Nightflyers’ 10 most terrifying moments

NIGHTFLYERS — “Torches and Pitchforks” Episode 102 — Pictured: Gretchen Mol as Agatha — (Photo by: Jonathan Hession/SYFY)

The L1 being loose

Thale has an interesting story arc throughout the series, but when he first gets on the Nightflyer, no one knows how to handle him. He is there to help communicate with the volcryn when the ship gets closer. In the meantime, all of the humans are frightened of his abilities. Being an L1, he has the ability to make people see images.

So when Thale gets let out of his cell, the ship fears what he is going to do to them all. One crew member ends up on fire; others are seeing images and shooting at each other, thinking they’re attacking Thale. No one is listening to Agatha, who is trying to tell them all to just relax and not threaten Thale, since he’s just lashing out because he’s frightened.

Later we learn that Agatha is right in her assessment; but, at the time, we don’t know much about Thale and his abilities. So there is an underlying fear of what he is capable of. Is it just telepathy? Or can he commit murder? They don’t know much about L1s because they don’t want to ask; they’re afraid of them and would rather just live in that fear.

The episode’s fear is the crew’s fear; we, as the audience, are living in it because we don’t know if we can trust Thale yet. We only know what Agatha is telling us and what strange actions he’s carrying out on screen.