The Clearing Season 1 Episode 6 Review: The Pied Piper
One of the worst things a mystery can do is stretch out the inevitable, which is where we find The Clearing with three more episodes to go. Instead of propelling the plot to a meaningful place, The Clearing Season 1 Episode 6, “The Pied Piper,” leaves you asking, “So what?”
So what if Adrienne is preaching again? So what if Anton didn’t take the little girl?
At this point, does anyone care about any of this except for Freya? It seems like they don’t, which is a huge problem because as the audience the show has yet to make us care about her.
The series has leaned so hard into Freya being an unreliable narrator that there’s not much to hold on to. Anton even references Freya’s time in the “looney bin,” despite the show constantly framing him as the unstable one.
The contradictions of the characters’ behavior no longer feel intriguing, just frustrating.
Throwing in characters like Max, whose only purpose seems to be to confirm that Adrienne and Anton are indeed up to something only muddies things more. Freya’s character makes little sense when she’s gone from running away from her old life to seemingly wanting her ex and daughter back in the picture within a week.
It’s Freya’s outburst at the hospital, stalking the girl she believes Anton kidnapped, that makes the most sense. Freya is haunted by what happened to Asha (the truth we still don’t know), and only solving what happened to this girl will set her free.
The episode leans into flashbacks again, this time showing Adrienne’s trial that takes place years after she first escapes to France. Amy is now a young woman with her first child on the way.
The Clearing is more interested in the mystery than its characters. We learn how they end up declaring a mistrial for Adrienne, but nothing about how Amy/Freya and Wayne met or what her life has been like since being adopted.
If Joe or his partner were bigger characters, the stakes of the trial might feel more important. As it is, it would make more sense to focus on what’s going on in the present day than dragging out the story of what happened to the Kindred in the past.
We already knew Adrienne didn’t go to jail, learning there was a rigged jury really doesn’t add anything to the story.
The only interesting tidbit from the flashback is the fact Tamsin is still skulking around, indicating she might be a player in what’s happening in the present day. As Anton reminds us, she’s the one who actually kidnapped Asha.
The most exciting part of the episode comes at the end when Freya discovers Adrienne preaching to a group of people including Anton and Dr. Lathan. It appears The Kindred are back and Freya’s suspicions weren’t completely off.
Of course that doesn’t mean they’re out kidnapping people, but it does mean we don’t have to give up on Freya quite yet and write her off completely. With only two episodes left to go, hopefully she and the audience will get their answers soon.
What did you think of this episode of The Clearing? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Clearing airs Wednesdays on Hulu.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture fanatic who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing and podcasting about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama.