OUTCAST, Ep. 3 - All Alone Now - A TV Review

Outcast hits a bit of a speed bump as they follow the one issue that stands out in my memory as being kinda disappointing. Let's discuss it!

SPOILERS - There's gonna be spoilers for the episode and for the comics up in hurr, up in hurr.

The first two episodes of Robert Kirkman's 'Outcast' were both pretty solid, and both faithful to the comics that spawned them. But that loyalty to the source material can be a double-edged sword, as I distinctly remember not being a big fan of the issue that forms the backbone of this episode.

The episode opens with a group of people we haven't met, in what we come to find out later is a flashback. Police officer Blake (played by journeyman character actor/badass Lee Tergesen) is in the middle of a blind double-date with his friend and partner Luke and Luke's wife Teri. The date quickly goes sour when, like Kyle's mother, it appears that a demon decided that was the perfect time to possess Blake. Nearly instantly, he becomes rude and belligerent, but his apparent sudden illness prompts Luke and Teri to take him to their home for recovery. Luke steps out to go to the pharmacy, and Blake bludgeons Teri to death.

Luke can't believe Blake would turn so viciously against his friends, and comes to believe that his former partner, now incarcerated for the murder, has been possessed by a demon. But even though this episode could have centered around a mystery, it chooses not to. When Luke recruits Reverend Andersen and Kyle to both confirm the possession and exorcise his old friend, the episode quickly confirms that, yes, Blake is really possessed. Maybe it would have been more interesting if there was some ambiguity over what exactly happened to Blake.

Without that mystery, there just isn't much to this storyline. The demon inside Blake once again calls Kyle "outcast" and spews the same black goop that both Joshua in the pilot, and Sarah Barnes in episode two spewed during their exorcisms. But unlike Joshua and Sarah, Blake's demon isn't going anywhere. So it's more of what Anderson described when he said that each possession is different. Kyle and Anderson bicker about methods and faith, the possessed teases Anderson's christian naivete, and Kyle eventually slams a bloody hand to the possessed to drive the demon out to varying degrees of success. Like I said, it would have been more interesting if there was some mystery to Blake's situation. Is he really possessed, or did he just snap one day? Was he attracted to Teri in way that broke his mind or his self-control? Is he a demon or just as asshole? By riding a line of ambiguity, it could have been a more delicate examination of the nature of evil  - demons vs. good ol' human nature.

The most interesting thing about this turn of events is that this demon seemed to want more of Kyle's blood (the series has established at this point that Kyle's bodily fluids have the same approximate result on the possessed as holy water). Why he wants it, or whether or not Kyle is really exorcising these demons remains to be seen, so at least we have something that contributes to the overarching storyline.

Weak as the main story was, there were things to like in the episode, too.

Megan's character and history is fleshed out a bit more, and so is her husband, though not in a way you'd expect. While driving her kid to school, Megan is stunned to cross paths with a man who, the implication is, raped her. Throughout the rest of the episode, she's shakily trying to make it through her day, then confirming that it was him that she saw, and finally, conspiring to confront him in her hotel room*, before fleeing at the last second.

*Megan discovering his laptop and that he's Facebook stalking her is definitely an interesting thing to explore - we know Megan would never share any part of her life with this man, but anything she shares online is open to the whole world. And clearly it shocks her to find out that he can see pictures of her, her husband, her child. He can stalk her from the comfort of a hotel room, without her ever knowing. A very disquieting notion indeed. 

Megan's story is intercut with Mark's, who has not given up on his attempt to find out what was up with that spooky-ass camper from last week's episode. Despite Chief Giles' ribbing him as "CSI" Mark took his evidence kit out to the woods to take a closer look at all those scratches, hairs, and bloody marks on the walls. It's a tense sequence of events, well constructed and shot by this week's director, Howard Deutch, and Mark is cool under pressure when a wild dog stumbles across him. Coincidence or not (it reminded me of the dogs from 'The Omen'), he feeds the dog a snack to distract him, and then returns to the station with the only real piece of evidence he can find: a gold watch.

Whether or not the gold watch belongs to Sidney is unclear, but that was the conclusion I drew. Sidney does have a scene this week, though, once again appearing as a normal, sweet old man, before betraying the deeply disturbing truth. He's seen shaving with a straight razor and getting dressed, before coughing up something inky black and wiping it off his face. And the next time we see that straight-razor of his, it's laying in a pool of blood next to the body of Neville - Kyle's neighbor. It's a bit different from the comic, where Neville's disappearance was handled with more discretion by Sidney. But Brent Spiner's take on the man in black comes across as much more dangerous and much less interested in discretion.

So, to wrap things up, while Kyle and Anderson are out of town spinning their wheels, Megan, Mark and Sidney represent a series of dangers much closer to home. And even when the episode like this doesn't fire on all cylinders, it's still enough to make me excited for next week's installment. And it's still quite entertaining despite its flaws.

FINAL SCORE 6.5/10

Outcast airs on Cinemax on Friday Nights, 10/9c