Teacup episode 3, “Quite for No Reason,” begins at dawn. It’s a new day and the farm is bathed in sunlight. The line is still encircling it, and Claire Kelly’s (Holly A. Morris) body is still on the other side. Donald (Boris McGiver) is in the same place as he was the night before, staring in shock at his wife.
James (Scott Speedman) and Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski) are in bed, but neither got much sleep. Arlo (Caleb Dolden), however, is sound asleep, as is Nicholas (Luciano Leroux), who slept in his room. Maggie looks out the window and sees the horror of what happened to Claire in full daylight.
She goes to Meryl’s (Emilie Bierre) room and wakes her up, asking her to watch over Arlo when he wakes up. Meryl asks if Nicholas stayed with him, noting that he used to be annoying and how he’s not; her mother can tell Meryl might have feelings for him. When Meryl asks about Claire, Maggie admits she doesn’t know what happened. She needs Meryl to be an adult for a while and take care of things while they figure out what’s going on.
James looks through the cupboards when Maggie gets to the kitchen and looks at the notes they made about the man with the sign, how he said not to trust anyone. She tells her husband to take Ruben (Chaske Spencer) with him, but he doesn’t want to; she asks if it’s because he’s the husband of the woman he’s been sleeping with. She asks if Ruben knows about the affair. Little do they know, Ruben is listening from the doorway and he didn’t know. Maggie is furious that the woman her husband cheated with is sleeping in their living room. She isn’t going to get upset because she has to be strong for the kids. James apologizes and says he loves her. She asks if it (“it” being the affair) would have hurt him if he didn’t love her.
James finds his mother, Ellen (Kathy Baker), getting ready. She’s going to walk down the driveway to see if anyone comes by, and then later she wants to cook up all the food since the power is off. He has her medicine, which she takes. She assures him that everything will be ok in the end… and if it isn’t, then clearly it’s not the end.
Ruben is getting dressed when Valeria (Diany Rodriguez) wakes up. She asks if he got any sleep but he says he’ll sleep when this is over. When she asks if he’s ok, he brushes her off. You can see the tension in him. She mentions she has some appointments to keep and wonders if anyone will notice they’re gone, but he points out no one knows where they are anyway so it won’t make a difference. As he leaves, she tells him to not do anything stupid, or brave.
Maggie is in her clinic when Ruben walks in, noting that Scout looks good. She agrees. He asks if she minds if he tags along with James because it’s riskier letting him go alone. He offers her his rifle and gives her this advice: “slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” She thanks him, and he tells her that they’ll both get through this.
Donald is sitting at the line with Duke, still in shock. Maggie helps him to his feet and leads him away from his wife’s body. Ellen and Valeria head to Claire’s body and use a blanket to cover her up. They have to toss it from a distance but it’s better than nothing.
James is busy saddling up his horse when Ruben walks into the barn and asks if it’s OK for him to borrow a horse. James notes the goats are still spooked but less than the night before.
Maggie tends to Donald’s arm. It’s completely shredded from where it crossed the line. She offers him pain medicine that isn’t made for people. As he settles into the bed in her office, he asks about Arlo and says he always wanted a son. Claire was pregnant once but lost the baby. They never tried again. He starts to get up when he realizes he forgot about the body in the woods.
James and Ruben approach the blue line in the woods. They see a snake that was cut in half trying to cross it. James wonders how the stranger in the mask knew where to draw the line and Ruben comments that you never know about people. Just like no one would ever know if something happened to them in the middle of the woods. “Just saying,” Ruben says. “Careful.” He spots birds circling in the sky so they head off to see what it is.
Nicholas is watching Arlo as he runs his finger over every page of the dictionary. He tells Meryl that whoever is inside Arlo, he’s learning words. When Nicholas asks who he is, he replies “Harbinger.” Arlo, he says, is “sleep rest.” Meryl tells Nicholas that Arlo told their parents there’s a voice in his head and the voice said something’s coming. “Assassin” is coming, he says, and he will kill. “Not trapped,” he says. Harbinger/Arlo dumps out his marbles and walks down the hall. Arlo seems to wake up and Meryl tells him there’s no voice in his head. Arlo says the voice in his head isn’t bad, and right now he needs her to trust him. Nicholas suggests finding their parents, but Meryl says there’s no time for it.
Outside, Valeria asks about Ellen’s tremors and her MS diagnosis. Ellen says the tremors require patience. She misses her husband, who kept her sane and grounded. “A good marriage will do that, don’t you think?” she asks Valeria, who realizes the older woman knows about the affair. Ellen says James didn’t have to tell her. Valeria says when she first married Ruben, she thought farming life would be idyllic, but it’s nonstop.
A van approaches and a man gets out. He’s wearing a bulletproof vest and there’s a badge on his hip. They try to keep him from crossing the line but he steps over effortlessly, telling them stepping into the area is one thing, but leaving it is something else. He suspects they know that, but Valeria says they don’t know anything. All Ellen knows is that they’re terrified. The man says that’s a good place to start.
Meryl asks Harbinger if they’re close. They are. She spots a wrapped up handkerchief in Nicholas’ pocket and he shows her that he brought a knife to protect them. They keep going and quickly come upon a giant burned up pit in the woods full of dead animals. Harbinger points at it and says it’s his. He points to the sky and then the ground to emphasize the point, and Nicholas asks if he came from space. Harbinger confirms this. He goes to a rock and pours a colorful liquid into the jar. He says it’s a powerful toxin and they should drink it.
James and Ruben arrive at a neighboring farm, still within the blue circle. Ruben checks the house while James heads to the barn. Ruben spots three of the neighbor’s dogs staring at the silo. James sees a police officer dead on the ground. There’s a mask nearby. He turns and sees Edward’s dead body outside the house, so he grabs his gun and walks in.
Maggie is in the woods looking for the body. She finds it and realizes that it’s Carmen, their neighbor’s wife. She wonders what happened to her.
James finds Edward’s son dead inside the house. He can hear someone inside the house and he thinks it might be Carmen. Suddenly, someone grabs him and pulls him down into the basement.
New episodes of Teacup air on Thursdays on Peacock.
