Evil - Vatican III

Discussing Ep. 1.6

This was a really fascinating episode, delving further into the mythos that they're creating with the 60 demons and David's visions, but also including issues that very much are impacting the world today. I'll start with the incel storyline.

This storyline made me both cringe and laugh. I cringed because I could feel the awkwardness, I could feel the rejection and I could feel the elevated sense of entitlement that Sebastian was feeling when he got turned down for a date with the cashier. I laughed because whoever did their research on incels for this story did quite a good job. When Sebastian asks the cashier out and she politely explains that she is in a relationship, he can't for the life of him figure it out. She works in, what I assume, is a Starbucks-like location where she gives nicknames to people and is naturally friendly....BECAUSE THAT'S HER JOB! Of course, this guy takes her friendliness and the fact she gave him a nickname as proof that she was into him and when she tells him she's in a relationship already, he's like "Why were you so nice to me then? Why did you give me a cute nickname?"....only to realize that she does that with ALL the customers. He misread her friendly demeanour for attraction.

As a guy who was that age once and wasn't popular with the ladies in high school or college, I understood the 'confusion' that comes with misreading cues from women and misinterpreting various behaviour. It basically stems from a sense of insecurity and a certain degree of desperation. Thing is, you learn through experience and time that a smile from a woman is not a sign that she wants to fuck you! You learn that a woman extending a warm and friendly attitude is not an indication that she has the hots for you! It may be part of her job or may be her attitude in general. Thing is, desperate guys tend to look too far into such attitudes or behaviours and are seeing what they want to see because they're so desperate for the attention, not allowing "reality" to colour their point of view. Thus, you get guys like Sebastian, who saw what he wanted to see only to have reality smack him in the face! And the way guys like him take rejection speaks volumes about how insecure and essentially weak they really are. They lack the ability to learn and grow from the rejection and instead use the pain of it towards hating on women in general and hating society as a result.

Enter Townsend. I liked his role here because it's what I felt he needed to be: seemingly innocuous but at the same time, you could tell he had an agenda that wasn't benevolent. He fanned the flames of Sebastian's feelings at being rejected and his newfound hostility and resentment towards women in general, seeing them as shallow and just flat out 'bitches' who can't appreciate a 'nice guy' like him. I felt like this storyline was really well done because it really spoke to how dating and society is nowadays with Youtube videos and courses for guys in particular. This frame of mind is probably more prevalent than some would like to believe and I think that it's become prevalent due to the various factors in society these days. There is so much information and misinformation out there, from the Pick Up Artist communities who teach guys how to just get sex from women and the guys who are going MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) and Red Pill and seek to use women for sex and shun relationships because they've been burned by women and guys (and gals) who teach men how to be all "alpha male" and all that shit to get the women they want. Then you factor in pornography which COMPLETELY skewers what reality and sex and romance and women are like and is it any wonder you get incels like Sebastian? And that's not to say that women don't have it hard either, because they do. They are bombarded with mixed messages as well and I think that's why dating and relationships are just so fucked up these days because people are getting different messages and signals that no one is on the same page anymore.

Some of what Townsend was 'teaching' Sebastian was....amusing. When Sebastian stepped aside for those two women who walked by him, Townsend scolded him by essentially saying that a man doesn't step aside for women....that women step aside for a man. Basically, assert your alpha male persona, to which Townsend proceeded to demonstrate. What made this and another piece of advice that he gave him so dangerous was how the advice itself wasn't necessarily bad. The way Sebastian carried himself reeked of insecurity and low self esteem. It's not necessarily bad advice to tell someone like him to assert himself and to be more confident.

Townsend further proceeds to tell him "You hold the power to make your life what you want." Again, this isn't necessarily bad advice and it's rather empowering when you think about it. But that's what made Townsend's role in this truly demonic.....he took positive advice and warped it enough to make the advice dangerous and destructive. It's advice like this that gets misused by incels like Sebastian, where they take a "be more confident" line as "be an asshole because that's what women like" and the whole message gets misinterpreted. This line of reasoning was sort of echoed later on by another incel who claimed that that he "never got laid until I was a jerk" to women. I was shaking my head at that line because it's such a typical incel line of reasoning. It's a line of reasoning that I will admit that I once believed: that the nice guy routine only gets you walked on like a doormat and taken advantage of and that one had to be an asshole to get the attention and sex by attractive women because women seemingly only sleep with assholes. Thankfully, I grew out of that mindset but there are scores of others who haven't and their views are only being enabled thanks to the Internet. Also, when Sebastian stated that he was "a good American and I deserved to get laid! I deserve to have sex!".....my goodness! The sad thing is is that such senses of entitlement are a real thing in this world. Real guys think this way and it's scary.

 I had to laugh at the 'incels' they got because they so looked the part!

Especially the last guy with that haircut! While their appearance was humorous, their philosophy was not. This really reinforced what they said at the beginning of the season, how Townsend makes 'evil' people connect with other 'evil' people. It exemplified what I said about how the Internet has made it easier for people of a like mind and philosophy to connect with each other and enable each other to go down a destructive and dangerous path together. I have to admit, I was really worried as to what type of revenge Townsend was talking about when he was 'counselling' Sebastian in regard to his revenge on the cashier who shunned him. I honestly thought that he was going to encourage Sebastian to rape her! Thankfully, that didn't happen and he gave her a gift instead, which caused her to scream. Then Townsend suggested the Incel Army, where men act like men and the seedlings of an armed reaction to women turning these incels down seem to have been planted. I am legit concerned as to where this is going to go because with real life incels taking their anger and frustration at not getting laid at women in general and at society.....this is going to get very bad, very fast!

 
What I found funny about these guys were how typical Vatican emissaries they were. It seems like the Vatican is essentially portrayed like the government, only they speak Italian or Latin! I had to laugh because it feels like this show is somewhat anti-Catholic, with everything Ben says about them and how they are portrayed. Not that I could imagine that it's way off base, but it was pathetic how they were interviewing Kristen, David and Ben and asking them about their personal lives, including asking Kristen her sex status and asking Ben why he left the Muslim religion. I actually thought Ben would have been Sikh or Hindu but I could buy his family is Muslim as well. The line of the night was when David asked the emissaries to apologize to Kristen and Ben for their questions and the emissary responded "The Vatican doesn't apologize!" Well, so much for the humility of Christ!

But this storyline added a new element to the ever expanding connections in this show and I love them. The Sixty demons, from the possession of the woman in the Halloween episode, are vaguely mentioned with the map of the sigils of demons.

A map which seems to show one particular sigil or demonic symbol that Townsend scribbled down in those blank diaries that he gave Kristen's girls. According to David, that sigil represents the demon Anatas, a ruler of 30 legion of demons and a feeder of lies and sins of humanity. So Townsend is not the devil but a high-ranking demon in the demonic hierarchy. Though I liked the connections they were making with these symbols and The Sixty and Townsend, I didn't like how at the end, these symbols were suddenly showing up everywhere.

One sigil showed up on the board the husband of the "possessed" woman (who I think turned out wasn't possessed but had like split personality disorder) who carved a sigil into a board where he kept the murdered boys' possessions.

Then, of course, you have the ending where David's father, an artist, stamped a sigil onto every piece of his artwork in a magazine. Given that sigils are used in magic to summon demons, I wonder what they're trying to say in regard to David's father. But all of a sudden, all these sigils are popping up out of nowhere! I didn't like that because it felt a bit contrived. I liked it in regards to the books that Townsend gave Kristen's daughters because I knew that it would be significant later on, but having these symbols show up more often in this one episode, somehow connecting David's father and the possessed's husband and Townsend and The Sixty to the Codex feels a bit forced. Although having said that, the possessed woman from the Halloween episode did say that "they" knew of David's vision and they were trying to stop him so they are trying to link everything up, so I'll give them credit for that.

The possession storyline seemed more like a distraction than anything else. I'm assuming she wasn't possessed and that "Howard" wasn't a demon but simply a personality of hers that wanted to appear demonic. It appears like her husband was the killer and was influencing her to take the blame. It was sort of a red herring since the last possession case was legit and this one wasn't, and it seemed to serve no other purpose other than to reveal the sigil at the end, suggesting that The Sixty are moving through various people to achieve a particular objective. What that objective is....I guess we'll find out.

Lastly, it looks like some progress was made in the romance between Kristen and David, with them agreeing to go out for drinks. I have to say, I was glad that Kristen told David about Townsends appearance at her house, though I think it was a big mistake that she didn't tell him everything that happened. I agree that she has to be allowed to protect her family the way she sees fit, but the fact is, she's dealing with forces she doesn't understand. David saw that Townsend was targeting Kristen and using Sheryl to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if down the line, "Brenda" and Rose390 also were sent by The Sixty to infiltrate Kristen's life. I'm awaiting that moment where Kristen's daughter's lives are in danger and she's forced to admit that this isn't something that science or psychology can adequately deal with. Then again, they've made a habit of pulling the rug out from under the audience and debunking a lot of things so perhaps they'll do some of that there. I'm intrigued to find out.

Overall, a very good episode. I like the mystery they're building up. They continued the tradition of having numbers in the titles so we thus far have: 177, 3, 390, 31, 9, and 3 again. The odd number out is 31, which isn't divisible by 3. I'm still trying to figure out a pattern.....if there is one.