‘The Head’ Season 3 Episode 5 Recap: Is Rachel The Killer?

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The penultimate episode of the final season of The Head appears to be all sorts of chaotic and random. Even with only an episode remaining before the series’ conclusion, the narrative continues to dangle red herrings and insert unnecessary plot threads, all the while drastically increasing the body count, leaving only two survivors for the final showdown. Previously, as Olivia’s past actions at Polaris VI came to light, Jamal and Pierre had her captured and isolated, suspecting her to be the killer. Even though Olivia helped to crack the code of Takeshi’s malware and saved the algae research from getting sabotaged, Jamal left her locked in the basement area of the research facility. Meanwhile, Takeshi’s spy, Keiko, had learned about the series of murders taking place in the facility and managed to stage a coup by convincing fellow test volunteers to band together against the research team. Following a swift takeover by the test subjects, Jamal tried to flee only to get shot to death by Keiko. In the past flashback scenes, Arthur Wilde’s secret admirer is constantly hinted to be the perpetrator who is targeting the survivors in the research facility. It was pretty apparent from the beginning that the identity of the killer will not be revealed until the finale, and to make the penultimate episode function according to that narrative strategy, the plotline gets pretty haphazard at this point. 


A Mole Among the Test Subjects

The Head episode 5 begins with a flashback scene, which highlights the fact that there is a volunteer who wasn’t supposed to be in the group and who may well be the culprit responsible for all the killings. As the scene unfolds, one of the recruiters assigned to select prospective test subjects for the algae research gets her young son kidnapped in broad daylight. The unknown kidnapper forces her to inform Lauren about the urgent necessity to replace one of the test subjects—and as the scene shifts to the present, viewers are left to wonder who this supposed replacement test subject might be. This plot point doesn’t make sense at the end, and as we discuss the episode further, the reason will be clarified. 


Research Team Nearly Annihilated

Pierre and Liam, who were sent to the basement by Keiko and the rest of the volunteers by the end of the previous episode, meet Olivia, who’s already been locked in there ever since Jamal forced her to remain isolated. An undercurrent of tension grasps all of them, as Pierre and Liam don’t trust Olivia, and she too is skeptical of their intentions. However, Olivia asks them to make a wise decision and join hands to try to escape from the basement before dying from starvation. Olivia had already found a vertical opening that leads outside, to access which she needs their help—but Pierre decides to check it out by himself to root out any possibility of betrayal. This results in a disaster as Pierre ends up triggering a swarm of bees from a beehive located in the opening and gets stuck there until he is stung to death. Liam all of a sudden decides to turn on Olivia—he didn’t trust her since day one, and in this episode he is initially presented as the secret admirer of Wilde in a flashback scene, which nearly implies he is the killer in question who is taking revenge on behalf of his late idol by killing Olivia. Turns out, Liam simply wanted to check up on Wilde during his imprisonment and request him to entrust his daughter, Rachel, with his revolutionary research —a proposal Wilde outright refused. In the present, Liam dies unceremoniously when Olivia injects him with a dose of unspecified drugs, which causes him to bleed to death. Olivia acted out of self-defense, as she had no other option to stop a murderous Liam, but it isn’t revealed how she found the lethal drugs in the basement. Which means if the German researcher, Horst, has met his end already—which is very likely given he remained stranded in the Saharan desert with degrading physical and mental condition—only Olivia and Rachel are left alive from the research team.


Wilde’s Wild Shenanigans and Lackluster End of the Test Subjects

In the flashback scene, Wilde’s prison days come into focus once again, as it is revealed that his cellmate, whom he had stabbed to death, adhering to the prison bully, Patrick’s command, had miraculously survived. After sharing their grievances with each other about loyalty, Arthur hatches upon a plan with the cellmate to kill Patrick, and by feigning his own death, the cellmate is able to kill Patrick in his own cell. During all this, Arthur remains miffed about not being able to meet his secret admirer and has his PTSD from Polaris VI days convey that Olivia was actually toying with him all along by pretending to be his admirer. 

The worst plot thread, as seen in the penultimate episode, turns out to be that of the test subjects, which is filled with a series of random sequences that ultimately leave no major impact on the narrative (except Keiko’s one, to some extent). Alba gets high and spends most of the episode acting crazy; Sean, who was helping Rachel desalinate water, sympathizes with her condition as she is going to be a mother any day now. Before leaving the facility with other test subjects, Keiko decides to destroy everything pertaining to the algae research, but not before taking a small sample with her to deliver it to Takeshi. Apparently, Takeshi believes no one should profit from a doomed research project that resulted in his son, Aki’s death, no one except he himself, that is. Joe pays his respects to the deceased by burying them, and after having a conversation with Alba regarding replacement test subjects, realizes that there might be an imposter among the volunteers. Which is why, when Keiko, Sean, and Alba are leaving, he refuses to accompany them—believing the killer is one of them. However, at last he gets rid of his suspicion for the sake of urgency regarding escape and joins the volunteers who ride away with the spare fuel that was stashed in secret. None of the aforementioned intrigue regarding the volunteer leads to anything meaningful, as all of them die horrifically as their vehicle is destroyed due to some internal malfunction, once again orchestrated by the secret killer. 


Is Rachel the killer?

After the volunteers depart, Rachel hurries to the basement to rescue Liam and Pierre, only to find them dead, and seeing Olivia to be present totally unscathed, Rachel at once assumes that she is the killer. Rachel steps outside the facility to flee from Olivia, only to witness the vehicle the volunteers used to flee go up in flames far away. Olivia checks up on the location, which confirms that all four of the remaining volunteers have indeed met a fiery end. The psychological pressure, coupled with physical stress, causes Rachel to go into premature labor, and she locks herself in a room to stop Olivia from getting to her during such a vulnerable situation. However, Olivia, who appears genuinely concerned, or at least is pretending to be, manages to enter the room. In the final moments of the episode, Rachel nearly stabs Olivia with a syringe, only for Olivia to plead to allow her to help Rachel to deliver the baby safely. Olivia is a medic after all, and since the beginning, she has been trying her best to prove her goodwill by earning Rachel’s trust. However, nothing definite can be said about what her true intention is, which will be only revealed in the series finale. 

There is a chance that Rachel herself is the killer in question, although the motive remains shrouded in mystery, but it might have something to do with ruining her father’s reputation after being subjected to a traumatic situation during the events of the second season when Arthur killed the cruise members. Being heavily pregnant, Rachel was automatically the least suspected member in the facility, which provides ample opportunity for her to methodically orchestrate all the killings—like father, like daughter. I won’t be surprised if that turns out to be the case; I am guessing Rachel will meet her end in the finale, and Olivia will end up raising her child in a twisted continuation of legacy. If you think this is too outlandish of a theory, well, this episode made even less sense in the context of the overarching narrative. 


Siddhartha Das
Siddhartha Das
An avid fan and voracious reader of comic book literature, Siddhartha thinks the ideals accentuated in the superhero genre should be taken as lessons in real life also. A sucker for everything horror and different art styles, Siddhartha likes to spend his time reading subjects. He's always eager to learn more about world fauna, history, geography, crime fiction, sports, and cultures. He also wishes to abolish human egocentrism, which can make the world a better place.


 

 

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