'Nocturne' Episode 4 Recap & Ending Explained: Is Saga Jurek's Neighbor Now?

In episode 3 of Nocturne, we learnt that something or someone had prompted Sally and her family to go on the run. Jonah informed Quinn that the markings in the woods behind Sally’s house have been found at every single site where the bodies of Jurek’s victims were discovered. Based on that, Quinn sent the markings to the FBI’s cryptanalysis team while also getting her team to search for Sally’s vehicle. Jonah met up with Michael, who told him about the Sandman, the masked individual who kept Michael and Felicia sedated. Soon after that interaction, Michael was discharged and allowed to go home with Ida. Jonah went back to Sally’s house and found a tin box in the backyard, which had a family picture of the Giffords, sans Sally’s face. The information about the symbols and the photograph obtained from Sally’s backyard were passed on to Ellison, who finally realized that Jonah had been right about Jurek having outside help all this while. Hence, he ordered Kibbons to give a copy of those photographs to everyone in the Felicia search party so that they could all look for those symbols and hopefully rescue the little girl before winter. In Riverside, Saga had a hard time getting her crucifix back because it had been given to the wrong patient, and when she did get her hands on her crucifix, the patient attacked Saga, which led to a fight, and the microtransmitter in the crucifix got destroyed. Amidst all this chaos, Saga managed to figure out that the RHU employee list that had been shared with the FBI and the police was wrong, and she passed on that info to Nathan before the transmitter got wrecked. Saga and Jonah were afraid that the destruction of the microtransmitter might prompt Quinn to call off the whole operation. So, while Saga tried her best to communicate with her team that she was fine, Jonah got Nathan to break into the company that hosted the servers for Riverside’s CCTV cameras. Quinn didn’t like that, but since it allowed the team to see that Saga was alright, she ignored that massive breach of protocol for the time being. Jonah discovered Sally’s car, but Sally and her family were nowhere to be found. With Ellison’s permission, Jonah put the word out that they were looking for Sally, because she might be directly or indirectly connected to the Frost case. Soon after that, somebody called the feds, telling them to call off the search for Sally and her family. In addition to all that, we saw the Sandman “taking care” of Felicia and, in Riverside, Jurek was spotted taking a very elaborate approach to collecting Vaseline. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Saga Is Being Assaulted By Lloyd

Episode 4 of Nocturne turns back the clock three years to show us Sam watching news of Rebecca’s disappearance on the television and then killing himself. Jonah meets up with Saga at the office and informs her about her father’s death. Saga thinks that she should let Denise know about this development. She tries to find out how Sam killed himself but Jonah refuses to get into those details. She remembers that Sam had sent her a birthday card, which is something that he had last done when Saga was only 10; Jonah says that he was trying to be a half-decent dad. Saga says that they should have Jurek arrested, because he is the one responsible for Rebecca’s disappearance, and now Sam’s blood is on his hands. Jonah knows that won’t happen, so he asks her if she wants to come to Fairhaven with him; Saga says that she doesn’t, because she has a lot of work to do. The episode cuts to the present day, where she is in Riverside, under the same roof as Jurek, and closer to nabbing him than ever before. But she faces a major hurdle: Lloyd. Under the garb of giving her meds and oral exams, Lloyd seems to be molesting her, and Saga is visibly afraid of where this thing is heading. As soon as Lloyd exits her chambers, Saga pukes out the pills and keeps herself from getting disoriented due to the meds. During rec time, Jonah keeps an eye on Saga through the CCTV cameras. Since there isn’t anything major going on, Jonah glances at a photograph of Sally and decides to head to her house to find her journal, which is something that Jonah has noticed in her photographs, but it’s missing from the list of items that the feds have found. While heading out, Jonah asks Nathan about the anonymous call that the feds got, asking them to call off the search for Sally and her family, and he says that they have no leads yet.

Karl Gives Jurek Candy

Ellison confronts Quinn at the lodge about the debacle caused by the press conference, because now that everyone in Fairhaven has connected the Frost case to Jurek and Sally, they are making prank calls about seeing Jurek out on the streets. Quinn defends her decision to hold that press conference by stating that she is just doing everything she can to ensure that Felicia comes back home; if there are some unintended consequences of that action, so be it. Quinn says that she will rope in a few more agents to deal with the prank calls so that Ellison can focus on protecting his town; Ellison says that he’d be grateful if she makes that happen. Instead of ending the conversation on that note, Quinn asks Ellison how long it’s been since he quit drinking (because she noticed him eyeing the liquor bottles); Ellison says that he is three years sober because, three years ago, Jurek was arrested. Now that Jurek is allegedly instigating another storm, Ellison is heavily considering getting back on the saddle. After Ellison leaves, Quinn calls up Nathan and asks him if Saga has made any headway in terms of finding Jurek’s messenger inside Riverside; Nathan says that she hasn’t, but she is working on it. Speaking of Saga, she overhears two patients talking about Jurek and the manipulative “powers” he possesses, and one of them says that she wants Jurek to get into her mind. That’s when Saga notices Karl acting shifty before heading into the RHU. After giving Jurek his daily meds, Karl asks him if he is responsible for Sally and her family’s disappearance. Jurek obviously denies having any involvement in that incident, and he urges Karl to not listen to such rumors, because they are baseless and will only drive a wedge between them. Karl buys that nonsense and secretly hands a candy bar to Jurek, which is a sign that Karl is completely in Jurek’s control now. When Karl heads out of the RHU, Saga notices that the candy bar in his pocket is gone, even though he was telling the security guard that he was going to eat it during his break. That’s how Saga understands that Karl is smuggling stuff to Jurek.

Saga Confirms Karl Is Jurek’s Messenger

Saga baits Karl into letting her out of her ward’s rec center. She lets him know that Lloyd is physically abusing her, which is a legitimate complaint, but she uses her desperation to raise the alarm over that matter to get close to Karl and steal the candy bar wrapper from his pocket. While doing so, she turns Karl towards one of the CCTV cameras at a particular angle so that the name on his ID card is visible to Nathan. When the female ward aide drags Saga back into the rec center, she flashes the wrapper at the CCTV camera and Nathan realizes that Saga is telling him that he is the guy who is currently smuggling stuff for Jurek. Nathan immediately pulls up Karl’s official records and gets on a call with Quinn to let her know that they have found Jurek’s messenger. Quinn says that she will get a team on it, and if Saga’s findings turn out to be substantial, she believes that they will have her back home in no time. Going back to Saga, she gets assaulted yet again by Lloyd under the pretense of administering an injection (yes, they have switched from pills to injections because of Saga’s behavior), which brings her to the realization that she is in real danger now, not from the patients, but one of the orderlies. In the meantime, Jonah goes to Sally’s house and starts combing through the place, probably for the umpteenth time. He finds the other half of the torn photograph that he discovered inside that tin box in the backyard. After some more rummaging around the bookshelves, Jonah finally hits gold and finds the journal. While reading through it, Jonah is able to pinpoint the exact moment where Sally was assigned to Jurek, and when she began losing her mind. Then he discovers an envelope with a letter from Jurek to someone named Proctor, who seems to be the lawyer that Jurek keeps talking about. Jonah spots some markings on the flap.

Jonah Finds Jurek’s Dead Drop Site

Upon analysis of the markings on the envelope that was found in Sally’s journal, it’s revealed that those dots connect to form a coded message in Cyrillic, which translates to “Release Michael.” Given how the message was addressed to Proctor, Walter’s lawyer, it should mean that the lawyer is Jurek’s accomplice, and Jurek is in fact responsible for the Frost kidnappings. But there are two issues here: firstly, there’s no attorney named Proctor in the state of Pennsylvania, and secondly, how did Michael get released if the letter was in Sally’s possession? As for the address on the envelope, it points the feds and the police in the direction of an abandoned warehouse at the Western Penn Steel Plant instead of an attorney’s office. Quinn’s theory is that it’s a dead drop, where Jurek’s messenger delivers his message and, later on, the “lawyer” picks it up and executes whatever directive Jurek has given to him/her/them. So, while the feds set up shop at strategic points in the steel plant, Quinn and Jonah head over to Riverside with a transfer order with Jurek’s name on it. The transfer order is fake, and they inform Rola about that. They make it clear that all of them need to pretend that the order is authentic so that Jurek gets triggered into sending a message to his “lawyer.” That’s not only going to confirm that Karl has been working for Jurek, but also unveil the identity of this “lawyer,” and hopefully, that “lawyer” will be able to tell them where Felicia is. Rola doesn’t agree with this approach to finding Felicia, but since things are getting desperate by the hour, she allows Jonah to go up to Jurek’s cell and present the transfer order before him. They exchange some verbal jabs, but when Jurek learns that he is being sent to Wasatch Ridge Secure Psyche Unit in Utah, he does start to sweat. While heading out of Riverside with Quinn, Jonah flashes a card with the words “Tick-tock” written on it to Saga. Saga sees that and immediately gets into a fight with the patient that had her crucifix so that she is transferred to RHU. It’s counted as yet another infraction, but she isn’t sent to RHU yet.

Jonah Almost Catches Jurek’s Lawyer

Karl spots some burly-looking guards in the hallway, and asks one of the nurses what that’s about. That’s how he learns that Jurek is being transferred. Karl immediately rushes to Jurek’s cell and tells him that he is indeed being transferred. Jurek presents a note and tells him to deliver it to his lawyer. Initially, Karl refuses to do that job for him, because he is afraid that if he gets caught red-handed with that letter, he will be fired. But Jurek has burrowed into Karl’s mind to such an extent that Karl feels dutybound to risk everything to do his bidding. So, he takes Jurek’s note and heads out while Jurek is taken for his pre-transfer medical examination. Karl manages to smuggle the note out of Riverside, board his car, and head out. However, unbeknownst to him, he is being tailed by FBI agent Hawthorne, as well as a drone. Quinn is in a van near the steel plant, and she informs Jonah that Karl is in fact coming to deliver Jurek’s mail. Karl drops the letter in the mailbox and then leaves the plant; Quinn tells Hawthorne to keep tailing him without letting him know that he is being followed. After Karl leaves the scene, the wait for the “lawyer” to arrive begins. The next day, Quinn informs Jonah that someone is approaching the mailbox. Jonah tells Quinn that the drone is too close to the mailbox, and they need to pull it back because the “lawyer” can clearly hear it. Jonah’s warning turns out to be correct, because the lawyer books it after hearing the sound of the drone. Jonah goes after the lawyer, and as soon as he loses contact with Quinn, the lawyer tries to knock out Jonah with chloroform. Jonah actually struggles to fight with this lawyer, because he is quite strong (I don’t know why, but this lawyer’s arms looked a lot like Gary’s). When the lawyer realizes that the chloroform is about to kick in, he runs away again. Jonah tries to shoot him down, but he loses consciousness and collapses. When he comes around again, he is approached by Kibbons, Hawthorne, and a couple of other agents, who inform him that the lawyer managed to get away. Kibbons, in a hostile manner, tells Jonah to head to the lodge, because she wants to have a chat with him about the note that Jurek had sent for the lawyer: “Jonah planted my DNA.” 

Saga Is Jurek’s Neighbor

In episode 4’s ending, at Riverside, Saga gets into a physical fight with Lloyd, takes the syringe out of his hands, and takes him hostage so that she can leave the psychiatric hospital (she isn’t actually trying to leave, she’s just racking up infraction points). When Lloyd refuses to comply, Saga injects him with the meds that were meant for her, and he immediately collapses. Saga is subdued and taken to RHU, where her neighbor is Jurek. While being taken to the RHU, Saga keeps saying “sunshine” so that Nathan doesn’t panic and call off the mission. Nathan does try to get in touch with Jonah, but since he has been called in for a meeting with Quinn, he doesn’t pick up Nathan’s call. As for Jurek, yeah, he’s really glad that he finally has a neighbor again. So, what does this all mean? For starters, the feds and the police now know that Karl and a “lawyer” are working with Jurek. Karl is definitely going down, and Jurek might face some punishment for this crime. Or maybe Karl is the only one going to be punished, and Jurek is going to be even more isolated than he was before, so that he has no choice but to chat it up with Saga. The problem with that is that Saga has been cut off from her team. Hence, it’ll be difficult to ascertain if her mission is still on track, or if she has lost her mind and is about to commit suicide like Jurek’s last neighbor. Now, coming to Jurek’s message; handwriting analysts, feel free to let me know in the comments if the letter in Sally’s journal and the note they found in the steel plant look like they have been written by the same person or not. In my opinion, they don’t. Jurek is definitely not innocent, but there’s a possibility that somebody is playing some kind of game with him. My money is on the righteous Jonah. He is certainly hiding a lot of secrets under his stoic demeanor, and this note is going to compel him to spill the beans to Quinn. I do think that he really cares about Saga. So, if he feels that the truth about what he did to Jurek all those years ago is going to put an end to Saga’s trip to hell, and maybe also save Felicia, I suppose he is going to open up about everything that happened 3 years ago. What are your thoughts on that? Let me know in the comments

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