| This article contains the episode summary for "Celeste". |
We start where we left off in the end of last week’s episode, “Fancy Meeting You Here.” After destroying the machine, the machine, Holden tells Willa he saw her fall in the Realm, and that it’s too dangerous. She’s upset, and now Holden believes Willa only went to him to get back Arthur. He leaves the mansion, their relationship uncertain.
While mowing the lawn at home, Holden remembers something as he has a vision of him and Willa holding hands. He dials her number, but hangs up before she picks up. We play catch-up on Holden’s mom, Diane, who’s going to do some social work at the church Pastor Ian works. He wants to see about getting a driver’s license.
Willa’s talking to her comatose grandfather about Frost, saying that he could’ve told her the truth about Arthur and Frost working together.
In a flashback, we see a young Arthur and Isaac Frost tending to one a comatose patient. Arthur suggests a certain treatment, but Frost says she wouldn’t survive the surgery. Then Frost suggests using a machine, to which Arthur says is too unstable to try. It’s apparent that the patient is either Frost’s wife or lover.
Holden is with Jeff at his cabin to check on how Jeff is. Jeff is cleaning his rifle while explaining to Holden about Tess Shoemacher, the CFO of Hollow Sky, and shows him a portfolio with Tess’s picture. Holden is confused, but Jeff explains that she’s the one who released Yellow Jacket from his stay at a hospital. Jeff says he went to check out YJM’s house, but it was emptied.
Jeff wants Holden’s help to avenge Kevin’s death by getting some Hollow Sky documents that he thinks will lead them to whoever’s responsible, but Holden doesn’t want to help. Jeff believes that’s all he has left, that they don’t have a choice in the matter and that the universe controls their fate.
Holden is at the DMV trying to take a test, but sees a message on his computer screen, possibly from Arthur. It’s a brief message stating they need his help. It stops and the test appears again. Someone from the other side of the table starts whispering the answers to the test to him. It’s Charlie, the girl introduced in the previous episode, and who was in a coma for 4 years.
Charlie wants to talk, which he’s not comfortable with and he tells her to go away. She steps away, but suddenly the fire alarm goes off, and everyone starts exiting the area. Outside, Charlie confirms that she set the alarm, and that she knows who he is and that he was in the Realm.
At Luke’s university, Luke enters an office where the dean had just finished questioning Riley. He’s questioned about some drug activity and that they believe he knows who’s responsible given his drug use history. They give him an ultimatum to cooperate with them and give a name, or he’ll be expelled.
Holden and Charlie are walking around the city while she tells her experience of being in a coma and the Realm. She remembers how to do things and that she can see the world in numbers and algorithms. She shows her ability by explaining immediate events in front of their eyes before it happens. He asks if she can predict the future, but she admits to only seeing patterns, things that can seem like random occurrences.
They’re at a junkyard where Holden attempts to she his ability by punching the ground, but nothing happens, aside from a little pain. They theorize that anger triggers his ability, and so she punches him…twice, and stuff happens, like exploding car windows alarms going off. She’s impressed.
Luke’s dad Tom is at the university helping Luke carry out his stuff to the truck. Looks like Luke decided to not cooperate. It’s a tense conversation between the two of them, but still, Luke asks that his dad to tell mom since he apparently can’t do it himself. Dad says he’ll give her an “alternative fact” that he just wanted to spend more time with Holden.. Dad says he’ll have to get a job to pay them back for the tuition.
Holden arrives home with Charlie. They’re in his room as he tries to clean up her wound (from some the glass debris hitting her.) She’s kind of flirting with him and teasing him for his lack of skillz. He asks her if she wants to stay for dinner, and her phone rings. It’s Shoemacher, but she doesn’t answer it, and agrees to stay.
We go back to the flashback scene, and Frost is putting something in the patient’s IV. He has prepped her for the machine, and turns it on. Arthur comes in and he and Frost fight. It is revealed the patient’s name is Celeste. As they’re fighting, Celeste wakes up and tells them to stop.
Willa is channeling her aggression/frustration on a punching bag and Daniel gives her a pep talk, giving some history about himself. He tells her that she sees the best in people, just like Arthur did.
It’s dinnertime and Diane is showing old pictures of Holden and telling embarrassing kid stories. The food is ready and Charlie knows how to play appreciative house guest very well.
Tom is at a bar when Jeff approaches him. Although still not on the friendliest terms, Tom gives his condolences to Jeff about Kevin. Jeff shows him the portfolio that he showed Holden earlier, which contains pictures of the Matthews family as well. Jeff explains how the people that killed his brother are after Holden and how Hollow Sky is part of it. Tom is listening, but isn’t sure if he believes him.
Holden has passed his driver’s test and now has a license. Both Tom and Diane are there and they give him keys to a used truck, that Tom suggests they can work on together to fix up as a new project. Holden’s ecstatic, but is ready to take it out for a spin.
He takes off on his truck, bringing Charlie with him to a lake to go fishing.They share a little bit about a moment in their past, to which she confesses to having attempted suicide.
They seem to like each other’s company and then she catches a fish. They cheer before he releases the fish, which she’s confused about. He tells her it wasn’t about catching the fish, but the experience and time spent with the other person.
She’s so moved by this that she reveals she was sent to find him, on orders from Isaac Frost, the leader of Hollow Sky. She tells him that Frost wants to meet with him. At first, he’s angry and is about to leave, but she tells him they are the ones that dealt with being in the Realm and they’re the ones being used. She says she only wants to be with the only other person who can understand her.
He seems to believe her and their friendship is saved!
Willa meets with a man who was one of Arthur and Isaac’s patients in their experiments. He says their experiments were to use science and technology to reach the afterlife, to which Isaac only wanted to take Arthur’s idea to the next level. Willa is surprised to find out that it was Arthur’s idea in the first place.
It is revealed that Celeste is Willa’s mother. The man says that she was the love of Frost’s life, to which Willa realizes that Isaac is her dad. Dun, dun, duuuuuuuun!
We return to the flashback, and Celeste is asking about her baby, which Arthur says is a beautiful baby girl. Celeste and Isaac kiss and then she says that she saw a beautiful light, and a bridge, too. She tells him there is something out there, and they kiss again, right before she loses consciousness, and her stats drop fast. She flatlines and they try to revive her…
It segues to the present and we see Isaac Frost talking to a class full of students about death and the afterlife.
One last flashback shows Isaac suggesting that they can go “see” Celeste on the other side, most likely using the machine to do so. But Arthur is more grounded, arguing that Isaac has a daughter now that needs him. Isaac says he can’t and leaves with his things. We can presume that Celeste has died and that Isaac has left, with Arthur having to raise Willa on his own.
Willa is at Holden’s home asking for him. Luke lets her in, remembering her from the store. Holden isn’t home so she gives Luke her number to give to him. We see Holden driving back with Charlie, looking as if there could be something more than friendship between them.