“Shadowland” is episode thirteen of season three of First Wave.
A boy wakes and a voice asks him what’s the batter. He wants to be gone, doesn’t he? The voice would in his place. The boy is restrained to a medical chair in a white room. The voice says he’s right here and a man appears. The man says the boy thinks the man will hurt him, hurt a 12-year-old boy. The boy nods. Smart lad. The man shocks him. He says it makes the boy feel anger, hate. Use it. If he wants to be free, use it. The boy has a revolver. The man shouts that if the boy wants the pain to stop, all he has to do, Cade, is shoot. An adult Cade jolts awake.
Cade tells Jordan and Eddie; he’s been having the nightmare for the past couple of weeks. He’s dealing with it. No, he never sees who he shoots; when Cade pulls the trigger, he wakes up. Eddie thinks this means something and it leads to a quatrain he’s never been able to get a handle on. That may be referring to a 12-year-old Cade. Cade thinks that’s 16 years too late. Jordan thinks maybe not; there’s a doctor, Greer, who works with Raven Nation, a regression specialist. Cade didn’t enjoy his childhood the first time around; he doesn’t want to relive it.
A woman is looking at a photo of a man in uniform and dog tags when the door opens. She flinches until seeing it’s young Cade. She thought it was Ned. Cade asks if she was thinking about dad again. Yes. Cade doesn’t remember him. They are talking when Ned does arrive. He’s home early because he was laid off. Things do not seem great between Ned, Cade and his mother. Ned says that Cade would love to take a shot at him, after his mother has left the room, and breaks the photo.
Cade was undergoing regression with Dr Greer and Jordan. He didn’t enjoy the experience and says that Ned and his mother have nothing to do with the nightmare. Greer says he’s being eased in; now they need to go deeper and explore. Cade has explored enough; he’s remembering stuff he tried to forget. That night, he has another nightmare and Eddie convinces Cade to try again.
Greer says nightmares are triggered by traumatic events in life we cannot face. He’s read Cade’s journals; looks like trauma is his middle name. Cade is back in the apartment again and he has a memory of his mother and Ned giving him Blackhawks tickets for his birthday. Everyone seems a lot happier. Greer calls Jordan; Cade is using his mind creatively. Creating false memories to hide a painful truth. But he’s past it now.
Cade’s mother is heading to hospital for some tests; she’ll be back in two days. Cade doesn’t want to be alone with Ned. His mother knows that Ned hasn’t been a good father and she wishes she could change things but can’t. She needs Cade to promise to stay until she gets back. Later, Ned finds Cade with a case; evidently, he was leaving.
Two men arrive at the apartment. One of them is the man from the Nightmare. He’s introduced as Dr Rook. He’s not here about Cade’s mother; he’s not that kind of doctor. More of a scientist. And Ned is being paid to allow Cade to be taken away, though just for a day. Cade hits the second man in the face and scratches him. He heals. He’s Gua. Cade is shocked out of the therapy. Ned sold him to the Gua.
Eddie can find no record of Rook. He has found missing kids, lots of them. All in Chicago and all showed up after a day or two. Alive. Yes, but not in great shape; they ended up in mental institutions or committed suicide. None remembered what happened. 100 kids, all 12 years old, all orphans whose fathers died in the war. Cade must have been a subject of a Gua experiment before he became Subject 117. Cade asks how he could forget and Greer suggests maybe he wasn’t. His memories could have been deliberately blocked.
Back under, and Cade is with Ned who is drinking and looking at a locked box that he says fell off a truck. Cade thinks he’s been stealing again. Ned asks Cade if he thinks he can open the box. No. Ned can. He locks it again and gives Cade the pick, telling Cade to try. Some people got the feel, some don’t. Ned encourages Cade to open the box and he manages. Ned says he got the feel. This is a rare pleasant memory, especially with Ned.
Cade’s life at that point was none too pleasant. His mother was dying and Ned was hardly a pleasant person most of the time. And he got sold to the Gua for an experiment. Cade now needs to find out what happened during that experiment.