“Eyes of the Gua” is episode eight of season three of First Wave.
A man wearing manacles is inside a ring of flame, doing what looks to be some sort of ritual. The fire goes out and a light shines down. In front of the ring is Mabus’s chamber. The man is a Gua, Vincent, and Mabus asks him if he’s willing to serve. Not since the Second Harbinger have they honoured the ancient ways. Mabus leaves his chamber. Vincent will be dispatched to seize the vision. Does he accept? Vincent does. Does he hear the flames calling him? He does. Mabus hands Vincent an amulet and tells him to make them burn.
Cade is New England. A killer has struck twice and the police have kept most of the details confidential. However, word has leaked out that the victims’ eyes were burned from their skulls. Cade wonders if Mabus is the killer mentioned in the relevant quatrain. Cade is at the location where the second victim was killed and is taking photographs when a cop says he needs a good reason for being there. Cade is forensics and he shows an ID. He was brought in to get some new shots of the footprints that had been burned into the floor. The cop thought another was doing that. Cade says what others think of that person and it seems the cop agrees.
The cop is watching the crime scene but he doesn’t know much. The first victim was out of their jurisdiction and the feds are handling the whole thing. Cade notices something on the floor. On a girder above is a sign. Cade has the cop help him move the sign. Underneath is a symbol.
Eddie is at a police station, claiming he did the murders. Because of aliens. This was just to get him near enough to a computer to download the police files. The detectives leave him alone and Eddie starts eating a sandwich. Then puts the foil on his head. Before he’s shown the door, he’s asked if a drawing of a suspect seen near the first murder looks like an alien. No; it looks like Joshua.
Eddie suggests to Cade that maybe Joshua has changed since he was free from the quantum pocket in “Gulag”. Cade doesn’t think Joshua is the killer. But if he’s hanging around, the killings must be to do with the invasion. The police have found no connection between the victims. Cade is going to head out to get the coroner’s report. He’s examining the body of the second victim when Eddie rings him, startling him. There’s been another one.
The victim is fastened to a fence and the two detectives are examining him. There are more footprint burns and the fence is melted as if the killer walked through it. Cade is taking photos from above as one detective finds another symbol, also hidden. Cade spots Joshua watching as well.
He confronts Joshua, who tells Cade this doesn’t concern him. Don’t pursue it. Why do the cops suspect Joshua? Did he kill the victims? Joshua asks Cade what he thinks. Cade isn’t sure. He also isn’t impressed with Joshua’s lack of gratitude for being rescued. Joshua confirms the killer is Gua, but warns Cade that he’s like nothing Cade has ever seen. Don’t make the mistake of thinking his gun will help.
Cade is speaking to the second victim’s widow. Her late husband had done a lot of drawings, all of the same place. She doesn’t know where it is. Her husband went out to clear his head because he had a headache. He was scared; she doesn’t know why. But he never came back. He didn’t know the first victim, who lived in Massachusetts, and hadn’t been out of Rhode Island in 15 years. Cade swipes one of the drawings before he leaves.
Eddie has found no connection between the victims and has gone back four generations. The police found another symbol at the first scene, now they knew there were symbols at the other two. Eddie hasn’t matched them to anything. Cade thinks they must be Gua. Eddie thinks that’s no help unless they could read Gua. Cade thinks the killings are too staged to be random. He looks at a photo of the third victim and sees a mark on his neck. He saw the same mark on the second victim. It looks like a birthmark. Eddie says that’s improbable unless they’re related. Cade suggests looking further back than four generations.
When Eddie digs back far enough, he discovers that the three victims were related. A long way back, and descended from a rather significant individual. Joshua was right when he told Cade a gun wouldn’t help, but Joshua also has goals of his own. Whatever Joshua’s thoughts about the invasion are, his actions are intended to benefit the Gua. He just doesn’t believe that the Gua’s current plans benefit them.