Sapphire, Steel, and Robert can hear Helen singing. Concentrating, Sapphire uses her powers to open the door and Steel goes in. The corridor opens as Steel gives Helen to Rob to hold, and then tosses her doll into the corridor. Sapphire recites rhyme backward, and Rob sees his mother reading to Helen, the ghostly couple who entered, and the old Countryman in the time corridor, reciting the rhyme. Steel gets the children out and the Elements realize that Helen memorized the rhyme. He tells Sapphire to keep Helen with her at all times, and tells Robert to get her one of Helen's other dolls. Steel says that Sarah and Henry disappeared the same, and the children also disappeared the same way.
Steel tells them to stay out of that area of the house and goes downstairs. Robert insists that he saw his mother, and Sapphire has him describe what he saw. The boy says that he saw a shadow of Sarah and realizes that it wasn't her. Sapphire agrees and Helen wonders if their parents are coming home. Robert says that he can't trust either Element, and Sapphire says that he has to, and then leads the children downstairs.
The next morning, Rob wakes up in his bed. He gets up and hears pounding,, and finds Steel boarding the door to Helen's bedroom shut. Robert runs downstairs and finds Sapphire in the kitchen eating with Helen, and Robert looks out the window. The boy says that Steel told him to tell Sapphire to come upstairs. Sapphire telepathically confirms that Steel didn't summon her, but she walks out anyway. Once they're alone, Robert opens the back door and then tells Helen to put on a coat so they're ready to leave. He explains that he saw the ferry crossing the bay with the policeman's car on it, and they're going to meet him. When Helen objects, Robert says that Steel is nailing the door shut to keep anyone--including their parents--from getting out. They go to the back door as the policeman honks his horn.
Sapphire talks with Steel and confirms that he didn't send for her. They hear voices on the other side of the door, and Steel warns that this time the creature can reason and has a method. They hear the policeman's car, and Steel says that the last thing they need is someone there who doesn't understand. He tells Sapphire to handle the policeman.
Robert and Helen go to the front door and Robert carefully unbolts the door. Sapphire and Steel arrive on the stairs, and Robert insists that he has to tell someone else. Sapphire says that he can't speak for Helen and invites the girl to join her. Helen goes to her, and Robert says that it doesn't matter. The policeman knocks on the door, and Sapphire invites Robert to try and tell the policeman. The policeman walks in... and vanishes. Time resets and Robert opens the door. The police=man walks in... and vanishes. Robert walks away, leaving an image of himself behind. Sapphire tells him that she can keep it going as long as necessary to prevent Robert from talking to the man. The sequence keeps repeating itself as Sapphire goes to the kitchen with Robert and Helen.
Steel answers the door, and the policeman dismisses it as deja vu. The officer comes in and explains why he came there. Steel claims that he's a friend of the family.
In the kitchen, Sapphire brushes Helen's hair and tells Robert that she can start the loop again if Robert doesn't cooperate. He wonders what Sapphire can do and how she does it, and Sapphire admits that she can only rewind time a few minutes in the past so she can't stop the parents from disappearing. The officer drives away, and Robert asks Sapphire if anyone has the power to take time back further. Sapphire admits that something in the corridor can if it's allowed to, but its only purpose is its own. Their job is stopping it, and as Steel comes in Sapphire insists that they're on his side and trying to help Robert and his parents.
Steel asks where the "youngest" room in the house is. When Robert confirms that Henry built an extension a year ago, Steel asks the boy to take him there, and Robert leads him to it. Robert asks what happened when they did a similar job on a ship they mentioned earlier, and Steel says that they had to sink the ship for its own good.
The clocks throughout the house continue ticking, and a light flickers in Helen's room.
Sapphire and Steel try to find anything "safe" because it's "young" enough, but even the newest items contain some recycled materials. Steel has Robert empty the room out, and Robert asks Sapphire what the "trigger" was that Sapphire mentioned earlier that was on the ship. Sapphire explains that it was an out-of-date ship's log the captain had collected, and Robert figures that the creatures know what they're doing. Steel notices that Sapphire is distracted, and she tells him that what Robert said reminds her of what Steel said about the creature using methods.
Robert hears Sarah calling to him from Helen's room, telling him to come up. He goes up, eager to save his mother, and she tells him to remove the boards from the door. When he goes to get Sapphire and Steel, "Sarah" tells him that there's no need. Robert wonders how she know them, and she claims that she doesn't know who they are and figures that they were Robert's friends. "Sarah" tells him to kneel down and put his face close to the door. Once he does, "Sarah" tells him to recite any rhyme as long as its old. When he says that he's too old to recite nursery rhymes, "Sarah" invites him to consider it history and say the one that's in his head. He starts to recite a rhyme, and two ghostly soldiers arrive. Ignoring Robert, they kick down the door and go into the room.
Written by Gadfly on Dec 19, 2018