"The truth is like the sun. The more you look, the more it blinds." [SPOILERS AHEAD]
This week, Project Blue Book almost brought unspeakable horror to 2 US Air Force soldiers when a nuclear testing site seemingly decided to launch a missile on its own. However, this launch was not authorized and could not be stopped, until the last second when it shut itself down on its own...or was it something else at hand, remotely sending the US Air Force into temporary panic? The scene is incredibly eerie, set with mannequins doing inane tasks around a perfectly manicured neighborhood. Their smiling faces, staring blankly toward nothing in particular, gives an air of unease as the camera pans across them in every scene set on the White Forest Missile Base. This is indeed the same base as the owl monster came out of, proven by Hynek to be (maybe) something entirely plausible.
With the crisis diverted, the soldiers then exit their vehicle to witness what appear as multiple green fireballs of light zooming straight toward them from the sky and then veering off in various directions and careening around the daytime sky. Cue Hynek and Quinn, back on the case after the suicide of Fuller, and ready to dive into the high strangeness again. But are they the same as they were before last week's events? Dr. Hynek seems disturbed by the events, and witnesses dreams and waking hallucinations of Fuller, burned and screaming at him, but only making some strange digital static noise, not words. Hynek's mind my be somewhat shattered from this event, but his motives have taken a turn for more serious endeavors into these alien mysteries. He ends up sparking a war between Generals Harding and Valentine, who they'd been working under initially, and the Secretary of Defense Fairchild due to getting his matrix camera approved over Harding and Valentine's heads.
This move brings them back out to the creepy mannequin Main Street to set up the advanced camera system. Something doesn't feel quite right when Quinn finds the lit cigarette of the man seen taking photos of the street earlier, still lit on the ground. He's captured rather quickly after attempting to pose as a mannequin. His spy intentions are obvious, but who is he? We saw him on the AFB earlier, as a legitimate enlisted soldier. "He enlisted. We can't catch them all," Harding explains to Quinn later. The spy ends up being Russian and Quinn confirms it by finding a stash of multiple passports with the man in disguise in the photos when searching his quarters.
Meanwhile, Hynek is determined to use his camera system to capture the green fireball anomalies and determine what they are. He is firmly after the truth in this episode, but at the clear cost of his sanity and health. Before being able to witness anything unearthly though, he passes out and is recovered to his feet by the MIB (Man in Hat) himself, who tells him to head to a particular church nearby to talk. He also tells a confused and intrigued Hynek he's "almost ready."
The subplot of Susie the Russian Spy and Unsuspecting but Frustrated Mimi keeps moving along as well, introducing Mimi's neighbor Donna again - in places and situations that are too bizarre to be considered normal neighbor behavior. Mimi is convinced by Susie to find out more information about her husband's weird work, and digs into his journal. The truth he knows is surely in there, and now, Mimi is aware of it all. Susie has been told by her counterpart/partner/boss/abuser that they're done in Ohio and it's time to move on, but she protests due to being too close to the truth to stop spying now, or too close to Mimi to let her one friend slip away.
We then find Dr. Hynek in the aforementioned church, and the MIB finally speaks to him face to face. Well, face to back, rather. Hynek sits in front of him in the pew before turning to face him, and in that way, also faces what he's been searching for, some truth. If this mysterious man is to be believed, Hynek may be able to finally get to the truth he's so desperately seeking. Again, the cost of such knowledge may be very high, as he is given a set of keys by the MIB and goes off to unlock a case in the basement of the Air Force Base. His discovery is a composite of squarish metallic pieces stuck together, just over handheld in size. This clearly unknown technology is something he takes home and shows Mimi when he realizes how awful he's been to her. He reconciles with her, and it patches up the recent distance and anger in their marriage, but the cost of bringing in Mimi may yet prove to be a dangerous mistake. She holds the strange object in her hands, asking if it shouldn't be heavier for what it looks like. Allan and Mimi share a moment which instead of tender, translates to clandestine in the company of the mysterious object; implying maybe harrowing events to come.
We're four episodes away from where this is leading. Do the various government factions play a larger part in all of the activity Dr. Hynek and Quinn are experiencing? And to what end is Susie trying to learn so much about Hynek's work? Set in the Communist Era of post WWII America, the fever pitch of Soviet paranoia is strong in this one. We just don't yet know who the real enemy here is, or, if it's an enemy in outer space.
🛸 Project Blue Book airs every Tuesday night at 9pm EST
on the History Channel.
I'll be reviewing each episode of Project Blue Book after it airs every week. If you liked this review, please subscribe to the blog to be notified of new posts. A like or share goes a long way!
