That was definitely a cool ending to the episode and I’m mad now I forgot it. At least the exact quote is up there for people who want it. I would go back and change the ending of my review, but I hate changing more than typos on reviews I’ve already published.

Good catch though!

Now moving onto what I noticed from watching the second episode. Langton said at the end of the episode that someone must have hired Richard to hunt Echo, making me suspect that it was in order to see if Echo truly “deserves to live”. We already know that it was Alpha who killed the fake park ranger, so I’m thinking it’s Alpha who hired Richard to find out if what Alpha did (in sparing Echo’s life) by allowing her to live was the right decision he had made. Richard said it himself when he said something along these lines: “he was right.. you are special”. In other words, I feel that Alpha was the man behind all of this. He was the one who made up Richard’s fabricated background, the one who hired the park ranger, and the one who poisoned the water that was in the canteen.

Which brings me to my next point… I have a strong feeling that Alpha put that particular drug (whatever kind of drug it’s called) in the canteen so that it’d allow for Echo to tap into her previous memories that were supposed to already be erased. I think it was part of Alpha’s intentions to make Echo remember. It just seems likely, because what are the chances that a guy like Richard would drug Echo so that she’d start recalling who she was in the past? Thus, it all leads me to think everything was Alpha testing Echo’s abilities. Although I didn’t think drinking out of a stranger’s canteen was a smart idea, but considering her circumstances where she was running for her life, tired and weak, and everything depended on survival of the fittest, I could overlook that messy issue.

One more thing, another reason why I think the water didn’t just “happen” to be poisoned was because of what happened at the river. Remember when Echo became dizzy after drinking the water and she fell into the river, then afterwards she blacked out for a while, and Richard was standing not too far from her (but he was obviously close enough to shoot her with his arrows, yet he didn’t). Richard called out to her to “wake up” a few times, and allowed her to live and run instead, when he could have already killed her right there on the spot when she was still unconscious. But he didn’t kill her. So this definitely leads me to think that Richard knew it was Alpha’s intention to drug Echo so that she’d start recalling previous memories, but Richard wasn’t supposed to kill her while the drug took its effects on her and while she was down on the ground. He was supposed to kill her while she’s standing on her own two feet, and I think Alpha knew that the drug wouldn’t impair her too much to the extent where she can’t aim straight, even though she did start off dizzy from drinking it. I’m sure that valid arguments can be made about the hunt/game not being fair since Echo did get drugged, but I think it should be noted that it *was* Echo’s choice to drink that water afterall, so whether it was fair or not, she just had to bear with it and give it her best, which she did and that’s why she survived. She proved she was more than just an “Echo”.

I loved the part at the end where Dominic (I think that’s his name?) mouthed off to Echo about how her head is empty of memories, and then when he walked away she slaps her palm to her shoulder. That was neat. By the way, I also wanted to point out that when Echo killed Richard, she didn’t just plainly kill him. She stabbed him, which was what she had told him in the walkie talkie after she dranked out of the canteen. She unknowingly predicted how she would kill him, so I thought that was cool. I’m also loving the relationship between Echo and Langton, and I think Langton is becoming sort of this father-figure for Echo. Okay, I think I’ve written a long enough comment. I probe and analyze too much. I just wanted to share my piece.