If you would like to read my review of last week’s episode, click here.
Synopsis: Marcus and Tomas travel to Seattle where they find a young girl targeted by a force of pure evil. (IMDB)
Writer: Manny Coto
Director: Ti West
Rating: TV-14
Running Time: 44mins
This episode begins with an immediate gut punch to the storyline as Cardinal Guillot is entertaining dinner guests by bringing one of his demonic brothers into the fold so that he can help their ranks as they continue down the path of rebuilding the world as they see fit. However, the party is cut short by a new player named Mouse (Zuleikha Robinson) who seems to be fighting on the side of “good” for now and manages to kill off every member at the table. The way Guillot & Friends went out was a shocking start that set the tone and pace for the episode early on. It was something that was much needed in terms of the underlying larger story moving forward rather than lurking in the shadows while other storylines have taken centerstage.
The main focus of last night’s episode was Father Bennett and Markus’ exorcism road trip. This week they headed to Seattle in order to perform an exorcism on Harper, a young girl whose mother reached out to the duo for help. Simultaneously, Andy is still attempting to hold the orphanage together on the island and is slowly peeling the layers back on the strange occurrences that have been happening, however, things begin to ramp up to an even creepier level once Shelby realizes that something evil is in the woods surrounding the house. This opens the door for the theory that whatever “it” is could’ve killed Nicole, his wife who allegedly committed suicide. This storyline featured the strongest scene of the entire episode as an enormous flock of crows descended upon the island and proceeded to conduct a kamikaze mission on the orphanage.
Markus and Bennett have great scenes in this episode as Bennett is not only convinced of Harper’s possession but also of God’s direction with his “gift.” Markus warns of Tomas flirting with hubris and not taking time to fully understand Harper’s story before coming to a conclusion, but the two quickly realize that while they are focused on Harper there is a greater evil at work within her house. While there wasn’t a lot of character development outside of Tomas’ humbling experience, via head wound no less, I do love the chemistry between Markus and Tomas as they continue working together. They have grown into a mentor/mentee relationship that is great to watch even though their story might feel formulaic at times by featuring an “exorcism of the week.”
Andy and the children’s story is the only part that baffles so far. While it is somewhat interesting, it is becoming easier to tune it out more and more each week because we won’t be shown the true purpose of why we are watching them until the end of the season. For now, we are given little to keep our interest as each episode passes and are left to wonder just what the larger reveal will be and how it will click into place with the other stories. They are such a small part of a very larger picture so hopefully their involvement in the overarching plot is worth the payoff after investing in these characters. This all felt like they are just being used as a plot device to help pivot the story to a smaller focus rather than more of The Vatican and world domination, but only time and more episodes will tell.
“Unclean” was a decent episode that didn’t feel fully formed. All characters were given ample screen time and the various plots are slowly starting to take form, but this particular episode was only successful in helping position them to begin moving forward, the exception being the execution of Cardinal Guillot which has left a vacuum of power in The Vatican that is worth monitoring. Hopefully the next episode will expound on some of the foundation laid within this episode. As a fan, there simply needs to be more to maintain interest on a weekly basis.
Score: 6/10
Trying my best to get all thoughts about TV and Film out of my head and onto the interweb.
