The Lost Herd

Information
The Lost Herd is the sixth episode in the TV series Mystic.

Plot
The episode starts when Issie has a vision of Mystic running through the forest along an old railway track and wonders if it will lead her to Blaze's herd.[2] She is then called by her friend, Anisha, who she tells about the dream, her friend however still thinking that she was either dehydrated or seeing things.[7] Dan is at his house, studying for his test, but is severely discouraged by his dad, later secretly deciding not to take the test after all. Issie then goes to the stables and looks at the map of Kauri Point, trying to find the railway track from her vision. She is spotted by Caroline, who tells her that if she is going on Blaze, she should come with her. Issie then decides to ride out on Blaze to find the tracks, not notifying any of the other riders.[1] Caleb then calls his sister, worried about where they are, and realising that Issie was riding Blaze, Caleb, Dan and Natasha ride out to find her. As they pass their favourite swimming hole, they notice that it is severely polluted, and filled with dead bees. Issie then suggests that this might be where her grandmothers bees have been going. Natasha, constantly asking Dan about the test, brings up that he is going to be late for it, the latter explaining that he doesn’t want to do it after all. Issie and the other riders however soon convince him otherwise, and tell him that he should take the test, because it is important to him. They then ride off, soon to realise that they went round in one big circle and were in fact lost. Caroline goes up a tree and successfully locates the way out, but consequently falls out, hurting her arm. Dan then does a quick triage of her injuries, and creates a makeshift sling out of his jacket. They then rush back, Dan cycling to the test centre, only to be stopped by roadworks and forced to take a longer route. He eventually get there but he is too late; the exams had already started. He then rode back home on his bike, before being told by Avery that there was another test he could do, but it would clash with the Cross Country Trials. Unwilling to abandon his friends, he initially says that he won’t take the test and won’t let them down, but then decided to take the test after Issie’s compromise is offered. Caroline then untacks Treacle, forgetting to in the rush to make the stables look presentable for Avery’s arrival, and seems to be carrying her arm and has an expression of intense pain on her face.

Trivia
• This is the first episode where Issie doesn’t directly see Mystic.[3]

•,This is the first episode where we see Caroline carrying an expression other than happiness.[5]

• This is the second episode with LGBTQ+ references in, and the first Issie speaks of it in the company of the other riders.[6]

•This is the first episode where all the riders ride their horses together.[4]