If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: Henry’s son visits from Boston; a funeral stirs up unsettling memories. (IMDB)
Writers: Vinnie Wilhelm and Marc Bernardin
Director: Kevin Hooks
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 43mins
Airs: Wednesdays at 10pm on Space (Canada)/ Wednesdays on Hulu (United States)
After the best episode of the series so far last week, this new episode takes a slight step back and dives deeper into Deaver’s past while giving us a thrilling cliffhanger. The episode focused on Deaver as it saw his estranged son Wendell (Chosen Jacobs) come to visit. He wants to connect with his son but of course things have to happen to prevent it.
The episode started with Deaver’s father’s new funeral. It seemed like Deaver was the only one in attendance until he looked over to see a pair of strangers next to an RV nearby who fled once they were spotted. Meanwhile, Pangborn was on a mission to do whatever he could to save Ruth. After bringing her back home from the hospital, he was sent to pick up Warden Lacy’s Lincoln from a junkyard in Syracuse.
Seemingly bored in Deaver’s dad’s workshop, The Kid found some old home videos of Deaver and started watching them. When he caught on to it, Deaver put an end to it. It felt like he was watching them for the first time like he didn’t remember what happened or he didn’t like what was happening. Either way, he found a place for The Kid to go which turned out to be mental institution. As we already know, bad luck seems to follow The Kid around (or he’s the one that causes it) so there hard to be a fire, offscreen, that led to some of the patients there to escape.
With Deaver and his son together, this episode became about each trying to connect with their own fathers. While Wendell tried to connect with Deaver, Deaver was focused on his past, specifically the time he spent with his father in the woods and how his hearing problem connected to it.
Deaver didn’t remember anything about it so he went to see Strand whose visions of his father were coming back. This all led to the moment we’ve been waiting for. Strand saw Deaver and his father go out to the woods a few times and was there the night he disappeared from their so-called connection. She also told him that he hated his father so she confessed to killing Deaver’s father for him, claiming that they did it together.
The scene where Ruth opened up to Wendell about her dementia and the coping mechanism she used was a strong one thanks to Spacek’s performance. The scenes between Ruth and Wendell were strong as a whole. Later on, The Kid just happened to walk in on Ruth in a precarious situation after dropping her medication on the floor.
Deaver used the home videos to try and retrace his steps through the woods. He eventually ran into the same strangers from earlier, a deaf professor named Odin Branch (CJ Jones) and his interpreter Willie (Rory Culkin). Branch knew Deaver’s father and they shared common interests. Both Branch and his father believed that they could hear the voice of God. The more scientific term for this was “schisma” and was more like the sound of the universe. Branch believed that Deaver could hear the schisma.
Deaver’s father had conceived a device in order to filter the schisma from all other sound before he died but Branch managed to build it. The filter was the equivalent of a padded room in Branch and Willie’s RV. Deaver was obviously reluctant until he decided to enter the room, however, once he did, he got locked in. Now in the filter, the ringing in his ears was accompanied by a series of trippy visions.
Of course The Kid escaped from the mental institution and waited outside for Pangborn. Warden Lacy’s Lincoln would serve as a monument for the people who put him in the cage. The Kid also has bloody hands which implied that something bad may have happened. Pangborn frantically ran into the house to find it ransacked with no signs of life inside.
Overall, this was another great episode that once again offered us just enough answers once again while giving us reason to keep watching for more. So the schisma made Deaver’s dad take him to the woods. We don’t know why or what happened in the woods. The Kid, thanks to SkarsgÃ¥rd’s performance, continues to be the most interesting character to watch so far. His unpredictability creates a palpable amount of tension on screen and the episode always seems to adjust accordingly thanks to a chilling score and great camera work. The only real problem was the way the episode handled Strand’s confession. While we’re probably not done hearing from it, it felt swept under the rug. Either way, this has been a great season so far and it will be exciting to see what happens next, including how they will wrap up the self-contained story of Season 1.
Score: 9/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.