In this review of Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring #3, Monica deeply considers Samantha’s offer to help, as we get a deeper look at Sam’s past and how she got started with her hobby.
Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite Of Spring #3
Writer: Patrick Horvath
Art and Main Cover: Patrick Horvath
Variant Covers: Tony Fleecs, Elizabeth Beals, Patrick Horvath
Page Count: 36 Pages
Release Date: September 24, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite Of Spring #3 starts with Monica waking up to a knock at the door. Samantha has arrived, asking if she’s thought about the offer. But then her head starts growing bigger, taking up more and more of Monica’s space, until the duck wakes with a scream.
When we catch up to Samantha, she’s just having a typical day at work. She happens to see Monica walk through town, and is clearly watching her. She knows that she’s looking for answers and won’t stop until she gets them.
Monica heads to the library and looks through some microfilm rolls containing news articles about the murders, how Sam stopped the killer. And then we get some flashbacks to Sam as a young adult, being asked by her parents about her future. She decides to work at the hardware store with her dad, where the various supplies start to give her ideas.
Monica is referred to Lewis in her search for answers about Samantha, and they get to talking (with Sam watching the whole time).
More of her history is revealed, showing her early murders, her finding that she needs more space to explore, which also entails poisoning her parents.
Ultimately, Monica and Sam make their way to what used to be Nigel’s home, and Samantha has a plan for how Monica can get a few answers…
So, the more that gets revealed about Samantha, the more she fascinates me. On the one hand, one could argue that she kills due to a thought process of “Well, I’m a bear, bears are natural predators, so it’s just right for me…”, but on the other, there’s the fact that she looks at the hardware store the same way artists look at an art supply store. She gets a look at the stuff in there, her mind starts swimming with ideas. With most people, that’s the sort of thing that makes others wonder what’s wrong with them.
The fact that she’s just as calm carrying out her murders as she is interacting with the general public just fully cements her sociopathy. When someone can watch their parents (who, I might add, seem like perfectly reasonable folks) keel over from the cyanide she’s added to their food with the most serene smile possible, it’s probably a reasonable bet that “empathy” has hightailed it out of there a long time ago.
Also, keeping in mind that she’s been going with the story of “They retired and moved to Florida” to cover up the fact that they’re dead, I immediately found myself thinking of that whole trope of telling a kid that their dead pet “Went to live on a farm”.
We see her thought process of earning everyone’s trust, which…small town. That’s entirely understandable, because in a small enough town, if one person shows just the teensiest bit of weirdness, everyone knows about it and it’s hard to operate under those conditions. When she referrs to the forest as a classroom/lab setup, it reminds me again of the growing influence of bigger towns and that forcing wildlife into populated areas. Just like them, she risks losing the forest and being exposed. That may have been brought up with the last issue, but her thoughts on the forest further cement that.
In Monica’s case, it’s clear she already has her suspicions about Samantha. She’s hesitant to accept her offer of help, because 1) “Who the hell is this lady and why would she know about my brother?” , and 2) She’s had hope before, and that hope has been smashed in the teeth each time, so she’s probably ready for this to fall through.
What I’m wondering, though…what Sam’s ultimate endgame is with helping Monica. On the one hand, there’s the possibility of further pinning the crimes on Nigel. But on the other/probably more likely hand, it could be some sort of mind game before an attempt to add Monica to her body count.
Art-wise, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite Of Spring #3 is lovely as always. The flashbacks to Sam’s younger years crept more into a partly-rosy/partly-sepia sort of tone that give them a nice nostalgic feeling. The nightmare at the beginning had a degree of subtlety (with as much subtlety as a rapidly-expanding head can muster, anyway) of creepy and off-putting. It’s an awesome way of showing how all-consuming this whole thing is in Monica’s life.
But I think a favorite portion of mine may have to be the variant covers. One is drawn as a direct homage to Richard Scarry (which is kind of perfect, given that some have mentioned his work in other reviews and blurbs for the series), and the other? Definitely based on the poster for Psycho (and I kind of love that movie, so to see a reference to it made me happy).
Final Thoughts
Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite Of Spring #3 gives a wonderful glimpse into the twisted mind of a sociopath. And it makes one wonder when Monica will find out just who she’s dealing with (if she isn’t at least 75% sure already). This title just keeps on delivering.
