Aftermath “Madame Sosostris” picks up where the last episode ended. Aunt Sally is dead and the hordes of skinwalkers have been defeated. After Karen lights the funeral pyre for her sister, the Copeland’s agree to split up and get supplies and information.
As the family prepare to leave the Alamo, tremors shake the area. Booner tells them that this happens all the time. Joshua and Karen decide that now Brianna is back they want to go home.
Joshua takes Brianna and Devyn to find an old colleague; Gloria Douglas, who predicted everything that has happened. Dana, Karen and Matt all head off to a summer campground to get supplies.
Booner is reluctant to let the family leave but sends two “shooters” to tag along and gives them another vehicle. Jane accompanies Joshua and Martin goes with Karen.
As Martin and Dana have already bonded, this pairing up works out perfectly. The two potential lovers sit in the back of the pickup truck while Matt and Karen sit in the cab.
Joshua takes the RV to Memphis Pacific College and tells Brianna and Devyn to stay inside. Copeland enters the facility looking for Douglas and some answers.
Back at the campground, Martin and Dana go to the counselor’s cabins to look for supplies. Karen and Matt go to the main complex to do the same. Dana talks about how much she loved the camp and getting away from her family.
In the woods outside the camp, former female prisoners dressed in orange jumpsuits and carrying weapons, hear Dana and Martin talking. They have staked the camp out as being their territory and they advance on the interlopers.
Joshua begins to search for Professor Douglas when he hears the faint sounds of someone talking. He finds Douglas learning to speak Spanish. She is not overly welcome but not quite hostile.
Back at the camp, Martin and Dana stop in the middle of gathering supplies to make use of the barn. The two decide that they cannot wait any longer to consummate their relationship.
At the college, Devyn is acting odd. Brianna goes to check on him and is rebuffed.
Dana and Martin are making out in the barn when a man-eating plant vine grabs Dana by the leg. She thinks that Martin is tickling her. The vine begins to drag her away. Martin pulls a knife and hacks the thing off of Dana.
Joshua talks to Professor Douglas while he looks for her research materials. Suddenly Douglas attacks Joshua with an axe. The woman lets out an inhuman scream and chases him down the stairs, axe in hand.
Just as she is about to kill him, Jane, one of Booner’s shooters kills the thing. It melts away and Joshua explains that it is a shapeshifter. He tells Jane that it can take on the shape of anyone it can get close to.
Jane surmises that Douglas must be nearby. Joshua continues his search.
Dana and Martin escape from the man-eating plant. Just as Martin realizes he left his gun behind, they are confronted with two of the orange suited women with weapons of their own.
The convicts threaten to shoot the couple and Dana warns them about the plant. They ignore her and one of the women is dragged under a cabin. Her colleague shoots under the building and is completely freaked out by her friend’s death.
Dana and Martin escape.
Karen and Matt team up while the rest of the prisoners look for Martin and Dana. Joshua finds the real Douglas and she is not as welcoming as the shift changer was.
Copeland and Douglas share a history together. The prophesies he wants now were used by him and his colleagues to get the professor fired years ago. She is not in an overly forgiving mood and initially offers very little help.
Outside the building, Devyn runs out of the RV and wants to shoot himself. Brianna stops him but only just. Something is wrong with the boy from the religious commune.
The convicts capture Karen and Matt. She tries to reason with the three women but they tell her that Dana and Martin are dead, killed by them. Karen goes berserk. She throws a knife at one convict and takes a weapon from another.
Furious, she kills all three and empties the clip into the last woman. Dana arrives at that moment and is horrified at what her mother has done.
“Who are you” she asks Karen.
In the RV, Brianna hears a knocking on the door. Joshua asks her to open it. Once he gets inside Brianna learns that this is not her father but a shape shifter. It tries to kill her.
Devyn intervienes and kills the thing. The farm boy is able to kill the creature because he has been infected by a skin walker. Brianna says nothing about this new development and hugs Devyn.
Douglas confronts Joshua about getting her fired and finally tells him that everything he needs to know is in a shoebox. She also tells Joshua that the building is rigged with explosives and that he has one minute to find the box and get out.
He finds the box but the building does not explode. Douglas tells him that Mount Rainier is going to erupt soon and asks him to kill her. He cannot but Jane has no problem shooting the professor.
In these days, Jane says, if someone asks for that, you do it.
Joshua, Brianna and Devyn head back to the camp. There they learn about the convicts and Karen killing them all. Devyn comes out of the RV armed and he talks about the skinwalker and tells Brianna that he cannot fight it off any longer.
Matt tries to intervene and is knocked over by Devyn. Just before he shoots himself he tells Brianna that she was right, love is stronger than anything. Putting the barrel under his chin Devyn pulls the trigger.
Brianna throws herself onto the boy’s dead body and sobs.
This episode of Aftermath was about the continual evolution of the Copeland family. All the experiences faced by them so far has changed each member of the family.
Certainly the people around them are changing. The ones not taken over by skin walkers or other demons are also adapting to this new, temporary world.
Karen is tougher and will kill whomever threatens her family with no hesitation. Dana has been traumatized by Karen’s change. Joshua is also becoming a stronger character, proving that while Karen may be the “soldier” in the family he is no slouch in the protection stakes. Matt has also been hardened by events.
Brianna, however, has endured a lot of things that her family know nothing about. Her separation has changed her as well. Devyn’s death has affected her deeply making her the most vulnerable of the group.
Dana’s question, “Who are you,” to her mother could be applied to every member of this family fighting so hard to survive. They are all turning into new version’s of themselves.
Anne Heche continues to convince as the no-nonsense mother who will gladly kill to save her brood. Taylor Hickson also knocks it out of the park with her depiction of Brianna.
Aftermath is an ensemble piece where everyone holds their own and the show has been blessed with guest stars like Wayne Brady and Leslie Hope who step up and match the series regulars.
(On a sidenote: This episode title, which refers to Professor Douglas, is “Madame Sosostris.” The name comes from the T.S. Eliot poem The Waste Lands.)
Aftermath airs Tuesdays on SyFy. Tune in to see what weird and wonderful things the family encounter next as they face the end of the world.
Cast:
- James Tupper – Joshua Copeland
- Anne Heche – Karen Copeland
- Levi Meaden – Matt Copeland
- Taylor Hickson – Brianna Copeland
- Julia Sarah Stone – Dana Copeland
- Janet Kidder – Aunt Sally
- Peter Bryant – Dr. Rawlins
- Mitchell Kummen – Devyn
- Madison Smith – Martin Winters
- Sharon Taylor – Jane
Guest starring Wayne Brady as Lamar Boone and Leslie Hope as Gloria Douglas
