'The Terror: Infamy' Proclaims "Come And Get Me" In Its Penultimate Episode
The Terror: Infamy is ticking down towards its final episode, and it's ready to go out with a bang – literally. By the end of "Come and Get Me", a rushed, hurried episode, most of our main characters are deposited somewhere extremely hazardous: on the New Mexico land that will be home to the July 1945 Trinity test of the atomic bomb. Of course, our heroes don't know that. And they have a ghost to deal with anyway.
1945
I suppose we should've seen this coming. The Terror: Infamy was destined to end up here, at the dawn of the Atomic Age. "Come and Get Me" kicks-off in January 1945, and works its way towards July. First, the remaining detainees – including Chester's adoptive parents, the Nakayamas – are finally released from the camp. These early moments are the best of the episode, which is slightly odd, since they contain no supernatural horror and instead play out as straightforward drama. As they leave the camp, the former prisoners are treated to a speech in which they're told they should be grateful to Uncle Sam for providing them with "shelter" – as if they had any choice.
Lingering shots of the now-empty camp give are haunting – far more haunting than all the supposedly spooky stuff we've seen so far. Before the opening credits roll, the Nakayamas stop off for a bite to eat, and Asako tells a story of overhearing a child complaining about wanting to go home. "Home" to this child is the camp – she's never seen her actual home. It's a somber, melancholy moment, but hope is still int he air. The Nakayamas, along with Amy – who is personally tormented by her murder of Major Bowen, which no one has seemed to discover yet – head back to Terminal Island with their heads held high.
That doesn't last. By the time they get there, they find that their homes have been demolished and removed, replaced by nothing but flat, empty land now owned by the U.S. Government. This is an incredibly effective opening overall, but The Terror: Infamy has no time for this sort of stuff, so we crash-bang into six months later.
Henry is now working as a gardener, and he and Asako are living in terrible conditions on Skid Row. They have no idea what happened to Chester, but don't worry, he's managed to track them down (don't ask how; the show doesn't explain). Chester informs his parents that he and Luz are hitched, and Luz is about to give birth. He also says that Yuko's ghost is still out there, and that she wants to steal the baby. Even though Chester and his adoptive parents parted on less-than-great terms, the Nakayamas still hop on a bus for a reunion, and to help. Asako is happy to see Chester, but Henry still holds a grudge for the way the boy he raised as his son treated him.
But father and son aren't going to have much time to hash things out because Luz is about to pop. And oh yeah, Yuko is just hanging around, biding her time, ready to pounce.
Here's to Little Boy
One of the biggest flaws of this season has been its inability to fully explain just how Yuko works. To be fair, she's a supernatural being and her very existence defies explanation. But there are no real rules in place, and she seemingly is able to come and go as she pleases, even though she also still has her own body. But what Yuko really likes to do is possess people, which she does again and again and again this episode.
She first infiltrates the family by posing as a priest who shows up just as Luz is going into labor. Chester, Luz, Henry, Asako and Luz's Abuela all hop into a car and burn rubber. They end up at a secret facility somewhere in the New Mexico desert, and hunker in a bunker. Surely they've lost Yuko, right? Wrong. She's still coming.
After Luz gives birth to the world's quietest baby – a son – Chester stalks off and reveals a plan to Henry: he's going to kill himself. After all, all Yuko wants is another son so she can have her twins back. Chester reasons that if he bumps himself off, Yuko can take him instead and spare his newborn son. What Chester doesn't know is that Yuko is already there, and she's somehow possessed the baby (how?).
Not content to stay inside a baby, Yuko then possesses Luz's Abuela, which leads to one last (?) twist. Asako confesses to her ghost-sister that it was she, not Yuko, who was meant to marry Furuya, and that Yuko was supposed to marry Henry. After Asako learned that Furuya wasn't an "honorable man", she changed things so that it was Yuko who ended up with the abusive would-be-spouse. "All of this suffering is your fault!" Yuko-as-Abuela cries, and a scuffle ensues.
Chester and Henry miss most of this, though, because they're both outside, where they encounter a drunken British man who is celebrating. What is he celebrating? Why, Little Boy, of course. "Here's to Little Boy!" he cries. "Who's little boy?" Chester asks, befuddled, before Henry has to knock the drunk Brit out for asking too many questions. Chester and Henry have no idea what Little Boy is, but we do, thanks to history. The Americans are about to test the Atomic bomb, which will no doubt play a big part in the final episode next week. But before we can get to that, Yuko badly injures both Asako and Luz's Abuela, then possesses Luz, and walks off into the night with the baby.
It's perhaps unfair to keep comparing The Terror season 2 to season 1, since they're such different stories. But I distinctly remember the pit of dread I felt in my stomach when the second-to-last episode of season 1 rolled around. That season had done such a masterful job of mounting tension (and dread) that it was almost unbearable. With Infamy, there's nothing even close to that feeling. If anything, I just can't wait till this is all over with. Infamy had such potential but ultimately squandered it. Perhaps the big finale will set things right.