Summary
Tales from the Loop episode 1, “Loop” is a good opening to the Amazon Original series, highlighting that not everything is what it seems.
This recap of Tales from the Loop Season 1 Episode 1, “Loop” contains significant spoilers.
Tales from the Loop episode 1, “Loop” opens up with Russ — he is the man in charge of Loop, and he explains to the audience that its purpose is to unlock and explore the mysteries of the Universe. He explains that everyone is connected by the loop in one way or another.
So that’s the basis of the Amazon Original Series.
The episode starts with a young girl doing her maths work in class. After, she throws stones on the ice and takes in the view. Pebbles nearby begin moving so she listens to the ground and hears rumbling. When she heads home she hears her mother getting told off for putting her in danger. At night, at dinner, the young girl asks her mother what she does at the loop. And then strange things start happening in the house.
The young girl hears a disturbance on the ice and finds a rock in the middle of the ice and starts shouting for her mother Alma. She then sees a boy throwing rocks at a robot and tells her to stop. The boy chases after the young girl and tags on. They reach a house and the dust and tiles begin to rise in the house. The boy tells the girl the house is haunted. The boy then offers to find the young girl’s mother. We then establish his name is Cole and he asks his mother to help but she’s impatient with him and asks Cole to leave. She’s in an intense discussion with someone.
So we’ve established so far that this town is a strange place and it gets stranger. The young girl gives Cole the rock and says her mother Alma took it and it is from “down there”. Cole lets go of the rock and it floats. Both children put their ears to the ground and hear rumbling. The story takes a strange turn when the security guard of the Loop tells the young girl that her mother Alma has never worked in the place. Afterward, the security guard rings Cole’s mother and explains what has happened and she looks evidently irked.
And there are plenty of child abandonment strands in the story of Tales from the Loop episode 1, “Loop”; after heading to the loop, the young girl thinks she has found her mother in a bar, but it’s Cole’s mother. The young girl starts blaming herself for her mother being missing.
And then the twist, which to be fair, I did not see coming — Loretta (Cole’s mother) is on the ice and tells a man that it really happened — “The girl, she’s me”. For the purpose of the recap, from now on the young girl will be referred to as young Loretta.
Loretta asks Cole where young Loretta is. Cole explains that she went through Loretta’s room and then ran off. Loretta checks out a nearby cabin and sees young Loretta singing to herself next to a fire.
The young Loretta asks Loretta where Alma is and then says “she doesn’t come back, does she?”. Young Loretta gets made and starts throwing things around the room. Loretta explains that Alma was experimenting that she/her was trying to figure out a science and that they never truly understood why — “Turns out not everything makes sense”. Young Loretta then figures out that Loretta is her. Loretta tells young Loretta that it is not going to always be this way. She explains to young Loretta that the house is hers and Cole and Jacob are her sons.
Essentially, young Loretta has a whole new life waiting for her.
Loretta and young Loretta enter the loop. Loretta explains that her mother Alma did not want to be a mother and young Loretta explains, “Cole said the same thing about you”. Loretta shows young Loretta where the rock comes from. They enter a room and there is a large black sphere in front of them called the Eclipse — “The beating heart of the loop”. Loretta explains to her younger self that in years to come she will be asked the same questions, with the same vague half-answers in return. The rock leaves the young Loretta’s hand and goes back into the Eclipse.
Tales from the Loop episode 1, “Loop” closes with Loretta telling Cole that her mother left her when she was his age. She wants Cole to know she will always be there for him.
Maybe, just maybe, Loretta brought her younger self back to remind her that Cole does not feel loved by his mother and bringing her younger self reminded her of the importance of being a parent.
Plenty of theories to be born from this episode.
Other-worldly observations
- Russ wants to speak to Loretta about what happened. She asks if they can talk about it tomorrow. He says, “Sure, whenever you are ready”.
