The Big Door Prize – Season 2 Episode 1 “The Next Stage” Recap & Review

The Next Stage

Episode 1 of The Big Door Prize season 2 starts with Hana over at the bar. A guy called Kolton shows up trying to pose as his 40 year old, whom he’s also taken his truck to get here. Apparently he’s sick of his town, with “pointless people doing pointless thing” and it’s similarly something Hana vibes with.

However, she decides to serve him an ale… a ginger ale. On his way out, he tells her he’s glad he met her, and walks away.

Something is definitely amiss though, and when Hana heads home (with Kovac’s licence which Kolton left behind at the bar) she notices more blue dots on her back. She decides to head on down to Deerfield, the neighboring town, unaware that Kolton has actually passed away and his twin brother, Jacob, is the one we’ve become acquainted with.

Hana is taken aback by this revelation and even more so when she spots the Morpho machine in the convenience store, something that happened to be in her bar first, outside town.

All of this is basically a prologue for where we end up, which is where Hana approached Dusty and the others at the end of season 1, telling them that the machine has “never done that before” regarding starting up the next phase.

The group decide to listen to Hana, and they head over to the bar to hear what she knows. Apparently the Morpho was at the bar but it was never a town-wide “thing”. People always just got their cards and left. She never saw what happened to them, nor has she ever seen anyone team up together to try and hit their potential. This time though, she wants in.

Now, it turns out that some people have blue dots on them but others don’t. Beau mistakes his mole for a dot but he’s hilariously shot down. When the lights turn back on, everyone decides to leave… except for Father Reuben. He stays behind but only to get his two cents in with Hana, pointing out he doesn’t even know her anymore and certainly doesn’t trust her.

Back home, Dusty and Cass discuss their dots… and learn that Trina doesn’t have any. The latter comes up with a rather hopeful reason for what this next stage is, but her parents naturally don’t agree. However, one thing they do both agree on is spending some time apart… well kinda. Dusty is going to stay in the basement, and they’ll have separate schedules too.

They need to work on the logistics but they basically decide that they’ll be away for 6 weeks and then collate back once they’ve discovered more about themselves.

At the same time, Beau is made sheriff and he’s to look after Mr Johnson, on order of the Mayor. Izzy tasks him with staying and watching over the store owner. He does wake up in the middle of the night and he remembers Beau as a kid.

Meanwhile, Hana returns to the Morpho machine. There, she finds Jacob inside, trying to get it to start initiating the next phase. Whilst there, Hana tells him the truth about how she met Kolton… and the real reason she followed him. It turns out he mysteriously had blue dots on the back of his neck. Jacob is not happy that Hana never told him until now and she feels awful for it.

When Cass and Dusty show up, they manage to help get the Morpho machine to work by using the theremin to hit the right audio waves. Hana is the one who manages to hit each of the tones… and it works! It activates the machine and this time they don’t need coins. Instead, they need to “insert their cards”. Dusty goes first, and after placing his card inside, he’s surprised by what he sees.

The Episode Review 

The first episode wastes absolutely no time picking up right where we left off last season. The drama involving the Morpho machine continues to deepen and it’s clear that it has something to do with those strange blue dots too. Quite what this means and how that ties into the whole mystery, is anyone’s guess.

The show has done well so far to keep things interesting, and this second season hints that we’re going to be diving deep into the mythos of the machine and what it means for the residents of our quaint little town. Is Hana telling the truth too? Or does she know more about this Morpho machine? We’ll have to wait and see on that front. With 3 eps releasing at once, thankfully we don’t have to wait long to get some answers!