Witch Creek Road S3 E18 Explained (Spoilers)
Episode 18 (aka What the Old Man Said, Part 1)
This episode begins in the same way as episode 11; that is, it begins with the old man getting shot. But whereas episode 11 focused on Pandora, episode 18 follows the old man, and what happens in the moments preceding his death.
Specifically, as the old man staggers into the next room, he speaks Grace's name.
Grace pulls the old man into the angles - and because time doesn't exist in the angles, his impending death (and whatever pain he's experiencing) is temporarily put on hold.
The old man recognizes that he doesn't have long to live, and tells Grace, “It seems you'll soon be released from your obligations to me.” He goes on to say, “I need to tell you a story, Grace. I trust you'll humor me in these dying moments.”
He recounts how he came into the possession of a book, which he refers to as, “The Book of Angles.” He had hired a man to translate it, but the man, instead, used the book in an attempt to trap the Wolves. “He thought, if he could trap the Wolves, he could control time itself. Of course, none of that happened. The circle broke, and the Wolves escaped. He was eaten. And a bunch of high school kids ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Grace, of course, had been one of those high school kids who found themselves in the woods at trying to survive against the Wolves (see Season 1).
The old man continues. “Whatever you were, Grace? It's gone," he says. "Sara? Edwin? Shaleeta? They're all still flesh and blood. But not you. Your body was crushed. And whatever they could scrape off the floor of the cabin was buried in the West Church Cemetery.” He points to her body. “This isn't real. It's something the angle version of yourself created because it's all you know.”
The old man tells Grace, "It's like someone taught you, years ago, that you were blind, and you've accepted this without question. But you're not blind, Grace. You've simply been stumbling about with your eyes closed. It's time to open your eyes."
At this, the angle version of Grace tears out of the body she's built around her, and tells the old man that her eyes are now open. "What would you have me see?"
GRACE'S TRANSFORMATION: Grace was always meant to appear "ragged", and this was meant to convey the idea that there's something not quite "right" with her. This is due to Grace creating a sort of "body" for herself, simply because it's all she's ever known. The old man, on the other hand, forces Grace to examine this, and makes her realize that she's essentially wrapped herself in a weak (almost sickly) shell. At this point Grace's true form frees itself.
CENSORED: It doesn't happen often, but this is definitely the most censored episode to date. It was mostly a matter of pulling back on some of the blood (there was a lot more originally, in those final few panels), and we had to crop the final panel. The original panel was a full-body view of Grace, but the entrails at her feet were a bit too graphic for the content team.