Okay, like last week’s episode, this writer was a bit bewildered and confused. I admit I had to watch it again, to make sure I understood the events that took place and catch the subtext.
“Ten Thirteen” was a slow burn with small moments of intensity and a little stilted with long musical tracks, even though the songs used were great subtext for the scenes; it was great though, to get a story from Meg’s perspective. There was also a definite chronological journey from the past to the present. Even before the Sudden Departure you could see the downward spiral Meg was in. She started off as a coke head, who was anxiously having lunch with her mother (Betty Buckley) on October 13. They are discussing her upcoming nuptials. That luncheon ended pretty badly – going for a second snort of c
oke, Meg comes back to find her mother dead. The next day the Sudden Departure happened and Meg headed to the Guilty Remnant and, well we know what happened after that.
When her story moves along it is three years later and we find that Meg and her then fiancée visit Jarden, Texas. She went there to seek out answers like so many others have done. She seeks out the psychic Isaac. Upon meeting him, she dismisses him as another crackpot until he provides her with legitimate proof of his abilities as he relates the meal the ladies had before her mother died. We never hear the rest of what Isaac divulged, but Meg’s tears show us the depth of her pain. It is a slow reveal, however, that we learn she has another agenda. She is still GR, but a far more hardcore player than the rest. In a surprise moment Meg ends up meeting Evie Murphy. The two of them share an awkward silence, bonding over baby carrots. It seems to me that those two women understand each other, but at that point we just don’t know how much.
What we do know is that Meg is building up to be a one woman army: she’s doing some pretty violent, insane crap. First, some sort of horrific stunt with dogs (which by the way would really piss me off, had they shown that crap) and then her stunt with the bus and the school kids. You really think something wicked is about to go down when she hijacks the bus and lobs a grenade inside to terrify the riders. The tactic was merely to scare not kill. Chilling, and to boot Meg feels no pity. She doesn’t care and continually pushes the envelope. Just what is this all going to escalate to?
Time moves forward again as Meg heads back to Jarden and this time she has a plan and a tagalong. Tom Garvey goes with her. We backtrack a bit to witness Tommy and Laura’s fight. Laurie is trying to sell out her son’s so called psychic abilities to people willing to pay for relief from their pain. Tommy is angry, disillusioned and estranged. Tommy calls out his mother on her bullshit and wants out. He wants to stop being a fraud and wants away from the situation. So he seeks out Meg. What? Why? Just because of the quick, raw sex in the van a while back?
Tommy, desperate to get back to her, literally stumbles upon the Guilty Remnant group he had previously infiltrated and ends up going along for the ride. They stop at a bar, have a few drinks and Meg takes control, of course, by being all elusive and cryptic. Is she interested or does she want to show off her big plans to someone or what? When they finally reach their destination we definitely know that there is a plan for this special place nicknamed Miracle and Meg is the instigator. She says they are forgetting and that must not be. In fact, to a few GR officials she gets called out for her extreme and independent actions, but she will not be swayed.
Then we jump to the present and Meg is at the trailer park outside Jarden and she was there at the same time Rev. Matt Jamison was there for his stint at penance. What the hell is she going to do? And what’s up with her friendly little chat with Reverend Jamison? She sits there, checking out the people, the surroundings and of course, the bridge that separates the people from the entrance to Miracle National park. Her final words to Matt are chilling. You just know s—t is going to go down. But what???
We get a glimpse of that “but what” through Tommy’s eyes. While people sleep and Meg’s away he snoops around the compound of barns and shacks. He discovers an old locked trailer and he breaks into it to get a glimpse of it contents. But it is not what is in there that shocks us, but WHO. Meg’s plan is very much in play. She has rattled a family and a whole town. She has a grip on everyone’s emotions and forcing them NOT TO FORGET. Just how that all plays out comes down to the forthcoming final episode of the season.
