Everything to Remember About ‘The Institute’ Ahead of Season 2

For anyone wondering why we need another Stephen King series about psychic teens in the wake of Carrie—or why they should care about a show on niche streamer MGM+—hear us out. The core concepts of The Institute and Carrie may be similar; both draw on one of the author’s signature tropes. But The Institute, based on his 2019 novel, skews far more sci-fi thriller than high-school horror. It has an intense paranoia running through it, and though it’s a very intimate story—it takes place almost entirely in a single small town in Maine, largely confined to the titular facility—it hints at a global presence powering the sinister forces behind its secrets. With season two coming November 8, now’s the perfect time to catch up on The Institute season one. What is the show about? © MGM+ As the show begins, a young genius named Luke (Joe Freeman) is kidnapped and brought to the Institute, a foreboding facility in rural Maine. He meets other teens being held there, all of whom have telekinetic or telepathic powers (or both), as well as the ice-cold Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker), who runs the place with the help of Dr. Hendricks (Robert Joy) and head of security Stackhouse (Julian Richings). Sigsby tells him the work they do there is literally saving the world, though she doesn’t offer specifics. She also says that once his stint developing and deploying his psychic powers is over, he’ll have his memory wiped and be sent home. The other kids inform Luke that once they finish their training in the building’s “front half,” they’re sent to the “back half,” the final step before they get to leave. It should be something they look forward to, but there’s dread hovering over everything in this place. As Luke learns the routine—which includes agonizingly painful tests conducted by Hendricks, followed by dazed periods of downtime—he becomes increasingly curious about what the Institute’s real purpose is. The other teens, including Nicky (Fionn Laird), Kalisha (Simone Miller), George (Arlen So), and the much younger Avery (Viggo Hanvelt), band together on a dangerous mission to root out the truth. © MGM+ Elsewhere in the story, in the sleepy town of Dennison, Maine, a drifter named Tim (Ben Barnes) arrives and takes what amounts to a night-watchman job with the local police department. We learn he’s a former big-city cop whose distinguished service record was tarnished by a shooting incident he still carries a lot of guilt over. Though he says early on in The Institute that he’s determined to live a quiet life from here on out, we can tell Tim’s not a guy who will stand by when someone needs help—nor will he be able to resist using his detective skills when he starts to realize that “infectious disease lab” in the woods nearby might be hiding a darker purpose. Who are the main characters? © MGM+ Luke and Tim are the central protagonists, puzzling through their separate quests until they meet late in season one. Ms. Sigsby is also a key character; she’s very devoted to the Institute’s top-secret, ultra-important mission, despite the fact that the facility itself is understaffed and falling into disrepair. That the mission involves kidnapping and torturing children doesn’t seem to bother her, though we do get glimpses of her private pain, including her fraught phone conversations with her beloved but ailing father and her tendency to burn herself as a form of tension release. None of the staff at this morbid place are what you’d call “happy.” Hoping to better their situations, Hendricks and Stackhouse conspire to find a kid who’s not only telekinetic and telepathic but also has the rarest power of all—the ability to see the future—and sell him or her off to an eager and deep-pocketed third party. Luke’s arrival makes them think they may finally have found the one. On the kid side, once Luke and his friends realize Avery has unusually strong telepathic abilities, they decide their plan—which involves escaping, exposing the Institute to the outside world, and saving as many kids as they can—needs to be put in motion as soon as possible. There’s also an unnamed character, vaguely known as the Director, who keeps tabs over the phone from his offsite lair, a luxurious office. He’s played by Jeff Fahey, and Sigsby, Hendricks, and Stackhouse fear him for his connections to “Upstairs,” presumably the enigmatic organization that pays the bills. See, if you don’t do your job right, the Institute won’t fire you. It’ll wipe you and all the secrets you have lodged in your brain about its inner workings off the face of the earth. So… what is the Institute’s mission? © MGM+ Somewhere far from the Dennison facility, there are “PCs”—precogs—who predict apocalyptic events that will happen in the future. (We don’t see them or learn much about them, other than the fact that they’re treated like royalty.) They also identify “hinges,” specific people whose actions will one day trigger doomsday. This information is passed on to the Institute—and other Institutes; as we find out, there are teens with special abilities being held in similar setups around the world. In the “back half,” where kids are sent once their powers have been adequately amplified, they gather in a room to pool their collective abilities and conduct remote assassinations, with one tasked as “conductor” to guide them. Their shared energy is dubbed “the hum.” On a side note, The Institute intriguingly explores just how much effort goes into drawing out those powers. This isn’t like Carrie, where the inevitable prom queen has a sudden, violent breakthrough and is able to deftly fling objects at will. Here, the young inmates are subjected to mental and physical cruelty, including a chamber that forces reactions by depriving them of air. Once they’re used as a conductor, they’re “gorked”—they become barely conscious, hooked up to machines that drain every last scrap of their powers. And when they’ve been sucked dry, their bodies are swiftly disposed of in the busy cremator next door. Where did season one leave off? © MGM+ Luke escapes, barely, and fortuitously runs right into Tim. After some convincing, Dennison police officer Wendy (Hannah Galway) agrees to help them. But instead of fleeing, Luke (who has learned along the way that the Institute murdered his parents) declares that he has to go back and aid his friends. With Ms. Sigsby as a hostage, they return to the Institute. Though Stackhouse, a true ghoul, orders his minions to start mixing up poison gas to annihilate all the kids, Luke and Avery are able to guide “the hum” to connect Dennison with all the kids like them around the world. They call it “the big phone,” and the combined psychic effort is enough to free everyone who isn’t gorked (Luke, Nicky, George, and Kalisha), though Avery stays behind to see things through. They’re also able to levitate the building itself and smash it to the ground, killing Stackhouse. Hendricks and Sigsby manage to get out in time, separately, with Sigsby holding onto a flash drive filled with incriminating evidence of the Institute’s evil treatment of children. Luke and his fellow escapees hit the road with Tim and Wendy, leaving behind carnage in Dennison that’s taken out the good-guy police chief and a corrupt cop, with Tim likely to be blamed for both deaths. The Director orders a “burn team” to move in for a “full clean.” Then, he casually strolls outside, where there are kids playing—kids who excitedly call him “Grandpa.” What do we know about season two? © MGM+ The Institute season two is in a position that’s seemingly becoming more common of late: a show based on a book follows the source material for its first season, then gets a blank page going into season two. Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter on Apple TV is wrapping up its second season after following that outline—and of course Mike Flanagan will get a chance to further expand his corner of the Stephen King universe when Carrie returns for more at Prime Video. As for where The Institute will go next, here’s the official synopsis: “In the wake of their climactic escape from Dennison, Luke and his friends search for a way to end the Institute for good. Meanwhile, the Director enlists a new ally, tech billionaire Nolan Reeves, to help him rebuild, and Sigsby’s life as a fugitive pushes her to seek a way back ‘in.’” Nolan Reeves is played by Game of Thrones alum Alfie Allen, and he pops up in the season two trailer shared by MGM+ earlier in October. The Institute returns to MGM+ for season two starting November 8. Will you be tuning in? Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books that should be on your radar.