Alan discovers that the girls are being controlled by rings on their finger. When he asks Melody to take the ring off, she removes it. Then as he's coming up with a plan and he lets Melody know that the success depends on her, the ring is back on her finger and nothing happens to her.
When Merla is chasing after Alan and he hangs on a tree branch, Alexandra reaches her hand out to Alan. Then Alan removes the ring from Alexandra's finger. Then in the next shot before Alexandra jumps, the ring is back on her finger.