My wishes for The Exorcist were finally met and it’s now starting to get interesting. I was tired of the show dragging us along a seemingly pointless ride of new character introductions and plot filler, but Chapter 5 made it all worthwhile. We not only got to see some gore and paranormal creepiness, but the writers gave us a twist that will only propel the show to new (and once thought unattainable) heights.
This week starts with Father Marcus and Father Tomas in the heart of their exorcism on Casey. While they take a much-needed break, Henry pays his daughter a visit. Although I would never step foot near anyone who seems to be possessed by a demon, I can understand why he would want to. Casey is his little girl, and while he has his own mental issues, he knows she is in pain. When in the room, Casey petitions her father to come close so she can tell him a secret. This is when her slime-covered black tongue fills his ear and I assume it’s over for poor Henry. The way he acted the rest of the episode (which was stranger than he normally acts) made me assume he was also possessed.
When Father Marcus and Father Tomas returned to their exorcism things got intense. Not only was Casey oozing fluids from all over her body and flying around the room, but she also started to take on different personas. First, she was Tomas’ grandmother, speaking to him in Spanish about how he’s a failure. Then the demon transforms into Jessica and attacks Tomas’s biggest weakness, love. Proving to be compromised and too weak for this, Father Marcus sends Tomas away.
It then takes on the form of Marcus’ dead mother who was abused and killed by his father. Unlike Tomas, who ran off to be with the real Jessica, proved to be a lot stronger. He brushed off the demons’ mind games only to be met with a bigger problem, the police. Kat was fed up with what they were doing and called the cops. When they arrived, they took Casey back to the hospital and threw Father Marcus in jail. Kat would quickly regret her decision, though, when Casey gave her a devilish smirk as they loaded her in the back of an ambulance. Next thing we know the ambulance had crashed into a tree and a possessed Casey was on the loose.
Through this point in the episode, I thought the show was already doing better than it had in previous ones. It was dark and ominous. Characters like Henry and Kat really gave the impression that they were uncomfortable and you could practically feel the tension in the house. More importantly, every scene felt necessary. There was no scene setting or unnecessary plot fillers. This episode was down to business from the start and it only got better.
This is when the show takes a turn and sets itself up for an interesting run. The whole time during the exorcism the demon was demanding they “bring her to meâ€. But who? Well, it turns out the demon wants Angela, or should I say, Regan MacNeil! Yes, that’s right, Casey’s mother was the first to be possessed by the demon in the original Exorcist and now it’s back for what it couldn’t originally get. This was the secret the demon told Henry in the beginning and it thoroughly explains his odd behavior. The episode ends with a darkly dressed Chris MacNeil showing up on the Rance’s doorstep looking for her daughter.
There will be plenty of people who are turned off by this revelation, but it’s the twist the show needed. We already know the show isn’t a remake of the original. What this does is it gives the show the ability to build off the source material instead of just refresh it. Angela/Regan will no longer be able to hide behind her new identity. She won’t be able to ignore the fact that her daughter has become possessed because of her, even if she doesn’t know it yet. Sure, she may have blamed her childhood problems on a nervous breakdown but that will change. Her mother has or will figure it out and so will Marcus.
But seriously, how perfect was this twist? We are dealing with a demon that spans decades. One that is so ruthless it took control of Angela/Regan’s children just to get to her. This show has gone from a bland “horror”show that essentially just shared a name with the original, to something so much more. The Exorcist should move a lot quicker now as long as these new/old characters are used in a way that doesn’t make the show lazy.
Score: 8/10
