Have You Heard?
Episode 3 of Chosen begins with that masked figure unveiling his true form. After getting rid of his mask, complete with long, sharp spikes protruding into his back, he takes on a human form and arrives at a local diner. Copying the mannerisms of those around him, he orders a drink. He also begins acting incredibly suspect too, although no one really pays him any attention. After what happened with Hans, Emma speaks to Marie and contemplates whether to go to the police or not. When a new sub teacher shows up and takes Hans’ place, Emma is shocked. It all seems to be a big conspiracy, as a suspect voicemail is left on his phone and the official story being pedaled is that Hans has a family emergency and won’t be teaching for a while. The police have found nothing, as it turns out, and a visit to his property confirms as much. There’s no sign of struggle. No body, no evidence of a break-in whatsoever. And the basement? Empty. In order to get some answers (and prove she’s not completely crazy), Emma heads over to visit Susan. As suspected, she confirms that she and Hans broke up that night. The memories are too painful for her though and eventually she tells Emma to leave. Meanwhile, Mads gets to work investigating Astraeus. Doing some digging, he learns that the company have numerous subsidiary companies and all of them are set up and located around previous UFO sightings and places with extraterrestrial activity. Mads believes that Astraeus want their hands on alien tech, hence the secrecy. Mads refuses to believe what Emma has seen. After all, she’s only just become part of their team and to suddenly see an alien and be wrapped up in this feels like too big a coincidence. The clues they need, however, may well lie with the shipping dock. Astraeus have a big area that’s secretively closed off and it could well hold valuable intel. That much is especially true when Emma heads to work. As she tries to open one of the doors, her boss jumps in and warns her against doing this, reminding her sternly that this is off-limits. When Emma joins with the group again, she recollects seeing a silver van parked outside Hans’ place. Thanks to Frederik’s quick wits and ringing a rental place (lucky it was a rental van wasn’t it!) they manage to tack down its location to a seedy motel just outside town. The records they manage to pull don’t confirm much, although a man by the name of Jens Jessen may or may not be a clue here. While they wait for movement at the motel, Emma ends up sleeping with Frederik. Wait, didn’t she have a thing going with Marie? What is she doing? Anyway, the pair get a motel room and have sex. After, Emma heads out midway through her shower when she hears a truck leaving. It’s their truck, but the driver isn’t the man they’re looking for. Concerned, he tells Emma to put more clothes on before driving off. Meanwhile, Elvis and Marie head back into Hans’ place and begin looking around. Upon closer inspection, Marie finds traces of fungus hidden next to a dresser. We haven’t seen a lot about Elvis, but here we learn there are tensions between him and his sister Noreen. Thee same Noreen who kissed Jonas at the fairground. Elvis is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, given his father isn’t doing very well. He’s kept it a secret from her this whole time. After this bit of exposition, Marie takes a flower she found in the basement to Mads. There are no scientific records of it in the system, meaning thee flora could well be extraterrestrial by nature. It’s a big breakthrough and the gang all begin drinking and celebrating their win. Emma though, doesn’t share in the celebrations. When she returns to the group, she reveals to Marie that she’s had enough of this life and just wants to be normal. So with that, she rides home alone. Unfortunately being alone makes her vulnerable and she’s soon kidnapped by that strange man who killed Hans. In an abandoned warehouse, he questions her about the organism and how these parasites are hungry, wanting to kill anything that gets in their way – including Emma. As he looks set to walk away, Emma decides to trust him and checks notes asks him to give her a life home. En-route, we find out his name is Lukas. The fact that she’s so calm over this man she saw murder her teacher is utterly bizarre. Weirdness continues that night as we cut across to various townsfolk who gather around Hans’ deceased body and drop to their knees in a circle. While they do, Emma notices a strange orb in the back of her neck and pulls it free. The same orb that Hans seems to have placed there.
The Episode Review
Emma’s motivations here feel so shallow and contrived. I’m not quite sure why we’ve seen her hook up with Frederik and also Marie, but it just gives the impression of her being a pretty deceitful friend. I’m sure that’s not thee intention but it’s the reaction I get from watching this. Not only that, Emma seems to be flip-flopping between these different states of being all-in on the operation and then completely nonchalant to the whole thing. The ending with her captive, Lukas, just feels so weird and out of character too. This is a man she saw kill her teacher. She should be frightened or worried but instead she… asks him for a lift home? The series also has a strange way of exuding exposition, taking it in turns with the kids to sit and have a one to one about their familial issues. But then never building on that or including it later in the chapter. The problem with this approach is that it feels orchestrated and several scenes later, it’s forgotten about. This has been a pretty disappointing effort so far and when you compare it to so many other teen dramas of the same style, this one doesn’t compare.
