I Live Here Now

Written by Damon Lindelof & Tom Perrotta

Directed by Mimi Leder

The night of John's birthday barbeque, Evie gets into the car with her friends after saying goodbye to John and Erika. Once the car is out of sight, Evie turns off the radio, and the girls ride in silence. The driver, Violet, cries silently. Evie leans forward and stares at her, then holds up a memo pad reading "Don't" in the rearview mirror. The trio arrives at the lake, where they fake their disappearance. Before they leave, the three girls make eye contact with Kevin Garvey, who is standing at the water's edge with a cinderblock in his arms. They watch as he jumps into the lake but do nothing to help him.

After emerging from the ground, Kevin sits with Michael Murphy and talks about what he saw in the afterlife. After Kevin reveals what he saw and that he was helped by Virgil, Michael asks if he saw Evie. Kevin says no, though it triggers his memory of where he did see Michael's sister. He explains that he must talk to John immediately.

Erika finds John drinking at the kitchen table, despite the early hour. She demands that John open his birthday gift from Evie, and when he refuses, she tears it open herself. Inside a small jewelry box is a dead cricket. John is delighted that the bug was caught, but Erika points out that it's not the same cricket—she heard that one chirping the night he and Michael went out looking for Evie.

Two cops arrive at the Murphys' and tell John that they found a match on the handprint. John grabs his gun and heads next door looking for Kevin, to only find Laurie and Jill. Kevin walks up the drive, acknowledging that his print must have matched. John insists they talk somewhere neutral. He and Kevin drive off.

Nora heads to Matt and Mary's bungalow next to the church in search of Mary's feeding tube. While at the house, an earthquake strikes; Nora shields both Lily and Mary from falling debris, and when the tremors stop, Mary looks up at Nora and speaks. Nora brings Mary to Matt in the encampment, where he tells his wife that she's pregnant. Despite his joy that Mary is awake again, Matt insists that Nora get her back inside Miracle to ensure the baby's safety.

Meg pulls a pickup truck with the silver Airstream trailer attached up to the Miracle gate. A park ranger turns her away, explaining that the park is closed in honor of October 14. Meg reveals that she has 35 pounds of plastic explosive inside the trailer and plows through the gate and onto the bridge. She stops the truck in the middle of the bridge and gets out. From the trailer emerge Evie and her two friends, dressed in white.

John brings Kevin to animal quarantine, explaining that he'll let Kevin take his dog home if he reveals where Evie is. Kevin explains that he saw Evie and her friends stage their disappearance, and only remembered that the night after he died. John doesn't believe Kevin's story and insists that his daughter loved her family and wouldn't do anything to hurt them. When Kevin suggests that perhaps Evie didn't love them, John pulls his gun and shoots Kevin in the stomach. John steps out of quarantine where a park ranger tells him they've found Evie. They stop him from running onto the bridge, explaining that there's a bomb in the trailer.

Nora and the rest of the encampment watch the scene unfolding on the bridge. Through a set of binoculars, Nora sees Evie hold up a sign reading "one hour." The high school scoreboard at the edge of the encampment buzzes to life and begins counting down. The crowd begins to chant their encouragement for the bridge's destruction.

John finds Michael and Erika at church. Hearing the news, Erika runs out to the bridge, fending off the rangers who attempt to hold her back. She throws her arms around Evie who doesn't respond in kind and refuses to meet her mother's eyes. Erika demands to know what's happening and what's inside the trailer.

With less than two minutes to go, Tom and Guilty Remnant members camouflaged in the encampment strip down to their underwear and don white clothing. Erika tells Evie that if she plans to blow herself up, she'll have to take her mother with her. Erika storms into the trailer, with 10 seconds left, announces to the crowd that it's empty. The scoreboard buzzer goes off and hordes of people dressed in white storm the bridge. The few park rangers at the gate aren't enough to keep the crowd at bay. Erika tells Evie that she doesn't understand her motivation. In response, Evie scrawls onto a notepad, "You understand."

Watching the crowd storm the gate, Matt tells Nora that this is his chance to get back into the park with Mary. As they join the flow, a woman snatches Lily from Nora's arms, yelling that Lily isn't her baby. Nora runs after the kidnapper and, after losing her in the crowd, spots Lily lying on the bridge, about to be trampled. Nora lays over Lily and protects her, getting trampled herself. Tom emerges from the crowd and pulls Nora and Lily to safety inside the Airstream.

Kevin once again wakes up in the hotel bathtub. After failing to contact his father through the TV, he opens the armoire and chooses his Mapleton police uniform. He takes a call from the lobby, asking for his help protecting another police officer. Kevin comes downstairs and instead of finding trouble, sees a crowd assembled around a stage with a karaoke setup. He confronts the host, the Australian man who threw a noose around his neck on the bridge during his last visit, and asks how he can get home. The man tells Kevin the only way out is to sing a song.

Reluctantly, Kevin gets up and spins the song wheel. It lands on Simon and Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound," the lyrics of which resonate deeply with Kevin. He finishes the song, closes his eyes and wakes up on the floor of animal quarantine. He's still gut-shot, but the bullet went clean through him. Kevin's dog comes out to comfort him, and the two of them stumble into a ransacked Miracle.

Kevin heads to the empty ER in search of first-aid supplies. John, looking for Erika, is shocked to find Kevin there alive. He helps Kevin bandage up his wound and through his tears tells Kevin, "I don't understand what's happening." The two men head home together and Kevin offers to let John stay with him if nobody's at his house. Inside, Kevin comes face to face with Jill, Laurie, Matt, Mary, Tom, Lily and Nora. Nora takes a step towards Kevin and weeps with joy. "You're home," she says.