I had mentioned my theory that her condition was akin to Picard's in "All Good Things.." This turns out to partially be the case, but there's also shades of "A Christmas Carol". We see two Ruth's, with one largely invisible (though she does seem to be able to see herself) in several scenes as she places her chess pieces around. I get that they indicate that she's not in her time, but I'm not sure how that helps her "get back". The jumps seem to happen at random and she has no control over when they happen. Maybe it's a focus thing? I don't know.
Matt Deaver, her husband and Henry's adopted father benefits the most from this as we get a better look at what life was like in the Deaver household all those years ago. It turns out that the preacher was more than a little unbalanced. He doesn't do anything directly, but his dialogue (as well as the actor's delivery) shows us what a disturbed individual he really was.
Ruth herself also shines. Spacek had a lot of weight to pull and she did a great job of it. You can see her fear, disorientation, concern, and joy throughout the episode. Had she not done such a good job, the episode might have fallen flat, but as it is, it stands as likely the best episode of the season. I kind of feel bad for the next episode as this set the bar quite high.
The time jumps can be a bit confusing at first, but the episode is still very well constructed. You can tell that a lot of effort was put into making this work and it paid off.
We also get some strong hints as to the identity of "the kid". Ruth herself is convinced that it's Matt back from the dead. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he seems to go out of his way to confirm this. Given his lines of dialogue, you can see why Ruth jumps to the conclusion that she does. He knows a lot about her and about their history. While I knew it was all a red herring (again, I spoiled myself on this big reveal,) there is one line here that pretty much tells you who he is. Not much is made of it now, but it'll probably be elaborated on later.
As with many episodes prior, this one ends with a bang...literally. Ruth accidentally shoots Alan. Had I been keeping up, I'd probably be more concerned with dropping a major spoiler, but at this point, I don't think we need to worry.
That scene gives us the plot based wham moment that makes for good binge watching, but the following scene where Ruth is transported to Alan first showing up on her doorstep is what really made the ending work. The look on Spacek's face just sells the weight of the scene and it'd be hard not to mark yourself as being hit hard in the feels after that. I mean, damn.
So yeah, if you couldn't figure it out by now. This episode was amazing, a fantastic hour of television if ever there was one. Hopefully, the remaining episodes can keep it going, because the show is really starting to shine.
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