“Beneath the Black Sky” is episode twenty of season three of First Wave.
Cade, Eddie and Joshua – Joshua having agreed to stay with them after the events of the previous episode, “Black Box” – are in the woods at night. Joshua doesn’t understand why the station was empty; it was the Gua command post for the eastern seaboard. They arrive back at the car. Eddie says the quatrain backed it up. Joshua apologises for the mistake. Cade wants Eddie to try the omega quatrains again. They have no other choice. The car won’t start but it’s not the battery, as a couple of Gua acolytes open fire. Cade and Eddie flee one way; Joshua the other. Eddie stumbles as he’s behind Cade, then Cade disappears in a flash of light and Eddie caught.
Cade finds himself in a strange place. Someone appears, and they look just like him. The second Cade asks if Cade knows who he is. When Cade was a child, the other saved him from the Gua, revealed in “Shadowland”. He told Cade he would be back one day and is there to prepare him for the fight of his life. The second Cade moprhs and introduces himself as Xevallah (Christopher Judge, perhaps best known for playing Teal’c in Stargate SG-1).
The omega quatrain referred to a third interposing themselves between the blessed and cursed, to teach a secret skill in the darkest hour. Cade thinks Xevallah’s timing is bad. Xevallah says there’s nothing Cade can do to help Eddie. Would he risk everything to save one man? Yes. Xevallah tells Cade to let him finish what he’s doing, or saving Eddie will be the least of Cade’s problems. Inside the circle, the flame keeps them safe. Outside are Cade’s demons, fears and nightmares. Xevallah can help Cade get the power to save Eddie and stop the Gua invasion.
Xevallah is there to help Cade get insight into himself. Cade thinks an army would be more useful. Xevallah says Cade had an army, Raven Nation, and it was lost, allowing the Gua to proceed to the eve of invasion. Cade could have killed Mabus, but doesn’t. Was that out of weakness or strength? Xevallah’s own world was destroyed by the Gua but, unlike virtually all his species, he survived.
The Gua have known all along that Cade has the capacity to stop them. Everything since the first test has been designed to drain his warrior spirit but, despite the odds, he survived. Cade says he had help and the Nostradamus book. Xevallah says the Gua killed Hannah to make Cade hate them. They succeeded. What if the experiments Cade exposed were meant to be, what if Jordan was taken to misdirect Cade’s focus? What if everything is part of the Gua plan and Nostradamus was a lunatic? Anger works against Cade. Xevallah shows him a world, once a place of great beauty, destroyed because of anger. Xevallah says when confronting the Gua, rage is an impediment. Cade thinks anger is a tool that gives him strength. Xevallah’s people felt the same way; they were lured into a trap.
Cade leaves the circle after hearing E3ddie’s voice, then falls back into it. He says he should have listened. In the darkness, he was being hunted with no ability to fight back. Xevallah says Cade shouldn’t hate the Gua for killing Hannah, as it’s in their nature. Anger makes him predictable, and a predictable warrior is a dead one.
Humans are the only species Xevallah has encountered that massacres their own kind. Cade says he can’t be responsible for that. Xevallah points out that he feels responsible f=to save the planet. Hate like anger is an impediment to the warrior. Cade returns to the wasteland and he sees Eddie being guarded by an acolyte, who kills him. The acolyte is Joshua. There’s another behind Cade, and Cade kills hm. Xevallah congratulates Cade. That was a mirage. It felt real because Cade’s demons are real. Cade passed the test; he controlled his anger and didn’t allow hate to cloud his judgement. Xevallah gives Cade a pebble, which is absorbed into his skin.
Wherever Cade is, is clearly not the real world. Xevallah appears to be teaching Cade spiritual lessons he needs to know in order to defeat the Gua, and most of the episode revolves around these.