Discussing Ep. 1.6
So this episode was somewhat intense and it really had much to do with Townsend and Kristen. I've always said in the past, there is nothing more dangerous than a mother protecting her young!
The Prophetess storyline was intriguing and was sort of bordering on DaVinci Code territory. I was totally expecting Ben or someone else to completely debunk her prophesying as they do with everything else but it never happened. Though they did try, with Ben surmising that the Catholic Church "can't get their act together on child rape" (which was a pretty brutal, yet honest, shot), then how could they keep a 500 year old secret document in the Vatican? Surely Grace had, at some point, read bits and pieces of the secret Poveglia Codex and simply recited them word-for-word.
Yet they ran with it until the very end, with Grace filling in pieces of the Poveglia Codex which did not predict the end of the Catholic Church as they originally surmised, but the end of the world! I found it funny, yet fitting, how the monsignor was determined to prove that Grace was a false prophet because he originally thought that her prophecies were against the Catholic Church. Well, it looks like it's not just the Church that's going to be seeing it's end!
What added weight to Grace's credibility was her telling David what the three stars in his vision meant. When she first said that the circle of the three stars, representing the Holy Trinity, was not "on Earth," I was expecting her to name another planet in the solar system and I would have been like "where is this going now?" Instead, she said it represented a triangle in a 3D space, similar to a pyramid. I was trying to figure out what the numbers meant when David induced a vision of said triangle.
This image was shown very, very briefly so I wonder if it has any significance.
I love a good mystery so I'm trying to see what the numbers mean in accordance with the letters. I haven't gotten very far.
What was interesting about Grace's ability to communicate with God was David's reaction to it. He admitted to Kristen about his method of getting visions from God, with Kristen wondering how he knew that those visions were indeed from Heaven. I applauded David's honesty when he admitted that he didn't know. It really is very confusing because David admitted God stopped talking to him (or maybe David wasn't listening) so to "help things along," he started taking the hallucinogens. The funny thing is....God doesn't need help! So if indeed these visions are from Heaven, why would God require David to go these questionable lengths? Grace suggested that the visions are from Heaven because "they" know what David's visions are and "they" want to stop him. She never clarified who "they" were. It's assumed demonic forces but I wouldn't be surprised if that's actually not the case.
What if "they" were, in fact, the Church? Wouldn't surprise me considering they were somewhat bent on stopping her (and who knows....perhaps it was them who contacted the ICE agency and had her locked up). Plus, at the end when she was helping David, her drawing seemed somewhat similar to David's vision, which suggests that perhaps David's visions are tied to the Codex. If that's the case, I could totally see David being betrayed by the institution he seeks to serve and eventually join as a priest. Like I said....DaVinci Code stuff here. Of course, whatever remaining drawings that Grace drew had to be thrown out by those prick ICE agents. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
What I found intriguing about Grace's talks with God was the nature of it. They built it up like she was really a quack, when she would begin inflating beach balls or toy dolphins as a means to hear God better. I thought it was genuinely funny when Kristen commented how it "sounds more like a fortune cookie than God" in terms of God's messages and Grace agreed that "sometimes God sounds like a fortune cookie." I liked how David questioned Grace's abilities, asking how she knew they were from God and not from the devil. It was interesting how Grace didn't call the devil "Satan" but instead referred to him as "Lucifer." I wonder if there is any significance to that. I did like her answer where she challenged David to judge her prophecies based on the fruits it produced.
I could understand Kristen's annoyance and even irritation at Grace's answer as to whether or not Laura's heart valve would actually heal. I understand her scepticism and laying all of her hope on the word of some woman she's never met before. False hope can be an absolutely world-shattering thing. Many have lost faith because they believed in false hope. I do wonder if they will revisit this chapter again because if Laura's valve does not heal, then what does it mean for Kristen's developing faith?
I say her developing faith because it was funny how Grace told her to avoid the colour red almost as an arbitrary piece of advice, and while Kristen was still questioning Grace's legitimacy and said to David how she felt like she took "a left turn into the Middle Ages" after arguing about what she did at the exorcism, she did go out of her way to avoid the colour red, be it with her daughter or mother. So it seemed she was somewhat of a believer. Plus, she's once again being visited by an old friend.
So Georgie Boy made his comeback! I was surprised by this because I really thought they had been done and finished with it. But he's back and I don't really know why. Kristen once again was trying to convince herself that it was nothing but a dream, with Dr. Boggs suggesting she try a new technique of tying a blue string around her wrist to induce lucid dreaming where with repeated checking on the string in the waking world, she would automatically do it in her dream whereby she would then realize it was a dream and she could control it. Didn't work as well as she had thought and it really didn't go beyond her essentially telling George to fuck off. Still, I'm wondering what significance this will have later on.
Of course, in her waking world, an altogether different nightmare is taking place.
Sheryl brought Townsend in to meet the family and it went pretty much as I had expected save for what Kristen did. It was somewhat disappointing because it was so cliché. Of course Townsend is going to be a big hit not only with Sheryl but with the daughters too, going so far as to teach them a song about dancing with the devil (if they had put a line in there about dancing in the pale moonlight, I would have been infinitely impressed! Nod to Burton's Batman.)
I don't know what I was hoping for exactly, but I just knew that Townsend would breach all the barriers that Kristen's family represented and he did so too easily. If you're dealing with a legit demon inside of Townsend, even if it's the devil himself, then have at least one of the daughters, maybe Laura who has had visitations by George herself, somehow get a vibe from Townsend that said that everything wasn't what it seemed. I feel like a character like Townsend should have a Freudian un-canniness to him because he's NOT normal even though he appears to be normal but there's just this thing that you can't shake off.....like a splinter in your mind as Morpheus from The Matrix once told Neo. I would also like Kristen to have an ally in her family and not have to face all of them alone in trying to convince them that Townsend is not a nice man.
I will say though, what made this storyline so intense was Kristen's reaction to seeing him in her home. I was impressed!
This was bad ass! She was not playing around and while she was careful not to cut a major vein or artery, she knew what she was doing and told Townsend that he basically had 20 minutes to live lest he bleed to death! She even guessed how many stitches he would need and he ended up getting two more than what she had predicted! I liked Kristen here as it was what you would expect from a mother protecting her family. I'm curious as to why she kept the books that Townsend gave her daughters and what those symbols on the front of them meant. What I'm not impressed by is that Kristen is keeping all of this to herself and not telling David or Ben. She cannot fight this fight on her own! I think that's why I would like to have at least one daughter sort of concur with Kristen that Townsend isn't what everyone thinks he is.
I was also somewhat unimpressed, though I understand why she did it, when she played the deepfake recording she made of Townsend to Sheryl to convince her that he's a psychopath. I was totally expecting Sheryl to confront Townsend with that recording only to have him disprove it, putting further doubt on Kristen's credibility but that didn't happen. Still, Kristen is relying heavily on that deepfake and I just feel like it's going to bite her in the ass at some point.
What I was somewhat impressed with was Sheryl's 'attempt' to break things off with Townsend. While I was expecting her to argue with Kristen about him and to throw out the usual 'you're wrong about him' or 'you don't understand him like I do' sort of arguments, when she heard that recording she immediately decided to end it. Of course, that didn't happen but I at least give her credit for trying. But then this happened.
So I'm assuming the sex was really hot or he is the devil! The fact that Sheryl is continuing on with him is not surprising since I'm sure his psychopathic nature probably intrigues her rather than repulses her. But if he is the devil or even a mere psychopath....there should be some kind of terrifying moment in that sexual encounter that throws up some kind of red flag. I'm talking Cape Fear kind of shit!
Because you're dealing with a being who does not love, only hates; a being who does nothing good, only evil; a being who relishes in death rather than life; a being who has no empathy, only selfishness; a being who seeks to mar rather than beautify. Why would he 'behave' himself in the midst of one of the most beautiful acts that is meant to physically represent the love between two people? I've read of cases where women slept with guys who were supposedly possessed....and they never repeated the experience because the guy made it really, really weird, for lack of a better term. And even though the sacredness of sex has been diminished in society, it's still a representation of love and therefore I don't see why a character like Townsend wouldn't immediately try to ruin that representation in some way, shape or form. I get that it's supposed to be some grand plan on Townsend's part to seduce Sheryl and perhaps we'll get that Cape Fear moment when he reveals his true self, but I think there should have been something in their sexual encounter that showed, if only a hint, of the monster that Townsend really is. Even in the movie The Devil's Advocate, Charlize Theron's character slept with the devil and came out of it severely traumatized!
Considering that Sheryl still slept with him even after hearing Kristen's recording, you figure she'll put up with just about almost anything at this point. So it's a wait and see kind of scenario.
Despite that though, it was a good episode that added more elements to the mystery they're developing. What do the numbers mean? The stars are the Trinity but what does the pyramid mean? How long will Sheryl go with Townsend before she realizes the truth and will it put Kristen and her kids in danger? It seems like Kristen is being attacked by all sides and her kids aren't safe either, so how will she protect them from a force she doesn't understand?
Furthermore, add another number to the episode title sequences: 177, 3, 390, 31, 9. Are these lottery numbers? LOL! I'm really thinking they have some significance and it'd be cool if that were true.
