An amusement park carousel winds around as music plays. David Pilcher walks into Wayward Pines and sees cars burning up in flames and dead bodies strewn on the streets. In another scene, Ethan, David, and Pam get off the helicopter and enter the town's secret control center, a futuristic office stationed in the mountains. Everything is stored in the center. Ethan is stunned to see modern day people working in cubicles, to see computers, technology, and a professional organization in the center. Over 200 volunteers live, work, eat, and sleep in the complex. "Wayward Pines' Season 1 Episode 6 "Choices" aired on Thursday, June 25 on FOX.
"You didn't think Wayward Pines ran itself, did you?" asks David.
Back in Wayward Pines, Theresa asks Ben if anything is wrong. Ben asks his mom if she remembers the poster he had in his room above his bed back at Seattle. The poster was a picture of the planet Earth with the number of billions of people that exist in it. He tells her that the poster always made him feel so small and insignificant. Theresa tells him that it is only natural to feel that way. Ben asks her, "what if it does matter? What if what we do actually means something?" Theresa asks Ben why he is suddenly thinking about such things and Ben merely answers that something he learned in science class got him thinking.
Ted drops off a package at Ballinger's toy store. Kate brings Ted to the backroom where they meet her husband Harold. The backroom is an area free from cameras and recording devices. Ted reveals that he cannot find Peter McCall's package. Kate tells Ted to look in the real estate office that Peter used to work at. They plan a diversion. Henrietta quits her job at the real estate office. Theresa follows her out into the street. Henrietta packs her car with her belongs. Theresa tries to explain that she did not mean to take Peter's job and that the job was handed to her. She tells Henrietta that she is going to find some answers. Henrietta tells Theresa to mind her own business and says, "Peter McCall thought that Plot 33 was a way out." Without giving her any other information, Henrietta drives off.
In the control center, nurse Pam treats Ethan's arm. "I assure you there is a purpose to everything you find strange," says Pam. Ethan gets stitches and Pam wraps up his wound. Pam tells Ethan that David needs him to take over one day. An announcement from the P.A. calls for Pamela Pilcher to report to another location. Ethan is surprised to hear that she shares the same last name as David. Pam is David's sister.
Ethan hears an abby screech in the distance. He walks into a room and hears an abbie growl. It is captured in a glass gas container. David walks in and presses a button. Immediately gas hits the abbie and it faints. David calls abbies "distant cousins" of human beings. "We were changing the world and as a result, we ourselves were beginning to change, adapt," says David. He tells Ethan the history of Wayward Pines. In the 1990s he tried to warn the global community but nobody believed him. David made a presentation about a future world crisis and was made a laughingstock. He slowly realized that although he could not save the whole world, he could save a select few. It began with Arnold Pope, a security guard at his company.
Reed Diamond speaking in a panel for 'Wayward Pines' at Wondercon in the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on April 2015.
Theresa looks through a large binder. She finds Plot 33 to be an empty lot at the intersection of Boxwood and Third Street. She asks Bill about Plot 33 and he gets angry at her. Bill tells her to do what he asks her to do and nothing else. Kate walks into the realtor's office and asks for Theresa to come out to talk. They go to a restaurant to talk. Kate tells Theresa that she and Harold are looking for a new house. Meanwhile, Ted walks into the realtor's office pretending to deliver a package. Bill asks Ted about his relationship to Kate. Ted switches out the two packages and lies that he made a mistake. He quickly walks out and signals to Kate that he has the package from Theresa's office. Ted drops off a package to Harold at the toy store. Harold signs for it. Harold opens the package in the backroom and takes out wires and a clock. He begins to make a bomb.
David explains to Ethan that the FBI eventually took notice of his business because of the money they had gained from charities. Ethan tells David that it was not the money but the disappearances that caught their eye. Ethan sees a woman named Sara Barlow get rushed into the facilities. Ethan asks how many more people there are and if anyone actually chose to be here. "I didn't choose to do this. I did it because I had to," says David. He tells Ethan about the day he met Meghan Fisher, a woman who was studying to be a hypnotherapist. She convinces him that they must move on without the naysayers.
David reveals his plan to Arnold on a rainy night. He begins by telling Arnold that he knows quite a bit about his life. Arnold grew up without a father, his life plummeted after his mom died from ovarian cancer, he went to juvenile hall and then went to jail for heroin possession. When he applied for police academy to make a difference in the world he was denied. Arnold thinks that he is being fired by David and asks for a bit more time. Instead of firing him, David tells Arnold that he is looking for people like him in his new project. He shares that he wants to gather people like him and give them a second life. David describes it as "a chance to restart and to participate in something quite extraordinary." David tells Arnold that he wants him to be at the center of it and hands him a file. Arnold kidnaps a man who was once a doctor. The man's career ended when he over-prescribed a lethal dose of medicine to a patient. He brings the body to a lab where the man is put into a cryochamber and labeled as number 1.
"Has anyone ever lived a life entirely defined by their own choices"? asks David. He takes Ethan to his luxurious office. He tells Ethan that the man was put into a cryochamber for 2,000 years. David, Pam, and volunteers put themselves to sleep. When they woke up, they were the only humans left in the world. It took them two years to rebuild a community. They established a perimeter to keep the aberrations out. David tells Ethan that Wayward Pines is not a little town but a new civilization. David compares it to the discovery of America. Ethan compares the times to Russia's dictator Stalin who executed spies.
David tells Ethan why he woke him up, that the people need someone to look up to. Ethan says that the surveillance and the executions must be phased out. He says that the people have to know the truth. David tells him that it will never work out. Ethan says that David does not know that unless they try. David says he does know that because he tried. "Everyone you've seen in town is part of group B," says David. Group A was the first batch of inhabitants in Wayward Pines. As soon as he woke them he told them the truth, but the truth "spread like cancer" in their minds. Some did not believe him. Some ran away but did not get very far. The few who did believe "caved into despair." Whole families were found dead, having committed suicide.
"They had emerged from Plato's cave into the light that blinded them," said David.
David referred to Group A as the dark ages, but promised that enlightenment was coming with the new generation. "Young minds are fearless" says David. Ethan realizes that Ben knows the truth. David tells Ethan that he needs to find a way to protect the town and to protect the first generation. There is a new threat to the town, a faction of townspeople who have been removing their chips. They tried to escape before and to to take down the fence. Ethan tells David that he is prepared to do all that he can to make sure that nobody is killed by the reckless group, by whatever is beyond the fence, and not by David.
Kate asks Harold if he almost done with the project. Harold begins to ask, "if innocent people die.." but is cut off by Kate who asks how many people in their town have been killed. Kate says that she wants to know what is out there and that they deserve to know the truth. She said that she is ready to face everything. She tells him that she is ready to face everything but not alone and that she needs him to go with her. Theresa looks up Plot 33 after Bill leaves the office. She walks to it and sees an empty lot in a fenced area. Harold places the bomb inside a music box. He winds it up as music begins to play. A ballerina rotates inside of it. He tells Kate says that he is ready.
"Wayward Pines' stars Matt Dillon as Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke, Carla Gugino as Kate Hewson, one of the missing agents and Ethan's former lover, Toby Jones as Dr. Jenkins, a psychiatrist at Wayward Pines Hospital, Shannyn Sossamon as Theresa Burke, Ethan's wife, Reed Diamond as Harold Ballinger, a toymaker, Tim Griffin as Adam Hassler, Ethan's boss, Charlie Tahan as Ben Burke, Ethan and Theresa's son, Juliette Lewis as Beverly, a bartender who bonds with Ethan, Melissa Leo as Pam, a nurse at Wayward Pines Hospital, Terrence Howard as Sheriff Arnold Pope, Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Arlene Moran, Sheriff Pope's secretary, Sarah Jeffery as Amy, Ben's friend, and Hope Davis as Megan Fisher.
Ep. 6 "Choices" was directed by Jeff T. Thomas and written by The Duffer Brothers and Brett Conrad. According to TV By The Numbers, "Choices" was watched by 3.45 million households. Full episodes can be watched on the FOX website. Ep. 7 "Betrayal" airs on Thursday, July 2. Each episode runs for 42-44 minutes. It features music by composer Charlie Clouser. M. Knight Shyamalan, Donald De Line, Chad Hodge, and Ashwin Rajan are the executive producers of the series. Rob French is the producer. Elizabeth Kling and Michael Ruscio are the editors. Amelia Vincent is the cinematographer. Blinding Edge Pictures, De Line Pictures, Storyland, and FX Productions are its production companies.
