From S1E2
Episode 2 "The Way Things Are Now"
Looks like a flashforward (or backward?) where a bloodied Kenny is chopping down a tree. Why though? I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later.
Now resuming at the RV and still night time, Kristi is able to get Ethan in stable condition. They hear a knock accompanied with a seemingly friendly voice out there asking if they need help. Assuming that's the backup Jim goes up to open but Boyd angrily manhandles him into submission as he strongly urges him not to open the door. Maybe this is a good time to tell him why??
Meanwhile Kenny and the rest of the group are struggling so hard in what is now rain and you guessed it, night time. There is a huge house (referred as Colony House) with a whole other community of people. There is a guard (if you want to call him that) blocking anyone from opening to the outside peeps begging to be let in.
The leader of Colony House overrides the guard and allows them to be let in. Just in the nick of time too because the "monsters" were starting to show themselves. To Julie in particular that Kenny had to shoot but holy fuck the bullet made no effect on the monsta.
After the rainy people got let in, the Colony House leader demands Tabitha and Julie be tied up as they are outsides and have no idea quite yet if they should be trusted. Boyd's son, Ellis, and Kenny strongly detest this but since this is HER domain they do have to follow "protocol". The tripped up passenger dude is still passed out (yeah, they carried his ass over there) so they tie him up to the bed upstairs to deal with later.
They separate Tabitha and her daughter, Julie to separate rooms. The leader named Donna sets Tabitha down first to give her a talk about what she is about to experience. She's seems like a tough lady, but not evil. She seems pretty nice actually but she tells Tabitha that every one in this town has been exactly where she was at, which explains her empathy and patience with her as Tabitha had a failed escape attempt and is back in the seat.
Donna asks Tabitha if she believes in monsters as a starter.
Julie is in the kitchen tied up in her own chair. Fatima introduces herself (the girlfriend to Elli). She unties her and shows her Ellis' room. This is when she gently introduces Julie to the monsters and why this town is like it is.
In the broken RV, Boyd and Kristi finally explains to Jim about the things not being human. They hear more knocks and more voices. Jim still doesn't get it and just asks why can't he just shoot them. Kristi is starting to lose her sanity but Boyd keeps her head straight telling her this is what the monsters want to her feel. To lower her guard because THAT is how they get ya!
After she restores her sanity, she proceeds to start the extraction and it's tough to hear the little guy cry but he's going to be okay.
The creepy girl in the hospital is reeling from some kind of inner torment saying she can't do it anymore. She is talking to some unseen voice giving her orders and it's obvious she is in distress and doesn't want to obey but she ultimately does. She takes a scalpel and goes to cut the dead guy's tongue out. She's heavily tortured inside so she pleads to her brother, Nathan, for help after washing away the blood.
Back at the house, Kenny and Father Kahtri have a late night chat (also a scene where it implies that Kenny and Ellis have some beef going on) and Kenny rants how this is all weighing down heavily on him.
I guess this is a fast forward after Donna tells Tabitha all about the monsters (to refrain from repetition) but of course, being a newbie to it all is still hella skeptical. Donna proceeds to tell her their story of how she and her sister first encountered this god forsaken city. Her sister was the unfortunatle casualty and went into graphic detail how the monster skinned her alive. She was able to survive by crawling in the bushes and evading them until sunrise. She said even after all this time, she could still hear her sister's blood curdling screams. 2 years 3 months and 17 days and she can still hear her screams.
Ethan regains consciousness and says outlandish stuff like claiming to see the land of tears or something.
A drunken Kenny continues to rant to Father Kahtri which ended with "And then I saw the tree".
The nurse in the home, not Kristi, is en route to bring food to the car crash dude and that is when she walks in to find his throat stabbed to a bloody mess. She turns to her right and sees the door wide open with 2 monsters smiling menacingly. She runs as fast as she could to the nearest door and and locks it behind her hoping for the best.
In the RV, Jim sees the talisman and removes it. He holds it up in the air to ask Boyd and Kristie "Hey, wut dis?" To their horror, they hear rampant footsteps and everyone is like AAAAaaaaahhhhh and a monster dive bombs into little Ethan. And they all dedz.
SIKE!
It was all a nightmare courtesy of Kristi. To her relief it is now morning the proof is in the pudding that they have indeed survived the night! Kenny and the rest of the group arrive in their truck to pick them up. Tabitha and Jim have a tearful reunion and all is right with the world.
But this yet to be named tortured girl is seen talking to her brother confessing that she hears voices that told her to make it look like the murder was the work of the monsters under the promise that will help everyone in this town go back home.
Kenny, Kristi and Father Kahtri reach the hospital but to their horror they see the door wide open and he finds his father murdered. This is when Kenny heads to cut down the tree. Boyd finds him in the middle of nowhere Turns out that him and his dad played chess every night before bed time so he turns it into a metaphor for life how "There aren't many spaces left." The wood has tainted his chess pieces. He murdered a whole tree to carve a single chess piece. Yuhhh.
Boyd enters the police station and wipes off the number count of the Days Without Incident. He places the bloodied chess piece on his desk and all he can do is just stare at it.
Julies tries to cheer Ethan up at the house and plays with the finger puppets again but this time, she made the story to ressurrect the once dead character, hoping to cheer lil bro but he seems...distracted.
"Hey, are you okay? What are you looking at?"
"Nothing" Ethan replies.
Only it's not nothing. He sees a kid outside in white colored clothes. He's standing just outside the window with an eerie nothing expression. A smile.
Concluding this episode
Episode 3 is next