Summary
Negotiations break down and Jack undergoes a transformation of a new kind in “The Commons, Part 2”, as Gabby works with Hamish and Randall to prove a third party is involved.
This recap of The Order season 2, episode 6, “The Commons, Part 2”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
“The Commons, Part 2” picks up right where the previous episode left off, and Vera immediately intervenes and prevents the assassination of the Prometheans. The rules of parlay state that the Order must be given a chance to refute the accusation, so Xavier gracefully allows her to do so — if she can.
Meanwhile, Jack and Alyssa are still holding out in the purply tree room with a horde of Prometheans outside the door. Jack rightly assumes that Alyssa’s juice, presumably made from the tree sap, is brainwashing Alyssa, so he pours it out, which causes the Prometheans to go nuts and cry cannibalism. They don’t believe Jack’s claims of innocence, and neither does Alyssa.
The Order season 2, episode 6 finds Randall and Gabby still in Professor Foley’s house, where they discover documents and surveillance — he knows they’re in the Order. There’s also an item from the vault. It was Foley who robbed the Order, and now Gabby has proof.
Since Alyssa is plugged into the Promethean hivemind, she can explain to Jack that the living tree with the googly eye is the Promethean he killed; he’s kept in the tree so that he can still contribute to “the Common”. Because Jack threw out her juice, though, she enters withdrawal. Something — or someone — is eroding her connection to the Egregore, which should have remained until morning, even without the juice. According to Orbin, nothing is more painful that the withdrawal process.
While Vera is showing Xavier the empty vault, she gets a message from Gabrielle saying she knows who robbed the vault. And he’s currently giving a magic demonstration to an eager crowd of budding revolutionaries, which includes, for the time being, Hamish. He can’t keep his mouth shut, though, and ruins Foley’s performance by pretending to the crowd that it’s fake. This drives Foley nuts, and he gives Hamish an ominous warning before fleeing.
As Alyssa’s withdrawal symptoms worsen — having a visible effect on Malachai — Gabby arrives, having left a bloodthirsty Randall at Foley’s house. Jack contacts Vera and explains he’s going to surrender in order to buy them time to catch Foley. Xavier doesn’t like any of this, but since Vera has to surrender the ribbons to stop them from being physically bound, she has some negotiating power. She insists that Jack will be killed at noon tomorrow, in the “old ways”, which is apparently something called blood atonement. Jack will have to die by her hand. It’s agreed to and she cuts the ribbon, severing the bonds, as Kepler calls an emergency meeting with the Gnostic Council.
Gabby, Randall, and Hamish stake out Foley’s house as Jack is ritualistically prepared for blood atonement. Orbin and Essie plan to turn him into one of the brain trees, and since Alyssa has been given another dose of juice, she isn’t in a position to help him out. Orbin communicates something to her telepathically that convinces her to leave. Randall tries to apprehend Foley using another glamour, but he susses out the imposter and knocks them unconscious, making a call to someone thus far unidentified to tell them that, “they’re already here.” Gabby and Hamish join him in the house and split up to look for Foley, who has vanished again. The place is boobytrapped with magic sigils. Foley ambushes Gabby in the basement and she’s able to knock him out, but she earns a concussion for her trouble.
Jack, meanwhile, is rapidly undergoing his transition to a creepy tree man. He and Alyssa are able to share a moment, and she seems to be disconnect somewhat from the hivemind. When Orbin tries to talk her around, she tips out the juice. Xavier arrives, telepathically, and tells everyone to gather around. It’s time.
Vera gives a speech to the assembled Prometheans proposing an alliance against a common enemy. To strengthen her case she offers to drink the juice and allow the Prometheans to read her mind. She sees off the concoction, and once everyone is connected to her she uses her magic to broadcast all the emotional pain of her life into their minds. She gets her deal. Hamish delivers Foley to Vera and Xavier, and they agree they have a common enemy. Jack is released.
Gabby also wakes from her concussion, under Randall’s supervision. They’re bonding. But just as Hamish is telling Jack about Gabby’s involvement, Xavier and Vera, still connected to the hivemind, get a terrible feeling. All of the Prometheans have been massacred, presumably by Foley and Midnight. The Order season 2, episode 6, “The Commons, Part 2”, ends on perhaps the best cliffhanger yet.
