Chapter One: Signal Noise

"Chapter One: Signal Noise"
The Other Town episode
Promotional poster
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Kari Skogland
Written by	Alex Garland
Original air date	October 16, 2026 (2026-10-16)
Running time	49 minutes

"Chapter One: Signal Noise" is the first episode of the first season the American science fiction horror drama television series The Other Town. The 1st episode overall, the episode was directed by Kari Skogland, written by Alex Garland, and released on October 16, 2026, on Netflix.

In 1988, Northpoint is shaken when a decommissioned radio tower briefly reactivates, triggering electrical disturbances and eerie broadcasts. Teenager Evan Carter receives distorted messages through his shortwave radio, alarming his mother, Elaine, whose reaction suggests hidden knowledge. Evan and his friends witness the tower erupt with violent static in the woods, while authorities quietly suppress the signal. That night, a message claims the disappeared were not lost, but forgotten.

Plot

In 1988, a decommissioned radio tower hidden deep in the forest outside Northpoint briefly reactivates, emitting an unnatural low-frequency hum as its red warning light flickers before abruptly cutting out. Later that night, fourteen-year-old Evan Carter lies awake in his bedroom as his digital clock glitches between times and the same oppressive sensation returns. His modified shortwave radio turns on by itself, its dial moving as distorted, overlapping voices broadcast references to Northpoint and insist that “this isn’t where it ends.” Evan shuts the radio off in panic, but the moment is punctuated by a dog barking outside and then stopping suddenly, deepening the sense of something unseen moving through the town.

The following morning establishes Northpoint as a decaying Midwestern town marked by stagnation and quiet unease. At home, Evan’s mother Elaine notices his exhaustion and reacts nervously to the radio, warning him not to use it. She accidentally reveals that the radio has spoken directly to him before, exposing her awareness of the phenomenon and her attempt to suppress it. At school, Evan reunites with his friends: Lucas Reed, who obsessively films their surroundings; Mara Holloway, distant and guarded; Noah Pike, increasingly uneasy; and Claire Benton, a quiet artist. During a history lesson on the Cold War, Evan hears the hum again and finds words written in his notebook asking if he remembers “us,” only for them to vanish moments later.

That afternoon, the group walks through the woods and reaches the radio tower itself. Claire reveals she has unknowingly drawn the tower in precise detail before ever seeing it, unsettling the others. Without warning, the tower activates, glowing red and sending out a pulsing signal as Evan’s radio erupts with overlapping voices claiming they were once there, were told to forget, and warning that it is happening again. The ground vibrates before the signal abruptly cuts out, leaving the group shaken. As they retreat, a shadowy figure briefly watches them from the trees before disappearing.

Elsewhere in Northpoint, Sheriff Rowan Hale listens to a radio scanner when the same distorted frequency bleeds through. Recognizing it immediately, he freezes, shuts the radio off, and locks it away in a drawer, implying a long-buried connection to the signal and a deliberate effort to keep it contained. That night, Mara sits alone on her porch and opens a box containing a missing person flyer for her brother, revealing that disappearances have haunted her family and linking her personal loss to the wider mystery surrounding the woods.

Back in his bedroom, Evan stares at the radio as it turns on once more, this time with a clearer, calmer voice explaining that those who vanished never disappeared, but were simply forgotten. The voice tells him there is another town that remembers him, confirming the existence of a parallel reality tied to Northpoint and positioning Evan at the center of its reemergence.

Release

"Signal Noise" was released on October 16, 2026, on Netflix.

External links

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