Nocturne Episode 3, “Eyes on the Inside,” ended with a jaw-dropping reveal that answered one of the Apple TV show’s most crucial questions.
At the same time, the mysterious final scene likely left viewers confused and wondering what — and crucially, who — they just laid eyes on. So Decider spoke with EP and co-showrunner John Hlavin to get clarity.
Nocturne Episode 3 spoilers ahead.
For those who need a refresher, Episode 3 flashed back to show Sally Gifford (Kersti Bryan) and her family flee their home, while Jonah (Liev Schreiber) investigated her disappearance and a curious symbol carved into trees. Meanwhile, in Riverside Psychiatric Hospital, Saga (Zazie Beetz) went undercover as Esther, while Jurek (Stephen Graham) continued strengthening his relationship with Karl (Rory Culkin) in the RHU.
As the stakes grew higher and the clock ticked, “Eyes on the Inside” built up to an unexpected ending that kept characters in the dark but gave viewers some crucial insight. So who was in Nocturne Episode 3’s ending? What did Sally see outside of her house? Who is The Sandman? What’s Jurek doing in his cell? And what does that symbol mean?
Here’s what we know about Nocturne Episode 3, including quotes from Decider’s interview with Hlavin.
Nocturne Episode 3 Ending Explained: Who’s The Girl At The End Of Nocturne Episode 3? Is Felicia Alive In Nocturne?
In the final minutes of Nocturne Episode 3, the task force gets an anonymous call from someone disguising their voice, warning, “STOP LOOKING FOR SALLY GIFFORD. SHE’S GONE. I TOOK HER. I TOOK THEM ALL. I’LL BURY THEM ALL. YOU’LL NEVER FIND THEM.” Nocturne then cuts to a person wearing a black hoodie, brown leather gloves, and a terrifying mask. They’re walking through what appears to be an underground tunnel with stone on both sides and water dripping. They push open a wooden door, then make their way to a sturdier metal door, remove the barricade that keeps it locked, and open it to reveal a terrified, emaciated girl sitting on a dirty mattress in an empty room. Nocturne shows us the view from the girl’s blurry eyes, and though we can’t see who’s in front of her, we do see a bit of the person’s mask in the light of a flashlight. We also hear heavy breathing, glass clinking, and the door creak closed behind them before the end credits roll. Horrifying.
So what the heck just happened? Who called the FBI with a warning? Who’s behind the mask? What are they doing to that girl? And is that young girl Felicia?! Let’s break Episode 3’s ending down with help from Hlavin.
First things first: Who’s the girl at the end of Nocturne Episode 3? Is that Felicia Frost? Is Felicia alive in Nocturne? Yes! Episode 3 takes place on “Felicia Search Day 4” and though Nocturne‘s writers could have kept the fact that Felicia (Abigail Donaghy) is still alive a mystery until much later in the season, Hlavin and the team felt it was important that viewers had the key piece of information early on, “in part because you have to understand why you’re watching the show, otherwise it becomes very intellectual.”
“We wanted to answer that question,” Hlavin told Decider over Zoom. “And it would have been a little bit almost preposterous that she would have already been gone, because then you wouldn’t have had the equality of smarts. Everyone has to be at the same place intellectually. And if one person has a giant piece of information that, ‘Oh, she’s already dead, and I’m using you guys,’ the audience reacts in a very different way. They kind of feel like, ‘Why are you so stupid? Don’t you know she’s gone?’ Keeping her alive keeps everybody at that same level of stakes. The stakes of, ‘Will you get her?’ But there are also emotional stakes.”
Who Kidnapped Felicia? Who Is The Sandman In Nocturne? And What Are The Sandman’s Glass Fingers?
So who’s holding Felicia hostage? It’s not clear who called the authorities, or if they’re the same person we see in the mask, but as Jonah suspected, it’s unlikely that Jurek is slipping out of his cell to take care of business on the outside, so Nocturne leads us to believe that the person in the mask is Jurek’s accomplice, The Sandman.
As Michael recalled earlier in the episode, “Mom always said that The Sandman came in the night. That’s why you fell asleep.” When Jonah asked if the person who held Michael captive put him to sleep, Michael said, “It came in the room. His fingers were made of glass. You could hear them clacking.” He also confirmed he never saw The Sandman’s face, just heard his voice, because he was always wearing a mask and kept them in the dark. So, yeah! This is our guy.
Though the episode doesn’t explicitly reveal what’s making the clacking glass sound, in Episode 1, Nathan found an empty bottle of Sevoflurane by the mattress they found in their investigation. Sevoflurane is an anesthetic that Michael had in his blood and was found in every one of Jurek Walter’s victims, so we’re pretty sure The Sandman is using Sevoflurane to put his victims to sleep.
While we impatiently await more answers in Nocturne Episode 4, let’s run through a few other Episode 3 questions.
Who Is Sally In Nocturne? And What Did Sally See Outside Of Her House?
As Karl learns in Nocturne Episode 3, Sally Gifford had Karl’s job before he started in the RHU. She worked with Jurek, and now she’s missing. Though we don’t know what happened to Sally or where she and her family fled to, thanks to Jonah, we have reason to believe she’s still alive. After Jonah finds the Gifford family van off the side of the road, he notes he saw four sets of prints leaving the vehicle and no signs of struggle, which suggests they got out on foot. “I don’t think they were being pursued. I think she’s scared… she saw something or someone that spooked her.”
Though we didn’t see what was in Sally’s backyard before she panicked and fled her house with her family, both Jonah and Quinn assume she saw Jurek’s accomplice, aka The Sandman. So that’s the top theory at the moment!
What Does The Symbol In Nocturne Mean?
Speaking of Jurek’s accomplice behind Sally’s house, Jonah also spends part of the episode investigating a cryptic symbol he found carved in trees in Sally’s backyard woods — the same symbol that was present at the burial sites of Cassie Ford and O’Leary and Cross. And essentially the same symbol Saga found herself staring at in Riverside. While the symbols may hold a deeper meaning, three episodes in, we only know as much as Jonah and the team, which is that they’re markers at crime scenes tied to Jurek Walter.
What Is Jurek Hiding In His Cell? Nocturne Episode 1 Ending Explained
Speaking of Jurek, we once again see him stocking up on seemingly meaningless supplies in his cell. At the end of Episode 1, when he shoved what appeared to be a small black piece of tape in a secret hiding space under his sink/toilet, it wasn’t really clear what was going on. But in Episode 3, we see him save a plastic Jell-O cup from his meal, then use his shoe to scrape the petroleum jelly he conned Karl into slathering on his secretly self-inflicted back wounds into the Jell-O cup, then add it to his secret collection of stuff, which includes an assortment of random items, including a battery and wires. Uh oh! Looks like Jurek’s got a plan!
While you’re counting down the days until Nocturne‘s next episode, catch up on Decider’s interviews with Schreiber and Graham on how they prepped for their roles.
Stay tuned for more of DECIDER’s interview with Hlavin and the cast of Nocturne.
New episodes of Nocturne premiere Fridays on Apple TV.
