Cult Episode 107
“Suffer the Children”
Written By: Megan Martin
Directed By: Nathan Hope
Original Airdate: 5 April 2013
In This Episode...
EJ gives Jeff detective Sakelik’s police jacket, which she hacked after she found out who Jeff and Burt were looking into. Her record is spotless, but her youth is a different subject: she has a juvenile recored that she has petitioned to have expunged three times in the last year. Each request has been denied. Jeff blackmails an attorney into getting him Sakelik’s juvenile record. There isn’t anything criminal; she was an abandoned child. In her file there are lots of photos of Sakelik as a child, as well as dozens of other kids. Jeff and Skye have an address for Sakelik during that time, a place up at Lake Arrowhead.
The house belongs to a woman named Annabelle. She has only owned the property for 10 years and knows nothing about any of the previous occupants. The large, stately home needed a name, so she called it Moon Hill. She is polite and helpful, which means she has something to hide. Jeff and Skye don’t hit upon it until they are home, poring over blown-up photos from the files. Skye sees the words “Moon Hill” etched into one of the doors, a good 15 years before Annabelle took credit for this.
During this time, Sakelik meets with Louis, a childhood friend who is wheelchair-bound and works at a video store. She admits to Louis that she killed an innocent man - but she did it for them, and what they are working to achieve. Later, Annabelle visits Louis. She is terrified to hear that Sakelik was there - and admitting to murder.
Jeff and Skye head back up to Lake Arrowhead. Jeff will not leave without answers. Annabelle is hiding in the brush with a shotgun when they arrive - her standard position when she sees headlights. She is terrified, but she finally reveals the truth. In the 1980s, Moon Hill housed a “cult” - Annabelle insists on calling it a family, and insists there was “so much love there.” But one morning, the kids - about 20 of them - woke up and all the adults were just gone. Vanished. At first it was great - a house full of kids with no parents around - but then the food ran out. The kids had never been allowed to interact with the outside world, so they were ill-equipped to deal with real life. Rosalyn Sakelik stood up and took control of the group. She could be cruel, and there were no adults to stop her. Rosalyn made the kids break into homes. At first it was just for food and necessities, but then it was for anything they wanted. One day they broke into the home of actress Olivia Leland. They thought she wasn’t home, but she was, and things got out of hand. Rosalyn killed Olivia. Annabelle has hidden, in a box buried in her garden, the map to the homes of the stars that they used to target particular houses, and it is covered with Olivia’s blood. Sakelik shows up and shoots Annabelle dead. Skye and Jeff run.
Back home, Jeff and Skye are puzzling over the evidence they do have. Hidden beneath the lining of the box, Skye finds another photograph. Taken in front of the Moon Hill house, the photo contains nearly a dozen kids, and all are posed in front of the same classic red Valiant from the show “Cult” - with the same license plate.
Also: Stuart is the fourth of the little “Quad Squad” Sakelik has going. Stuart visits Roger at the studio to brag about his family’s insane wealth, and how he bought himself a producing gig. He tries to lure Roger into starring in one of his pictures - and gives him a car to entice him. And Peter, the “Cult” producer, has been snooping around Skye’s desk after-hours. He is Steven Rae’s spy.
Dig It or Bury It?
Oh holy crap, finally we are getting somewhere!! The show is still rife with problems, but the plot is finally moving forward. So it seems fairly obvious: Steven Rae, like Jeff suggested, was part of this Moon Hill cult. And now I assume he is using his TV show as a platform to lure in new cult members, to revive the cult. I also assume it will take the rest of the season before Jeff and Skye put the pieces together, or before any confirmation on this is made. Which will drive me crazy. But at least now I know this is going somewhere. I also like the real-life cult touches that are added. The murder that the kids pulled reeks of the Manson Family. And all the adults disappearing is straight out of Village of the Damned.
Life Imitates Art
Kelly’s nephew, Andy, draws a picture of his mother with a bloody head. “She cut it out,” is all he would say. Kelly serves a search warrant on Billy’s car and finds a lock of bloody blonde hair. Lab results confirm this hair belongs to Meadow. Yet she doesn’t arrest Billy, merely brings him in for questioning. His lawyer retrieves him shortly thereafter.
Prophecies?
Jeff seeks evidence to connect Sakelik to Nate’s disappearance.