"Terror in the Aisles" is the third episode of Season One of the Archive 81 Netflix TV series and the third episode of the show overall. It first aired on January 14, 2022.
Summary[]
The past loops back around as Melody returns to Steven with Jess. Mark checks out a find. Dan tries to map his situation, but he may be losing his way.
Plot[]
Melody told Dr. Turner about her childhood and drawings.
Melody tells Dr. Turner that her mother left her in a church when she was two months old and spent the next 10 years at St. Joseph's. She describes herself as a strange kid who was always in trouble because of closing her eyes and scratching everything she had written down. One day, she told a nun that there was another place and something in her drawings, which she knows sounds crazy, but she feels something pulling at her, so she knows there is another place. She tells Dr. Turner that that happened until her foster mother Lila got her out of there, but she had died the spring before and she was now starting to see those things again. Dr. Turner says that they could work on a few techniques in order to deal with her anxiety. Dan hears as Melody is introduced to Cleo, who is excited to see her.
In the woods, Dan tells Mark that he had listened to a few of the tapes he had brought him, which could contain some interesting things. Mark says that he did some digging on the letter and realized Dan's father could have been publishing some things that went against NYU policy. Also, Mark tells him that a musicologist that he used to date listened to Dan's song and mentioned she had never heard anything like it. Dan says he spent all night taking his bathroom apart, opening up the mirror and disassembled the fixtures, but found no cameras in there. Virgil had said that there was no internet there, but there was a data port on the wall, so he opened up the plaster and found many cables, tapping a feed using vampire tap, so he now has access to all the cameras in the compound, both inside and out, so now all he has to do is finish mapping the camera positions. Dan also tells Mark that he is working on going back down to the basement, and asks him to be gentle with Melody when he sees her since she had been through a lot.
Dan turns the shower on and starts watching the cameras in order to map the compound out.
Dan met Melody in a vision, which surprised him a lot.
Later at a circle, Dan is seated when approached by Melody, who walks in and starts talking to him. Dan says he can leave the room, but Melody tells him that it is fine since he was in the community room and part of the community. She introduces herself, and so does he; she tells him that she just moved in, so he says that he is new too. She asks him if he thinks the building is weird and he agrees, so she tells him that they should grab a drink sometime.
Dan is interrupted by a knocking at the compound door, where through the camera he sees the person in the red jacket. He asks who it is and a gray-haired woman answers "Bobbi". She tells him that she works for Mr. Davenport and heard that the shower was running a long time. She also mentions that Davenport was supposed to put him in a different room since the bathroom has a mold problem, but he says there is no mold and tells her that Davenport had promised him privacy, so if there was a problem he could take care of it himself. She tells him that if he needs anything, he should let her know.
When Anabelle met Cassandra, the latter got very excited.
Dan starts working on the next tape, where Anabelle tells Melody to make it official, so Melody is in the community room telling Anabelle about the cabinet with a sort of totem inside and a recording of some strange voice that came from a stereo, which plays a normal song. Anabelle says that maybe Jess knew something, but Melody feels bad about dragging a 14 year-old into the situation. Cassandra walks in and pins something on the bulletin board; Melody greets her, but gets no response as Cassandra walks up to Anabelle and starts smelling her, telling her she is lovely. Melody asks if she had seen her there the night before, but Cassandra says that she does not think so. However, when Melody asks about her meeting with Samuel and other people, Cassandra simply asks if she plays canasta because they could sign up on the board.
Melody knocks on Jess's apartment and walks in, asking her if she was okay. However, Jess tells her that she got in a fight and does not want to wait, not wanting to call her mom. She says that her mother would take her to Father Russo, who would tell her she was not trying hard enough to have faith and be worthy of God's love. Melody understands and Jess says that she does not want people seeing her like that, since the other teenagers were right and there was something wrong with her. Melody tells her she would be fine, since he had moments of terror before but found someone who helped her. Jess does not believe her.
Anabelle does not think Jess's mother would appreciate Melody taking her daughter to a shrink, but Melody wants to help since she knows that the Catholic church would not help. She wants to take Jess to Dr. Turner since he owed her a favor, but recognizes that he really helped her out and was a good person.
Melody took Jess to see Dr. Turner, believing he could help her.
Dan starts looking through tapes and finds one which he plays on his walkman. In it, Melody takes Jess to Dr. Turner, who tells him she cannot remember when her episodes started. She says that right before they happen, she feels as if she is being pulled somewhere, but then comes back. Dr. Turner asks if she likes fogs and hands her a treat. After that, Dr. Turner opens the door so Jess could greet Cleo. Now alone, Dr. Turner tells Melody that what Jess has could be anxiety, stress or a seizure disorder, but needs to do a full neurological workup, which he cannot do without written parental consent. Melody says that she is worried about her, but Dr. Turner asks her how she is doing. She says that she went looking for her mother, which she knows he does not approve of, but he says that it is not his place to have an opinion, but does not want her to get hurt. Melody says that maybe her mother wants to see her, but is scared to do so. She asks Dr. Turner if he ever gets scared of his kids and he says that they scare him all the time because he is afraid that they won't love him as much as he loves them. Jess's mother shows up and asks Melody who she thinks she is taking Jess to a doctor behind her back, but Melody says that she thought Jess had permission. Jess admits tht she did not have time to ask, so her mother tells her to stay out of their business. Dr. Turner tells her that she cannot parent other people's kids, but she tells him that she used to pray that somebody would go and parent her and leaves.
As Dan sees the cameras again, he sees the woman in the red jacket looking at the tapes. He approaches her and asks her what she is doing, to which she replies that she is double checking his power strips. Dan asks her if she was the groundskeeper or tech support, but she does not reply and simply tells her that everything looks good. He asks her if she could open up the chapel for him and she leaves.
Mark met with Melody's impersonator, disappointed to find out it was not really her.
Mark walks doen the street and introduces himself to Melody, who now has a burn on her face. He tells her that he was visiting because of the tapes she had shot at the Visser building in 1994. She invites him into her house, where she tells him that the tapes were not real. He asks about her looking for her mom, but she says that she had never found her. She tells him that she does not remember much about the fire except for waking up in the middle of the night and seeing everything on fire, including herself. The next thing she knew, she was in the hospital waking up and nobody went looking for her since she was listed as a Jane Doe. She tells him that she is not in touch with anyone she had met there, so Mark starts to ask about Steven Turner, but she tells him once again that she does not remember a lot. He plays the eerie melody that Dan recorded, but she simply says it is pretty, so he thanks her for her time.
Dan found Melody waiting downstairs for him and talked to her.
Dan talks to Ratty about Cleo, which he had insisted on getting. However, Cleo ran away after the fire since she was not really a city dog. Dan leaves the room and heads downstairs, where he sees Melody waiting for him. She tells him about the fantas and says that she had probably made the wrong choice once again. He tells her that she does not let people down, but she says that he does not know her. However, he says that she is a good person who cares about people. After that, Dan wakes up and keeps watching the tapes.
Melody tells Anabelle that she wants to meet Father Russo, saying maybe she could enlist him to get Jess some real help. Melody sits through mass and waits until the end until Father Russo approaches her. Melody asks him for an interview, which he agrees to. She sees a cabinet, which sparks her interest and asks him what is inside, but he simply tells her that she would be surprised how many forbidden texts are kept by the Church in their vaults. He says that he had been in St. Albert's since 1987 and there have been less people coming to mass. She asks him about Julia Bennett, who he says he does not recognize. He tells her that he noticed she did not take the Eucharist even though she was raised Catholic. He tells her that he did not care for school either since he had a lot of darkness, but after years spent outside of God's grace, he realized that the answers were within the Chuch, but she says that that had not been her experience.
Father Russo rushed to help Jess when she started having a seizure.
Melody tells Father Russo that she was still getting settled in the Visser, but as he asks if she had noticed anything odd, Jess's mother asks for help as Jess starts having a seizure. They race towards Jess, who was on the floor and Father Russo is able to bring her back.
At a drug store, Melody and Anabelle walk around grabbing some things for Jess. Melody grabs a small bunny for Jess and wonders if her mother would finally get her some help. She tells Anabelle that she is a good person, which she agrees with. Anabelle asks her if she remembers Auntie Mame from the community room because she is rich and an art collector, who wants to see her stuff. Melody says that maybe she would buy something so Anabelle could pitch in for rent.
Samuel offered to help Jess in order to stop hurting her like Father Russo did.
Melody walks to Jess’s apartment, where they hear her calling for help. The furniture scrapes as Tamara opens up her door, complaining about the volume of Jess’s television. She tells Jess that Father Russo was there and was blasting the television as he usually did; Melody tells her that they need to go in, so Tamara hands her a key. Melody and Anabelle have a hard time opening the door, but once they get in the room, they see Father Russo making Jess drink something, so she pushes him out of the way after seeing Jess in pain. Jess begs her mom to stop, as Father Russo asks her to have courage. Suddenly, Samuel shows up and yells at them to stop, telling Father Russo that he was done there. John Smith grabs Father Russo and pushes him outside as Samuel asks Jess how she is doing. He tells Jess’s mother that Father Russo is a fraud and he has friends from Columbia who are experts in pediatric neurology, which he can pay for. They accept as Melody and Anabelle leave the room.
Melody approaches Father Russo and tells him that she thought he was different, but his ways of fixing things are the same and medieval. He tells her that she has no idea what was happening there and asks her if she really thinks she would find who she was looking for because there is a terrible darkness in the building, so she should leave.
Mark told Dan that the person he met was not Melody, but an impostor.
Dan walks into the chapel which is now open while Mark pours himself a drink. Mark tells him that Melody did not show and nobody was at her house, so he would go back later. Dan tells him that there was a housekeeper who he convinced to let him into the chapel. He tells Mark that the chapel had no cameras but it did have an entrance to the tunnels, so he now had 7 hours of an empty corridor recorded which was now looped back into the feed, so now he has to get a code for the door. Mark tells him they could have used his skills all these years, but Dan says he is only halfway there and Mark admits that he lied about Melody and says that it was not her, but someone different who had bought her identity and had enough details to fool anyone who might come looking. Dan asks if he could keep looking and Mark says that the only way stealing another person's identity like that is if the real person is dead. Dan thanks him for making the trip and says he would talk to him later.
Cassandra told Dan to stay out and he felt as if she reached out and choked him.
Dan keeps watching the videos, where Melody hopes that Jess will get some real help now. Dan pauses the tape and plays it again, seeing Melody talking to him and glad he had come. She shows him her pineapple Fanta and starts drinking it. She tells him that she really needed to hear him say what he had said earlier. He asks if that was really happening and she asks why it would not really be. Anabelle causes some trouble outside, so she goes to help her, saying she would be right back. Dan waits and after a while, Cassandra walks into the store and walks towards the camera. When she reaches it, she looks at Dan and tells him to stay out, putting her hand through the screen and reaching for his throat. Dan wakes up startled and gasping for air.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Dan Turner - Mamoudou Athie
- Melody Pendras - Dina Shihabi
- Samuel - Evan Jonigkeit
- Anabelle - Julia Chan
- Jess - Ariana Neal
- Mark Higgins - Matt McGorry
- Virgil Davenport - Martin Donovan
- Steven Turner - Charlie Hudson III
- Cassandra Wall - Kristin Griffith
- Bobbi - Jacqueline Antaramian
- John Smith
- Tamara Stefano - Kate Eastman
- Erika Lewis - Gameela Wright
- Beatriz Reyes - Sol Miranda
- Father Russo - Martin Sola
Additional cast[]
- Julia Bennett - Ahlam Abbas
- Grad Student - Allyson R. Hood
- Sister Ann - Tressa Glover
- Young Melody - Lena Josephine Marano
- Older Melody - Paris Benjamin
- Eliot - Andy S. Allen
- Peter - Nick Pasqual
- Visser Tenant - Daniel Johnson
- Visser Tenant - Johnna Leary