Amazon’s Homecoming episode 3 review: Shrier, Walter and a beer

The mystery is really starting to unravel on Homecoming and we are only going into episode 3! Shrier  is paying attention to detail and sees that things aren’t adding up, but after his outburst in the cafeteria, he is now being watched and even locked in his room at night. Shrier might be a problem for the “project”, but he’s someone that could shed some light on what’s actually going on here since he’s the only one that seems to be looking past what he’s being told.

Shrier, Walter and a beer

Shrier and Walter decide to try to go and get a beer since they have been told that this is all voluntary and that they can leave at any time. When they go to the front desk to ask to leave the receptionist says that they have to fill out a form and then they can go, but once she goes to the back to get the form, Shrier grabs car keys off her desks and runs out of the building. Walter decides to get in the car with him and they take off, but after driving all day and into the night they haven’t run across any other towns or cities. Add to that the fact that there’s no radio stations and things are getting really weird. The one thing that stands out to Walter though is that he sees another car and the license plate says Florida, so he’s back to believing that is where he is.

So what’s really going on? Shrier thinks that this is just another military exercise like one they have been through before where an entire town was created for simulations – only this time they don’t know that they are a part of it. While this idea seems pretty out there, when they finally do reach a town Shrier’s conspiracy theory starts to hold a bit of weight. All of the shops look like they are abandoned and are from the 50’s like an old “malt shoppe”.

The road trip fall out

So is this all a big conspiracy or is something else happening? When Walter is back at the facility telling Heidi the story he’s laughing about it because he realized that they were in a retirement community after Shrier attacked an old security guard thinking it was someone coming for them and it turns out this guy was once in the navy. Walter is back being all in with the program and according to Walter so is Shrier. Their excursion helped them believe that what they see around them is actually happening.

Colin is not impressed with Shrier and wants him taken out of the program, but Heidi is worried that because he’s on week 4 medication that taking him off of it will have serious ramifications. We have seen that Shrier hasn’t been taking the medication, but what he doesn’t know is that the pills they are given are placebos and the real medication is in their lunch food.

Seems like other people in this program had meltdowns just like this one at around the same time-frame and this is how they’ve all been dealt with – program removal. The news gets worse for Heidi when Colin tells her that Walter is also being kicked out of the program too. She is able to convince him that Walter is a really great candidate to move into the next phase of the program… whatever that may be.

What’s happening in the present

Claims worker Thomas Carrasco (played by actor Shea Whigham who we love, love, loved in Vice Principals!) has hit a few dead ends in this Walter claim, but he’s not down and out yet. He digs deep into the achieves and learns that the same day that Walter was discharged from Homecoming for misconduct/violence was the same day that Heidi left the program and was hospitalized. Watching her speaking to her ex-boyfriend and not remembering anything outside of moving to Tampa to work on the program was terrifying. No recollection of Walter or her numerous conversations with Colin – heck she didn’t even remember Colin at all!

Related – Check out our review for Homecoming episode 4!

CarterMatt Verdict

For the first half of this episode we got completely swept up in this grand conspiracy theory of Shrier’s – we went along for the ride and were loving every minute of it. When it was revealed from Walter that everything is exactly as they said it is and everything is fine we are finding ourselves still part of the crazy trip and just don’t want to let go of that magic. While this may or may not be the real mystery behind the facility we know that there is something there and now we know that it’s some how affected Heidi too.

Let us know what you thought of Homecoming episode 3 in the comments section below and what you think of the show so far. Also you can follow CarterMatt on Facebook for more reviews and scoop on the show. (Photo: Amazon)