‘Homecoming’ Recap: ‘Test’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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

Normally, when a television show takes the time to examine something about our world or our humanity, such a move is designed to make us think and perhaps impact some change in our society. Or it’s simply designed to remind us of parts of our humanity that we don’t ponder upon enough. Any way you slice it, it’s often about putting our kind under a microscope, meaning that we are mere observers when it comes to this story, and we aren’t supposed to feel what the characters do. Unless of course, the show in question is Homecoming. Since the next episode of this series, ‘Test’, brought back a concept it explored just a short time ago, by immersing us within it.
 
After all, a few episodes ago there was quite the examination in regard to the truth and why we seek it, and how there are sometimes consequences that come with seeking it out. But this particular tale, well, this one reminded the audience of the fact that sometimes, when we finally do uncover the truth, we simply won’t like what we find. And well, this is the episode that finally revealed exactly what Homecoming’s purpose is, and this grand reveal, one that should have been satisfying to say the least, ended up leaving this reviewer unsettled and uncomfortable, especially when one considers how the show unveiled the facts in question.
 
For in this story, we saw exactly how effective the drug is at deleting someone’s memories since Walter was no longer able to recall the day that Lesky died, nor was he able to remember anything involving the Titanic Rising prank, and that outright terrified Heidi because there were chunks of Walter’s life now missing and while he’s feeling better, that is quite the cost for health and security and when she reported these results to Colin, that’s when the show dropped its special bombshell, in that…this is exactly what Geist wants, so that they can send these soldiers back into conflict without a worry in their mind, making them more efficient killing machines in the process. 
 
Which meant that Shrier was right all along, deployment was the key and the fact that Walter is missing memories, only seems to lend credence to the possibility that Heidi was given the same drug as the men in this facility. Which brings us to the storyline set in the future, because Heidi was still working hard to remember what the heck happened to her ages ago, and thanks to some fine cooperation from Walter’s mom, Thomas was able to show Heidi that she was indeed at Homecoming and that she knew Walter and faced with this knowledge, Heidi made one hell of a choice, and decided it was high time to head back to Tampa, and the facility and face her past head on.
 
When all is said and done however, the truth was indeed a regretful discovery in this particular tale for there really is something chilling about knowing that these poor men are having their minds slowly erased all for the sake of contributing to a war again because such a move is downright cruel. It means that once again, they’ll face awful horrors untold and suffer and shatter, and it wouldn’t shock me if the plan is to send them back to Homecoming when another tour of terror ends to begin the cycle anew. But alas, that’s where my mind went with this particular reveal and we may or may not learn all of those facts down the line. But what matters now, is that Heidi is headed back to where it all began, and it should be fascinating to see what she finds when she and Colin return to Homecoming…until next time… 

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