From - US Pace - Epix (***Spoilers***)

Wow yeah, I had to look it up. There's a thread on reddit with the S1-S3 timeline and it's barely 4 weeks. That's quite the beard Jade has grown. It makes sense with Sara's comment about the deaths happening a lot more lately. Up until the arrival of Jade and Tabitha, they were in a stalemate with the talismans. Their arrival triggered changes… Sara presumably had her first encounter with the "voices" that told her to kill Ethan. So he's clearly a threat… possibly tied to him finding this lake of tears. That also essentially kicked off all the events since, with a building focus on Jade and Tabitha. I wonder will Boyd be the difference in this cycle. Will he keep the town together where it fell apart in the past.

Have to say I'm struggling with Season 4. Don't really care much for any of the characters. So many scenes are repetitive and/or pointless, lost count how many times Boyd has said he can't handle it. Only the fact there is an end in sight with season 5 will keep me going in the hope there is some pay off

Fatima building the Golem reminded me at first of Close Encounters then when people were asking what she was doing she reminded me of Bart digging.

Great episode, really starting to move now.

Scene where The Man in Yellow meets Julie for the first time via story-walking was so good, he was so genuinely surprised to see her - seems no-one has ever story-walked before.

Sophia/Man in Yellow re-establishing control over Sara so easily…..hasn't she been tortured enough!

I was thinking the 2 with them were just red shirts.

I wonder if they knew they were finishing up next season when they were making this and will they start to wrap things up.

That waa a slow enough episode but yes at least the dolls happened.

So Does Tabhita now Know

That is the big quiestion and at least Jade has

Watched the last two episodes back to back. Really nice progression of the story. I agree with Homelander above on the pattern of the monsters/evil that manifests. The nurse one (that was tortured) said it clearest, there's an ancient evil (MIY) there that is feeding off their suffering. It's all for him, using whatever will push people's buttons to achieve it. So for that man, the dolls creeped him about and they came back as murder dolls. Speaking of which, I thought the dolls were great. Went down a bit easy but the buildup with them being found in the lake, having to spend the night there, and that first kill… it was some good stuff.

With more of the history of the place coming into focus, I wonder will we get more insight into the smile monsters. We already know they sacrificed their kids to be immortal. I wonder if someone is selected each cycle to make that choice… Jade said Tabhita's fate was worse. Will she be given some impossible choice where Nathan would die and she becomes a smile monster. The whole mushroom trip was so good in terms of giving us more insights. That plus Tabhita finally remembering bits and pieces. The two of them are well and truly f'd now though. The red shirt that survived but was burned in the fire will be shouting from the roof tops about what Tabhita was rambling about them being "her" dolls. The cat is out of the bag there, and the MIY is already seeding the idea of the arrival of Jade and Tabhita started the killing spree.

On the storywalking, not sure where that goes given the bookmark plan didn't work. Seemed like a lot of nothing in the end with that plan but I assume she does figure it out… just odd that all the time spent figuring out the bookmarks wasn't it. Really hoping she has a conversation with Victor soon. She can verify his story and visa versa. So far this season has been good at the more open talking to each other but this feels like they won't connect those two dots for ages.

Ive a feeling this week will be a quiet enough episode (dealing with the end of the previous episode) and last two episodes will be mental

Good episode. They are getting the balance better this season between keeping things progressing without blowing the entire mystery. I was expecting a bit of a filler episode but that was good. Victor continuing to the be MVP… he really went through it as a kid. I hope the Dad manages to get himself set right again because that story is heading one way and it's just going to heap more misery on Victor.

I was soooo glad to hear Boyd call out the insane risk that the tree isn't pulled up. It's the type of thing that would easily just be ignored by the writers but they have Boyd on the ball this season. That said I fully expect the finale to hit some new unexpected reason why they can't pull the tree up… or they pull it up and there's something else entirely there. Nice touch to include bringing a talisman down to close off the chamber once they are in. Fatima will obviously play a role in the success of the mission. I wonder how much control she will be able to exert. Also big hints she is turning into one of them but likely a red herring.

On the MIY, much more hints now about the connection between him and the cycle the place is in. The looks over at Ethan for a start, but the meeting with Tabhita really spelling it out. It's odd he describes it as a fond relationship and that he's intrigued by their new plan. Is he just toying with her or is there more to him than just being evil. It kinda sounded like he was daring them to succeed.

The finale for this season is movie-length so really looking forward to that and some proper huge developments to set up the final season.

Elgin's big moment in E9, after everything he's recently been through, is hands down the stupidest scene in the entire four seasons.

Yeah, not sure that is what was happening to her but whatever the MIY did in this episode with the blood may be what now does turn her into something else (or just accelerates the process). I reckon the Golum will come in to play though and protect her, throwing a spanner in the works for the MIY.

Elgin being the dumbest character in the town again showing the MIY the photo. In a place where monsters are real and strange things (usually bad) happen, don't go to the person IN the photo with questions. Go to Boyd.

On the other end of things, glad to see Tabhita recognize that the way things are done matters. The show is doing a good job of showing that the MIY has to stay on his toes as this group is doing a good job (sort of) and he's having to react a lot to what they are doing. I assume they do dig up the tree given that they made a point of showing us the she cut the ladder so it will snap. Hard to say who will suffer from that. Might be Jade if they want to follow through with a kill (he even said himself "no one tried to talk me out of going") and a final self-sacrifice moment for him. It'd be a good closure on his character from where he began.

One thing I found annoying was the dismissal of Victor's message from the BIW. They believe Jade's mushroom trip but question the existence of the BIW. And it's coming from Victor, who lived his whole life there. Only up to about an hour earlier Boyd was dead set against the plan due to risks and not knowing what could happen. So here's Victor saying it's vital they don't pull up the Bottle Tree and it's being ignored. My prediction. They do pull it up, they save Tabhita, Jade dies, and the season ends in one of two ways… 1. some fresh new hell is unleashed due to pulling up the tree, 2. LOST final season style switch up where they all go home… but next season shows they're still connected to the place and it's not over.