1. MANDATORY

November 16, 2016·24 min·2 clips

A soldier named Walter Cruz begins his first therapy session at a facility called Homecoming, but something feels off.

The episode opens with Heidi Bergman at a diner where she now works as a server, speaking with Thomas Carrasco, a Department of Defense employee who has sought her out. The scene cuts back in time to April 2017, when Heidi was a caseworker at the Homecoming Initiative, a government-funded program for military veterans transitioning back to civilian life. She begins her first session with Walter Cruz, a 26-year-old soldier who completed three tours of duty. Walter arrives willing and self-aware, explaining that he has seen other veterans struggle when they returned home too fast, and that he wants to avoid that fate. Heidi conducts the intake in a clinical, structured manner, reading mandatory welcome language from a script and asking Walter to verbally confirm his voluntary participation. Walter begins to open up about difficulty sleeping, nightmares, and a conflict with a fellow resident named Rainey during a communal cooking activity. He describes Rainey leaving the kitchen during meal prep, returning to find others had continued without him, and becoming physically aggressive. Walter is matter-of-fact about the incident and expresses no particular resentment. When Heidi probes further about how stress manifests for Walter, he discloses intrusive thoughts about harming himself — specifically imagining slamming his forehead against the sharp corner of his desk — while emphasizing that he would not act on these thoughts. Back in the airport, Heidi's supervisor Colin calls to check in. Heidi tentatively raises the idea of a more holistic, individualized approach to working with veterans in the program, and Colin immediately shuts her down. He states clearly that the program's goal is information collection and proof of concept for government funding, not therapeutic relationships. Colin emphasizes speed, data granularity, and the importance of tracking subjects' exact memories week by week. He also insists that kitchen staff and busboys be fully background-checked. In the present timeline, Carrasco presses Heidi about why she left the Homecoming Initiative and why she is now working at a diner. She explains that her mother was injured and she came home to care for her, and that she no longer works as a counselor. When asked to name any of her clients, she repeatedly says she does not remember. When Carrasco asks specifically about Walter Cruz, she says the name means nothing to her.

As heard by us

A restrained pilot where paperwork, procedure, and office chatter sharpen the unease.

Homecoming opens on Heidi Bergman and Walter Cruz and settles into a clipped, procedural groove. Office chatter and the language of the Homecoming Initiative stay tightly tied to records, subjects, and week-by-week progress, so the scene feels less like a reveal than a file…

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Why you'd press play

A quiet intake session that slowly exposes a system built on control, compliance, and careful denial.

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