Boilermakers
Episode 4 of Night Sky begins with Franklin continuing to distrust Jude’s story. After finding the bloodied knife, he heads off to see Officer Thomas, wanting to try and do a DNA test and figure out who Jude really is. Of course, Thomas doesn’t see the need to do so, and Franklin’s crazy cocktail of circuitry and conspiracies only reinforces his initial feeling of Franklin being mentally frail. Jude digs into the records and learns that his father was arrested for not having a place to stay. He also claimed to have amnesia when he was arrested. When Irene shows Franklin this, he makes a quirky joke, claiming it must be genetic. As a side note, this is definitely a suspicious thread that needs to be unraveled here. Toni and Stella soon find themselves working with their contact, Nick. He takes hem inside an abandoned warehouse where a machine starts belching out random numbers, which happens to be serial numbers. Although Nick can narrow down their field of search, he needs to go with them to really lock this signal in. Toni (and us) still don’t know what’s going on here but I’m sure we will over time. Denise stays at Katie’s place and wakes up, discussing the extreme stress she’s under right now. Speaking of stress, Byron burns all his campaign signs. Back at the house, Irene speaks to Jude and calls him out for being secretive. She brings up how he hasn’t really said anything about his life, but Jude smiles painfully and tells her he’s grateful for her care all the same. Just then, Dale from the pawnbrokers rings but Jude is the one to pick up, pretending to be Franklin’s son. Dale discusses the gold coins and how valuable they are. Jude does not look happy. In fact, Jude rings someone and asks about the gold coins. Whoever this guy is, they don’t say a lot but they do say “Fiat voluntas Dei”. This seems to be Latin for “God’s will be done.” After hanging up the phone, Irene arrives to pay Jude for his work around the house. She also promises to be there for him should he need her. After a flying visit from Chandra earlier in the episode, Jude snatches up the business card by the dresser and heads out to the local bar. It turns our Chandra actually stole something of value from him, which is that rectangular slab we saw glimmers of before. Interestingly, Jude happens to be in the same bar Denise and Katie are currently drinking in. Denise heads over to see him and they end up doing shots and dancing. Byron arrives in the pool hall and ends up playing a few games with Franklin. Byron calls him out for the campaign stunt but Franklin is pretty adamant that he didn’t call it in to the authorities. Despite Franklin’s initial hostility to him, the pair actually connect properly. Franklin admits he loves Irene more than anything but he’s not sure if she feels the same way as him. Byron though, has woes of his own. He was second choice to Jeanine, whose partner actually ended up passing away. He refers to himself as the “consolation prize” and believes that’s always defined their relationship. Both of them end up getting very drunk and while sitting outside the bar, Byron admits he’s underestimated Franklin. He talks about the doorway, but Franklin tries (and fails) to write this off as just a bomb shelter. Byron is desperate to know more, and that persistence sees Franklin cave and agree to show him. Down in the shelter, Franklin leads Byron to that familiar spot but it doesn’t work. For some reason the shelter doesn’t transport them anywhere, leading Byron to chuckle incredulously, believing this is all a big wind-up and actually some sort of strange dungeon. Elsewhere, Irene wakes up and finds Jude gone and decides to drive out to find him. When she does, Jude leaves the bar and begins wandering home. He’s stopped by the police, who grab him, bringing back memories of his time prior to being arrested. Whatever happened, he actually stabbed the assailant multiple times, explaining the blood. Back in the present, Irene drives past Jude on the road, who happens to be face-down on the hood of the police car, about to be arrested.
The Episode Review
The fourth episode of Night Sky marks the halfway point with a bit more plot development but a continued reliance on bags of patience from viewers. This is one slow, slow burn and while there are some answers sprinkled in here, there’s still a lot of meandering around and not-very-much-going-on across large swathes of the run-time. However, the story has a lot more atmosphere and mood to it now, almost in the same vein as Dark and The OA in many ways. It remains to be seen whether we’ll actually get any answers this season or not but for now, this episode bows out with a promising sign that we’re about to ramp up the drama going forward.
