"Between" Recap: "War"

Written by Scotty

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Are there times that you believe that you cannot trust your own parent?  I could not imagine not being able to trust anyone in my family, especially a parent since they have spent their lives teaching me what I know today.  There should be a "no" as an to that question since all parents should want their children to grow up and be successful in whatever their endeavors are going to be, but there are those who allow their children to continue to fail on a regular basis.  I would like to say that it is a learning experience for the kids, but if no one steps up to show them how to do it right, they will never know how to correct their mistakes.

Adam is slowly coming to in the prison as his father is standing above him. Knowing that the virus kills everyone over the age of twenty two, Adam is fearing for his father’s life.  His father feels the same way and wants to get his son out of the town before the military shows up with their vaccine.  Explaining to Adam that the vaccine is really a concoction that will kill anyone that is injected with it, he gives Adam a plan of escape from Pretty Lake.  Before Adam can try to get his father to come along, he passes, just like every other adult in the town has done before.

Chuck is gathering his friends and preparing for war against Ronnie and Pat.  Knowing that they were somehow responsible for his sister’s death, Chuck wants blood and he wants it now.  But Pat is not willing to let anyone else get hurt over the growing feud between the families and makes the first step and tries to apologize to Chuck before any shots are fired.  Arriving to an empty house, Chuck knows that the fight is still on, but when Samantha explains what Pat is proposing, it gets the rich boy to calm down just a bit.  Meeting in the church, Pat is willing to sacrifice himself to end the battle and making both sides promise to have no retaliation, he gets down on his knees and prepares to be judged.

Gord is a little in shock when he finds out that Hanna is married.  Since the two have formed a connection, having her return to where she belongs may not be right, but he will not fight to keep her.  Feeling down about his current loss, Gord thinks back to his father hanging himself before the virus could get to him.  Needing to break him out of his rut, Frances starts bossing him around and gets him to make his normal delivery of milk to the church, for the kids.  Watching out the window and seeing the two feuding sides lining up in the street with guns pulled, Gord rushes out to see what is happening. Walking in as Chuck is ready to render justice on Pat, everyone’s phone rings and a message comes through saying that a cure has been found and everyone should report to the prison to be inoculated.  But before the group is able to leave, Adam rushes in with a message of his own.

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With what his father has told him about the virus, Adam knows that there is no cure and there is only a small window of time the soldiers have to administer the killer vaccine before they will drop dead as well.  Since all of the kids in Pretty Lake are being rounded up and transported to the prison, they group knows that they cannot save everyone from certain death, but they could keep several kids from getting the shots.  Taking out two of the solders, the group proceeds to the prison and with the help of former inmate Mark, they are able to make a b-line to the control center.  Hitting resistance along the way, enemies have to become friends since nothing matters now except saving the lives of the innocent.  Adam is able to reach the control booth to put the plan in motion, when he gets visited from his father once again who wants to reason with his son for the safety of the nation. 

This was a very interesting way to end the first season and it is left wide open for another one, but I don’t know what they would want to do with it.  With no cure for the virus, everyone in Pretty Lake is a carrier and will die shortly after they turn twenty two.  With population control being called out in this episode for the reason behind such a horrific virus, it is easy to understand why it was created, but killing people in the prime of their lives does not seem like it would be the greatest idea.  But the virus is alive and sits within the cells of all of the survivors of Pretty Lake and they have no way of ridding it from their bodies.  Escape is the only option now, but the threat of killing off the country may be too much for the kids to handle since they are all carriers and can infect any and every one.

This is an interesting series to say the least.  I was intrigued just by not having a tenured adult in the town and this took it much further than I could have imagined.  I was surprised how fast they had the youngest kids trying to become adults and causing more harm than they would have if they just stayed kids.  The young adults are the only reason the town stayed together, but each one seemed to have a different idea of what would be right and wrong, so you are left to decide who was right.  As the episodes moved on, the story got better and finding out who and what they are up against is something that I thought was going to be left out since there was only one person looking for answers.  It’s not the greatest show ever made, but it is definitely not the worst by any means.  You need to give it a couple episodes to get captured by it, but once you do, you will not be able to look away. 

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