A YEAR?! You skip a YEAR!?

You cant do that to us! The really good theater happens in the first 48 hours!

Ah well. To business.

I can understand the motives of everyone here:

Mike wants to go back for Round Two, particularly while Shauna's still there. The Mike that saw the problems of Laundi as his destiny revealed is certain that they're going back, for the simple reason is that they lost the last fight, so clearly there's more to it.

Arkahn's looking around Boston and saying "I have nothing to go back to but I sure as hell cant stay here!" She's been derailed since throwing her lot in with the heroes instead of the villains, and getting dumped in a new world doesn't help her any with that feeling.

Tyler's looking at Katherine and saying, "Wow, some best friend my sister picked."

Katherine threw me for an absolute loop. Took me a while to figure out how that worked out. My guess is this: Katherine goes crawling back to her parents. She figures, "Hey, look at Zana, maybe mothers aren't so bad." Then cold cold reality comes crashing back. Mike and Arkahn are getting along, which, true to form, rubs her the wrong way, and Shauna's still MIA. So since she's lacking an anchor to this world herself, she goes to the only other thing she has, and may I say: "YIKES!" on that score.

Now for the ending. Katherine didnt work herself into a panic attack because her boyfriend left her, it was because she'd just been dragged kicking and screaming back to where she started. She never wanted to leave Laundi, and if she'd had time to think it over, she would have asked to stay with Shauna, but I guess that ship sailed.

She didn't want to come back, but didn't get a choice, so she makes this one: "I am an adult now. This is my life. Not going back, cant happen anyway" And like everything else she cant factor or control, she shuts it all out, trying to forget Zana, forget Shauna, (By working in a coffee shop), and get on with her life.

And after a year, how's that working for ya? She throws herself into this world with her typical passion, and lands out the back of a coffee shop, with sliding grades, smoking her friends down the filter, hoping her boyfriend doesn't call. Ugh.

I caught it the second she tossed her cell phone out the window, (And who hasnt wanted to do that?) She's not going for a rescue mission, she's in for the duration.

This was Katherine's emotion episode. For Shauna, it was the first episode (Both parts) For Arkahn, it was the season finale. For Mike, it was when he woke up from his coma. For Katherine, it's this one here. The episodes in question didnt wrap around them, but the question of the moment was: What are they going to do?

Now then, as for the Third Shift. Well, I think the rope analogy works, but I think the bridge idea fits better. if they're tracing the path that our intrepid heroes took, then it means that the... 'doorway' in question remains, it just cant be found easily. In which case, the way through is already built, then it's just a matter of making use of it. Fesmer might have the juice for that much. Otherwise, we REALLY HAVE come full circle here.

See, we know that Fesmer's spell interrupted another one, but seriously, what are the odds that the Bad guy who had the power and Fesmer, with an enemy agent at his side, cast the two spells at the same time by chance?

So if Fesmer is casting the Shift spell from scratch now, he's not doing it alone. if it's a matter of making use of a year old doorway, long shut behind our weary travelers, then maybe, but if he's doing this himself, then he's got some serious firepower in his corner to do it, and there are only two we know of that fit the bill.

But of course, all of this is speculation until we see the shape of things in Laundi. If time moves differently, then it could be 3 years or more on the other end.

And who knows what side Shae-Na is now on? She could be the Evil Empress by now.

Zana's probably been burnt to the ground. The bad guys know that more than half their prisoners escaped, might be planning revenge, and Zana's their only contact.

Final points?

Tyler's the only one who knows the truth left on this side. He made the right choice staying behind.

This time they had advance warning, meaning they have plans, preperation, supplies, survival gear. Gloves are officially off for Round Two.

They wont be shifting back at the end of this season. For one thing, they keep popping in and out of our world and there's going to be trouble. Best case, Mike gets arrested and katherine gets fired. Worst case scenario, they all get tossed in a rubber room, or a horde of undying get sent after them. They cant came back until it's over.

Arkahn cant take the air in city? Sure. Country gal. We all grow up breathing it from the day we're born. She's got to fit twenty years of catch up tolerance into 12 months and that's not happening. Maybe if she took up smoking...And that's assuming it's just the smog and the smell and not something more fiendish.

Katherine smokes? Yeah. Tell me that's not a shriek for help. But hey, how many coffin nails do you think she could bring with her? Great time to go through detox.

I like Connie's ringtone.

Find them fast Shae-Na, Katherine brought coffee!

It's my own fault, I knew I should have forced myself to wait a week before listening to this one. Now I've gotta wait two weeks for part two.

#Lets out a breath I've been holding for six months.# Oh that's better.

You can read more of Matt's work at mattstephens.me