Summer
Episode 1 of The Third Day gets things off to a delightfully mysterious start as this latest Sky thriller leaves the door wide open for the rest of the show. While the sun beams down, a man named Sam talks on the phone about 40 grand stuck in his office. That money is for a guy called Aday. After checking up on the kids, Sam walks through the woods with headphones on. Florence and the Machine blares out as a dumbfounded Sam starts crying by a waterfall. Only, this is seemingly a flashback as he drops a t-shirt in the water and watches it float away. Walking on, Sam watches as a young girl looks to swing on a rope but suddenly winds up with a noose around her neck. Saving her life, he manages to help bring her back from the brink of death. As she catches her breath, we find out this woman’s name is Epona. Eventually she agrees to let him drive her home… but not before she drinks a bottle of salt water. It turns out this girl lives on an island but the only way to access it is to wait for low tide to cross the causeway. As he stops by the side and waits, he rings Aday and tells him he’s been burgled. After ending the call, he kicks a bug on the floor which begins spewing out hundreds of babies. Back in the car, Sam drives Epona back home. On the way she speaks about the upcoming festival. With many people gathering in the town, she tells him he needs to leave. However, Sam refuses to do so. That may come back to bite him too, as he heads inside Epona’s house – which happens to be a pub – and starts looking at all the pictures. Eventually Mr Martin shows up and starts talking about the region and God’s plan for him. Eventually he suggests Sam sticking around the night. Reading his face, Mr Martins drops what he’s saying and instead changes tact. Apparently his wife recognises him despite not being on the island before. It turns out this is from TV and his public appeals after losing one of his children. Unfortunately he receives a dreadful message that burglars have taken all the cash. When he asks Mr Martins for advice, he tells him to confront Aday as he’s clearly the one responsible. While heading to the toilet upstairs, Sam looks out the window and notices all the villagers together. Epona’s Father Jason is with them and starts getting angry. Outside Sam hesitates and tries to decide what to do next. Unfortunately he’s too late and when he gets to the dock, the pathway back home is completely gone. As he heads back along the shore, he sees the strange little boy from before. This unfortunately leads him to a very irate Jason who bemoans the rule of those living in the “big house”. He’s so angry infact, he starts smashing up a bucket. Sam hides in the grass nearby to evade him before making it back to the pub. Room 1 is the one he’s supposedly staying in but as he heads in, a woman happens to be there and it throws him off his game. Sam borrows her phone and rings Aday. He takes Mr Martins advice and confronts him about the burglary. It turns out he’s completely mistaken. Aday wasn’t involved after all as he was actually at the hospital. Sadly, this means the entire deal is going to fall through. However, there’s no time for that right now as the pub fills with thirsty patrons. Promising drinks on the house, Mr Martins encourages everyone to get “good and pissed” to help forget about the problems. As the night draws on, Sam excuses himself and heads out into the fields. There, he sees the little boy from before running through the trees. This appears to be a hallucination though as he finds bloodied clothes and a strange room. There’s more symbology too from the looks of it but these flashes are difficult to decipher. When Sam awakens inside his car, he finds the stacks of money – 40 grand from the looks of it – and walks back inside the pub.
The Episode Review
Atmospheric and creepy, there’s hints of Lost in here with lots of questions about what’s going on. There’s lots of hints of exposition through the dialogue which is a nice touch and the atmosphere in this series really is fantastic. There’s an amazing use of colour too with some muted scenes and a jarring use of neon lit lights. All of this combines with a minor key musical score and some extreme close ups that really add to the disorientating feel of this one. That’s to say nothing of the slow burn mystery which should hopefully develop into something quite special over time. This is definitely a good one to chew over each week and with 5 more episodes to go, there’s lots more content to get through.
