The Clearing Episode 6 “The Pied Piper” Recap and Ending Explained – The Resurgence of the cult

The Clearing Episode 6 “The Pied Piper” Recap: After the detour of the last episode (a necessary one, mind you), we are back with the timeline spanning events. While one timeline shows the fall of the cult, the present timeline documents Freya’s realization that the cult is undergoing a resurgence again. Both of these timelines are finally coming closer, as the past jumps forward by a couple of years and Teresa Palmer takes on the role of adult Amy, married to Wayne and presumably pregnant with Max. For this recap, we will cover each timeline with a particular focus.

The Clearing Episode 6 Recap “The Pied Piper”

Amy

As the show opens, we see the Austrian Police working in conjunction with Interpol and the French Authorities. An undercover police officer, dressed as a mailman, approaches the villa of “retired socialite” Adrienne Beaufort, located in the French Countryside. Adrienne signs the receipt which is ample proof of her identity to arrest and extradite her to Australia, even as we see her screaming to her servant to bring her her dress, makeup, and her lawyer, “in that order”. As the media and news outlets raise a hullabaloo regarding her capture, we see Amy, now married to Wayne and heavily pregnant with Max, watching the news of her mother’s capture.

 At the prison, Adrienne is met by Bryce Latham during visitation hours, where she believes her life is in grave danger. Her repugnance and the work she had been doing with Latham and the cult had garnered infamy within the prison. The inmates believe that “Maitreya” had abused the children (which, in the grand scheme of things, is partially correct, though not sexually). Fearful for her safety, Adrienne asks Latham to get her out of there. Latham, too, is in a new sort of bind. His association with Beaufort is now hampering his tenure at the University, with the Dean requesting him to resign to maintain the University’s image. Angered at all sides, he calls Detective Colin and threatens him to grease the palms however he can to help Adrienne; otherwise, his secret will be revealed. Under pressure, Colin finally realises that he needs to reveal his secret and get ahead of the curve. So, he reveals that he is gay to his superior officer. He is startled when his superior officer does not respond and simply tells him to return to work.  The wry smile on Colin’s face as he exits the office reveals how relieved he is to finally come out to at least his superior officer and, by extension, his colleagues.

It is all for nought, though, as the Kindred have a far greater reach than what was expected. It turns out that Inspector Joe’s suspicions were correct when he recognised Adrienne’s driver, Rowan Tavister, in the jury. The Kindred had influenced the jury, and thus Amy’s having to stand as a witness against her mother becomes unnecessary because the entire event gets tagged as a mistrial. In return, Adrienne is granted bail in exchange for a hefty fine and her passport. We also realise why Amy’s relationship with Joe sours because Amy refuses to believe Joe’s consolation that the fight is not over. This is also the cause of his marriage’s demise, as his wife concedes that Joe’s obsession with the case will never cease.

Freya

In the present timeline, Henrik has been released from prison, but he walks out of the prison with no one to receive him. As he begins to walk, he is stopped by Joe, who has come to receive him. He had hoped that Henrik would provide information concerning Sara McFetridge’s abduction; however, he remains silent. Joe followed Henrik around every day, realising he had nowhere to go and no one to meet. Apart from his visit to the cemetery where Hannah was buried, there was little movement.

Continuing from the final moments in the fourth episode, Freya deduces that Anton had kidnapped Carrie Anderson and imprisoned her in the basement, which Freya had traced to Brickmarsh. Freya confronts Anton directly, and Anton’s denial of the involvement further enrages Freya, only stopping the beating at Adrienne’s intervention. Adrienne refuses to acknowledge Freya’s accusations, but after Freya leaves, Adrienne slaps Anton, asking him vehemently, “What did you do?”.

Freya decides to go to the hospital where Carrie is receiving medical care, to gather proof. A picture of Anton is displayed to the young girl, and Carrie then starts reciting the Kindred prayers. Freya is astonished and tries to press the child for more details, but she ends up getting caught by the nurse and detectives, who quickly detain her for trespassing. Freya phones Joe, and he intervenes to obtain her release, with the help of Colin. Despite her wish to talk with the police about Adrienne and Anton, Freya is unable to do so. Since she had discovered that Adrienne was her mother, she no longer felt compelled to put her own family in danger to bring about justice for the missing children.

Two events also occur related to Freya’s immediate circle. Since episode 4, we have been seeing Anton manipulate Max and essentially groom her, leading her to decrease her communications with her mother once Anton started poisoning the well. In this episode, we see Anton trying to stay in Max’s good graces by urging her to get back in contact with her mother, as “families stick together”. He uses that excuse to springboard the meeting between Max and Adrienne. For Adrienne, it is like fitting a hand in a glove, as she expertly starts to manipulate Max, painting a portrait of Freya as an absentee mother, unable to look after her and thus having abandoned her. And Adrienne knows that to be the masterstroke, as she was the one who facilitated the meeting of Max with Freya in the first place. As a result, she gains influence with Max, who eventually ceases contacting her mother and, when requested to continue by her father, flatly refuses.

Freya finally picks her son up from school and realises that Wayne was already there but is unable to take Billy home as he is not registered as the guardian. Freya sheepishly acquiesces to Wayne’s suggestion that she include his name as the guardian first thing in the morning. At home, Freya discovers Billy playing the flute, and when asked where he found it, Billy answers that it was already present in the house when they arrived. Suspecting a break-in, Freya calls Joe. Even though Joe states that it would not be possible for Anton to break in and that it does not fit his MO, Freya still goes to confront Anton a second time. Anton drops a bombshell there, disclosing his own family (his wife and son). As a father, Anton declares that he will never consider harming a young child. He was complicit in Sara’s kidnapping through Tamsin, but now that he is  an adult, he wants Freya to think he was incapable of hurting. He then reveals to Freya that Henrik is out, urging Freya to rush to Henrik’s place. But while she does not find Henrik at the guest house, she finds sawdust residue, realising that either Henrik had sent the flute or Anton could have sent the flute to her via Henrik. Or perhaps because of the true biological connection, Henrik had with Amy, this was his last-ditch effort to connect with his grandson.

The Clearing Episode 6 Ending Explained

Her suspicions getting the best of her, Freya finally rushes over to the nearby cabin, where the rituals of the Clearing and other functionalities of the Kindred occur. As she traverses through the wooded area, she sees the lights on at the cabin and the devotees of Maitreya gathered around, and to her horror, she realises that the cult meeting has been restarted, with Adrienne leading the fray, wearing the same blue dress that she had seen the housekeeper in the morning bring back from the dry cleaners. Freya realises that while her dementia had been Adrienne’s ploy to maintain the insanity plea to keep herself out of prison, it had completely escaped Freya that her “mother” has restarted the cult again. Resembling Tamsin looking in at the party when “Maitreya” was exonerated, her hiding out alone and excommunicated from the cult, Freya too looks at the gathering before ducking her head down and running away. Latham chases her, having realised that she was peering through.

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The Clearing Episode 5 Show Cast – Teresa Palmer, Guy Pearce, Erroll Shand, Anna Lise Philips, Miranda Otto