Terror In The Aisles

Melody reveals that she was abandoned by her mother when she was a baby and spent the next 10 years living in a church. Melody left her in the middle of winter as a baby, and without anyone else to care for her, she spent the next 10 years living there.

Melody was a strange child, always getting in trouble and with the nuns believing the girl to be “damaged goods”. During her time in church, Melody experienced a whole bunch of frightening visions too, projected onto scribbling all over different documents and pictures. That is, until she was adopted by her foster mum, Lila. Lila was a strange woman too; always working odd hours and never seeming to have any close friends. But when she met Melody, something changed inside of her. The little girl had been through so much pain and suffering that it seemed like Lila could finally heal her wounds. And so they did - together - for the rest of their lives. ..

Dan’s father, Steve, started therapy sessions with Melody in an effort to help Dan’s anxiety and nervous disposition. ..

Dan listens to the audio recordings of their sessions while walking around the house. This reveals all of the details about their relationship. ..

Dan is a clever hacker, and he knows how to use his technical skills to get information out of the security cameras in the office. He tells Mark on the phone how he was able to get access to all of the cameras in the office, and then he reveals his plan to check them all for any potential security breaches.

Dan is determined to map out the chapel’s security cameras in order to get some privacy so he can figure out what’s going on around him. He quickly realizes that the chapel has no cameras and decides to set up his gear there. ..

While checking his laptop (and camera feeds) in the bathroom, a knock at the door brings one of Davenport’s cronies in to check up on him, the housekeeper called Bobbi.

Bobbi, the home inspector, arrives to inspect the property. She quizzes if Dan needs any help but he’s quick to point out the privacy he was promised - and hasn’t received. Just before she leaves, Bobbi mentions something about mold in the bathroom, which may or may not be relevant going forward. ..

Melody tries to get to the bottom of the community prayer session, which eventually sees her joined by Jess as they visit Steven at therapy. ..

Steven and Jess are investigating a series of strange visions that seem to be pulled towards them. However, they’re not sure if Jess is being pulled by the visions or if her mother is doing something wrong. When their mother arrives, she’s angry with Melody for going behind her back. Despite apologizing, they walk away.

Mark heads to Melody’s house to talk about the tapes. Melody reveals that the tapes were all faked and she has no recollection of the fire. ..

Mark has a strong reaction to the familiar piano tune, but there’s more going on than we thought.

Dan loops seven hours of empty hallway footage for Davenport to watch on his feed in order to give him some genuine privacy. ..

Dan heads to the chapel and rings Mark. Mark reveals that the woman he visited isn’t actually Melody but an imposter. She’s stolen Melody’s identity for her own in order to claim disability benefits. The only way to pull this off is for the real person to be dead, meaning Melody is most certainly deceased. ..

As we head back to see more of Melody’s time in the apartment, Father Russo begins an exorcism with the TV blaring loudly to block out the noise. When Melody does manage to open the door, she’s shocked at what she sees, given the water poured over Jess. ..

Father Russo takes Melody aside and urges her to leave. He reveals that there’s a great darkness inside Visser Apartment and they all need to leave before it’s too late.

Dan checks the tape recordings again. This time, it seems as if Melody is talking to him through the camera. Dan can’t help but feel like he’s being watched.

Cassandra appears in the shop and confronts the camera. “Stay out!” She screams at Dan, grabbing him by the throat through the TV.

Dan wakes up and realizes this is a nightmare but he can’t remember what happened in it.

The Episode Review

The reveal that Melody is still alive turns out to be a red herring after all. It seems that there’s more going on here than we’ve been led to believe, and Visser Apartment is definitely the key to all of this.

It seems like Dan and Melody may have some sort of connection, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s actually the case or just a theory at this point. ..

This chapter is slow, with the story edging closer toward spiritual and religious connections instead. With exorcisms and devil worshipping the flavour of the day, this show is playing with some interesting concepts but we’ll have to wait and see how all of this connects together.

This latest episode of Archive 81 is another decent one, albeit slow, but it does manage to keep the viewer engaged.