Earth Abides – Season 1 Episode 4 “Predators” Recap & Review

Predators

Episode 4 of Earth Abides starts with everybody scrambling to try and fix up Ish. He’s in a rough way after the cougar attack but they manage to get a pulse and he’s breathing. For a while though, the group aren’t sure if he’s going to pull through. Molly helps patch Ish’s wounds up but she’s torn over everything that’s taken place. 

When Ish regains consciousness, she admits that she actually failed med school, so she’s shocked that she was able to pull this off. However, it gives Molly faith that she may be doing the right thing, and Ish is soon up and moving about again.

As for Emma, she heads back to the abandoned playground and decides to hunt the cougar herself. It doesn’t take long for her to find the big cat and she  shoots it several times, screaming to the high heavens.

We then jump forward 3 years. We’re onto Year 17 now and Ish’s kids are starting to grow up. One of them, Heather, decides she wants to venture out beyond the community and explore the world. She essentially manipulates Emma into talk to Ish about it, claiming she’ll die if she sticks around here. Emma thinks it’s the right thing to let her go, and learn from the outside world, but Ish has his reservations.

However, there’s more pressing concerns here. The survivors are facing a drought, and it hasn’t rained in a long time. This, consequently, causes water to dry up everywhere. Ish heads out to Hoover Dam, but when they check the pipes, they notice rusting, a big, gaping hole and a distinct lack of water. Ish deduces that they probably have about a week or so if they ration before they run out properly.

Its been 10 years since they’ve seen another person, and the group are forced to head back to the compound when a bus full of people drives past on the road above. Joey is excited about the possibility of seeing others but Ish is not so sure. He thinks they all need to prepare… but it’s too late. The bus rocks up at their compound, and comes with a bottle of water as a “peace offering”.

Apparently, these survivors have learned how to dig wells and they want to share this luck with Ish and the group. The leader here is Charlie, and there’s a bunch of other survivors introduced over a meal together.

As they eat, Charlie contradicts himself with his poetry chatter, and he claims he can get the water flowing in around 72 hours. In exchange, he wants food and a place to crash for him and all his buddies. Charlie promises he’ll move along when the time is right but there’s something shady about him.

Out in the woods, Charlie doesn’t hesitate in shooting a deer but he does so from behind Ish. He also mentions how he’s had a lot of practice with killing. That night, Ish and Charlie are the last ones awake and they talk under the stars. Charlie has a very binary perspective on the world, believing life is separated into the strong and the weak. Whatever has been left behind by those who have passed belongs to them now.

Between drama with Alex, who thinks he’s shunned by Ish and pushed aside, Ish is concerned about Charlie. He doesn’t trust him but Emma just rolls her eyes and doesn’t believe him when he comes to her with his concerns that night. Ish is alone with his reservations, and he stumbles through the woods alone after seeing everybody happy and getting along swimmingly.

Remember Jean and her apparent struggles with substance abuse and how we jumped forward a decade and didn’t see anything? Well, that night she speaks to Charlie outside. They both have a smoke together, and he even offers her a drink. Jean refuses, but Charlie is pretty insistent, claiming that one swig “won’t kill her”. He’s not a good influence and Jean can feel that, and eventually shuns him.

That night, Ish shows up late and Emma is not happy. She speaks to her husband alone and he apologizes, claiming he got lost in the woods and turned around.

The next day, Charlie and the others drill deep and water sprays out. But unfortunately, just like Ish thought, Charlie doesn’t want to go and decides to stick around for a while.

The Episode Review

It’s taken 4 episodes but finally we get some proper conflict and human drama come up in Earth Abides. There’s still the issue with time jumping though, which this series doesn’t handle particularly well, throwing us through various years without properly characterising anyone.

For example, Heather has had barely any screentime so her leaving the community, which should be a big deal, goes down like a lead balloon. Simultaneously, we don’t see the progression of various characters and their demons, especially Jean whose issues with alcohol could have been a fascinating way to explore the apocalypse but unfortunately we don’t really get that.

However, the ensuing conflict between Ish and Charlie definitely sets everything up for a dramatic ending to this show, and it’ll be interesting to see what direction this one takes next.