'The Head' Season 3 Episode 4 Recap: Will Rachel Be Able to Rescue Her Team?

Things go from bad to worse at the Saharan facility, as a clash erupts between the team of researchers and volunteers—pitting survivors from both sides in a perilous situation, at a time when the unknown killer is already turning the facility into a death trap by sabotaging supplies, planting mistrust and confusion among everyone. 

In the previous episode, as the research team opted to consider water rationing and imposing restrictions after the water supply was vandalized, the volunteering test subjects expressed disagreement—resulting in a rift between two parties—which only increased after Keiko went missing. Keiko’s misadventures were discovered by Jamal, who tortured her to extract information, as he assumed Keiko to be the killer/saboteur. Olivia found the ghosts of her past returning to torment her, as Keiko turned out to be a secret agent sent by Takeshi Kobayashi to sabotage the algae research of Arthur Wilde. Connections with the first season were explored, as Takeshi is the proud, loving father of Aki—Olivia’s romantic partner and fellow researcher in Polaris VI, whose life she had taken to keep her cover from getting blown. After Keiko’s malware attack caused a blackout in the facility, one of the test subjects—Ida—died after getting electrocuted while taking a shower. Additionally, in a flashback sequence that showcased Arthur’s sordid life in prison (before the second season), it was revealed that Arthur’s nefarious, toxic influence had inspired one of his deranged secret admirers—who may or may not be responsible for the death spree in the third and final season of “The Head—to go down a dark path.”

Spoilers Ahead

Why Was Olivia Put Into Isolation?

As the fourth episode of the ongoing season of The Head begins, it is revealed that the malware attack orchestrated by Takeshi with Keiko’s help had nothing to do with the sudden power blackout and Ida getting electrocuted, it was in fact handiwork of the killer. Takeshi’s malware thankfully didn’t delete the research, but it did lock access to the system with a passcode combination, and after a day’s time, it will automatically remove every trace of the research from the facility’s system. To top it all off, Horst and all the volunteers who had drunk water from the reserve supply appear to have been afflicted by food poisoning, and upon checking the supply tank – Lauren’s severed, rotting head is found inside. 

Needless to say, this results in another round of the blame game as the research team gather together to identify the possible culprit, and at this point, the secret Rachel and Olivia have been keeping from the rest of the team comes out in the open. Liam, who has been acting miffed after Rachel’s rejection to his advances, reveals the truth about the Polaris VI deaths, which opens a can of worms as the rivalry between Olivia and Arthur Wilde comes to light, along with the cruise ship murder spree which occurred in the second season of the series. Jamal and Pierre are livid with Rachel for not revealing the truth to them before they joined the team, and she turns their anger towards Olivia. After all, bodies started dropping like flies ever since Olivia arrived in the facility, considering which, Pierre and Jamal decide to capture Olivia and keep her tied up outside the facility in the scorching heat of the Saharan desert – ignoring her pleas. 

Meanwhile, Horst, who is still reeling from the infection, appears to be afraid to put his trust in anyone else, as he refuses to take medication and decides to go outside the facility to find medicinal plants in the desert. This plan works as well as you’d imagine, as Horst starts seeing a mirage in an exhausted, deluded state of mind and gets stranded in the middle of nowhere. It seems the unknown killer doesn’t need to take care of this one; Horst is already doomed. 

Arthur’s Pen Pal Finds Confidence

The flashback sequence to Arthur’s past shows his communication with his secret admirer getting disrupted, as Patrick, the head honcho in the prison, takes away the phone he had lent Arthur, despite the veteran biologist doing his bidding by killing his cellmate. However, Arthur receives a package from his admirer, and the contents inside it – gouged out eyeballs of a person, conveys that Arthur has succeeded in sending his disciple down a path of death and destruction. As mentioned in the previous episode as well, the admirer had father issues as she felt herself to be burdened with her father’s presence, and Arthur had encouraged her to eliminate her father through the example of his action of murdering his cellmate. The identity of this admirer possibly won’t be revealed until the finale, and for now we can only guess at who she might be. 

Will Rachel Be Able To Rescue Her Team?

The 24 hour mark for the passcode timer is nearing its end, and without Horst being present, Rachel finds it impossible to crack it, as it is impossible to correctly guess from millions of possible combinations. At this point, Olivia, still kept tied outside, remembers her past interaction with Takeshi, whom she taught about Aki’s unique number pattern sequencing. Olivia decides to draw Rachel’s attention, and reveals to her that she can unlock the code. However, it takes Olivia a few tries before she ultimately manages to crack the code and save the research, and getting suspicious of her, Jamal decides to keep her confined in the basement area of the bunker. Olivia is revealed to have found an opening, and it will be interesting to see whether she is able to use this to her advantage in the next episode. 

On the other hand, Keiko, who was recuperating from her torture injuries at the hands of Jamal, comes to her senses and overhears the conversation of the team. She returns to her fellow volunteers afterwards and warns them by sharing the details of everything that she has learned. According to Keiko, they will end up dying one by one like the research team members if they wait any longer, and she proposes turning on the research team in order to escape with their lives. Sean, one of the volunteers who needs the money the research team to pay him in order to save his ailing son, hesitates to join her side, but Alba convinces him by mentioning she will make the monetary arrangements by speaking with her father, who is apparently a filthy rich guy. 

As planned, Keiko leads a mutiny and holds the research team at gunpoint with little to no effort, really, and Joe, one of the survivors, reveals that, contrary to Pierre’s assumption, escaping is still possible, as fuel is reserved elsewhere in the facility. Jamal decides to make an attempt to escape by running away, only to get gunned down by Keiko at the end. The surviving research team is forced to enter the basement area, and Rachel manages to stay outside the basement by agreeing to help with the water supply. Given the fact that the water reserve has been emptied, the volunteers need to desalinate the seawater from the algae research, and to do that, Rachel’s expertise is needed. Anyway, the episode comes to a close as Pierre and Liam are forced to enter the basement, where Olivia has been left confined already. The penultimate episode will focus on Rachel’s attempt to save her research and possibly her team as well, but given the way none of the members of the team trust each other any longer, Rachel’s mission seems already jeopardized. Also, Olivia’s actions will be crucial, and could determine whether or not any of the survivors actually live to see another day. 

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