The Innocents season 1, episode 8 finale recap: ‘Everything. Anything.’

During a propulsive penultimate episode of The Innocents, June, Harry, and John all made it to Sanctum, June learned what happened the night Elena put five people in comas — and nearly lost herself in the process — and Halvorson, realizing Harry was a threat to keeping June at Sanctum, locked Harry in a remote room.

The Innocents‘ season finale, “Everything. Anything.” begins with brief flashes of the things that happened in the seven episodes prior to this one. At the same time, Harry still struggles to get someone’s attention in the room where Halvorson has trapped him.

Finally, the montage stops on The Innocents and Halvorson comes to talk to the imprisoned teenager. Seemingly reasonable as always, Halvorson tells Harry he’s sorry he locked him up but he needs to discuss June with him.

He wants Harry to tell him about the night of June’s first shift. But Harry’s not having any more of Halvorson. He doesn’t provide any further information. He just yells at Halvorson to let him out, but of course, Halvorson doesn’t.

Later, Halvorson has coffee with Runa. Runa tells him she dreamed that Freya was still there.

light. More. The Innocents season 1, episode 7 recap: ‘Will You Take Me Too?’

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June interrupts them to ask where Harry is. Halvorson lies to her. He tells her that Harry decided to leave. He claims they had a really good chat the previous night during which Harry decided he couldn’t help June anymore.

June is surprised. Halvorson says that after hearing about their work at Sanctum Harry believed it was the best place for her. June pushes back — that’s not what Harry told her. But Halvorson gets June to back off by telling her that Harry felt he was losing her more with each shift, especially after what happened when she shifted into Elena in the previous episode.

He tells her he took Harry back to the mainland himself and gave him money so he could safely return home. Now June just needs to focus on herself. Is it just me or is Halvorson seeming more and more like a freaky cult leader?

June goes to see Elena under the supervision of Halvorson. Despite what happened between them, Elena reassures June that being at Sanctum is the right choice for her. June agrees that she needs to fix herself. And afterward, she’ll find Harry.

Elsewhere, Runa has a flashback to a conversation she had with Freya/Kam when her daughter was still at Sanctum. Kam told Runa that Halvorson was forcing her to stay as Steinar so she could relive his memories. Runa says she’s lying, shifters can’t see others’ memories. Kam is insistant. She wants to escape, but Runa feels safe at Sanctum and refuses to go with her.

Outside in the present, John is delicately walking around on his injured leg. Halvorson comes to talk to him. John makes it clear that he’s skeptical of Sanctum. They’re completely isolated there. It’s just Halvorson and a group of women who all wear the same dresses and live by his rules.

Halvorson tries to explain his work and his reasons for keeping Sanctum isolated. Then he contends that John can’t help June but he can. However, John insists that if June is staying so is he, and Halvorson agrees.

John goes to see June. He wants to take her home on The Innocents. They discuss what happened the night Elena left and how John was trying to protect June from the same thing happening to her. John acknowledges that he shouldn’t have tried to control June’s life, he should have tried to prepare her instead.

June thinks he was right to be scared though. She’s ashamed of the things she’s done throughout The Innocents and wants to stay at Sanctum to get better.

John mentions Kam’s warning about Sanctum. But June is dismissive. She still believes because Kam was dangerous, her warning isn’t meaningful.

John asks June if Harry will stay with her. June repeats what Halvorson told her about Harry’s whereabouts. John is aghast, he (rightly) doesn’t believe Harry would just leave.

June protests that she doesn’t blame Harry, given what Elena did to his dad and what June is. John tells her that Harry loves her. He believes Halvorson must have forced him to go.

After leaving June, John watches Halvorson go to the barn, the building that houses his lab. After Halvorson leaves, he forces his way into the building and snoops around. He searches the room where the treatments with the slides take place.

Elena finds him there. The air is charged between them. Elena asks if it’s true that the people she shifted into the night she left never woke up. John says the old woman, the last victim, did. Everyone else remains catatonic, including Lewis.

John asks if Elena knows that Harry is Lewis’s son. Elena says John shouldn’t have brought him, but John claims Harry would’ve come anyway. He loves June.

John shifts the conversation by telling Elena that he’s just there to take June home. She needs her family. Elena disagrees. She believes June needs her because she can understand June in a way that neither John nor Ryan can. Instead of arguing, John walks away.

Meanwhile, Christine and Doug have made it to Norway and are working with the police to find Harry. They find John’s rental car reservation and track the car.

On the island, Halvorson goes to the barn and finds the door ajar. He checks to see if Harry is still where he left him and finds he is. He then realizes his testing room has been broken into.

He goes to see Runa. Runa believes Freya is back. Halvorson asks her if she’s been in the barn. Runa tells him she saw Steinar coming from there. She thought it was because Halvorson was trying to help Freya again.

Later, Halvorson has a meal outside with John, June, Sigrid, and Elena. Halvorson toasts June. As they begin to eat, John and June question Sigrid. Sigrid tells them the treatment is hard but worth it.

John asks why she hasn’t left, but Halvorson answers for her, saying the women of Sanctum are unique. John points out that Halvorson told him that Sigrid’s just like everyone else now, so why wouldn’t she leave.

He also asks why Runa hasn’t left. Halvorson explains that Runa likes to help the others. But John counters that if no one leaves it doesn’t sound like Sanctum is really helping them. Elena objects that Sanctum is a place for shifters, and it’s June’s decision to stay.

Halvorson sees an opening. He asks if John’s suspicions are what led him to break into his lab, the only place where the women feel safe enough to talk about their trauma. With that revelation, Halvorson says he thinks it’s time for John to leave. Elena agrees and Sigrid follows suit.

John tries to convince June that Sanctum isn’t right and that Harry wouldn’t have left on his own, but June won’t hear it. Halvorson twists things further by claiming that Harry understood that Sanctum wasn’t for him. Halvorson tells John he can stay the night. He’ll drive him to the nearest town the next morning.

A voice starts speaking over a loudspeaker. It’s Freya. Runa, who was lying down inside, runs out of the house when she hears it. Halvorson leaves the table muttering that he must have left some equipment on. He tries to intercept Runa but Runa won’t be deterred. She runs to the barn.

In the lab, they find Steinar holding a shotgun and screening a video. Steinar aims the gun at Halvorson as the rest of the group run into the room. June immediately recognizes Kam in the video, but Steinar corrects her — the girl’s real name is Freya.

He needs them to see something. He plays the video. The video starts before Kam’s first shift. In it, Halvorson tells Kam the shifting is attached to emotional pain. Then, he shocks her. As she shakes from the electricity, Halvorson tells Kam to touch Steinar, who is seated next to her. She does and shifts into him.

Halvorson tries to explain to the assembled group that at the time the video was taped he was just forming the therapy. Sigrid isn’t having it. He was electrocuting Kam. How is that therapy? Elena asks if Runa knew.

Steinar claims she did and plays more of the video. Kam is able to access Steinar’s memories. She says it happens naturally but she doesn’t like what’s in Steinar’s mind and she wants to stop. Halvorson won’t let her. He needs to understand more of what Kam can do.

Kam is seen again in a later video. She’s distressed and refuses to shift for Halvorson. She tells him she and Runa are leaving. Halvorson counters that Runa will never leave because he saved her. Then he shocks Kam over and over while telling her she’s being selfish.

Halvorson demands that Steinar stop the video but he won’t. June asks why Steinar’s doing this. He says he couldn’t let Halvorson do the same thing to her, and it becomes increasingly clear that Steinar may not be Steinar at all.

Steinar approaches Halvorson with the gun. As June asks another question, distracting Steinar, Halvorson lunges for the gun and knocks Steinar out.

He holds the gun on the group, tells them to move to the other side of the room, and demands that June come with him. Sigrid lambasts him saying he betrayed and lied to them. Halvorson won’t hear it. He says all of them have done worse than him, triggering an episode in Sigrid.

Sigrid reaches for Halvorson, so Halvorson shoots and kills her. Runa tries to intervene to stop Halvorson but Halvorson yells for June again. June goes to him asking him not to hurt anyone else while her parents protest.

Halvorson shoves Runa and June out the door and leaves John and Elena locked inside. He takes June and Runa into the area where he has been keeping Harry. June is surprised to see him, but Harry is relieved.

Halvorson goes into the room behind the glass with Harry and trains the shotgun on him. June and Runa watch from the other side of the glass on The Innocents.

Runa asks Halvorson why June is so important. Halvorson explains that he’s always only been trying to help Runa. Her dementia is getting worse. He believes June’s the answer to that problem because she can remember what Runa can’t. In other words, they can use June to save her.

Harry addresses June as he realizes what Halvorson will try to make her do. He reminds her of who she is. Halvorson forces him to the floor at gunpoint. Halvorson yells at June to shift. When she hesitates, Halvorson shoots next to Harry.

In the lab, Steinar regains consciousness. He sees Sigrid’s dead body and hears Elena and John trying to free themselves.

As the trio finally break out, June starts to shift in the other room. Steinar, John, and Elena try to get into the other rooms, while Runa tries to talk Halvorson down. Runa tells Halvorson he doesn’t need to do this, he already saved her.

While he’s distracted, Harry tackles Halvorson. In the ensuing struggle, Halvorson drops the gun. Harry grabs it and aims it at Halvorson. He demands the keys, which Halvorson throws to him. Harry unlocks the door.

Runa goes to Harry and takes the keys and gun, which she also aims at Halvorson. Runa lets Steinar, John, and Elena inside. She instructs them to leave Sanctum. Before they do, June tells Runa that she’s met Freya.

Steinar stays with Runa who continues to hold Halvorson at gunpoint. She tells Halvorson how the day Freya left she told Runa all about what Halvorson was doing. Deep down she knew it was true, but she claimed Freya was lying because she was weak.

Runa and Halvorson have a terse exchange, and Steinar interjects that Halvorson is nothing without Runa. When he enters the room, Runa sees his reflection in the glass. It’s not Steinar but Freya/Kam. Runa momentarily looks happy. Then she turns back to Halvorson and shoots him.

Meanwhile, Elena, John, June, and Harry take the boat across the lake and leave the island. Driving away from the town, Harry and Elena talk as June and John sleep.

Harry tells Elena he can’t forgive her, but he’s not going to fight with her because he loves June. He wants to know if his dad said anything about him when he and Elena were together. Elena says Lewis told her she should meet him.

On the ferry later in The Innocents, Harry reaffirms his commitment to June.

At Sanctum, Runa asks Freya to stay so they can make a real home there but Freya refuses. She shifts back into her body and tells Runa her daughter is gone. However, she still wants to know why Runa chose Halvorson over her.

Runa tells her she was scared and weak. Freya protests that she needed her. Halvorson only loved Runa for what she is, Freya loved her for who she is. Runa apologizes and begs Freya to stay, but she leaves.

When their ferry begins to approach the dock, Harry sees his mother waiting there with the police. Harry tells John, Elena, and June that Christine was investigating Elena and June.

Elena decides she needs to leave them again for June’s safety. She apologizes to Harry and walks away. June cries and hugs her father. June and Harry get into their car, as John joins Elena at the edge of the boat.

When the ferry docks, Elena turns herself over to Christine and John assures her that Harry’s okay. Christine observes that June is just like Elena and is going to hurt Harry just like she hurt Lewis. Elena denies it.

As Christine cuffs Elena, Harry peals away from the ferry in the car. Much like he did when he was trying to escape Steinar in London, Harry crashes the car. This time he crashes hard into a tree hurting himself and June.

June wakes up. She’s severely injured. She’s scared and starts to have an episode. She asks Harry not to touch her but he does.

He tells her she needs to shift into him and find someone to help her. She refuses. She’s scared she’ll hurt him. Harry doesn’t care, though, June’s injury is fatal but his aren’t so if she shifts into him, her injuries will become less severe. Harry finally convinces her and she shifts into him.

Moments later, Christine pulls up. She’s so excited to see Harry she doesn’t realize there are two of them in the car. June/Harry warns her not to touch her. But Christine doesn’t hear and hugs her. June immediately shifts into Christine. Like his father, Harry doesn’t wake up.

This episode of The Innocents ends with June shifting back to herself as she realizes what’s happened. Harry is still catatonic. Just like Lewis, he keeps repeating the last things he said to June.

It was a mile-a-minute ending for the first season of The Innocents. Should the show continue or is June repeating her mother’s mistakes a fitting ending? And if the show does continue, where could it go from here?

Either way, it’s a sad conclusion to a story that relied on the hope of love to pull the central couple through The series was a bit slow to start and sagged some in the middle. But the show gained more and more narrative steam as the episodes went on, leading to a story full of shocking revelations and connections.

Next. The Innocents season 1, episode 1 premiere recap: ‘The Start of Us’. dark

The Innocents touched on a number of themes — family, fear, identity, loyalty, memory — but it didn’t delve into any of them with much depth. Instead, it was content to spin a twisty story full of supernatural teen TV tropes. And while it could preposterous (as a story about a teenage shapeshifter is bound to be), it was ultimately involving and affecting drama.

What did you think of the season finale of The Innocents? Would you like to see the show return for season 2? Share your opinions in the comments. If you want to relive the series, you can read all of our recaps starting with episode 1 and stream the series on Netflix.

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