Homecoming Season 2, Episode 1 recap: People

The Homecoming Season 2 premiere dives back into the mystery of Geist.

Homecoming kicks off its second season with an eerie sense of déjà vu. You know, the type where a character wakes up, has no idea who they are and where they are and then proceeds to follow the scattered breadcrumbs of their life until it leads them back to Geist.

Much like the first season, the second season reminds us of the weird and strange world Homecoming resides in. But this time around, instead of Julia Roberts as the lead, we have Janelle Monáe.

I love Monáe, but there was something special about Roberts that brought a certain charm to the series. Off the bat, I didn’t connect with Monáe and her character, Jacqueline in the way I did with Roberts’ Heidi Bergman. But in any case, the story begins on a rowboat in the middle of nowhere, and well, it gets pretty wild from there.

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Where am I? Who are you?

Jacqueline wakes up to realize that she has no idea who she is, and how she ended up on a rowboat in the middle of the lake. Discombobulated and confused, all she has to go off of is a man in the distance running away upon seeing her wake up. Shady, much?

The confusion continues as she swims her way back to shore, and realizes she has no idea what is going on around her. It’s as if someone wiped her brain clean of any memory, and she’s just a clean slate walking around waiting to be filled with some content.

With no idea where to go, Jacqueline trudges her way through the forest and eventually onto the road, where a female police officer attempts to speak with her. If I was the police officer or Jacqueline, I’d be highly suspicious of the other, and quite frankly, scared out of my mind.

Buddy the savior?

The police officer is awfully wary of Jacqueline given her current state, and with little to go off of, she whisks her off to the hospital. While waiting for the officer to do her thing, Jacqueline meets a man by the name of Buddy (John Billingsley) who warns her that she is under suspicion of doing drugs. The marks on her arm don’t help her case, and while she has no recollection of doing any such thing, her best bet would be to get the hell out of there.

The doctor and officer aren’t too keen on giving Jacqueline the benefit of doubt, so like a ninja, Jacqueline sneaks out of the hospital without being caught by either of them. Luckily, at the exit, Buddy is waiting in his car to help make her escape successful.

Almost immediately, I questioned Buddy’s motives. He seems like a nice guy, but he is dealing with a woman who has seemingly lost her memory. Is it really that safe to trust a stranger like this?

She finds a napkin in her pocket that has the word “Skins”, hinting that she was at a bar by this name the night before. Jacqueline’s memories are a huge blur, and it doesn’t help that whatever she does remember are fleeting glimpses of random objects like red towels. Don’t worry, it’ll make sense later.

One crazy night, apparently

Jacqueline may be struggling to remember what transpired in her life recently but the owner of Skins remembers her very well once he sees her. He’s not too ecstatic about it either, which only complicates and confuses Jacqueline about her ordeal. Leave it to Homecoming to confuse us and its characters simultaneously.

Apparently, the night before Jacqueline was at Skins with a “friend” and the owner had to kick them out. She hopes looking at the receipt will help jog her memory, but all she really gets from it is a room number. Buddy and she manage to get into the locked room and find some rather interesting things in there–a melon, a wad of cash, and a needle (from the Geist lab!), and a card with the name Alex on it. Who is Alex? She has no idea.

All the while, Buddy is dazzled by the dollar signs swirling all around him and takes full advantage of Jacqueline’s guard being down. He bonks her on the head and runs away with the money. Not cool dude, not cool at all!

What now?

Homecoming resumes its wacky, cryptic style of storytelling as Jacqueline comes to and realizes that Buddy has deceived her. The scene shifts from her to a man we will come to know as Leonard Geist peeling a strange looking fruit. There’s obviously something more going on here, and whatever has been going on at Geist surely has to do with this guy and his huge farm of strange fruits.

So, how did Jacqueline end up where she is? Who is she? And how is Geist connected to all of this? Stay tuned, Homecoming fans.