S01.E08: Compensation

[paulvdb]

Quote

Jude makes a difficult decision, while Franklin and Irene reflect on recent events. Stella’s mission brings her to the Yorks’ doorstep.

Premiere date: May 20, 2022

[SunnyBeBe]

How is the mother and teen going to keep the outraged killer tied up in their van long term?  And, how about their legal papers?  That’s didn’t make much sense.  So, the people they kill just keep getting regenerated?  That whole storyline was confusing.  
 

Jude says the other universe held nothing…so, how did he live there?  
 

When Byron got so excited by the scenery on the other planet it was odd. It looked like the landscape in any desert area.  Just rocks and sand.  I don’t get it.  
 

So, there are two portals in the cellar. One goes to the other planet, where there no oxygen and the other down a hallway to a different time?  So, if Jude came from one, why did he know about the other?  Odd.

So what is the couple going to do amongst the rocks?  Not even anywhere to sit down. Lol Could get the same view visiting the Grand Canyon. 

Edited May 21, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[ottoDbusdriver]

That ending leaves things all queued up for a Season 2.

I guess we can assume that Byron is alive -- since there is air to breath on the other planet -- but I've got no idea who the dead guy with the knife sticking out of his belly was. 

Franklin and Irene have at least one inhabited town to explore -- complete with what looks like working power, a lake with a boat and dock, and a church with working bells -- as there were two other pistachio shell-like megastructures that might contain settlements.

Whoever is living in that town (or towns) they don't appear to be the technologically-advanced species that created the portals.
I'm curious now why the mice died that Franklin mentioned that they put outside on the other planet since there is air to breath.  I'm also surprised that after 20 years that neither Irene nor Franklin didn't take a sample of the other planet's air and get it tested.

Jude and Denise end up in Bangkok after tapping that code into the portal remote. Hopefully they spend more than "One Night in Bangkok". :) 
And maybe find Gabriel.

I was getting a bit of a Stargate vibe from the portal code -- what with entering five symbols to go to Bangkok.  If you enter a 6th symbol do you go to another planet, and if you enter a 7th symbol do you go to another galaxy ?

The woman at the inn in Michigan turns out to be an apostate just like Jude that somehow managed to elude execution -- what will she and her team do with the newly reformed Guardians Stella and Toni ?  Though I suspect Cornelius is in for a world of hurt.

It would have been nice to find out the significance of the doubloons -- in case this series is a one and done season. 
Are they from the other planet (since the pawn shop guy indicated that he couldn't determine where they were minted) ??  Also would like to know why the energy explosion from the portal only killed birds. Or how Cornelius knew that the presence of many dead birds indicated a portal nearby.

 

[SunnyBeBe]

I have a lot of questions about things with this show.  I wish they had explained the apostate thing more.  There is something very unsatisfying about dead characters who pop back up living again.  Then there’s the super villain guy….🙄 I detest super villains.  Too cartoonish.

I found the scenes with the mother daughter from Argentina were rather boring,  I didn’t care for them and their mission.  

Im also curious about the options available in the cellar.  The hallway and the planet scene.

They need some better writers, imo. Things need to be tightened up.  I read the show got poor reviews.  I can see that, but it’s much better than Outer Range, imo.  

 

[CarpeFelis]

On 5/21/2022 at 8:17 AM, SunnyBeBe said:

How is the mother and teen going to keep the outraged killer tied up in their van long term?  And, how about their legal papers?  That’s didn’t make much sense.  So, the people they kill just keep getting regenerated?

Nobody was getting regenerated as far as I could tell. I did wonder how long they were planning to keep Cornelius tied up in the van, but then they were forced off the road and captured.

On 5/21/2022 at 8:17 AM, SunnyBeBe said:

When Byron got so excited by the scenery on the other planet it was odd. It looked like the landscape in any desert area.  Just rocks and sand.  I don’t get it.  

So what is the couple going to do amongst the rocks?  Not even anywhere to sit down. Lol Could get the same view visiting the Grand Canyon. 

Byron undoubtedly saw what Irene and Franklin saw at the end of the episode—a village in between two halves of what looked like a giant clamshell.

On 5/21/2022 at 8:17 AM, SunnyBeBe said:

So, there are two portals in the cellar. One goes to the other planet, where there no oxygen and the other down a hallway to a different time?  So, if Jude came from one, why did he know about the other?  Odd.

No, there was just the one portal under the shed. The device Jude had taken back from Chandra, that looked like it was just a bar of metal, lit up with symbols that could be used to program a destination. Jude programmed the destination his father had written down and it took him and Denise to Bangkok. Jude had also explained that after each trip the destination would reset back to what it originally was, the other planet.

On 5/21/2022 at 6:42 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

I guess we can assume that Byron is alive -- since there is air to breath on the other planet -- but I've got no idea who the dead guy with the knife sticking out of his belly was. 

The other guy was the one Jude kept seeing in his nightmares/memories. He was trying to strangle Jude and Jude stuck the knife in him, which is why he had blood on him that wasn’t his own when he arrived. Presumably the guy was another one of the Guardians trying to catch him.

The tone of this series reminded me a lot of Tales from the Loop.

Edited May 24, 2022 by CarpeFelis
typo

[ottoDbusdriver]

3 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

The other guy was the one Jude kept seeing in his nightmares/memories. He was trying to strangle Jude and Jude stuck the knife in him, which is why he had blood on him that wasn’t his own when he arrived. Presumably the guy was another one of the Guardians trying to catch him.

The tone of this series reminded me a lot of Tales from the Loop.

I just assumed that Jude had dialed in from another portal since he was from Earth -- complete with a police record -- and didn't come through the door to the other planet.

But that doesn't explain why the body hadn't started to decompose ?  Jude had been with the Yorks at least a week, and that body appeared pretty fresh for being dead for a week.

Agreed -- it does have a similar feel to 'Tales From the Loop'.

[CarpeFelis]

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

I just assumed that Jude had dialed in from another portal since he was from Earth -- complete with a police record -- and didn't come through the door to the other planet.

I think what happened was he fled from a different portal to the other planet and was followed by the guy who was trying to kill him, and after defending himself he entered the Yorks’ portal through its outer door.

[ottoDbusdriver]

6 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

I think what happened was he fled from a different portal to the other planet and was followed by the guy who was trying to kill him, and after defending himself he entered the Yorks’ portal through its outer door.

That's a possibility too.

[Accidental Martyr]

The structures on the planet kind of looked like the Sydney Opera House. It reminded me of this Midnight Oil album cover.

[iMonrey]

Quote

That ending leaves things all queued up for a Season 2.

That's about all it does. And I'm pretty annoyed. They should have at least wrapped up something. What is this, Lost? I sat through eight episodes of this without finding much out. Stella and Toni were especially annoying. I can't stand it when characters talk in riddles. We had eight episodes of Toni asking "what's going on?" without getting a single decent answer from Stella. "You're too young, I'm protecting you, stay in the car, never mind." This is just annoying. The writers are just yanking our chains.

That said, my working theory is that Jude comes from the extra terrestrial village, he escaped from there and made his way to the observatory where Irene found him. The Guardians are in charge of hunting down all the people who escape from the extra terrestrial village. Jude told Denise he's just as human as she is, but I'm not sure what that means. He lied about there being nothing on the planet. Or is the other planet the origin of humanity on earth? Or are the "apostates" sent to that planet from earth by the Guardians as punishment?

Quote

So, the people they kill just keep getting regenerated?

 Where did you get that idea? Who was regenerated?

Quote

The other guy was the one Jude kept seeing in his nightmares/memories. He was trying to strangle Jude and Jude stuck the knife in him, which is why he had blood on him that wasn’t his own when he arrived. Presumably the guy was another one of the Guardians trying to catch him.

Ah, that makes sense. I mistakenly thought the corpse with the knife sticking out of it was Byron and couldn't figure out who took his space suit. This makes more sense and also supports my theory that Jude is from the extra terrestrial village Irene and Franklin discovered.

Quote

I just assumed that Jude had dialed in from another portal since he was from Earth -- complete with a police record -- and didn't come through the door to the other planet.

I forgot about the police record. That's what makes me think the Guardians are some sort of religious cult and they banish the "apostates" to the extra terrestrial village - which Jude escaped from.

I definitely think Jude is from the other planet - he's got a key to take him wherever he wants to go and was trying to find Gabriel. He wouldn't have gone to the alien planet on purpose. I think he made his way from the alien village to the observatory trying to get to the portal, got deathly ill and that's where Irene found him.

Quote

But that doesn't explain why the body hadn't started to decompose ?  Jude had been with the Yorks at least a week, and that body appeared pretty fresh for being dead for a week.

It did look decomposed to me. Maybe not enough, but there's something strange about the atmosphere on that planet. Franklin said the mice he put outside didn't last a minute, and clearly Jude got deathly ill making his way from the domed village to the observatory where Irene found him. Maybe only "special" people can breathe the air. I dunno.

Quote

I read the show got poor reviews.  I can see that, but it’s much better than Outer Range, imo.  

That's a pretty low bar. It's got the same problem, in that I was just as baffled by the end of the eighth episode as I was by the end of the first. They needed to give me something more. I feel like all they did was jerk me around for eight episodes without explaining anything.

[paulvdb]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

That said, my working theory is that Jude comes from the extra terrestrial village, he escaped from there and made his way to the observatory where Irene found him. The Guardians are in charge of hunting down all the people who escape from the extra terrestrial village. Jude told Denise he's just as human as she is, but I'm not sure what that means. He lied about there being nothing on the planet. Or is the other planet the origin of humanity on earth? Or are the "apostates" sent to that planet from earth by the Guardians as punishment?

I agree that Jude probably came from that village and escaped from there to the observatory. We saw a picture in an internet search (was it Byron who was searching? I don't remember). The picture showed a Spanish missionary in the 1700s with the same door as the ones that we saw in the teleportation chambers. I assumed that he settled the village on the planet and started the cult that Stella and Toni belonged to.

[Paloma]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

my working theory is that Jude comes from the extra terrestrial village, he escaped from there and made his way to the observatory where Irene found him. The Guardians are in charge of hunting down all the people who escape from the extra terrestrial village.

That's my theory also, but I think he was in a prison there, not just living as a village resident. I don't remember which episode, but Jude talked about having been a prisoner with life being highly regulated (such as when and what you eat). I suspect that the regular village residents are Guardians and/or descendants of the original settlers (per the idea of @paulvdb) who are content to stay there or are afraid of what they've been told is outside the village. Presumably these settlers were humans who were brought through a portal by the missionary, which is why Jude is human. I think his native language is Spanish (either because the settlers were from a Spanish-speaking country or because that's the language they were taught by the missionary); he spoke Spanish to Stella when he told her about remembering her when she met his mother. I'm not sure why he speaks English so well.

I was confused and a little annoyed by the introduction of the group led by the B&B owner. They are apparently rebels against the system who successfully escaped at various times, but I don't know whether to believe what she said about her relationship with Gabriel. And I don't understand why she and her secret surveillance guy didn't welcome Jude into their group and tell him what they knew rather than spy on him and the others. Especially because it appears that Jude was the son of a powerful female leader in the Guardians (based on what he said to Stella about remembering when she came to meet his mother in what sounded like an important ritual), and the fact that he rebelled against that rather than accepting his "privilege" would make him loyal and possibly an asset to the escaped rebels. 

Despite the confusing plot elements and the unsatisfactory ending with too many questions and nothing resolved, I'd be interested in a second season if it focused more on the background of the planet and Jude, including why and how he escaped) and less on Stella and Toni (even better, drop Stella and Toni completely from the story). And I really have no interest in seeing what happened to Byron on the planet, though I'd love to see what happens to Irene and Franklin there. Realistically, where they were standing was very far away from the village in distance and descent, so I doubt they would be physically capable of getting there.

[Kip Hackman]

On 5/21/2022 at 11:17 AM, SunnyBeBe said:

How is the mother and teen going to keep the outraged killer tied up in their van long term?  And, how about their legal papers?  That’s didn’t make much sense.  So, the people they kill just keep getting regenerated?  That whole storyline was confusing.  
 

Jude says the other universe held nothing…so, how did he live there?  
 

When Byron got so excited by the scenery on the other planet it was odd. It looked like the landscape in any desert area.  Just rocks and sand.  I don’t get it.  
 

So, there are two portals in the cellar. One goes to the other planet, where there no oxygen and the other down a hallway to a different time?  So, if Jude came from one, why did he know about the other?  Odd.

So what is the couple going to do amongst the rocks?  Not even anywhere to sit down. Lol Could get the same view visiting the Grand Canyon. 

You might wanna re-watch this episode.

[LittleIggy]

I think Jude’s “police record” was phony, fabricated by the cult and put into the system in case Jude got arrested. 
I hope there is a Season 2. 

[Haleth]

On 5/24/2022 at 1:03 AM, CarpeFelis said:

I think what happened was he fled from a different portal to the other planet and was followed by the guy who was trying to kill him, and after defending himself he entered the Yorks’ portal through its outer door.

I was thinking Jude (and dead guy) lived in the village on the desert planet.  With all the references to God and religion I took the village to be some kind of monastery (?) where the people who... uh, I have no clue what they do, but the guardians are tasked with preventing them from leaving through the portals.  It's in some sense a prison.  Jude escaped (just like his father) by killing that one dude.  I'm guessing the "she" he mentioned to Cornelius is his mother, who may be an important person in the village/monastery/prison.  It seems there's some kind of timey whimey stuff going on too, with the old doubloons and Latin hymns.

The reveal that the planet has air doesn't make sense since Franklin said he tested it with mice.

I'm glad that idiot Byron is probably alive, somewhere, just so Jeanine doesn't go through life wondering what happened to him.

Speaking of idiots, Toni nearly got them all killed when she decided she was smarter than her mom and called Nick.  I wonder what the agenda is for Hannah (evil Penny)?  Is her team monitoring the guardians chasing down other apostates?  To what purpose?

I knew Denise would end up involved with the portal somehow, but running off with a man she barely knows, using alien technology she didn't believe existed a couple hours ago was pretty reckless.

On 5/27/2022 at 11:10 AM, iMonrey said:

We had eight episodes of Toni asking "what's going on?" without getting a single decent answer from Stella. "You're too young, I'm protecting you, stay in the car, never mind." This is just annoying. The writers are just yanking our chains.

Or they (writers) haven't figured it out themselves yet.

I hope there is a second season to answer all the questions.

[marcee]

I've gotta believe that the city on the planet is the city the bad guy said he'd take Toni to after her "perdisco"... I can't remember the name; it started with a C. That seems to be the place they keep the apostates. I don't think Jude was literally "in prison" - I think the city feels like a prison because they're monitored and told when to eat and sleep and where to go and what to do. Everything kind of made sense and tied together except for the big picture. What is the point of the apostates? Why are they tracked? Why are they needed? What do they do? Are they even using the doors? Doesn't really seem like it. So far, it only looks like they're protecting the doors. Seems kind of silly for a life mission to make sure no one actually uses the doors, right?

The whole concept just seems silly. In hundreds of years, no one has discovered one of what is apparently MANY of these "impossible doors" and turned it over to the authorities? Or publicized it? Or charged admission for their neighbors to use it?

On 5/27/2022 at 11:10 AM, iMonrey said:

Stella and Toni were especially annoying. I can't stand it when characters talk in riddles. We had eight episodes of Toni asking "what's going on?" without getting a single decent answer from Stella. "You're too young, I'm protecting you, stay in the car, never mind." This is just annoying. The writers are just yanking our chains.

Also - so much THIS. She's asking straightforward questions. Just give her the answers. Protecting shmotecting - this was just getting dumb.

[HighMaintenance]

So, I just finished watching all 8 episodes over 3-4 days.  The sci-fi premise seemed pretty good and JK and Sissy were very good in their roles, they are great actors.  Since this was the last episode of season 1 (I'm assuming there will be a season 2, although I won't be heartbroken if there isn't), I have some reflections on this first season.

I guess that Franklin and Irene's portal (one of many around the world) was an inactive one since they either didn't know about the glowy ball and keypad hidden in the doorframe.  If you don't punch in a symbol code, you just teleport to a view of desert planet?  It was interesting that glowy ball teleported the coffee table to the desert planet outside of their picture window by default.

Of course there has to be a war between 2 gangs: the apostates and the guardians.  I was disappointed they didn't have jackets so we could tell them apart (insert sarcasm icon here).  The big bads (Guardians) not only have to be stoic and secretive, but also sadistic and pervy with a penchant for creeping on young teenage girls.  Even the Mom was an unreasonable PITA with Yes/No answers and kept her daughter in the dark about everything, even who her father was. BTW, my Spanish is far from fluent, but some of the subtitles really didn't seem to match up with what the Argentinian Mother and Daughter were saying.  Maybe the dialect is different?

I was waiting for something to happen from some of the "B" storylines, but nothing ever really occurred in this season.  Lazy writing because they don't know where they want to go?  *SHRUG*:

• Michael's depression (or bipolarism, it's never really clarified) manifesting in his daughter. It's pushed into the storyline, but never explored.
• Irene's health improvements after handling the glowy ball.  She goes from being partially wheelchair bound, to climbing the house stairs within a couple weeks.  I also noticed that over the course of the season she looked less "old" (sort of reverting to her appearance in the grown Michael flashbacks) and her hair looked less gray and more dark auburn.  Meanwhile, Franklin seemed to still be slipping into his forgetfulness.
• It seemed Byron was going to be the sociopathic neighbor with his snooping, trespassing and alcohol use, but then he buddies up and it seems all he wants is to be "special".  But he also seems to have a sordid past - like they had to leave Champaign, Ill. because of his behavior.
• Franklin seemed awfully casual about Byron disappearing on the "desert planet", not mentioning it to Irene till days later and totally blowing off Byron's wife.  Did he not think that Byron's wife would get Chief Wiggam to come out and snoop around?

I have to say the Jude storyline was the one I was LEAST interested in.  I know he's the catalyst for us to find out more about the portals and the 2 factions and the "desert planet", but I just found his character too flat and uninteresting.

I too got the "Tales from the Loop" vibe from this season.  However, many of that series' episodes seemed to stand up better as individual fantasy/sci-fi stories that could exist on their own without needing to be part of a whole season of related episodes.

[chaifan]

The slow pace of this series was both refreshing and frustrating.  I actually liked watching a show where everything wasn't handed to you on a silver platter in Episode 1, as is the trend with so many network shows these days.  (Shows being afraid that if they don't hook viewers instantly the show will get cancelled mid-season.)  But by Episode 4 or 5 I just really wanted Something To Happen!  The last 2 episodes finally gained momentum.

I've got a different theory than those posted above...  I think everyone we've met is human, everyone was raised on Earth.  The portals, of course, are alien built.  Religious people found the portal in Argentina (or wherever Stella and Toni were from) 300 years ago, and built a new religion around it, which is now more of a cult.  The cult has Christian roots, hence the "apostates" and the Christian chapel, and doing this for God, etc.  Jude was raised in the cult, but fought his way out.  His dad did the same years ago.  Hannah likely also did.  The Guardians are tasked with "retrieving" anyone who breaks away from the cult, as they could reveal the existence of the portals.

Theory part 2, but this I'm less sure about because I can't remember some little details from earlier episodes...  I think that the Guardians only know that the portal can go between places on Earth, and that Gabriel discovered the ability to go to the other planet.  My reasoning is, if the Guardians knew about the other planet that would sort of blow their whole religion thing out of the water.  Gabriel's discovery would have blown up the ideology behind the cult, so they had to track him down. 

Yeah, I know, this all still leaves a lot to be explained, but it's a theory. 

It seems that every once in a while high emotions of people connected to the portal causes things to get "sent" to the other planet.  Irene's coffee table, the guy Jude fought, who knows what else is over there.  As for Franklin & Irene being able to breathe when the mice died, maybe it's like being in high altitude - it can be hard on the system, but once you get used to it, you're fine.  The mice were too small to adapt quick enough and died. 

I think we can presume that Byron is alive, since Franklin didn't trip over his body.  Maybe Byron passed out, and woke up realizing he could breathe, but by then Franklin had left the bunker and couldn't be reached on the walkie.  Or someone from the "village" found him and took him back to the village.  Because why wouldn't he then go back to the portal, or at least scrawl a big note in the sand for Franklin/Irene to see?  (The answer being, because Byron's an idiot, is acceptable here.)

eh, all the speculation is for nothing, as Deadline has reported that Night Sky was cancelled and we will not get a 2nd season. 

[Paloma]

On 7/6/2022 at 12:10 AM, chaifan said:

I've got a different theory than those posted above...  I think everyone we've met is human, everyone was raised on Earth.  The portals, of course, are alien built.  Religious people found the portal in Argentina (or wherever Stella and Toni were from) 300 years ago, and built a new religion around it, which is now more of a cult.  The cult has Christian roots, hence the "apostates" and the Christian chapel, and doing this for God, etc.  Jude was raised in the cult, but fought his way out.  His dad did the same years ago.  Hannah likely also did.  The Guardians are tasked with "retrieving" anyone who breaks away from the cult, as they could reveal the existence of the portals.

I like that theory! 

On 7/6/2022 at 12:10 AM, chaifan said:

I think we can presume that Byron is alive, since Franklin didn't trip over his body.  Maybe Byron passed out, and woke up realizing he could breathe, but by then Franklin had left the bunker and couldn't be reached on the walkie.  Or someone from the "village" found him and took him back to the village.  Because why wouldn't he then go back to the portal, or at least scrawl a big note in the sand for Franklin/Irene to see?  (The answer being, because Byron's an idiot, is acceptable here.)

The answer is definitely that Byron's an idiot.

On 7/6/2022 at 12:10 AM, chaifan said:

eh, all the speculation is for nothing, as Deadline has reported that Night Sky was cancelled and we will not get a 2nd season. 

Of course it was cancelled. Any show that isn't instantly popular on Netflix has little chance of being renewed, and this one needed more patience and word-of-mouth than most. Also, maybe Sissy and J.K. had other offers and couldn't commit to another season.

[SunnyBeBe]

It was a great premise and cast, but the writing wasn’t good, imo.   Imo, the story of the where the portals went were weak and confusing. Better ideas on that would have made a huge difference.