By starrymag | August 3, 2016

By: Allison Schonter

 

Horror Genre Genius is Thrown Into the Ring

 

Noah (John Karna) is head over heels for Zoe (Kiana Ledé) and after everything that’s happened (including their most recent roll around in the bed), he wants to make sure that she’s alright. She’s been thrown into this crazy world of serial killers and mysteries and it’s a lot to process. So he texts her and she texts back. Before he knows it, Noah’s meeting Zoe at the lake. Only Zoe isn’t there and Noah is so blinded by love that he doesn’t pay attention to his own horror movie genre genius and wanders away from the car and into the woods. A call from the killer quickly changes things and a threat to Zoe pushes Noah over the edge, but before he can do anything he is stabbed in the gut and knocked out.

 

When Noah finally regains consciousness, he is in a coffin buried alive. The one person who is always pointing out the obvious things not to do has suddenly found himself right in the middle of the story and it just so happens that dying of suffocation is #3 on his list of worst ways to die. There is a camera recording him and Noah has no intentions of giving the killer the satisfaction of him panicking. As he loses more blood, he begins to hallucinate Zoe. Zoe is the only thing that keeps him calm and keeps him fighting. They talk about their future and the possibility of going to Boston, studying together and growing old together. But the hallucination fades and Noah is left alone.

 

Audrey Jensen AMA

 

Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus) and Emma’s (Willa Fitzgerald) relationship has hit a very rough patch and it seems as if maybe this time there is no smoothing it over. During an exclusive Audrey Jensen AMA, Emma asks her why she brought Piper (Amelia Rose Blaire) to Lakewood and Audrey admits that she wanted to create a Brandon James documentary, but she never intended for Piper to begin hurting people. It was never about Emma, it was always about Lakewood. Emma, however, doesn’t believe her.

 

When Noah doesn’t show up at school, Audrey gets worried and she approaches Emma. The killer has plans for them and Audrey receives a text from the killer with a video of Noah. They are going on a treasure hunt to find him and if the police are involved, Noah will die. The first clue leads them to Noah’s murder board and they find a daffodil hidden behind it, which likewise leads them back to the Brandon James farm. They realize that the killer is sending them there because they played there. The killer is attempting to ruin their relationship and drive them further apart and it’s working. He/she knows about their childhood and Audrey admits to telling Piper about it. Piper must have been working with the killer since the beginning and that is how the killer now knows so much about Audrey and Emma.

 

Emma receives another text from the killer when they get into the barn. It’s a video of Jake’s (Tom Maden) death, who was gutted like a pig. They are being taunted and things only get worse when the live stream of Noah cuts out. In a desperate attempt to find him before it’s too late, Audrey and Emma split up, but both of their searches turn out to be fruitless and with their emotions heightened and Emma still struggling to comprehend why Audrey hated her so much, Audrey admits that Emma broke her heart.

 

The confession has little time to be lingered on because they hear singing and realize that Noah is buried right below their feet. They are able to get him out, but now they face another obstacle: finding Zoe. Another phone is discovered and this one has a video of Zoe and the Lady of the Lake sash that she is wearing leads them to the lake. But they are too late and as they pull a coffin from the lake, they realize that the video they had been watching was pre-recorded and Zoe is already dead.

 

Guess Who’s Back

 

After discovering Piper’s body and completing an autopsy on it, which included the gruesome discovery of a pig heart in her chest, Sheriff Acosta (Anthony Ruivivar) realizes that he may have a much bigger problem on his hands: Brandon James is back. Maggie (Tracy Middendorf) is reluctant to believe him, but Acosta’s belief brings him to the James’s house where he finds a hidden room with pictures of Emma in it.

 

Alone in his office, the sheriff receives a call from an anonymous person who tells him that there has been a disturbance at the Brandon James farm. There have been screams and squeals and the person (who the audience knows is really the killer) tells the sheriff that he should investigate it. He follows the advice and soon enough discovers the coffin, the carcass of the pig and perhaps even more disturbing, a hand that likely belongs to Seth Branson.

 

Maggie had been reluctant to believe that Brandon had returned, but by the end of the episode she seems to have begun to think otherwise. In a short flashback, a younger Maggie walks out of her room and to a tree where Brandon has left a note for her requesting that she doesn’t forget him. Back in the present, Maggie returns to the same tree and leaves a note for Brandon, but when she leaves it is Eli (Sean Grandillo) who steps out from the bushes.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Wow, “The Vanishing” was a tough one to watch and took the suspense to an entirely new level. The entire episode had us worrying over Noah when we should have been worrying over Zoe. Noah’s hallucinations of Zoe and their talk of the future that they could have had makes Zoe’s death even more heartbreaking and it leaves me wondering how this will affect Noah going forward. Before this, his obsession with the murders had been a hobby, but will it turn into something more of revenge?

 

One bright thing did come out of this episode, though, and that was the mending of Audrey and Emma’s relationship. It wasn’t easy and it’s still probably not even close to being completely healed, but the killer’s attempt to push them further apart actually forced them closer together. Audrey and Emma are the killer’s targets and if they want to survive, they will have to work with and rely on one another.