Evil - Exorcism Part 2

Discussing Ep. 1.9

Another jaw dropping episode that left me speechless, yet laughing, at the end.

I thought this was a really good episode for Kristen. She came off as intelligent, funny and resourceful in this episode. Right off the bat, I liked how she divulged to David how her husband had returned and sort of set the boundaries in her and David's relationship without really saying anything. Then, when he wanted to "get their stories straight" in regard to the exorcism they performed, she cut him off and laid down the law. At first, I thought she was doing that just to reinforce said boundaries, but then Reneé confirmed that Kristen knew what she was doing and ended up helping David and their case in the end.

I laughed when she was being questioned by Ms. Lemonhead. First, she followed what Reneé told her about keeping her answers short and concise, but it was funny when Lemonhead asked her why she was doing that and she, very frankly, explained how Reneé instructed her to do so. And when Lemonhead asked what else Reneé told her, she replied that Reneé recounted how Lemonhead herself was bitter because of her last name. Kristen was just so deadpan about it that it really came off as funny. Her shining moment came at the end of the episode when she suggested to Reneé that they question the psychiatric assessment, putting doubt on whether it was anymore valid than the spiritual assessment offered by the Church. They sort of did the reverse of what they usually do. Usually, they take a supposed supernatural occurrence and debunk it. Here, they took what seemed a non-supernatural occurrence and proved it to be supernatural. Also, what Kristen did by putting doubt on the science of psychiatry was similar to what Vanessa did with Ben, putting doubt on the validity of quantum physics because the so-called "answers" were always evolving and changing. I thought it was very clever how Kristen did that and ended up saving the Church millions of dollars by the end of it.

Of course, it couldn't all be rainbows and lollipops for Kristen. Her and Andy were suddenly visited...intruded upon....by this rather strange and angry cat! I honestly don't know what to make of this. He seemed to have a serious dislike of Kristen in particular and seemed to be quite attached to the sweater that David gave her. Also, I noticed something strange. When all the sisters came down to see what was going on along with Andy and Kristen, only Lauren (the youngest one with the heart valve problem) was not to be seen at all. Maybe the actress wasn't available but I thought that was weird that she wasn't there. I'm probably looking too much into it but still, I thought it was weird. It's going to be interesting what happens with this cat. Could it be a familiar....a demon masquerading in the form of a cat? Reneé certainly thought it sounded like a demon, if only in jest!

Speaking of Reneé, we got more insight into the backstory of David and it was both light and dark. Seemed like David had quite the sordid past, having been a drug user (cocaine) and having a sex addiction! He found God, did rehab and joined a sex addiction support group, but it seems there are A LOT of windows into which temptation can wander into David's life. And Reneé was certainly no help! First, she admits that she has had a crush on David for the longest time, even during his relationship with her sister, Julia. Then, she hints that she still has one. And given the fact that Kristen is basically out of the picture for David, and how Reneé is pretty damn fine(!), I could not see how this man could resist such a temptation as her.

Which is what made the ending of this particular storyline so bizarre. Was it real? For Reneé to flat out tempt David like that, to refuse to leave his quarters until he touched her....it seemed very, very forward of her. Look, she's very attractive! I can't believe that she held out for David all this time after Julia's death and didn't get into a relationship with another man. She recognized that it was never her sister that was in the way of her getting David....it was God! That right there kind of threw me for a loop, that she would be so defiant of David's ambition to become a priest and flat out tempt him to abandon his beliefs seemed very disrespectful. Much like it was with Ben and Vanessa (which we never found out if they slept together or not), we're left to see if David's resolve withstood this test. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't.

Then we get to the one guy who had no resolve whatsoever! This storyline surprised the fuck out of me. First off, I have to give some credit where it's due. When he went to that women's-only gym and complained that it was sexist that only women were allowed in the gym....I kind of had to agree with him. Though I get the rationale for it, that having men and women workout together can lead to some unwanted sexual advances from the guys in particular, you have to wonder what kind of uproar there would be if there was a "men's only" gym! Bit of a double standard if you ask me.

Anyway, while Townsend was bent on playing Emperor Palpatine, shaping and moulding his new apprentice into a weapon of destruction, it seemed like Sebastian was no Darth Vader. He was far fucking from it in terms of skill and ability! Though he had the will, he didn't have the tools or the know-how. That's when Townsend brought in a friend, Adam, to train Sebastian in the use of firearms. I thought it was clever how they had Townsend insert the line that Adam was "one of the 59 people I trust in the world." Very clever indeed!

In a lot of ways, I kind of felt like this episode was a public service announcement for improving gun control laws. The fact that Sebastian was so easily able to get such a cache of weapons was disturbing. Add to this the joy he seemed to get from the training and the empowerment he felt, along with Adam's instruction that you get good at killing people by killing people, I could see how and why the gun culture in the US is such a problem. Then again, when you have incompetent people like Sebastian, it makes it all the more disconcerting.

But it seems like all that training was for nothing! I fucking laughed out loud when Sebastian accidentally shot and killed himself! I mean, the way they were building it all up by having Townsend moulding Sebastian to be his hitman....to be his fall-guy, was really getting me nervous. Townsend switched the target from that women's-only gym to a prayer group meeting that David was hosting. Sebastian seemed hesitant to attack the prayer group because they had nothing to do with his new-found incel hatred of women. I found it a bit contrived that Townsend was able to explain away the change in target by saying that the prayer group was going to be made up of mostly women, but it seemed good enough for Sebastian. And so everything was set for yet another mass shooting in the US! But then the glorious buffoon ruins it all by showing off in his apartment, getting himself pumped up for the mission, only to off himself in the end by putting a bullet through his head! It's so hard to find good help these days.

What I don't understand is Townsend's insistence on getting an incel to do this hit job. After realizing that Sebastian wasn't going to work out, he sought out other incels. I didn't get this. First, why didn't he try and recruit those guys from the Incel Army that he had referred Sebastian to? Secondly, why does he specifically need incels? Surely, he can get any hate group to do his bidding. He could get a white supremacist hate group to pull this job off or get some super-religious nutter to do the hit. I don't get the rationale for getting an incel to it so I'm hoping we'll get an explanation down the road.

Also, I want an explanation for this.

 
What the fuck is that? I saw a flash of this while watching the episode and I wasn't sure as to what I saw. I had to do some serious rewinding and timing to get this screen capture. What is this puzzle piece? What does it mean? This can't be an accident. When I saw this, it reminded me of Fight Club where Edward Norton's character is explaining how Brad Pitt's character would insert a flash of a penis during family films in the movie theatre and would confuse the audience, having them question if they saw what they really saw. Well, this isn't a dick pic but it's something that I refuse to believe was inserted accidentally. Mind you, it was seemingly inserted at a completely random place, right before Townsend was going to introduce Adam. So does it have some significance?

I'm going to be watching for more 'puzzle pieces.' They've got me intrigued now!