In the sixth episode of The Clearing, Freya, aka Amy, successfully tracked down the lodge where Adrienne was preaching. Dr. Latham was also present during the encounter. Sensing someone hiding in the bushes, Latham called out Amy’s name, but she managed to escape. In the seventh episode of The Clearing, the mystery surrounding Amy’s continued contact with Adrienne is finally unveiled.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Amy Keep In Contact With Adrienne?
The seventh episode opened with Amy, in a hallucinatory state likely due to the influence of drugs, presenting herself in court, where Wayne demanded custody of their daughter following an incident in which Amy had left Max unattended in the car. Due to Amy’s alarming behavior and potential threat to her child’s safety, custody of Max was awarded to Wayne. Subsequently, Amy was admitted to a psychiatric facility. However, after several days, Adrienne visited Amy at the facility and assured her that she would secure her release. Amy, still believing Adrienne to be her mother and harboring resentment towards her adoptive mother, Christine, eagerly accepted the offer. Amy was eventually released from the facility and provided shelter by Adrienne.
Throughout this time, Amy continued to have contact with Wayne and even became intimate with him. However, Wayne remained reluctant to reconcile and entrust Max’s care to Amy due to the trust issues that had developed between them, which deeply saddened Amy. Nonetheless, the true reason for Amy’s continued connection with Adrienne became clear: a profound sense of gratitude for Adrienne’s assistance in securing her release from the psychiatric facility.
Meanwhile, following a mistrial, it was discovered that Adrienne was medically unfit to stand trial. Three specialist psychiatrists had diagnosed her with severe dementia. However, Amy knew that Adrienne had been lying from the very beginning. Despite her realization, Amy kept this knowledge hidden from the Police because Adrienne had threatened to kidnap Max if she spoke out. Adrienne’s caretaker also began to suspect that Adrienne was capable of reading and remembering things. However, Amy dismissed his concerns, citing the doctors’ assertions that Adrienne was unable to read or comprehend anything.
Amy struggled to keep her secret for an extended period and eventually reached a breaking point. She knew that the Kindred organization had resurfaced and that the things she had witnessed in the lodge were not mere hallucinations. Amy decided to take Joe to the lodge to prove that Adrienne was still preaching, but it was empty. Joe, influenced by Adrienne’s medical reports, believed she was just an old and ailing woman. Amy revealed that she had kept all these revelations from Joe, insisting that Adrienne was, in fact, a healthy woman without any ailments. Joe was devastated upon learning the truth, as it meant that Adrienne’s medical reports had deceived him, leading to his discharge from the department.
Why Was Joe Saad Discharged From The Police?
Joe Saad had been actively involved in the investigation from the very beginning. Upon hearing that Adrienne would not be able to attend the trials due to her diagnosed medical unfitness, Joe initially found it difficult to believe. However, considering Adrienne’s visible signs of aging, he eventually accepted the possibility of her having certain disorders. During that time, as Joe was wrapping up the case, he stumbled upon a photograph on Garrison’s desk. The photo depicted Garrison’s car parked directly in front of the lodge where Adrienne used to preach, strongly suggesting Garrison’s involvement as an inside man for the Kindred. Confronting Garrison, Joe demanded answers, and Garrison admitted to being an associate in the past but claimed to have severed ties with Adrienne and Latham after the raid at Blackmarsh. Joe asserted that Garrison owed him greatly.
With Garrison’s assistance, Joe Saad attempted to secretly install surveillance equipment in Adrienne’s house but was caught in the act. Due to his faltering investigative approach, the police chief decided to fire Joe. However, Joe chooses not to reveal Garrison’s involvement, accepting all the blame and punishment himself. Meanwhile, the events surrounding the 9/11 attack brought Joe Saad’s religious beliefs into question, making his life a living nightmare. After his dismissal from the department, Joe’s descent into alcoholism caused his wife and children to leave him. Amy was the only one who could have provided him with vital information about Adrienne so that Joe could prove her guilt in court. However, Amy’s fear of losing her children posed a major obstacle to this pursuit.
Who Abducted Billy?
In episode 7, Adrienne and Anton receive an invitation to attend the wedding of Abigail, who claims to be Adrienne’s “daughter” within the Kindred. Despite Amy’s reservations about Adrienne attending the wedding, both Adrienne and Anton decided to go. Among the wedding guests, they encountered Annabelle, a former member of the Kindred who had suffered from Bulimia, Anorexia, and other ailments due to malnutrition within the group. They also learned about the tragic fate of another member named Aaron, who took his own life upon hearing about the mistrial.
Adrienne had wreaked havoc on the lives of many individuals, some of whom continued to respect and blindly follow her as their mother, while others, like Amy and Annabelle, despised her after seeing through her manipulations. Some of the wedding attendees resented Adrienne’s presence, and one of them even launched a direct attack on her, although the situation was eventually brought under control. Joe Saad, due to his longstanding acquaintance with Abigail, was also invited to the wedding. However, the guilt of his failure in the investigation gnawed at him, leading him to make a regrettable decision. In a state of intoxication, he raised a toast at the wedding and expressed his resentment towards Adrienne for using false dementia as an excuse. He directly confronted her, asserting that she had never known love, truth, or family, as her entire life had been built upon deceit and lies. Unable to control his temper, Anton responded by punching Joe in the face, while Adrienne locked eyes with Amy, aware that only she could have revealed the truth about her false dementia.
Amy understood that her own life and the lives of her children were now in danger, but she made a grave mistake. She entrusted Billy to Wayne’s care for a day, hoping to keep him safe. However, after worsening the situation at the wedding, Amy retrieved Billy and went for a swim. Upon coming out of the water, she couldn’t find Billy in the vicinity. It was possible that Billy had been abducted by Adrienne’s men or by Anton as a punishment for Amy’s betrayal within the Kindred.
What Happened To Henrik?
Henrik was found to be alive and seemingly in good health. It appeared that he might have reconnected with the Kindred, although guilt was clearly evident on his face. While Dr. Latham, the mastermind behind the kidnappings and other sinister activities, managed to escape relatively unscathed, Henrik, who had spent years in prison, continued to live a life marked by the stigma of being a convicted criminal, even after his release. The reason behind Henrik’s request for Amy’s tape of The Clearing from Latham remained uncertain, raising suspicions of his possible ulterior motives. After all, Amy was the one who played a role in his arrest. As The Clearing season 1 neared its conclusion, it was expected that the subsequent episode would provide a clearer understanding of the situation.
