Compensation
Jude heads out to the spot in the garden where he last saw the orb. He realizes it’s gone and starts to panic. Meanwhile, Franklin is looking for Byron at the observatory deck. He hasn’t seen him and appears to be lost. ..
Does Franklin tell Irene what he’s hiding?
Franklin returns to the garden, where a worried Jeanine appears. Jeanine asks Franklin about her husband, who tells her he’ll be back soon. Inside the house, Jude confronts Franklin about the orb and how dangerous this whole endeavour is. He tells Franklin that there’s absolutely nothing out on the alien planet but endless dusty wasteland.
Meanwhile, Stella and Toni are discussing their predicament. Stella admits there’s nothing she can do to stop this stranger, as even if they ride away, the shadowy forces at work will just send another their way.
How does the stranger track down the York family?
When the man notices dead birds on the floor outside, he tells them that they’re close. He leads Toni over to the York house, but on the way he reveals to her that Caleb is actually her father, not Stella’s brother. With this cleared up, Toni shows up in the garden, and Franklin is held up at gunpoint, led inside by this strange man.
While this is happening, Jude catches up to Denise, thanking her for helping him back at the bar. These pleasantries are soon interrupted by Stella showing up and firing on Jude. He rushes into the woods to escape, drawing her away from Denise. However, Denise then rushes back to the York house and finds herself held at gunpoint along with her grandparents. ..
The stranger uses Denise to draw a confession out of Irene for where the doorway is. While he leaves and heads to the shed, Irene talks down a very frightened Toni. She’s no longer believing the trio are doing God’s will, and calls out Chandra’s death as an example of this.
How do Franklin and Irene stop the stranger?
The stranger decides to change their plans and calls Stella to let her know. Part of this plan comes from using the family as leverage while the Apostate is brought to the house. When Jude shows up, the man smacks him upside the head. It turns out that “she” sent him, but the details of this little cryptic chat are unclear. ..
Franklin tries to take advantage of the opportunity to knock the stranger down. This leads to a big scuffle, in which the stranger is tasered, bound and gagged. With him in the back of their truck, Stella and Toni decide to leave and travel far away. Stella and Toni hit the road, telling their daughter that they won’t be able to go back to their old house. They also have a bargaining chip now (the stranger.)
The good vibes that started off at the beginning of the episode quickly disappear when shadowy figures drive up and kidnap a man, leading to speculation that Hannah may be working with them. She greets the man, puts a bag over his head, and teases him before driving away. ..
Where do Jude and Denise go?
Jude and Denise decide to take a break from Bangkok and head to Thailand.
Franklin and Irene decide to stop using the doorway as much because it’s just a wasteland now. Franklin tells Irene about how he’s been hiding things from her, including what happened to Byron. He decides to go out into the wilderness and bring Byron back. “I believe in you Franklin. I always have.” Irene says, giving him a hug. ..
How does Night Sky Season 1 end?
As Franklin steps out into the wilderness on the alien planet, he finds a dead body on the floor. With a knife stuck through their chest, it seems as if someone killed his partner and then took off. As for Franklin, he notices something is up with his oxygen supply and soon passes out.
Irene catches up with him, taking a leap of faith without a spacesuit and encouraging him to breathe. After removing his helmet, the pair walk together, where they find a strange community, nestled in a little alcove.
The Episode Review
It would appear that Franklin and Irene have stumbled upon this community spoken about earlier in the season. Whether this reframes the whole Stella/Toni sequences from the farm actually being on this alien world and they’ve used this doorway to move back to Earth, remains to be seen. However, it’s now clear where Jude has come from and how he ended up inside the doorway.
Byron’s whereabouts are still unknown, but it now seems clear that he stumbled upon the same cityscape that Franklin and Irene have, explaining his incredulous reaction. He may well have been captured and taken into this area, held prisoner along with others who know about the doorway. ..
The show leaves many questions unanswered about the role Hannah played in this story and the strange book with the cryptic writing. It is unclear who Jude’s father is, but Franklin and Irene have not been stopped from using their doorway. This leaves a lot of questions that need to be answered in order to further explore this story.
The Night Sky finale episode was all over the shop, with a lot of disparate threads tied together rather messily – especially in this finale episode. The whole Stella/Toni storyline has felt like a waste of time, especially as by the end they don’t really have all that impact on Franklin and Irene before they return to business as usual.
The ending of the “Stranger Things” series leaves much to be desired. While it is a well-done conclusion, it could have been more tightly woven and concise.
