The Purge Season 2, Episode 8 recap: The season’s second annual purge begins

The second annual purge kicks off in Season 2, Episode 8 of The Purge TV. Find out where all the main characters are as the carnage begins.

This season of The Purge is a little different than its first season — or any of the preceding films — as it takes place across two distinctive purge nights a year apart. Season two began with a purge and now it will end with a different one.

As we’ve gotten to know the Moores, Ben, Ryan and his crew, and Esme, we’ve come to understand their circumstances and the many changes that have occurred in their lives since the sophomore season began.

Now we’ve reached the climax and it remains to be seen which of these characters will make past the finish line alive.

Ryan and his crew

Ryan and his pals, which now includes Esme, are ready to go for their grand heist. However, things play out much differently than you might anticipate based on all the planning we’ve seen from the previous weeks.

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For starters, Ryan betrays Andrea Ziv. This isn’t too surprising considering their allyship was always going to be tenuous at best. What is somewhat shocking is the return of the Jackals. The competing crew got in Ryan’s way during the first purge. Now it looks like the two crews are the same side.

The Jackals eliminate Andrea and remove the safes from their aircraft. We don’t get to see what happens to the money just yet. Instead, we learn that Ryan and his gang’s main focus will be breaking Tommy out of prison.

I never considered that option before but it makes sense. Breaking someone out of prison is technically allowed on purge night. So why wouldn’t they make an attempt? That will be their main focus during the second purge.

As for Esme, she’s going to follow through on her mission to hit the NFFA where it hurts. She has an ally on the inside in Vivian but she will also have to contend with a $500,000 bounty on her head as the night begins.

Marcus and Michelle

Marcus takes things to the extreme to protect his son. He breaks his arm to get him sent to the hospital, the only place he’ll be safe and protected for the night as he doesn’t want him to somehow get killed in the crossfire.

As Purge night begins, Marcus and Michelle prepare to meet several invaders. Surprisingly, the neighbors decide to remove the bounty on Marcus’s head in favor of killing him themselves. Luckily for Marcus, he has his ex-wife and old neighborhood friends there to aid in his defense against the onslaught of people trying to murder him and his wife. The episode ends just as Marcus and Michelle see a bunch of people crawling into their yard with weapons.

Ben

With Kelen dead and purge night ago, Ben is finally free to take things to the absolute extreme. He channels his inner serial killer and wages war on his frat brothers as the purge ticks closer and closer. Most of his fraternity brothers can sense that Ben has a few screws loose. But his old pal Turner tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, even when he shaves off all his hair in the bathroom.

However, by the end of the evening, Ben makes it clear that he will kill anyone that gets in his way. Not unlike a slasher movie, he systematically kidnaps everyone in the house and slowly begins to kill them off one by one. He finally corners Turner but instead of killing him, Ben decides he’s got other plans. I’m sure we’ll find out about his fate next week.

The penultimate episode of The Purge‘s second season airs next Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET on USA Network.