The Changeling Episode 5 This Woman’s Work Explained: The Perils of Social Media, Brazilian Rainforests And A Mysterious Art Gallery

The Apple TV+ mysterious odyssey into parenthood delivers its best episode yet. Slowly, the threads are coming together to form a bigger picture. Certain words and imagery keep appearing, themes are slowly emerging, and mysteries are being resolved. The Changeling Episode 5 starts with a new character we have never seen staring at a wall of an art gallery before it fades into a scene of a rainforest. We see Emma (lak Backo) on her trip to Brazil, where she went after meeting Apollo (LaKeith Stanfield) and before marrying him. Everything changed on this trip, so perhaps this is where Emma encountered the dark spirit that has haunted her ever since.

Author Victor LaValle once again opens up the episode, this time speaking in Swahili. The Changeling takes audiences back to Emma’s encounter with the woman by the waterfall, the woman who tied the bracelet around Emma’s wrist. The locals tell her never to go to the lagoon; it’s haunted, and the woman is a witch. They tell her to avoid being touched by the woman.

“It’s mythical what women are capable of,” Lavalle says, before calling women “mythical beasts.” The author explains that men can’t imagine what women are capable of, so they try to dim their light. He also encourages those who do not notice this to look hard. A huge theme of this episode is the power of women and how men’s behavior towards them seriously compromises their safety and mental health. The horror of womanhood is everywhere this week, with the premiere of AHS Season 12 Delicate last night. Whilst The Changeling is a noir fairytale, underneath the talk of witches and monsters, this is a tale about motherhood and womanhood.

In the second episode, Emma’s sister talks of a nude photo being taken; here, we see a little about how it happened. She travels with a photographer in Brazil, embracing the tropical scenery with him. He leaves her alone with his camera, set up facing her. It’s an old-fashioned camera that looks slightly out of place in the modern setting. Emma removes her dress and poses nude, sets up the timer, and stares down the lens like it is her lover. The whole way she moves in this scene is other-worldly. There is something different about her movements. It’s like she has become possessed, suddenly stripping in front of the camera.

An art dealer browses the photographer, Leif Knudsen’s, website when he finds the provocative photo. Her sister describes her as “looking into that camera like a sorceress,” and now we can see what she means. What the relevance of this image is, we are yet to learn. The camera pans across the road from the gallery to a family across the road. It looks like a man and woman with two young children. The man’s back is to the camera, but later it’s we learn this is William.

Apollo Learns More About The Wise Ones In The Changeling Episode 5

After the opening titles, we rejoin Apollo on the island with the Wise Ones. William (Samuel T. Herring) knows Cal (Jane Kaczmarek) beyond this mystical cult leader image and calls her Pearl Walker. He knows about her child, her shoplifting habit, and her drinking. The only thing keeping William alive is that Cal believes his ex-wife, Gretta, should witness his demise.

William demands to see his daughter. Last episode, it was revealed Gretta had killed one of his children, but now Cal explains that William killed the other. William is almost feral in this scene, screaming at Apollo not to trust her. Cal is a little more hospitable to William; can see he is different from the other men who find their way into the safe haven.

Apollo is desperate. He admits he doesn’t care if he lives or is killed. He just needs to know where Emma is. Cal explains that “there is no boat that can bring Emma back from where she is.” She talks about Emma like she is neither alive nor dead, like she is in some spiritual realm that can’t be easily accessed. Cal confirms to Apollo that Emma is “not so well but alive.”

It flashes back to Emma standing on the roof with Brian. “What happens if we don’t make it?” she asks her infant son. She hears Mariachi music in the background, time overlaps, and it’s suddenly their wedding. Emma throws her bouquet and declares whoever catches it, loves the most. It flies off the building and into a puddle on the street. “I love you, New York City,” she bellows from that same roof that, years later, she would be questioning her life on. “I wish she was her,” Emma says to her past self.

Emma is working in the library when she discovers The Wise Moms social media group. Almost immediately, Cal’s name pops up with a message: “Are you receiving disappearing messages?” She can help, but only if Emma is “brave enough.”

At the same time, an unknown message appears on her phone and tells her not to listen to witches. Even the screenshot of the message disappears from her gallery. Is it real or just in the tired, depressed mind of a new mother?

In The Changeling Episode 5, get the first glimpse of the creature Emma sees. “I love my baby more than you could ever know,” she says to Brian, holding him to her chest. Brian bites her and his face changes, he begins to snarl. He is not human, he is the Changeling.

Life On The Island Isn’t So Bad Afterall

Cal explains a little bit about the mechanics of the island. She explains that as Apollo approached the island, he disappeared into different waters. The space was once North Brother Island, but now it’s a magical world remake with different rules. Apollo accepts this weirdly quickly, not asking the questions audiences will likely want to know.

The Wise Ones have turned the island into a welcoming female-led community. They have a school and a library. It looks like an idyllic space to raise children, which begs the question, why is it home to so many women who murdered their infants?

Apollo tells a heart-wrenching story about picturing himself being an overbearing dad spying on his son. Cal replies that we all spy on children, and yet no one calls the police. She makes a relevant point in which people are happy to post images of their children and share their precious moments with the whole world.

She describes social media as a poisonous trap that “leaves the door open to the creatures of the night.” Apollo immediately understands her point. He regularly posted images of Brian and shared the little moments with his friends. Perhaps this is how this monster takes command of children if it’s real at all.

Apollo understands. A lot of the mystery connected to the show is surrounded by social media. The disappearing text messages, The Wise Moms social media group, the tribute page to Brian. Apollo’s mother once expressed disapproval of her grandson not being baptized because“he can’t be saved from the dark creatures of the world.” Emma is starting to believe this despite declaring herself spiritual and not religious.

 The island feels joyful and peaceful, not some The Handmaid’s Tale dystopia for scorned mothers. Cal admits when women arrive, they are bereft and confused. Like Emma, they believed their children were not infants, and most of them killed them. Cal believes their stories and does not diminish their feelings, and sometimes that is all women need. Apollo remembers how he treated his wife, refusing to baptize Brian, and calling her crazy and ill. If only Apollo had cared a little more and listened, his son may be alive.

Meet The Real William

We finally meet Willian’s ex-wife, Gretta (Michelle Giroux). The mystery of William is a shadow over the whole episode. Gretta arrives and reveals the truth behind this man. He isn’t a shy IT guy who brought To Kill A Mockingbird to win his wife back. He wiped her back account clean to buy the rare edition from Apollo. William ruined the book by writing the name of his deceased daughter on every page.

Apollo is so angry he breaks into the prison William is being kept in. Apollo really believed William’s story, and now he feels like a fool. He tells Apollo that William is not his name. It hasn’t been for a while. William explains that he found people who understood him, and when he did, he “took off William Wheeler’s face and found his true face beneath.”

A demonic voice emits from William’s body and announces: “Dinner plans tonight, a meal inspired by baby Brian.” Are there two different factions going against each other here, or is William a demonic spirit like The Changeling?

The Changeling Episode 5 ends with the image of Emma hanging in that gallery. William, his little girl in his arms, is staring through the window at it. We also get shipment shots of the art arriving, we have seen a port before, and the show opened with immigrants traversing stormy seas. Another thread that keeps appearing throughout the show is Norway. The ship in episode 1 was from Norway, and Wiliam has spoken numerous times about being from Norway.

Catch up with all our The Changeling recaps here.