'Channel Zero' Recap: 'A Strange Vessel'

​Written by Scott Edwards

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

After finding his daughter standing in front of his mother’s house, Mike needs to know how Lily was able to get that far away from home. Trying to ask Lily, his mother steps in and wants the child to get a good night’s sleep. Waiting until the morning to call his wife, Mike informs her of the situation at hand and she is ready to rush down from her business trip to get her child out of harm’s way. Trying to plead with his wife will do no good to keep his daughter with him, but it may not be Lily who is standing in front of him as he is soon to find out.

Being acting Chief of police in Iron Hills, Amy has her hands full with trying to keep calm in the town while Gary is locked up behind bars. But there is still something eating at her and after talking to Mike and Marla about why Gary was questioning him so hard, and Mike giving her a statement that he did not kill his twin brother, she needs to find more. Plus, she also needs to find the stabber kids that she encountered in the park who ran away before she could find out what they were up to. With a full day ahead, Amy makes her way down to the school and is able to get the kids to be held late for questioning since they are all in Mrs. Booth’s class together. Arriving to see an empty classroom, Amy is able to question Mrs. Booth about Mike’s brother Eddie from back in the day and finds out that he was a nice, yet strange kid that was a friend to her lonely son. Walking the halls, Amy sees one of the stabber kids that she is looking for running around. Finding the kids in the gymnasium reenacting something strange, she tells them to disperse and go home, but the stabber kids have something more sinister in mind.

As morning rolls around and Lily seems to be a little more aware of what is happening, Mike tries to get some information from his daughter. But when his daughter’s response is always, 'I am not Lily', Mike is having a hard time trying to figure out who she is. Not giving a direct answer, whomever is in Lily’s body walks over to a prized hiding place that housed an old Candle Cove doll that only Mike and Eddie knew about. Seeing that his brother is back and has taken over his little girl’s body, Mike connects with his childhood best friend (that he had to kill) and even though he is forgiven for his act, Eddie has one last request, to be buried properly. Needing to get his hands on his brother’s body, Mike is not alone as Jess has decided to tag along and help. Being able to take the deceased body of Eddie to an open field and give him a fiery funeral, they can only hope is that his spirit is released from Lily’s body and Mike can finally have his daughter back.

Overall however, this episode used lots of flashbacks of Mike and Eddie as kids and we are able to learn just how possessive Eddie was over his twin brother. As Mike knows that his brother is leading some of the kids in town to their death, Eddie does not see it that way, he is sending them to Candle Cove. When Eddie sees that Mike and Jess are starting to get close, the brotherly friendship will face its greatest challenge. When Mike meets with Jess and finds out that his brother was trying to lure her to the crow’s nest where all of the other kids have died, Mike is ready to call the relationship quits. Giving Jess a way to tell the brothers apart, Mike confronts his twin and the battle for dominance begins in sibling rivalry fashion.

You can feel the buildup in this episode, especially since there are only two episodes left in this short season. The stabber kids are really freaking me out, practicing their parts for Candle Cove in a dark gymnasium. I was a little surprised with who they went after, I could have sworn it was going to be officer Amy getting the boot this week, or her new guy friend that she left in bed, but with a little twist and turn, the person that is getting close to Mike gets it instead. I would have to believe at this point that Mrs. Booth is the one behind the program coming back, since she is able to control everything around it, but as the show has proved, there are still a couple tricks left up its sleeve and we will not find out all the details until the season finale. I don’t know what I want to see happen next, but I know that Marla’s house is no longer safe from the freakish Candle Cove characters and I just hope little Lily makes it out of her possession Jawbone free.  Stay Scared.

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