Recap: Marbeley (2/7/12)

The 2nd hour of the series premiere was night was a totally separate episode, as opposed to one 2-hour long episode. Right off the bat Jahel is once again the center of all the paranormal activity as a magically dragonfly flies into her mouth, thus causing her to be possessed by the spirit of Emmet Cole. This part was extremely creepy as she awoke in the middle of the night and wandered into Tess’ room. Tess wakes up to Jahel staring her in the face yet barely even reacts until she hears the voice speak. Jahel only speaks spanish, so to have her speaking english was a bit out of the ordinary, but Tess soon discovers that it’s actually Emmet and he’s telling them to turn around and leave this place. What did he think would happen if he made it know to Tess that he (or his spirit) are somehow still alive… of course she’s not going to turn around and leave.

So now we have Jahel who swallowed a dragonfly and is trying to contain the spirit of Emmet cole long enough to find out where he is, while the rest of the crew heads out into the jungle to try and find him. I can’t quite remember, but did Tess come up with some way to determine where they should look for him or were they just walking aimlessly? Either way they were on the right track as they end up in an ancient cemetery containing graves from the 1800′s. Not thinking anything of it, they continue the trek through the jungle until they start to hear noises.

It almost sounds like a child laughing as they continue to wander around to try and find the source of the sound. Tess spots what appears to be a child sitting behind a fallen tree, but upon further investigation it’s a monkey with a doll head on it’s head. This part was pretty creepy, especially when they then discover the doll tree. Essentially the doll tree is exactly what it sounds like, a tree with a bunch of dolls and stuffed animals hanging from it… in the middle of the jungle. What’s even creepier is that Lincoln finds his old stuffed bear, Marbeley, in the tree. A bear which he had thrown into the Indian Ocean years ago only to reappear now.

Lincoln takes the bear out of the tree, which will later come back to haunt him, literally, but before that happens we are shown a few flashback videos. Emmet and Lincoln are in the boat and Emmet has a necklace that a Shaman gave to him. I can’t remember exactly what the necklace was supposed to do, but Emmet was told that he was to give it to a child and he would know who that child was. Naturally he just assumed it was Lincoln, but we find out later in the episode that it was meant for Lena as she has a birthmark on her neck that looks exactly like the necklace.

The crew sets up camp in the middle of the creepy doll tree, which was a little unsettling to me. I don’t think there’s any way in hell you could have gotten me to sleep under that tree, and Lincoln should have taken my advice. As soon as he falls asleep something grabs him by the ankles and pulls him into the woods. He wakes up angrily trying to figure out which one of the crew members did it even though everyone was asleep. With no explanation, that’s his cue to get everyone together and head back into the jungle as he can’t sleep there. As they are walking through a shallow river, Tess is grabbed by a hand and pulled halfway into the river, which is literally only 1/2 a foot deep. After rescuing her, the group starts running away only to find that they have gone in a circle and end up back at the doll tree… but without Tess. The jungle’s got her.

Actually the spirit of a little girl that drowned in the river in the 1800′s has her and apparently the only way to get her back is to bring her what she wants, her mother. Thankfully the graveyard they found happen to hold her mother so Lincoln digs up her remains and brings them to the spot where they assume she drown. I’m still not sure how the skeleton managed to stay together as Lincoln carried it. It had been buried since the 1800′s, there’s no way it would still have any muscle or fat or anything holding the bones in place. Oh well, we’ll just call it magic. So Lincoln, somehow knowing that he has to give the little girl spirit her mother, puts the bones in the river and waits… nothing happens. Lincoln starts screaming as his English accent breaks through a bit at which point we cut to a camera that just happened to be placed on the grave they just dug up, which catches Tess as she emerges from the dirt.

So Tess and the mother have switched places and everyone is ok now and everyone heads back to the boat. Lincoln makes his way downstairs to talk to Jahel, or Emmet, but the dragonfly leaves her body before she/he can say anything. Cut to flashback of Emmet discovering the birthmark on Lena and we’re done.

I thought the whole doll tree thing was creepy as hell, but I’m not really liking how people just automatically know what they are supposed to do when a supernatural situation arises. I understand that there’s something that Jahel and Emilio aren’t telling us in regards to how they know about this stuff, but I think we need a bit of an explanation ourselves. Either way, I’m hooked and I’ll definitely be watching the rest of the season and keeping up with everything right here. What did you think of the first 2 episodes? Did it live up to what you thought it would? Was it disappointing? Will you finish out the season or has it already lost your interest?