

Brad is really only concerned about Amy, not so much the world. He tells Lila about the symptoms she’s exhibiting. He tops off the list of Amy’s issues with the fact that she’s not listening to him and Lila remarks that that’s on puberty, not the virus. Brad refers to puberty as being equally catastrophic. Brad and Lila share a moment about how they never got this far with their daughter (age wise) and he apologizes to Lila for getting her entangled in this whole thing.

At the pumping station, Clark tells Guilder that they don’t have time to wait for his team. Amy confirms that Winston is in there and Clark is all, we’ve got to move in now.

Brad tells Amy she’s staying outside because he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to her. She rattles off a list of bad things that have already happened, including him kidnapping her, being injected with the virus and she wants her Goddamn book back, GAH!!!  Lila plays referee and volunteers her and Amy to stay outside as lookout. Amy is mollified by this plan. The men head inside.  As they go, Brad tells Guilder that Amy is “too smart to fall for your act” but Guilder isn’t so sure.

“I dunno. We seem to be getting along pretty good.”

The look on Brad’s face tells us that he’s worried about exactly that!

Commercials.

Flashback Time!  Project NOAH, six months ago. Shauna is peppering Nichole with questions about A Quiet Place but Nichole is pretty feeble with her answers. Babcock moves on to deeper things, asking Sykes why she joined the military and chose to work on an isolated mountaintop?!?  Sykes is honest and tells Shauna that she joined up because surviving represented a second chance and she wanted to do something important. Shauna has her own version of life after suicide attempt.

“There was a time I wanted to die. But now all I want to do is live. Which is why I took this sketchy deal.”

This is Babcock’s way of trying to get more info from Nichole about all the people that may have come before her at Project NOAH. Nichole non-answers by telling Shauna that she’s reacting very well to the treatment and that whatever happens, Sykes will be with her “every step of the way.”

The Pumping Station. Brad, Richards and the Goon Squad enter the dark pumping station and find a Viral and quickly put it down with a hail of bullets. Unfortunately, that’s not Winston. Ooopsies!

Project NOAH. Dr. Sykes is watching the blood battles on her screen and gets frustrated when something happens she doesn’t like. Presumably, Fanning’s blood resists or bests Amy’s but no time for that now, Shauna is here. This is Nichole’s first mindscape conversation!

Shauna taunts Nichole about her plan not working and then moves on to lodging complaints about Nichole abandoning her once she turned, despite her promises to be there every step of the way. Nichole tries to defend herself that once Shauna turned,the brain scans indicated she “was gone.” Shauna isn’t hearing any of that and tells Nichole that she’s had a lot time to contemplate their doctor-patient relationships and Shauna has decided that Dr. Nichole Sykes is “a bad person.”

“You’re the worst kind of bad person because you think you’re good.”

At this, Nichole gets up and gets in Shauna’s face, she tells Shauna that she knew what she was getting herself into.  Also, knock off whatever you’re doing with Clark Richards.

“I’m not doing anything to him that he doesn’t want done. You’re not gonna find a cure by the way. You’re not gonna save me. You’re not gonna save Elizabeth and you’re not gonna save Amy.”

Nichole, who is being driven backwards by an advancing Shauna Babcock responds to this and tells Shauna to leave Amy alone. Nopers, says Shauna.

“Stop trying. Stop lying. Stop pretending like you’re gonna get out of this alive.None of you are getting out of this alive.”

Shauna is right up in Nichole’s face now as Nichole asks Shauna what she wants.  “I Want everything you have,” Shauna responds before listing those things out.

“And when I have it all in hand, I want to know what you taste like.”

That was so fucking intense and also, so sexually charged. A lot of emotions going on between these two; the doctor patient line is blurred all to Hell.

Jonas is there as Nichole comes out of the mindscape. She tells Jonas that Fanning’s blood beats Amy’s in every simulation. Jonas relates Tim’s conversation with Elizabeth, focusing on the part about how the Virals are the cure for humanity.  Nichole adds her two cents from the convo with Shauna and tells Jonas that the Virals are going to kill them all. Jonas has a plan for dealing with Fanning and all the Virals.

“Fanning was my best friend. I’m gonna kill him anyway. I’m gonna kill them all. You in?”

The Pumping Station. The search for Winston continues. Brad and Richards spot two more Virals but neither is Winston … he’s made his way outside and, despite the sunlight, is making a snack of one of the Project NOAH guards. Lila and Amy run for cover and Lila tries raising Brad on the Walkie Talkie to let him know about Winston. With Clark’s help, Brad frees himself from some Virals and makes a beeline for outside.

Outside, Winston, whose face is getting all melty from the sun, spies Amy. She senses that she’s his target and tells Lila that she bets she’s faster than him. She takes off running and Winston gives Chase. She runs into a large garage but Winston finds her and begins to choke her. She’s able to break free and lucks out when Brad throws open a garage bay door, stunning Winston with the sunlight. Combined with a bunch of bullets from Brad’s handgun and Winston is dead dead dead.

In an important Show Lore Reveal, all the Virals that Winston created die immediately after he does; it’s a nice tie into the hive mind mentality that these Virals share. Also, it provides an endgame for Fanning and the Virals.

Commercials.

We come back from break and Amy is standing outside, sobbing her eyes out. As you’d expect given what she just went through.  Brad comes up behind her and tells her that he’s going to find her book. He tells her that he appreciates she’s missing her mom and tells her they can talk about her whenever she needs to. Also, Brad shares that he lost his daughter and goes on to say he doesn’t want to lose Amy.  She apologizes for being a jerk and he apologizes for not listening. He revisits a theme from last week’s episode about being Amy’s family.

“Everyone needs someone in their corner. And that’s what I am. Okay? I’m on your side. No matter what.”

I’m not crying, you’re crying!  SHUT UP!!!

Clark checks on them and Brad confirms they’re mostly okay. He tells Brad to go back to NOAH for now, but he agrees, they need to get Amy out and shut the whole thing down.

Clark Richards has seen the light!

Guilder comes up and takes Amy with him, he tells Wolgast he’s riding in the next car with Lila. Guilder’s truck pulls away.  As Lila is escorted into the waiting car, one of the Goon Squad members knocks Brad out cold.

Project NOAH. Down in The Cells, Nichole and Jonas stand in front of Fanning’s cage. She does a last check that he’s good with what he’s about to do, consequences and all.  He’s sure. They spot the Goon Squad returning so Nichole leaves to stall them and buy Jonas more time. He activates the sunlight death beam and Fanning and the Virals all begin to scream as their faces melt.

Outside, Amy and Clark ask after the other car and Brad but Guilder is all, they’ll be along. Amy doubles over in pain. In Lear’s bedroom, Elizabeth also doubles over. Outside, when Nichole learns about what happened with Winston and his Baby Virals, she realizes why Amy is in so much pain and takes off for The Cells. Clark follows.

The Cells. Jonas ramps up the juice to full power and Fanning is frying and screaming a horrible scream. Clark and Nichole arrive, shouting for him to turn off the sunlight.

“Amy’s linked to him. If you kill Fanning, Amy dies. Elizabeth, too.”

Jonas turns off the light and we see Fanning, eyes aglow, vibe is all rage, and his face half melted off.  Tim and Jonas stare at each other intensely.  We cit to the hallway where Nichole bends over and picks up the tennis ball that Shauna has been playing with all episode.

“It’s kinda funny you don’t like horror movies, since you’re living in one. See you soon.”

And scene.

***

Thoughts.

A lot of good relationship reveals and developments tonight.  The entire backstory between Shauna and Nichole really helped to fill in blank spots as to Babcock’s motivations with Clark as well as give more context to both Nichole’s unease with Project NOAH and sources of fuel for Shauna’s determined commitment to seeing the Virals rise at the expense of the humans. The interesting thing is that at the end of the day, Shauna is hurt and feeling abandoned by Nichole once she became a Viral and what is a more human emotion than feeling hurt and alone?!? Like Fanning’s continued love/infatuation with Elizabeth, maybe the Virals aren’t so far from Humans as they’d like to think … they certainly seem to share a lot of the emotional complexities.

Another important relationship under the microscope was Brad and Amy. Since the end of the first episode, these two have been in total lock step with each other, a shared unity and single mindedness on the goal – escape Project NOAH. But tonight, fueled by the onset of her adolescent Viral powers and the loss of her book, the last physical connection  to her mother, Amy pulled away from Brad. And Brad, being a protector, warrior-wise and father -wise, responds by lashing out at her to fall in line with the program.

Brad is a classic dad in this episode, listen to all my rules, even though they contradict each other, and don’t ask questions. Do as you’re told, no matter what. That only works for so long, my man. Kids eventually become mini-adults and blindly following orders grows old real fast.  Add supernatural powers to this natural child development of testing boundaries and Oh Man, I think Brad got off lucky with what Amy pulled tonight. A really bad kid could have made this entire experience so much more dangerous for everyone involved.

Moving on from the characters tonight, I’m excited that we got that big dose of show mythology at the end; that Virals live and die by their creators continued life. It’s not just in personality hold that Fanning controls his Viral Family, his continued life is literally needed if any of his Baby Virals want to keep living too.  It’s going to be interesting to see what fall out comes from Lear’s aborted attempt at murdering Fanning?!? As between Tim and Jonas, Elizabeth and Jonas, Tim and Elizabeth and Guilder and Jonas and Sykes.  Lots of things are going to happen, probably very little of them good.

And last, where is Brad and Lila? Are they in mortal danger (Spoilers: Brad dies pretty early on in  the book the show is based on) or just delayed in returning? Will Clark step up (with Nichole’s help) to keep Amy safe now that he’s seemingly seen the light?

So.Many.Questions! I cannot wait for the answers. Thank you for reading and join me next week on Twitter (@popcultureview) to Live Tweet the episode! It’s a great time with the cast and creatives and the show’s growing fandom!