Earth Abides Episode 4 and 5 Review: Predators don’t always come at night

Emma and Ish are polar opposites forged together by fate. Their fire has been burning bright ever since. Together, they have created a beautiful family, and an oasis in a hopeless world. With every beautiful tale, heartache usually ensues and Earth Abides is no different in that column. When the first true villain of the series makes his debut, the Williams family is put to the test.

Episode 4 of Earth Abides directly follows the mountain lion attack that Ish has just endured. He’s on the brink of death, and Molly springs into action, along with the help of the tribe of San Lupo. It’s a community effort to save Ish, who is still somehow miraculously alive pending the brutal attack.

Earth Abides: 17 years in

Time marches on, and Ish slowly begins to heal. He was not wrong when he had reservations about Molly and Jean’s group. Molly was not telling the truth about her career as a doctor. The lie finally caught up with her, and she admitted she was great in med school at the hands-on end of it, but not the classroom. I’m not sure if it matters too much because she did prove herself to be worthy in the end. And in the apocalypse, anyone with medical knowledge is vital.

It does make sense why MGM+ decided to air ‘Predators’ and ‘The Return’ together. Heather and Raif decide to go see what’s out there in the world. There’s so much of the world they don’t know. All they’ve ever known is what they read in textbooks. And when they come across a house with 50 pairs of shoes and a billiards table, they are dumbfounded by the sight of it. Raif has no clue how to even move the balls so he hilariously just throws the pool stick like a javelin. It’s a simple reminder of things you and I would take for granted, that they have no knowledge of. After being shielded in a safe harbor, it’s time for them to find themselves out in the world.

Emma and Ish have been opposites from day one. Emma believes in trusting people. There is risk, but there is also reward. Ish believes in staying guarded and cautious, and protecting what he loves at all costs. Yes, you have to build walls, but which one of them is correct?

Predators don’t always come out at night

Episode 4 shows why Ish’s point of view could be deemed the correct one when a new group strolls into San Lupo after they spot Ish and Jorge out by the city’s water supply. So far, in Earth Abides, Emma and Ish have gotten lucky with the survivors they brought in. But that can’t always be the case. To date, this show hasn’t had a lot of conflict, but Charlie(Aaron Tveit) changed all that.

For the first time in the series, this is where the passage of time slows down. It’s a place I prefer without constant time jumps to explain a story’s lifetime in a matter of 6 episodes. When the water supply started running dry, Charlie and company astonishingly had a drilling apparatus. The writing comes off a little too good to be true here.

Charlie is an incredibly charming and charismatic character. He has a personality that people are drawn to and challenges Ish from the start, continually undermining him in front of Alex. I’m sure he could sense the rocky relationship the father and son share. Joey has always been looked at as Ish’s pride and joy, and it’s having permanent effects on his older son. 

Ish does not trust Charlie’s group but he never trusts anyone. Emma writes it off as him once again overreacting. Everything has always worked out for them, so far. But Ish did not like the way he was eyeing Evie, and for once, Ish was correct in his suspicions.

“There are two kinds of people, the weak and the strong.”

It doesn’t take long for Charlie to become a hero to these people. He takes his sweet time to get water going from the well. I think he knew what he was doing, and purposely bought time to earn respect so he could take over San Lupo. The respect he attained made his ego five times as big. So much so that he thought he could get away with raping Evie.

As a community, they had to decide what to do about Charlie. Emma and Ish stood firmly on killing him. Jorge is a faithful man and is against taking life. But this was also his daughter. I didn’t find it very believable because I don’t care how religious you are, when someone does that to your child you want swift justice.

Once Ish confronted Charlie he was still confident he would take all Ish had, but that fell on deaf ears when the tribe of San Lupo surrounded him. Emma with her gun, could have just shot Charlie in one move. They all had weapons, but it was Ish who beat Charlie to death with the hammer Jorge gave him.

It would have been nice if Emma took the shot as a gift to her husband, knowing what taking life does to the man. In the end, the other members of Charlie’s group were allowed to stay except for Silas. He was the one who guarded the door while Charlie took something from Evie that can never be replaced.

There are times I feel for Alex, being the middle child often looked over. However, when Ish revealed that Charlie was gone, and why Charlie was gone, Alex didn’t seem to have an empathetic bone in his body, and looked at his father in disgust for killing his new “mentor.”

Earth Abides: The light is dimming

A variation of the sickness that wiped out all of the world has returned and it’s hitting Joey fast. Molly rolls up her sleeves and quickly tries to combat everyone’s symptoms, but there isn’t much that can be done. Remedies and ice baths. Joey is not the only one, several other members have attracted it too. Nobody knows why this virus gets some and not others, but Ish is despairing already at the possibility of losing his biggest light. On top of being guilt-ridden over the murder he committed, and the hallucinations of Charlie he’s been having. The man is going through it.

Just when you think Alex can’t get more annoying, he does after watching on as his father tends to Joey. He can see his devastation and doesn’t think his father would have the same kind of reaction if it were him. I understand the boy’s feelings and even sympathize, but at a time when his brother is facing death in the eyes, it’s selfish to the max. That being said, Ish could spend more time with him and make him feel like he’s just as important. No child likes feeling less than, and it does have long-lasting ramifications.

The prodigal daughter returns

In the final moments of episode 5, Heather has returned alone without Raif. It’s unclear what has happened to him, but Heather does confirm he’s passed on. Even through her trauma, she holds her brother Joey, not caring if she contracted anything from him.

We get to the end with Ish in major desperation to cure his son. He frantically travels back through the city by the bay and finds an abandoned hospital in ruins. He’s able to get some medicine and stops at the chapel to have a word with God, begging him to take him and not Joey. To him, Joey is the future of this world. Without him it would be a world too changed. A world he doesn’t want to live in.

Find out how it all ends next week and catch episodes 1-5 now on MGM+.

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About the author: Shay has been writing as a journalist professionally for years. Her most common topics to cover are drama and horror but she looks forward to getting her feet wet with new and exciting genres and projects. @ShaySleighs