Episode 5, the new episode of The Changeling, Season 1, opens up about the mysterious photograph we heard about in the premiere episodes. While much of the show’s puzzling aspects still make sense, one can gauge that there’s some metaphorical comment about the nature of the internet. In a way, the film wishes to tell a tale of modern-day parenthood, i.e., bringing up a newborn in a world that’s so much on the internet that the streets are not the real threat anymore. While there’s a great point to be made about female bodies and post-partum depression, this aspect of the show, which is still riddled with a language we don’t understand, feels more authentic and subtle.
The following article takes a closer look at everything in the newest episode. If you haven’t seen it yet, please know it contains spoilers.
The Changeling (Season 1) Episode 5 “This Women’s Work” Recap:
Episode 5 of The Changeling (Season 1) gives us a glimpse of the infamous photograph that was hinted at in the first episode. The opening shot first teases us to the moment of the photograph’s eventual capture, which happened as follows: Emma, who was warned about the witch on the lagoon, did happen to not take people’s word for it, and as we had seen before; got her three wishes. Her trip also included meeting a passing photographer who gave her a lift and asked her to be a muse. It took her deep into the woods – a beautiful, magical landscape where no one ever came. As said by Emma’s friend in the opening episode, when the photographer went out to pee, Emma started the self-timer, took all her clothes off, and posed for the camera in a way that only a sorcerer would (as someone under the spell). The photograph traveled from the photographer’s dark room to a gallery in Norway.
As the opening credits roll, the message on the cell phone also changes, but this time, it’s a riddle that we know nothing about and never truly understand. We do know that Appolo is lost in the wild, and this is an excerpt from the book his father used to read, but since the supernatural elements are still pretty vague, we can’t honestly point out who ‘they’ are.
Anyway, Apollo and William wake up the following day, and Cal comes to visit them, telling Apollo that she would like to give him another chance. On the other hand, William has completely dropped his good guy persona and feels like one asshole type of man whose only job is to patronize women and make them feel small. He tries to demean Cal by calling her by her real name, i.e., Paul Walker, and tries to bring her past back before she shuts him off by telling him that she has requested Gretta (William’s wife) to come to the island so that she can kill him herself.
Next, we see Cal taking Apollo away from the cell to the outside. She shows him the island and how she and the other women have created their own world here. Apollo keeps requesting her to let him meet Emma by calling her to the island just like she has asked to fetch Gretta, but Cal refuses by saying that Emma has gone beyond and couldn’t be brought back. Like the previous episode, much of Cal’s answers are riddled with words we can’t comprehend, so the only possible way to explain this is for the makers to take us back to EMma’s actual anxieties as a mother to a newborn baby, Brian.
We see the whole transition of Emma’s postpartum depression – but this time from her point of view. After her wedding and getting pregnant, Emma’s mental health slowly started deviating into darker territory, exemplified only by the disappearing text messages she used to receive. A few moments from her life with Brian show us that she was convinced that her baby was somehow swapped and that what she has right now is probably a monster in disguise. When she could not make sense of right and wrong, she tried to take the help of baptism as a last resort from some hope. We again see the moment where Apollo almost made her feel like a mad person for thinking about taking Brian to the church. At the same time, all she wanted to do was select between therapy and spirituality. Since they couldn’t afford therapy as young parents, it triggered her when Apollo dismissed her needs as an insane thought.
This is when Emma posted about her worries on ‘the wise moms’ forum and got a reply from Cal, who told her that she would only help if she were brave.
Back at the island, we see Cal trying to offer a friendly hand to Apollo when she gives him the book his father used to read to him. She tells him that Emma, who is alive, used to talk about how much the book meant to him. She also adds that it is no coincidence that Apollo could reach the island because none of the other men could. It is almost like she believes that Apollo has it in him to understand what he couldn’t about Emma’s situation back then. Many post-pregnancy conditions for women are escalated due to men’s inability to understand the extreme trajectory of emotions that women deal with. This lack of education, or even genuine empathy, is why men cannot truly appreciate the magic that women possess. So, when Cal wholeheartedly accepts the women of the island to be witches, we get her riddles as some form of truth that people can’t comprehend.
Cal shows Apollo around the community they have built – including a library for young kids, a cafeteria, and lodging for women with nowhere to go when people around them (especially the men) can’t understand them. A brilliant call back to the previous episode tells us how social media has become poison since people now freely post about their children and their lives, making them more and more susceptible to creeps.
It feels like Apollo fits right into the crux of the community, but since he still needs to know the answers, Cal asks him to join them in the puppet show she is organizing for the community kids. We can see that much of his anger has subsided and has turned into a genuine curiosity that wishes to know why Emma did what she did back then. Since he has some time to kill, he befriends a young girl and reads the book to the kids there.
The Changeling (Season 1) Episode 5 “This Women’s Work” Ending Explained:
What does Gretta tell Apollo about William?
As the night befalls, it’s time for the puppet show. However, before we can see it, we meet Gretta, who is initially scared to talk to talk to Apollo because of his associations with William. We learn from her that William is a relentless and abusive man who wouldn’t leave Gretta and her surviving daughter, Grace, alone. She tells them he somehow tracked her new address and sent her a ruined copy of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’ which had her dead daughter, Agnes’ name, written on each page. Apollo is taken aback when she tells him that William used her money to buy the book from him without her consent. So far, Apollo had believed in most of the things that William said to him, but his manipulative gaze is broken when it comes to something he understands – a book he holds dear.
This revelation angers him, and he runs towards William’s cage to confront him about the truth. Only this time, William has truly transformed into a monster. When he claims that he has taken over the skin of William, we can assume that he is some metaphor that lies on the internet. He discloses himself as all the trolls we saw on the Baby Brian Memorial fan page. Is William real? We can’t say if he is, but I can say with certainty that the makers are trying to make a more significant point by using him as a deceptive tool. The ending of The Changeling Episode 5 shows that William knew Emma from the photograph hanging in the Norwegian gallery. It is possible that a creep like him, who has access to all the super tools that can be used to hack into people’s lives, felt like obsessing over Emma’s life and ruining it just because he couldn’t have a hold on to his own.
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