Reflections Part II

## Official Summary

The newly-formed operational cell comprised of Mitch, Kiera, and Pierce is informed by Tiresias, its new handler, that they are to take 3 days for R&R before being transported to an undisclosed location for intensive training exercises. Mitch and Pierce try to unwind, but Kiera uses the time off to dig into Pierce's sordid -- and highly classified -- past.

The cell is taken to a secret training grounds deep in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, where they meet their training support staff, and Mitch and Diana engage in a brutal test of swordsmanship designed to tease out memories surrounding his own death.

## Detailed Recap

Pierce and Kiera return to Chicago. They meet Mitch in a conference room at ORPHEUS HQ. He seems troubled, and Kiera reads his mind, discovering that he's thinking about Hailee and worrying about her wellbeing. They take a call on intercom from Tiresias, whose voice is distorted. He proclaims them a provisional cell. Pierce tries to joke around with him, but Tiresias isn't having it.

Tiresias warns Mitch that the cell's orders may be emotionally significant for him: They are to travel to Chester, Illinois, to investigate things concerning the organization, including finding Hailee Pennington and determining how she feels about ORPHEUS. He explains that because she has arcane power, she has been on their "watchlist," and they were at one point considering her for recruitment. He says she has been neither helpful nor hindering to the organization. She fell off the radar a couple years earlier, and they don't know if she's alive or dead. They are to depart in about two weeks. Before that, they will have 3 days off to rest and recuperate, and then spend a week training to improve group cohesiveness. As the call winds down, Mitch asks Tiresias if any of the strange events in Chester have involved clowns. Tiresias is surprised by the question, but seems to know this references the events at the Braddock House in 2007. He says no clowns have been seen, as far as he knows.

After the call ends, Pierce suggests they get deep dish. Mitch agrees to join him, but only after he goes to the batting cages to practice. Pierce challenges him to skee-ball and mini golf. They invite Kiera to join them, but she says she has stuff to take care of. She tells Mitch to be careful, and glares at Pierce, but Mitch doesn't understand her meaning.

Mitch and Pierce go to The Punchbowl East, a facility in the city with bowling, go-karts, and so on. In the batting cages, Mitch uses a Louisville Slugger similar to the P72, and it feels just right, making him feel sad and happy at the same time, an emotional experience that confuses Mitch but also strikes him as "very human." Pierce watches wide-eyed as Mitch demonstrates a major-league swing. When Mitch is done, Pierce throws a batting glove at his feet and challenges him to mini golf "to the death." They are both very good, but in the end, Mitch wins by getting his ball past the animatronic dragon at the end of the course. Pierce rips up the scorecard in irritation.

Kiera goes to the ORPHEUS archives to research Darren and Pierce. She sweet-talks Cliff the IT guy, who is star-struck by her because has heard rumors about what happened in Florida. He gives her access to Pierce's personnel file, and learns that he comes from an old-money family in the shipping business. He met Darren in college. At that point, Darren was already headed toward being a serial killer. Pierce noticed the mythical, supernatural element to what Darren was doing, and got involved in order to study this. He took extensive notes on his and Darren's activities (which ORPHEUS now has). Darren's preferred victims were young women with supernatural potential. The men were caught when ORPHEUS began investigating "arcane emanations" in their area and noticed a higher than normal number of murders. Darren and Pierce were very good at hiding the evidence, but investigators found Pierce's notes about the crimes. ORPHEUS decided Pierce was a "candidate for rehabilitation," but Darren was not. Cliff offers Kiera the personnel files of Jack Kincaid and Nadra al-Hashem, Pierce's former cellmates, but she is so disturbed by what she's read that she just goes home.

At home, Kiera finds Magda asleep in the living room and Ellie asleep in bed. She sees a new drawing, which shows Kiera clinging to a tree branch while a huge bull circles beneath her. She crawls in bed with Ellie to snuggle and sleep.

A few days later, the agents are transported to the huge, remote Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho for training. There are no roads in the area, just one airstrip and a few tiny buildings near it. Waiting there are Diana and Ashleigh. Kiera is surprised to see Ashleigh, who explains that she's being considered for full agent status because the organization needs more witches. Ash and Kiera will be training their witch powers together. Diana gets them started making Witch's Brews, to help heal any injuries sustained during training. Pierce is told he must hike up a big hill to meet his instructor "under starlight."

Diana meets Mitch with a broadsword in hand. A large square area is set up with lots of sand. She explains that they are going to fight in an effort to reproduce the circumstances of Mitch's murder, to aid in recovering his memories right away, which is "of critical importance" to the organization. They battle, and pyrotechnics in the sand shoot gouts of flame. He injures her, and asks if she wants to continue, and she says they must. He begins getting flashes of memories of the tomb in Jersualem, including a skeleton or mummy in armor and a tabard bearing a cross and bearing an ornate sword. Diana drives her sword into Mitch's gut, and he remembers that the mummy-thing ran him through in a similar fashion. Walter leaped to his aid, beheading the creature and knocking it off him. But then, instead of helping him, he stabbed him in the heart. Diana tends to Mitch's wounds with a first aid kit, and Mitch tells her that Walter said he had to do it, not that he wanted to.

## Quotes

* "YOU WORKED VERY HARD. WHAT SAY WE MASTICATE PIZZA AND IMBIBE BEER." - Pierce
* "Please understand -- this is how it has to be." - Walter Marchand

## Music Credits

* Three Chain Links - Magic Hour
* Sergey Cheremisinov - Seven Lights
* Kevin MacLeod - Divertissement
* Kevin MacLeod - Aftermath
* Kevin MacLeod - Darkest Child
* Free Dramatic Scores - Epic Music - Clash of Ages
* Kevin MacLeod - Ibn Al-Noor
* DEgITx - Minefield (Feat. Matty M.)
* Sergey Cheremisinov - Train
* Kai Engel - Will I Ever See Another Sunrise?
* Opening and Closing Themes by Nathan Kross and Rob Stith