The Changeling Episode 6 ‘Aftermath’ Review and Recap: Wheels, Norway Maples and Library Trips

The Changeling Episode 6 is one of the slowest of the season so far. After the revealing and thought-provoking episode five, this is a slow tangent into the underground of New York. This sixth episode works on filling in the gaps in Emma’s story, running parallel with Apollo’s journey.

The sixth episode of The Changeling opens with a darkly lit Emma (Clark Backo) in the aftermath of the death of her son. She escapes out the apartment window and slides down the fire escape into the pitch-black New York. As she flees the scene of the crime, her husband still chained up, she receives a text from the anonymous source. This source is likely the same one that sent her images of her baby when she returned to work, convincing her it was a changeling.

The anonymous message reads: “They told you to ditch the phone, but you can’t quit me. The only one who knows what really happened.” Only this time, William is narrating the message, not the person receiving it.

Emma meets up with her sister, Kim, at Ellis Island, and the pair leave together on the boat. Kim has previously shown no indication she is aware of the truth about Emma’s whereabouts to Apollo. Kim pushes Emma off the boat, and she sinks into another realm.

When we return after the opening credits, Emma is rowing towards the mysterious island. She immediately asks Cal (Jane Kaczmarek) where her son is. Cal replies: “What did you see when you did what was asked of you?”

Emma believes her son is a demonic changeling, but what good is following the orders of The Wise Ones and killing him if she can’t see her real son? She explains that Cal told her to “get rid of that thing” so she could “get a second chance at her life.” She feels missold on the idea of this second life when that life is without her son.

We see how protective Cal is of the community she has created on this mysteriously hidden island. Cal promises in a later scene that if Emma gets caught, she will not be helped or supported. Emma is distraught, for a good reason, so The Wise Ones give her a sedative to sleep it off.

Emma dreams of a black void with nothing but a cot, a stick, and a book. She can still feel the presence of her son and believes this vision is a clue to his whereabouts. The Changeling episode 6 once again forces audiences to wonder if Emma’s son really was evil or if she is a new mother suffering from postpartum depression.

When Cal comes to wake her up and release her from the cage, she fails to answer Emma’s questions. Cal will not give away any information about baby Brian, but it’s unclear whether it’s because she doesn’t know or because she doesn’t want the mothers to know. These scenes may have been more powerful if we hadn’t had such a candid conversation between Cal and Apollo the week prior.

Cal tells Emma that many women have searched for their children, and none have yet to find them. Emma’s hopes of motherhood and finding Brian are melting away, but she is a determined woman. She is confident her husband will find her and help her reunite with Brian. “No one short of a god can find this place,” Cal informs her, so it’s lucky her husband is the Mighty God Apollo.

Emma Returns To The Library

Emma may appear an emotional wreck, but she still has her smarts about her. She sees through Cal’s lengthy monologues about grief and how time heals. Cal has some lovely words, but there is something untrustworthy about her delivery. Emma works out a plan to get back to New York, noticing an empty library in need of restocking. She convinces the leader to let her return to the city as long as she brings back literature.

With a little help from some other women on the island, Emma breaks into the shed and steals a rowing boat. She heads to her former workplace to hunt for the book she found in the cot. She looks for a copy of To The Waters Of The Wild, Apollo’s favorite book as a child, and a title that has come up repeatedly throughout the series.

To The Waters Of The Wild is a real book but could be a reference to a William Butler Yeats poem entitled The Stolen Child. “Come away, O human child! To waters and the wild. With a faery, hand in hand. For to world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”

With the book in her hand, she now wants to solve the mystery of the stick she found in her son’s cot. It’s never quite clear if she found this in Brian’s real cot or if she just had a vision that included these items. Other women on the island also admit that they would find dirt, soil, and leaves in their children’s cot. In a rather middling episode, this is one of the few clues that drives the plot forward.

Emma discovers that the plant is a Norway Maple, an invasive species with aggressive roots and a canopy that can prevent other flowers from growing. Once again, Norway is the key. The Changeling has referenced this country throughout the six episodes. From the Norwegian immigrants in the first episode to William’s heritage and the Scandinavian name of the photographer, there is a clear Nordic theme.

Welcome To A New Underground Community

A large chunk of The Changeling Episode 6 showcases a new part of New York. Emma ends up in the underground tunnels with a ‘mole person’ guide called Wheels (Steve Zissis). He is a fairytale character who speaks in riddles and inhabits a mystical community. Although the show speaks of faes mythical beings, all the characters up to now have been very real people.

Wheels walks Emma through the whole underground community, which has barbers, a farmyard, and even a repair shop. He guides her through the quirky basement city, so she can maneuver through New York unseen. The explanation of every little corner of this world is lengthy to the point of boring, with little to no payoff in the big picture.

Emma goes back to the library, this time looking for information about trees in New York. Emma is hiding in the toilet of her former workplace when Apollo trespasses. In episode 3, we see Apollo take a gun to the library in search of Emma, threatening her colleagues. This is a useful way to link up the timelines and understand how long Emma has been missing.

Wheels picks up Emma and gives her a piece of information that helps link a few more threads together. She is looking at a map of New York, trying to find a Norway Maple. When she locates this tree, it is unclear what she expects to find.

She mentions a line from To The Waters and The Wind: “They bathe at dusk; they hide it with guile. At home in the forest, forever lost in the wild.” A sentence from the last episode, seemingly in reference to the creature that appears to have taken over William’s body.

Wheels informs us that the tree she is looking for is in Queens, in a place that was once called Little Norway. It was the part of New York that Norwegian immigrants settled in when they arrived in America in 1825. These are the same immigrants from the opening monologue, how this connects to Emma and Apollo’s story, isn’t clear yet.

Emma returns to the island and leaves behind a copy of To The Waters and The Wind for Brian (the book would be found by Apollo instead). The sixth episode ends with Emma rowing away from the women and the island. She is unable to forgive Cal for holding her captive and depriving her of time with her son.

This episode fills in unnecessary gaps in the plot yet leaves big questions unanswered. Whilst it was interesting to see the story from a new point of view, this episode would have been more effective if it was the fifth in the season.

Catch up with all our The Changeling recaps here.