Constellation – Season 1 Episode 7 Recap & Review

Through The Looking Glass  

Constellation Episode 7 begins with Alice seeing Jo step out of a car right outside the cabin. But when Alice goes outside, there’s nothing there. She calls out and in the parallel universe, Jo hears something. Alice then puts her coat on and runs out into the snow.

In the other universe, Jo and Alice listen to the recording of their phone call right before the accident. But they’re talking in Swedish and Alice claims she doesn’t speak Swedish. Jo says she doesn’t even remember the CAL before the accident. They listen to another tape, of the day after the accident. The tape has Paul’s voice on it asking Station about Jo’s dead body. Alice then says Jo doesn’t feel like her mum but they promise to work it out with each other.

Meanwhile, Henry, Frederic and Magnus are on their way to Jo’s cabin. Henry claims he’s been through the same thing. While putting the CAL in the shed, Jo hears the other Alice’s screams again. With one Alice still in bed, Jo heads out to look for the other.

Alice reaches the cabin again but this time it seems broken down and empty. She finds a cupboard and gets inside, hanging her necklace on the door. The door suddenly slams shut, locking her in. Jo ends up finding her there but she’s already suffering because of the cold.

Jo carries her back to her original cabin and warms her up in a bath. When Jo leaves to get more hot water, she gets a headache. Suddenly, Jo disappears as does the water in the bathtub. Alice is alone again. Her father finds her and warms her up, but doesn’t believe she saw Jo.

In the other universe, Jo tells Alice to get dressed and they go out to find the other version of Alice. On the way, Alice suggests Jo is seeing things. Jo admits Alice was right, she’s not her mother. This makes Alice upset and she runs away.

The Other Alice bundles up in warm clothes and goes out again. This time, Magnus wakes up when she leaves. This Alice finds the necklace beads that her counterpart left in the snow while walking with Jo. She eventually comes across the CAL, fallen in the snow as well.

Alice, the one who ran away from Jo, ends up finding the empty, broken-down cabin. But this time, the white cassette player they were using is sitting on the table. She goes upstairs and finds the necklace on the cupboard door. She gets inside but at the front door, the Other Alice arrives.

In the cupboard, the first Alice records a message on the cassette player. The Other Alice finds the message and records one back. The two Alice’s start talking to one another despite not being able to see each other. They talk about being at the cabin and suddenly, Jo and Paul hear the girls’ voices in their respective universes.

They reach upstairs to see the voices are coming from the cassette player. Jo takes the player and gets in her car. Magnus goes out and sees Alice’s footsteps going out on the frozen lake. In the cabin Jo left, a lamp falls over and starts a fire.

The two Alice’s look in the mirror and talk to each other. One tells the other that her mother is dead. As they talk about her death, Jo realises the cabin is on fire and rushes back. Both Alices realise that their mothers have been swapped.

Elsewhere, while a road is being cleared of snow, Henry tells Magnus about his own experience. How his crew members were dead until suddenly they were alive again. As Magnus and the policemen spread out through the woods, Henry goes on his own and starts getting a headache.

Jo runs into the burning cabin only to enter the empty, broken one instead. She can still see the flames in the reflection of a painting. She goes upstairs and finds Alice in the cupboard. The Other Alice speaks through the cassette player. Jo speaks to her own Alice through the cassette player and even sees her in the mirror. Jo tells her she’ll try to make it back.

Henry follows a light in the snow and finds the CAL. But then he sees the burning cabin and drops the CAL in the snow as he rushes towards it.

The cabin suddenly shifts to the one on fire and Jo pulls Alice out, although she’s already inhaled quite a bit of the fumes. While Henry approaches the cabin, Bud has his confrontation with Paul in the other universe. Jo gives Alice to Henry and goes back in to look for her real daughter.

When Bud shoots Paul, something happens and Henry and Bud switch places. Or rather switch back. Henry is in the apartment with a bleeding Paul and Bud is now in the snow with Alice. He leaves her in the snow and walks away.

Jo comes out to find Alice unconscious. While she’s doing CPR, Jo’s real daughter arrives and says she can’t feel the other Alice anymore. Still, Jo tells her to go to her father. For a second, Magnus even sees silhouettes of the three of them in the snow from afar. Then it fades and he reunites with Alice.

Jo manages to revive the Other Alice but by then her own Alice is gone.

Sometime later, the injured Alice is sleeping in the hospital. She has a dream where she sees the Valya — the corpse in an astronaut suit. The Valya tells Alice she can take her to see her mother. When she wakes up, Magnus tells Alice that Irena is helping Jo get better. Alice says they need to get Jo back at the end of Constellation Episode 7.

The Episode Review

Constellation Episode 7 is a tad slow, but the measured pace allows for the convoluted plot to be laid out clearly. Things can get confusing with two Alices and multiple versions of the same cabin and snowy woods. But the use of Alice’s marked clothing, her use of ‘Mamma’ verses “Mummy’ and the cabin paintings do offer some signage to follow. Overall, the episode does feel a bit stretched out but it’s satisfying to see Jo and the two Alices finally figure out what’s been going on.

Henry and Bud’s sudden switch is perplexing, as is the mysterious Valya and whatever Irena intends to do with Jo. The focus on Jo’s story has somewhat taken away from the larger mystery of why the switch happened. Of the shadowy figure Jo saw on the ISS. Of the dead cosmonaut who started everything. I’m hoping that it doesn’t feel too rushed now that they are addressing it.