Lord of the Flies: Episode 3 Recap

The episode begins with spooky shots of the island at night, with the boys all sleeping. We focus on Simon, who seems to be having a night terror, which segues into a flashback to the cathedral choir, with Simon looking at Christ’s crucifixion. This is interspersed with something – or someone – running through blood-red rushes on the island. We see this from their perspective. Back in the cathedral, Simon is clearly preoccupied with the crucifix as he sings, and Jack (Lox Pratt), stares at him from further down the line of singing boys.

Back to the present and Simon is building a shelter. A voiceover from Simon’s diary tells us that he and Jack are the only boys not taken home by their parents at Christmas, recalling Episode 2, which showed Jack with no one to wave him off at evacuation. Ralph (Winston Sawyers), Piggy (David McKenna) and Simon are together at the pool, with Ralph questioning why they ‘should be the only grownups’. Piggy is worried about a possible storm. In a touching scene, Piggy tells the littluns stories, and uses Simon’s name as a character. Simon wants to know why Piggy uses his name and asks Ralph, who explains that he’s making everyone the heroes in their own stories. He wonders if Piggy knows how his story ends. Then, Simon recounts a traumatic memory in his father’s study. His mother was there with a bruise on her face, and his father asked him to say who he preferred – his mother or father. He says that he couldn’t decide to his father, but tells Ralph: ‘I loved her, and I hated him’. He calls himself a coward and says that Jack is one too. Jack, according to Simon, is ‘nicer than people know but there is something’. They’re interrupted by Sam and Eric who say that’ve seen the beast near the fire. Ralph and his camp approach Jack’s group to ‘parley’. Jack’s boys paint each other’s  faces, and the camera lingers on the remains of a pig, surrounded by buzzing flies. Sam and Eric describe what they saw. Jack refuses to listen to anyone and says ‘We know who ought to say things’. In a nod to the original novel, Jack comments, ‘it’s time to get waxy’, which is a word used by The Lord of the Flies (the pig’s head) in Simon’s hallucination. Ralph points out that it would be impossible for a beast to be on the island as they would already have seen him. Jack realises there is a place they haven’t been so they all set off to ‘kill the beast’.

The camera provides wide views of a grass-covered promontory out to sea. It can only be reached by a thin rock bridge, which the boys view with apprehension. Ralph volunteers to go first, since he is chief and carefully walks across, with the wind howling around him. From his perspective, the camera shows us how narrow it is in places, with the sea swirling underneath. Jack eventually follows Ralph and both make it to the end (Jack ignoring Ralph’s proffered hand), met with delight from the other boys. Another line from the book ‘what a wizard place for a fort’ appears here. In the novel, this is Castle Rock. They realise there’s no beast here and Ralph says they should have tried the mountain by the fire. Jack blames Maurice (Cornelius Brandreth) and asks Ralph if he should ‘reprimand him’. There’s a brief moment of tension when both suggest that the other is scared.

When they’re all back on the main island, Jack performatively reads Simon’s diary in front of him, and smirks because he knows Simon won’t object. A voiceover cuts in, reading the diary entry, in which Simon praises Jack and describes him as ‘tremendous’. The children cut through the forest looking for the beast. Jack forces Ralph to make a decision – should be listen to Piggy who insists they stop because it’s getting dark, or should he listen to Simon who tells him to let Jack go. This recalls the decision Simon’s father forced upon him, which he told Ralph about earlier in the episode. Jack asks for volunteers to join a smaller group of hunters. He refuses Piggy but accepts Simon. As they progress up the mountain, Simon asks for his diary back. Fed up with Jack’s attitude, Simon and Ralph sit down and refuse to go further, although they eventually follow. Armed with their spears, they slowly approach the crest. In the half-dark, they struggle to make out the shapes. As the wind blows, what looks like a person’s head, with some kind of wings, springs into view. In terror, the small group run back to the beach and Jack blows the conch: ‘we’ve seen the beast’. He says they have to kill it, although Simon is trying to say something (‘maybe there is something’). Jack tells the others not to listen to Ralph as he only says what Piggy tells him to say. They fight in the shallows of the sea, and Jack violently strikes Ralph with the conch. After declaring ‘there’s only one person who can protect you from the beast… and it isn’t your chief’, Jack takes his hunters away. Simon helps Ralph out of the water.

As the boys sleep, Simon moves silently through the forest, paints his face, and creeps into Jack’s camp to retrieve his diary. He reads an entry in which he recounts how he helped Jack through an illness but then throws the book on the fire. Piggy, Ralph and Simon talk about where they want to be. Ralph talks about being in his cottage. eating cornflakes with sugar and cream with his father; Piggy would like to be with his auntie in her sweet shop, eating fizzy snakes (which sounds particularly delightful). Curiously, Simon says that if he could choose, he would opt to be right there on the island: ‘I’ve been happy here’. He then tells Ralph, ‘you’ll get back to where you came from’, a line he also said to Jack in Episode 2. Ralph wryly jokes, just as he does in the novel, ‘got a ship in your pocket?’ The hunters interrupt and steal fire. Jack invites them to a feast and his followers declare: ‘the chief has spoken’.

Night arrives and Simon is in his special place amongst the blood-red foliage, which is almost womb-like. The scene here is deliberately confusing, as he appears to do a strange dance in response to the forest. On his return to Piggy and Ralph, they wonder if they should go to Jack’s party. As Piggy points out, he might hate Jack but he doesn’t hate meat! Simon insists: ‘I think bad things will happen’, but Piggy says, ‘you’re batty, and Ralph’s chief’. Ralph struggles to articulate what his response is: ‘I wish I knew what makes things break up like they do’. Piggy tells Simon his name.

Jack’s party is chaotic. There is music, chanting, smoking and cooking and a call and response emphasises ‘thank you’. Jack offers Ralph ‘first flesh’ from the roasted pig. After seeing Ralph take the meat, Simon turns and walks away into the forest. There is a rumble of thunder, the wind picks up, and lightning flashes. Simon sees the pig’s head impaled on a stick, covered in buzzing flies. It speaks to him in what appears to be a woman’s voice. The camera gets closer and closer to the head, displaying the crawling maggots. The voice says, ‘Aren’t you afraid of me? I’m the beast.’ Simon bravely shouts back: ‘No! You’re just a pig’s head on a stick!’. The head tells Simon to run, and he does so, in the storm, while the camera goes back and forth between him and the party. Jack calls, ‘Do our dance’ as the rain pelts down. A male choir sing ‘Hallelujah’ as the camera focuses on each boy doing a strange dance (much like the one Simon did earlier). Piggy and Ralph look on in shock. As Simon runs through the forest, there is a brief shot of the boy with the birthmark, who disappeared in Episode 1.  The boys chant ‘Kill the beast! Cut its throat! Spill its blood!’ Maurice spots something in the bushes, and the boys rush to stab it with their spears. The viewer doesn’t see who they are stabbing, and they ignore Ralph’s cry of ‘no’. There is the sound of spear hitting flesh, repeatedly. Suddenly, Jack stops and looks in horror at the ground. Jack runs away, followed, one by one, by the other boys. Cut to silence and Ralph sitting on the beach. In voiceover, Simon reads from his diary. Simon’s body lies in the shallows, before being taken slowly by the waves. An overhead shot reveals numerous wounds.