“Playland” is episode fifteen of season two of First Wave.
A psychiatrist is talking to a patient about how he spoke about an amusement park, Playland. He wants to more about it. Fighting was a fundamental part of the daily ritual. The patient is in handcuffs and there’s a security guard outside. The shrink also wants to talk about what happened in the restaurant. Did the people make the patient, Gary, angry? Gary didn’t even know them. What was going on in his head. Nothing; he had the pangs. Outside the office the guard is now eating. In the restaurant, something clicked in Gary’s head. That’s why he had to pull on those people. He misses Playland. The psychiatrist tells Gary he needs to separate reality from fantasy. He didn’t grow up in an amusement park; he ran away from home at 12 and lived on the streets. Gary can smell the food and attacks the doctor. The guard comes in and shoots him, but not before Gary has stabbed the shrink in the heart with his pen.
Cade is in an amusement park in South Dakota. Gary shot and killed 9 people in a fast-food restaurant. When the cops arrived, he was stuffing his face with French fries. Gary’s belief in Playland was made public. Cade meets Eddie in a laser quest place; Eddie has unusual readings. Gary said he went through a portal and references the events of “Marker 262”. Eddie has found the portal and has something to get Cade through and a means of finding the portal to get back.
Cade runs through the portal and arrives at a rundown amusement park. High enough up that he breaks both items Eddie gave him when he lands. He sees a teenage girl and runs after her, managing to catch her. She threatens to bleed him. She’s a Blue. There are other teenagers around, all with blue. Cade mentions Gary and is asked if he’s the Stranger. No. Is he a red? No; he’s friendly to blues. The leader, Peter, says they can use an extra brawler against the Reds. He can have grub if he helps. Are the Reds like the Blues? Yes.
Two Reds are complaining about five days without a win; they’re starving. It would never have happened under Gary. The leader, Elias, takes this badly and demands one of the other two, Henry, come up with a plan.
Cade is telling the Blues about Gary. The teenagers have evolved their own slang – Cade is an ‘ay-dult’ – in their time in the park. Peter is the king of the Blues; the best fighter leads the Set. The Stranger took Gary out. They thought Cade was the Stranger come to take Peter; the Stranger is an ay-dult. They’ve been there years; they are runaways.
The Reds attack and the Blues fight them. Cade is watching, then intervenes with a gun and the Reds run away. The Blues run to an obelisk in their camp which clearly doesn’t belong there. A panel opens and food comes out. At the top, cameras are watching. Peter says the obelisk is the Feeder.
In the morning, Cade is told that the Feeder stops the pangs. It’s always been there, as far as they know. It feeds them after a fight. The Reds have their own Feeder; they will get loser gruel. Cade came to find out why Gary killed ten people. He thinks they are walking time bombs to be set loose in the real world. And he thinks the Gua are doing it. Why? So that they end up like Gary; a murderer shot dead by a security guard. Peter doesn’t see why he’d want to leave;’ he came from hell. Cade understands, as he had the same kind of background. He knows what it’s like. But they need to save their fighting for their real enemies. Peter will never work with a Red.
Cade talks to the girl he caught, Dawn. He wants her to talk to Peter and convince him they need to get out because, sooner or later, someone will die. This is an experiment. He knows what the place is and they need to find a way to get out. It will take teamwork. Cade tells Peter and Dawn that the cameras are recording, so there must be a place controlling them. He explains the Gua and the Stranger is a Gua operative.
Cade needs to try and convince two groups that have been conditioned to fight each other that they need to find a way to get out. Not easy; they fight to get fed, and the more and worse the violence, the better the food is. All told, this is one of the more depressing episodes.