La Capilla
Episode 2 of Night Sky begins with Franklin waking up in the morning to find Irene crawling over to the house. She breathes shakily, claiming there’s someone in the shed. With a hammer in hand, Franklin descends down the stairs and finds that stranger doubled over. Franklin is convinced that the guy is a junkie needing a place to hide out, Irene isn’t so sure though. It’s certainly ominous though, given the guy is covered in blood – and he doesn’t seem to have a wound either. So naturally, Franklin phones the police to come over. Officer Thomas arrives and begins looking round, making sure that everything is in order. The camera keeps to Franklin’s back, which is an interesting framing choice, showing off a blood spatter across his right shoulder (from carrying the stranger.) Just before the officer heads upstairs, Irene takes Thomas aside and claims that Franklin is seeing things and deteriorating. It seems to work and the officer leaves under the pretense that Franklin hallucinated the whole ordeal. Running parallel to this story is another featuring Stella and her daughter, Toni. The pair are out in the mountains, leading llama across the rolling hills which is a long way away from the school Toni attends. That night, Toni invites Matias to the house, but although she thinks it’s the start of a friendship, in reality he was actually dared to go there. He explains that he’s been paid 4000 pesos to go inside the “haunted house.” There are rumours that Toni’s grandfather was into cultish work and the kids wanted to see for themselves. This crushes Toni, who was under the assumption this was a date. When Stella shows up and sees them together, she shoos them out and heads down the back of this church, to reveal a similar door to the one that’s in Franklin and Irene’s shed. Could this stranger have come from here? Back with Franklin and Irene, the stranger passes out on the floor and begins shaking uncontrollably. Irene is convinced that this is similar to a virus she had in the past, and sends Franklin out to get a refill of Tamiflu. In his absence, Irene begin going through this stranger’s items, including numerous gold coins and a photo labelled “Gabriel.” With the guy coughing uncontrollably and struggling, Irene decides to concoct a special brew to make him feel better. She also decides to read from his book. Eventually the stranger does awaken, where he reveals his name is actually Jude. He’s not actually sure where he’s from but appears to be from the mountains. He also claims to have fallen and remembers being carried – although that last part is presumed to be Franklin. Speaking of which, Franklin returns with the medicine but he’s far less trusting than Irene is. Franklin barely says two words to the guy but tends to Irene when she begins to feel woozy and faint. Meanwhile, we catch up with Denise who struggles to stay awake during her lecture. Thankfully someone nearby, Cliff, is at hand to give her a cup of coffee. This allows the pair to connect – and gives us some more background on the family. Denise has taken on the burden of watching over Franklin and Irene herself, something that’s made all the harder by the fact her father killed himself when she was 5 years old. Franklin confronts Irene about the secret she’s been keeping. Namely that from Dr Mareesa. She promises to do all of what the doctor has told her but in exchange, he needs to support her while she searches for the answers to this doorway and what it means. Begrudgingly, he seems to agree. Back with Stella, she heads home to find an old friend has broken in. He asks whether she’s training Toni. It’s unclear exactly who this guy is, but it could well be linked to the doorway. That night, after Franklin warns Jude not to harm Denise, Jude awakens. He takes Denise’s letter and creeps out the room, through the house. With a knife in hand, he heads into the bathroom and cuts open his leg. A strange cylindrical object happens to be wedged in there; some sort of tracking device perhaps? Anyway, he crushes it before heading out into the night.
The Episode Review
I am all for a slow burn but Night Sky is a very slow series and sometimes in danger of slipping into the realm of boring. Thankfully the acting is good enough to keep things ticking along, while the extra characters in Stella and Toni help to add some new blood to the series and keep things interesting. The main story around these doorways and the Martian landscape is good but ultimately plays second fiddle to the character drama, which is what takes the front and center stage. There are some decent ties between each of these main players, but it’s Franklin and Irene who steal the limelight with their great chemistry. The intriguing inclusion of the stranger does make for a deeper mystery, and the strange device in the man’s leg seems to hint that there’s something much deeper going on that we don’t know about just yet.
