BWW Recap: Time Has Come for INTRUDERS to School Viewers

Ice cream, beaches, and lemonade were replaced this week by pencils, textbooks, and desks as Labor Day came and went, signaling the end of summer and the start of a new school year. Supplies were bought, backpacks were filled, and buses were ridden as kids made their way back to class. In solidarity with children nationwide, BBC America decided that it was time for INTRUDERS viewers to learn a thing or two as well. Like all good teachers, though, BBC America wants viewers to be constantly curious and ask questions, so for every mystery they help us solve, two new mysteries arise. We're almost at the halfway mark in the season - time for midterms, if you will - and things are getting even more intense. We need to start studying if we're going to know how to put the whole puzzle together at the end. Let's begin.

Lesson One: Marcus' History:
We already know that Marcus (it seems pretty clear that Marcus has completely taken over the body that used to belong to Madison) is pretty creepy - and pretty important - but until now, we're not quite sure why (I'll get back to this in a bit). Marcus educates Karen, the lady she paid to shuttle her from the train station to Seattle - about a key event from her past. Tim Truth's podcast plays on the radio when the show begins, but Karen quickly dismisses Truth as crazy and changes the station, at which point classical music plays. Karen, clearly not a fan of conspiracy theories or Mozart - tries to change the station again, but Marcus demands it stay. Remember last week, when George, the Seattle cab driver, told Jack that Amy claimed to be a secret spy for the Russian czar in the 1800s? Marcus tells Karen a similar story. He identifies the song as Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" - roughly translated as "hail, true body" - and claims that he was a member of the orchestra that first performed it back in 1791. Not weird enough for you? Marcus says he was there performing the night a girl was murdered. We learned last week that coincidences don't exist on INTRUDERS. You do the math.

Lesson Two: Jack's Past:
Surprise: Jack's an alcoholic! Ok, maybe not an alcoholic, but he does like his booze, and he evidently turns to it in times of trouble. On his drunken drive home, he browses Amy's iPhone for music and finds only one song: a jazz number appropriately named "Baby Won't You Please Come Home." Amy's new transformation is summed up perfectly through a series of flashbacks, highlighting three key events: the happy couple dancing to rock music; the night Amy, complete with shawl, privately danced to jazz for the first time; and the morning she woke up and uttered that mysterious sentence that seems to be a motto for Qui Reverti members: "Because in the beginning, there was death." No wonder Jack turns to alcohol - his wife is changing right before his eyes, and there's nothing he can do to stop it. Amy's jazz transitions into what is possibly the most appropriate song ever: "Time has Come Today," performed by the Ramones. With that, we move right along to our next lesson.

Lesson Three: Why Marcus Matters!
This is my favorite chapter by far. This would be the chapter in school that I'd read ahead to even though it wasn't assigned for homework because it was just too good to pass up. In what appears to be a flashback, we follow our ever-cheery assassin Richard Shepherd into an empty room, where an elderly man waits for him in a booth. That man, we soon learn, is Marcus Fox - the soul that now resides in poor Madison's body. Marcus teaches us that a man (or maybe a woman, who knows!) named Cranefield convinced a group called "The Nine" (a name echoed and reinforced by the number nine on the giant yellow pool ball painted on the wall behind him) to kill him off, once and for all. Clearly, Marcus did something to anger his fellow Qui Reverti members, and now he's taken matters into his own hands. He proposes a plan: when The Nine kill him, Richard will shepherd him (what that means exactly, we're yet to learn), off the books, and then bring him back when the time is right. In return, Richard gets a large monetary reward. Obviously Richard is hesitant - sure, he's a bit rebellious, but he's safe with Qui Reverti, and this plan risks an incredible number of lives. In the end, though, Marcus hands Richard a sand dollar (the very one Richard showed Madison at the beach in Oregon), Richard takes it, and leaves with the bag of cash. As Richard walks out, Marcus gives him one last piece of wisdom: "What goes around, comes around."

Now we know why there was no book made for Marcus Fox, and why Mrs. Ng was so nervous about Qui Reverti higher-ups finding out about Richard's scheme. We also know why Richard is so bent on murder - it's in his best interest that anyone who could potentially reveal his plan with Marcus is silenced.

Lesson Four: Jack's Just as Confused as We Are:
His confusion begins when he returns the Zimmerman's car. He thinks he's fulfilling his end of the deal, but when he turns to leave, he sees Bobbi Zimmerman standing there, gun pointed right at him. What's her deal? No one knows. Jack, being the former cop he is, calmly explains himself and diffuses the tension. As he walks away, Mrs. Zimmerman says, "Welcome back." Were you paying attention during the first two episodes? "Welcome back" (or more specifically, "Welcome back again") is what Qui Reverti shepherds say to souls being returned to new bodies. Does Mrs. Zimmerman have something to do with Qui Reverti? If her store's name is any clue, I'd say yes. Yes she does.

Jack's confusion reaches new heights when he returns home and confronts Amy. She's furious that he's been drinking and fighting again (he's done this in the past!), and even more furious that he spoke to Crane, but she quickly gets over it and reassures Jack: "I would never leave you. You're my shepherd." Um...what? He's your shepherd? As in, Qui Reverti shepherd? Jack is as clueless as we are, and clearly doesn't understand the significance of that phrasing. Later on that night, however, Amy makes another attempt at educating Jack about Qui Reverti, albeit in a very vague manner. Jack finds Amy outside, smoking, talking to someone on the phone, and he's worried. She writes this off as a customer service call to the phone company to straighten things out with her old, "stolen" phone that George found in his cab. Jack retrieves her old phone for her, and we see that he cloned the device on his computer. All trust between them is gone, and he demands a truthful explanation from her about her behavior. Amy, in turn, asks to separate from him. Odd, considering she just swore she'd never leave him. Jack is puzzled as well, and ends up putting his fist through a glass door out of frustration at her mysterious answers. When things settle, Amy attempts to explain more clearly, but without revealing details, what she needs to do (namely, complete her reincarnation process), but Jack doesn't understand. He explodes, and we learn that they had a baby together who died, and that Jack credits Amy for saving his life in Los Angeles. The clouded events of Jack's LAPD past are still fairly hazy, but we know now that it has something to do with an event in which a disheveled Jack murdered a handful of people in a residential house.

As if Jack (and us!) isn't confused enough as it is, Gary, Jack's LAPD friend, demands they meet in Seattle to discuss Amy. Jack obliges, and Gary shows him photos of Amy that he took in the city a day before, when she claimed that she spent the day at home. Gary assures Jack it's not an affair, but then drops a bigger bomb on Jack: he claims that he has reason to believe that Amy is a part of the group that is actively trying to murder Bill Anderson. If Jack thought he could handle his confusion before, I wonder what he feels like now.

Lesson Five: Shepherd Really Likes Blowing Things Up:
Okay, so we kind of knew this already (see Episode One when he set Anderson's basement on fire). But now we learn what a heartless man he really is. Karen, Marcus' way to Seattle, finds Shepherd's number on the black card in his pocket, stops at a rest stop, and calls him. While Shepherd rushes there, Marcus finds out what Karen did and kills her. Marcus runs off before Shepherd gets there, and Shepherd finds Karen's body on the bathroom floor. Loopy lovers, be warned: if you had problems with the cat drowning, you may not like this next scene. Shepherd sets Karen's car on fire before he leaves, chucks a handful of human teeth - Karen's teeth! - out of his window while driving, and launches her severed head into a river. See? He's pretty cold. (But also pretty awesome.) At the end, we're given one last lesson: "People come back...one way or another."

Conclusion: I don't know about you, but I'm not going to be skipping any homework any time soon.

What did you think of tonight's INTRUDERS History lesson? Let me know what you learned in the comments below, and come back for class next Saturday night.

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