The Clearing Episode 5 Recap & Ending Explained: Following the pattern of any prestige miniseries, an episode entirely dedicated to exploring the backstory of a single character should have been an expected one. And this week’s episode of “The Clearing” does not disappoint, with a full hour dedicated to deep diving into Adrienne Beaufort’s (Miranda Otto) character. Thankfully the show chooses to forego the non-linear storytelling for a very linear exploration.
The Clearing Episode 5 Recap:
Episode 5: Maitreya
Through the real history of the cult “The Family”, we know that one of the most intriguing characters is, perhaps obviously, the leader of that cult, Anne Hamilton Byrne. Similarly, for “The Clearing”, the character of “Maitreya” or “Andrea Beaumont” is easily the most intriguing, especially because of the fantastic Emmy-worthy performance by Miranda Otto.
The episode opens with young Ada Atkins coming out of the church (perhaps during the 1950s) and watching her mother light herself on fire while describing visions of the divine. What was a mental breakdown is interpreted by Ada as a form of an otherworldly connection her mother had and something Ada aspired to, as a break from the monotony of the life she found herself in, as the show shifts to 1973.
We learn that Ada’s mother survived but is now institutionalised. Ada marries an ordinary man who loves her, named Tom Atkins, but their lives are not enough for Ada. As the episode progresses, we see her working as a laundry woman for Ari and Miriam Herzog and eyeing their lavish lifestyle with a gaze of aspiration. Through sneaking into Ari’s sessions, she learns that Herzog, a therapist, mostly sees wealthy women who are unhappy in their marriages. These wealthy women and their husbands are ready to spend their hard-earned gains on anything that would give them fulfilment and validation.
Ada also takes an avid interest in yoga and the piecemeal derivatives of Eastern philosophies being taught in these yoga classes. She has been secretly taking pills to avoid having children and to spare herself the drudgery of living her life with her husband and becoming a homemaker. As she visualises her life when asked in the yoga session to dream about her future, her singular thought is the death of her husband. When her husband finally comes to know about the pills, he angrily storms out of the house, and reality meets Adrienne’s expectations when her husband, in a drunken stupor, dies in a car accident.
This event galvanises her, and she starts to delve deeper into the Eastern philosophies, which talk about humanity’s search for the divine within oneself. However, as she meets Ari, she explains that she can predict the future, correctly predicting his loveless marriage and his needs not being met. Ari is impressed, both by her confidence and her wiles, which prompts him to gift the book “The Splendour Within,” authored by Bryce Latham.
The story progresses, and now we see a much more stylish and sophisticated Ada Atkins, going by the name of Adrienne Beaumont, who meets with Bryce Latham and immediately impresses him with her demeanour and her fluency in French. While we are never completely clear on when she learned this language or whether she already knew it, it is implied that Adrienne knows exactly what amount of manipulation is required to capture the attention of the room. Ironically, her visit to her institutionalised mother and her conversation effectively convey that Ada is a chip off the old block, and she even tacitly agrees to her mother’s statement to not have children, even as her mother openly admits her wish to have done the same.
She scrutinises every aspect of Latham’s desk as he articulates his theory to understand his personality. Ada requests Latham to change his plans when he indicates that he will be going to India with his wife. To her surprise, Mrs Latham did indeed catch malaria while on the trip, as she had predicted. Bryce Latham had already begun to trust Adrienne, even though it was a 50-50 shot. Adrienne is the supernatural agency sent to help him in his quest to support his theory.
Through her yoga class, Adrienne also manages to bring in more followers. In one of those yoga classes, she meets Hannah and manages to console and convince her to keep her baby, relying on the belief that her husband will come back to her and their marriage will be saved because of her love for that child. But if that does not occur, she can remain open to cutting ties with her family. A similar tactic was utilised with Tamsin Latham, while a completely different tactic was utilised with Bryce.
Owing to her contacts with Ari, she acquired Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD, to be short), which she fed to Bryce, starting the first instance of “The Clearing”. As Bryce gets completely in the thrall of the hallucination, starting to claw himself out of the hallucination and becoming so emotionally and mentally vulnerable, Adrienne’s heavenly visage becomes the personification of the divine agent and thus comes under his thumb. While Bryce is busy with his hallucination, Adrienne focuses on Tamsin, inspiring her to leave her unhappy marriage and pursue her profession.
Focusing on Tamsin’s desire to start her own family, Adrienne pushes her to pursue a nursing degree. Tamsin is buoyed by Adrienne’s confident and kind manipulation and agrees to her plan. Adrienne, thus, has perfect control over them once she manages to influence them separately. Bryce believes that Maitreya makes it possible for him to explore a world outside of reality while Tamsin feels emancipated.
Adrienne’s followers grow exponentially, forming the cult known as “The Kindred”. It is interesting how she manages to attract even the most educated and learned of all people into her cult of followers, be it Dr, Ari Herzog or Dr. Bryce Latham. In the case of the former, she manages to manipulate him through her seduction, while Latham manipulates through his obsession for enlightenment. Similarly, at the party being held at Latham’s estate, where he plans to introduce “Maitreya”, we finally meet Hannah’s “foreigner” husband, and we learn that it is Henrik, who in the future will become one of her closest confidants. But it is not that Adrienne’s rise is not laced with obstacles and disbelief. Miriam, Ari’s wife, tries to confront Adrienne because she knows her true identity.
Rejecting the LSD offered to her for experiencing the Clearing, Miriam accuses Ada of running a cult and explains how the men in the group only follow her because she attracts a primal part of their Oedipal urges. Ada tries to convince Ari to institutionalise Miriam. However, Miriam’s efforts to expose Ada in front of the members of Kindred during one of her speeches leads to her getting thrown out of the meeting, though she does break through the programming from one of the members.
Hannah has slowly become disillusioned with Adrienne’s experiment of raising children as a collective unit, trying to bestow the joys of motherhood on those unable to experience them. Hannah is concerned her children will be taken away from her as a result of this “experiment”. She asks Miriam for assistance and accepts Miriam’s card and her invitation to call her anytime for assistance. Unfortunately, it will be all for nought as Adrienne sees their interaction from afar and takes drastic steps.
The Clearing Episode 5 Ending Explained:
Visiting Hannah and Henrik’s house in the woods, which is revealed to be the Brickmarsh estate, Adrienne remarks how lovely it would be to raise children here. By this point, Henrik has become completely devoted to Adrienne’s teachings, and Hannah knows that they are too deep. She tries to contact Miriam for an escape plan but learns from Ari that she will not be back for a while. Adrienne then informs a shocked Hannah that Miriam has been institutionalised under her orders by Ari. As a midwife, Tamsin takes care of illegally “adopting the children”. Bryce Latham writes about the “experiment of the century” as organised by the “Maitreya,” or mother, which is ironic because Adrienne only acts like a mother in front of the cameras.
For interacting with the toddlers and the older children, Hannah and Tamsin have to step in. As Hannah sees Adrienne, escorted by Latham, leave, we see a little girl, who is clearly implied to be Hannah’s daughter, asking whether mommy would come to sing them to sleep. Hannah answers in the negative, and the little girl, who we learn is Amy, looks at the car longingly for her “mother”, while her real mother looks at her with pain and helplessness.
