‘The Changeling’ Recap: ‘Aftermath’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Clark Backo as Emma in Episode 106 of ‘The Changeling’ – ‘Aftermath’. (Photo Courtesy of Apple.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Six of ‘The Changeling’. To revisit the previous episode, click here. Also, this piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
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Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve talked at length about how the Apple TV+ series, The Changeling, has done a phenomenal job of both toying with the audience while offering up a refreshingly horrifying spin on the fairy tale. A feat it has accomplished by never quite making it clear if Apollo is stuck in the middle of an actual fairy tale come to life, one filled with monsters and horrors untold, or if he’s struggling to cope with the horrors of the real world. Which has left us engaged and fascinated and terrified all at once. But while it has been fun and unsettling to play the guessing game regarding what’s really happening to Apollo, one important aspect of this series has remained mired in mystery for some time.
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After all, Emma IS out there, and no one has a clue what she is up to and where she is and how she is feeling after taking part in such a horrible act and well… it just so happens that the next episode in this magnificent series, opted to shift gears and answer those question by exploring all things Emma. For ‘Aftermath’ transported us a short while back so we could see her immediate reaction to the end of that dark day in the apartment, and well… Emma was in fact, filled with emotion over what she had done, but not in the manner that we initially expected. For there wasn’t sorrow, just concern. Concern that there was more to this than expected, courtesy of the discovery of a pile of dirt and a strange stick where her son once was. But of course, there was heat upon her, and that prompted her to flee… only to end up on the strange isle that Apollo discovered last week.

Largely because her bestie literally pushed her there to ensure that she had closure and to help her confirm she had not made a mistake, and well… some sleep and some time away from the world and the worries in her mind allowed for her to ponder upon the possibility… that ending the life of a Changeling, wasn’t the end of everything. That perhaps the spirit of the child was kept in a prison that was hidden from all, and well… that gave her new focus. Where she worked to learn everything, she could about the mythos that Cal introduced her to, and that meant, returning to the city, gathering books to gather information off of the internet. To see if by chance, Brian’s spirit was alive, and she could be near it again. A process that of course, allowed for timelines to match up, since she was in fact, in the library on the day that Apollo dropped by with a shotgun, and she managed to escape detection through means that were fascinating to say the least.

Since this story revealed that Emma has been navigating beneath Apollo’s nose since the beginning of the series. By working with people that live in the abandoned subway network beneath New York City, and who are forgotten and unseen, and can easily blend in because of that and well… for her efforts, Emma was able to piece together quite a bit. In that, she really did believe that the spirt of her child survived and was in another place in Manhattan as mystical as the very island she and Apollo stood upon often, and that if she searched the right trees in the right place… she could potentially find him and perhaps others, and well… that prompted her to take the boat and set out to see if she was right. To see if redemption was in the cards for a mother that crossed the ultimate line.

Which made, for another fantastical episode. One that deepened the mythos further and continued to toy with reality versus fantasy. Since the mythos aspect once again posed the possibility that magic is real and there is a world beneath worlds here, while at the same time leaving us to wonder… if all of this… was nothing more than a desperate attempt by a mother that did the unthinkable… to find redemption and make peace with the ultimate act. But those questions aside, which will undoubtedly answered by the end of the series, this was also a compelling and powerful tale. For it explored the consequences of Emma’s actions, and showed what such an act did to her very soul, and that is just plain good storytelling through and through, and truly, it will be interesting to see where her quest takes her as we inch toward the end of this unique and refreshing fairy tale… gone mad. Until next time.

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