The Audio Recorder
Episode 2 of The Stranded begins with Kraam awakening to find himself inside a dream. A purple hue hangs uneasily over the world as he approaches a woman humming a lullaby to her baby. Unfortunately, vines entwine around his legs and hold him down until he snaps awake. Nahm hands him his knife as he returns to the land of the living, where he heads back to the school to find the students bickering over what’s going on. Believing this is a supernatural occurrence, Nahm pleads with the students to see reason while Anan tells them they’ve been alone for too long. Here, we cut back in time and see Anan in music rehearsals while his parents watch on. In the aftermath of this, his Father berates him for a lack of control within the orchestra before we jump back to present day with the school. Out in the jungle, the water begins to heat up as Ice and Ying begin to get intimate, prompting them to hurry out and begin fixing the boat to leave the island. Before they can do that however, they need to bring it down from the wedged rock and together, they use a pulley to bring down the boat. With rope tied over his back, Kraam climbs the rock as classical music starts up again and we cut back to see Anan’s past performance as a conductor. As we jump back to the present, Kraam is hit by accident from above and falls hard on his back. When he’s brought to the infirmary, May and Kraam grow closer together. Arisa manages to get the audio recorder to work but on the tape labelled “Gone With The Wind”, she instead hears ominous singing, leading her on a mission to find the source of a word, leading them to a poem depicting a great flood wiping everything out. As night turns to day, Kraam and the others manage to bring the boat down courtesy of a montage segment. As they do, Arisa realizes that the tape has been intentionally manipulated…but why? Back on the boat, 10 people are picked at random to become those taken away from the island first. The number 1 name is Jack, the boy in desperate need of medical attention and in a bad way in the infirmary. However, they get distracted by food leaving Anan frustrated and unable to retain control of the group. Instead, he finds a piano by the shore and begins to play as the rest of the group listen to his music, drawn back in by the melody. Nahm approaches Kraam and asks him about his dream, telling him if he experiences it again not to resist and see where it takes him. As she walks off, Anan finishes his song and plays a native pop track instead. However, in the distance a strange woman staggers out from the jungle and collapses on the floor where we leave the episode. Who is this strange woman? What’s up with the audio recordings? And could the hot lagoons and earthquakes simply be explained as the start of a volcano erupting? There’s plenty more questions added to the fray this episode and the flashback scenes with Anan certainly give off the impression of a Lost episode. Although there isn’t an awful lot of characterisation, seeing the early signs of Joy and Kraam getting together may well prove to be a dramatic plot point used later on down the line. For now though, there’s enough here to keep you watching even if the show fails to really stand out among the glut of other mystery dramas of its kind.
