The Changeling season 1 episode 4 recap & review: The Wise Ones

Open Go TV / September 16, 2023 / Reviews

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In The Changeling season 1 episode 4, William buys a book from Apollo and later hits him with news that leaves Apollo surprised. The episode is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Recap

An adult Lillian, who has bruises on her face, is seen carrying a bag to a river. In the present, Apollo and his friend, Patrice, are waiting for William Wheeler to arrive.

Apollo learns about a social media page paying tribute to Brian from Patrice. Apollo is in utter disbelief that someone has created such a page and that people are talking a lot about the incident.

William arrives, and Patrice is not impressed by him at all. Patrice believes William is someone who has never been with a woman. However, to their surprise, William reveals he has two daughters and a wife named Gretta Strickland.

William takes them to a boat he has rented through an app he has created himself. Apollo doesn’t waste time and hands William his book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Apollo and Patrice have gift-wrapped it.

William mentions that this was always meant to be a gift. William regrets not being a great father or husband. He plans to win his family back with this book by gifting it to his wife.

Back home, nightmares of what happened the day he lost his family continue to haunt Apollo. He also gets obsessed with reading posts on Brian’s social media page.

Apollo meets Kim to thank her for helping his mother with Brian’s funeral. Apollo pays Kim back for everything she has done. She comforts Apollo before leaving. Apollo has said goodbye to his wife’s family.

Once Kim is gone, Apollo receives a text from an unknown number that claims Emma Valentine is alive. Apollo is sent a location and asked to come and meet.

The location leads Apollo to none other than William Wheeler, who claims that he has just found out that Emma is alive. William says Emma is on an island in the East River. He has found the Wise Ones. Apollo ridicules William’s revelation.

At first, Apollo suspects that William is just trying to sell his app by forcing Apollo to rent a boat. However, William has proof. Apollo and Patrice check the files sent by William. These files are images from CCTV footage, and they have captured Emma.

After seeing the concrete proof, Apollo hops on a boat with William. While Apollo catches some of William’s lies, like how he lied about not knowing how to drive a boat, William tells Apollo a harsh truth about his friend Patrice. It turns out that Patrice is one of those people posting on Brian’s page.

Apollo sees the George Washington Bridge, remembers his time with Emma, throws away his ring, and ties the red thread to one of his fingers. In a matter of moments, they spot the island they are looking for.

After reaching the island, Apollo asks William why he is doing this for him. William claims that his wife said no to reconciliation. He would have been spending time alone in his basement tonight, going crazy. Hence, he decided to accompany Apollo.

Apollo and William discover hospital beds on the island. William recognizes this place as North Brother Island. It used to be a hospital for the infected.

They soon come across a building that has a room with lights on. Apollo goes all alone, shouting that he is the god Apollo and demanding Emma to come out.

A group of women attack Apollo, and after recognizing him as Emma’s husband, they take him to Cal, as in Calisto. On their way to Cal, Apollo sees the woman from the church who suffered from the same experiences Emma had.

Cal convinces Apollo that the baby is an illusion. Just when Apollo and Cal are about to discuss who created this illusion, William shouts. Upon realizing that William is Gretta’s husband, Cal beats William a lot.

William and Apollo are put in cages. Once Apollo and William are alone, the latter reveals that he has been trying to find this place for months. Apollo joined him, and they quickly spotted it.

William confesses that he knows who Apollo is. He has been following his life since he heard about Emma giving birth on a train. He saw Apollo as everything he should have been and wanted to see a happy ending he couldn’t have.

William only has one daughter now; he once had two daughters, but then Gretta listened to Cal, just like Emma did. William claims that he can help Apollo get to Emma if he helps him get Gretta and his daughter, Grace, back.

Apollo will probably meet Gretta, and he needs to convince her that it wasn’t her fault and that she should come back home. William says if Apollo doesn’t agree, everyone on this island is going to die.

In the present, the bag Lillian had at the start of the episode is deep in the river, and Lillian is staring at the waters near the river.

Review

The fourth episode of The Changeling brings the whole story back on track, and following this one timeline is better than what the show has been doing with its time jumps and extremely slow pace.
The show still hints that time jumps are to be expected with the scenes involving Lillian. However, it refrains from dropping anything concrete yet, which kills the fun a bit.
The dialogues and fairytales confuse more than hint at the point the show is trying to make. A viewer has to watch the scene more than once to understand the message.