Emma is on the other end and gives shocking revelations to the ailing father, bringing him out of his deep slumber. At the resort, Noah wakes up to find that Emma is gone. Where – he doesn’t know. He goes all around looking for her but doesn’t find her. To look for clues, he dives into Emma’s laptop and finds a map route open on it from the resort to the location of a park – from Ibarra’s book. Baltasar wakes up on the golfing course and takes a cabbie back to the resort, where the Teds – the gay couple from episode 1 – are at Luna’s desk, looking to make a vacation memory. Baltasar is not kidding around and goes straight to Emma’s room, demanding to see the book. No one answers so he climbs from the back. Luna soon comes in, berating him for doing something so bizarre. They both are found in the room by Murray, whom Baltasar instantly recognizes. Both are looking for Emma, but Murray reveals that she has left instructions to where she is going. More importantly, where her daughter might have been seen last. The messages left for Murray play over the image of Emma making it to the park. They are mainly instructions on how to get to Pasaje, but also profound insights into Emma’s psyche. It explains the mechanics of her though-process and emotional vulnerability, as she looks for avenues to rediscover the lost magic in her marriage. She calls Pasaje something that is out of time – a place where you can either relive a moment or catch a glimpse of the future. Instructions => Enter the park => Hike straight for 13.5 km, until you see a clearing of tall grass => Next, depending on the season, you might see a cluster of rare pink fungi growing nearby => If you do, the underground entrance to Pasaje is 30m away. Emma then spirals into the elusive idea in her head of chasing what Sam and Violet represent – the feeling of falling in love for the first time. A period where you’re young and dumb and can afford to make mistakes. She even compares the feeling with films like Titanic and Romeo & Juliet. Emma finds a red piece of clothing that a flashback shows as being used by Violet and Sam to rest for the day. They don’t really admit that they’re lost but take comfort in each other’s company. As the voiceover continues, we see Noah arrive at the park. He goes in and tries to track down Emma’s path clear in the mud. Emma finally talks about her marriage. It is for the first time in the show she has actually put her feelings and frustration in the relationship into words. She compares it to the idea of vacation and indicates her marriage has reached a tipping point. Noah and Emma seem lost too – not just in the relationship, but also in the jungle when they hear the sound of a helicopter whirring around nearby. They both chase it and find each other and the copter. From inside emerges Baltasar, Luna, Murray, pilot Abigail, and the Teds. The last parties join in as it is one of the partner’s ways of surprising the other with a completely new adventure. While the group rests and Murray hurls down local vegetation nearby to scope out the area, Noah and Emma have a talk. More like a fight where the point of their marriage ending also comes up. She says she needs space and wants Joah to stop treating her like a child. Abigail takes a picture of the group in front of the chopper, indicating a menacing prophecy that they might be lost too and someone in season 2 (if it happens at all) might come looking for them next. Group photos have always been a sign of death or people going missing. We will see what happens. Luna reads from the last chapter of the book about the “arrow of time”, which will lead to the underground tunnel. She sits alongside Baltasar, Noah, and Emma around the bonfire, where they discuss where will they go when they reach Pasaje. It is again a first for Emma in the season talking about her child who died shortly after birth. She says she might see her face in the past, something she purposely chose not to do back then. Noah confesses he isn’t sure about himself and Emma and that terrifies him. He would catch a glimpse of the future to see how they were doing. The next morning, Noah wakes up beside Emma but finds her tooth infection has swelled her face. The pus needs to be drained and the tooth taken out. In the absence of a dentist, Noah takes out the tooth for Emma and faints. When he wakes up, Emma thanks him and says she is fine now. It is sort of an intimate moment for the two but doesn’t last as Murray calls them away – and everyone else. He has found the arrow of time and Emma says looking at it, “Now we go in”.
The Episode Review
Amidst all the distractions that Ben Daniels managed to throw us off, The Resort has come back to being about what it was in episode 1: Noah and Emma’s failing marriage. Beneath the surface, as the craziness of the past unraveled and Baltasar Frias took center stage, we lost track. The distance gradually grew and things still are in balance. They could go either way depending on what they see underground in Pasaje. But Emma’s voiceover in this episode was probably the highlight of the entire season. It is the core of what Daniels wanted the story to be about, wrapped in a mystery thriller about lost people. The group has made remarkable strides towards uncovering the secrets that have eaten them from inside all season long. Nick Offerman makes a return in episode 7 and will be pivotal in the finale as well. The level of performance, especially Cristi, was top-notch in this episode. It was the best thing about it as the story took a nominal breather. The actors really dug deep into their characters’ skin and tried to manifest their insecurities on screen. The storm that brewed inside their heads is not one of profound meaning but of a tragic reality and unhealed trauma. We have been anxiously waiting for a reveal of how Pasaje looks and what it really is and if the finale falls short of giving us a satisfactory answer, things could get ugly for the show as a whole.
