OUTCAST - Ep. 9 - Close to Home - A TV Review

I have not gotten to watch the season finale of 'Outcast' yet, but I wanted to get this review in the books before I did because...

Holy. Shit.

Spoiler Warning - This article will contain spoilers for both the TV show and the comic, including the aforementioned moment which prompted me to write "holy shit".

Look, a lot of stuff happened in this episode. Kyle, Anderson, Giles, and Ogden all had a busy week, but let's not pretend like the final three minutes didn't just put all that noise on the backburner, because it did. And in a way, that's kind of the point of something like this happening. If things are going bad, or things are going well, other things can happen that derail everything; and just like the closing moments of "Close to Home" everything else goes into a tailspin.

But I suppose we'll deal with those small fries first, yeah?

Smallest of the bunch is Giles and Ogden, who are both dealing with the tentacles of Sidney's plan. Continuing the story from last week, Ogden and Kat are leaving town, until Sidney comes up with a different plan that somehow involves a creepy-ass mannequin warehouse. And Giles is still firmly in Anderon's camp, lining up against Sidney, even if that campground is getting more and more tenuous. So stuff is happening with them, but right now, their plots are just moving forward.

Anderson, though...oh, buddy, what are we gonna do with you? If the last two weeks showed that Anderson was teetering on the brink, ready to plunge into the abyss, this week showed that "teetering" is an aspiration now, and he's firmly set up a summer home in the bottom of the deep end. While trying to argue for his job back, Anderson's meeting with the church officials turns into yet another of his patented brawls when Sidney's appearance throws him off topic. And though Sidney firmly plans to press charges, Giles' friendship with Anderson keeps him out of jail, yet only enables the ex-reverend to further destroy...well, everything that matters to him.

Do you even lift, bro?

Seriously, like three and a half seconds after Patricia (ill-advisedly) asks Anderson to move in with her and Aaron, Aaron shows up, gives Anderson some sass, and Anderson physically attacks him. Patricia has barely finished asking him to move in before she's throwing him out for threatening to beat up her son! Really, man? How are you even a preacher? You punch anything that moves!

This scene does illustrate Anderson's past, though. Aaron is behaving like an asshole, to be sure, and if someone smacked him upside the head, I wouldn't really pay it much mind. But Anderson doesn't do that. He flies into an immediate rage and threatens to beat the kid in the face with a belt. That's the sort of thing that comes from your past. And I'm guessing now that Anderson had a fairly abusive father, as his approach to all manner of adversity is to punch first, punch later, punch some more and then when everyone is nursing bruises, try to ask a question or two. Being a victim of child abuse certainly would explain a lot, but at least, at this point, Anderson finally realizes he's gone over the line. Losing Patricia is enough to send him back to Kyle with his tail between his legs.

Kyle, meanwhile, spends most of the episode worrying about and trying to track down Allison. His and Mark's search of their former family home was a tense sequence, as I became convinced they'd stumble upon her dead body (even though she's very much alive in the comic). But the eventual reveal that she has checked herself into a mental hospital is still terribly sad. He's already a young man who blames himself for everything, but Sidney's revelation that the entities that are possessing people are somehow drawn to Kyle are amplifying his sense of responsibility for Allison's present state. So of course he's taking her extreme depression personally; in his mind, it's all his fault. And it leads to him sitting on his porch with Anderson, thinking things can't get much worse. But they can...

Megan and Mark are doing their best under trying circumstances, no job, no money, broken trust. But they're hanging in there, and even manage to continue helping Kyle with Amber. Things are made even more stressful for the couple when Megan finds out she's pregnant. Stressful, yes, but ultimately, it's happy news, even amidst all the other chaos of their lives.

Until, of course, Megan is possessed and subsequently kills Mark and terrorizes the children.

Holy shit, right?

'Outcast' has done such a great job over the last few weeks telling the viewer everything about the actual process possession that the moment Megan jumps (literally) while in the shower, we're all like "...oh shit..." because we know what is happening before it's even been made explicitly clear. And it doesn't feel telegraphed at all. The camera shifts to Megan's POV and we see an oversaturated bathroom, Megan staring almost confusedly at her own naked body*, not noticing Mark when he walks in the door, and dispatching him with both ease and dispassion. (In the comic, Megan's possession comes later, and her attack on Mark is far more brutal, if not fatal) She crouches over him like an apex predator barely noticing the mouse it's managed to accidentally kill. Post-Megan watches the blood leak out of Mark and the life leave his body with only mild bemusement.

*I read an article earlier this week about how that was Wrenn Schmidt's first nude scene. I've repeatedly called her out throughout this season for her amazing work, and this scene really stepped it up. It accomplishes so much in those few seconds - this is no longer Megan, so of course she'd feel no shame or compunction about her violence toward Mark, let alone her nudity. Schmidt herself called it a "grotesque rebirth" and I honestly can't think of a better way to describe it. Megan may be in that body somewhere, but she's not in control, and Schmidt projects that clearly. She's a beautiful woman, but this scene does not come across as gratuitous or titillating. It comes across as terrifying and tragic. Wrenn Schmidt killed it. 

And of course, Amber's panicked call to Kyle had my heart racing and my anticipation meter revved up for Friday's season finale. He's chatting with Anderson, realizing how bad things are, but not yet how bad they're going to get. I'm not even a parent, and yet Amber's terrified "Aunt Megan...she's sick like mommy!" chilled me to the bone. And Fugit's face in that moment perfectly expresses the utter panic. Holy...Shit. This is the best 'Outcast' has ever been.

Even though the last few weeks have clearly been setting up the climax of the season, "Close to Home" ramped things up from a slow burn to a raging inferno. This first season of 'Outcast' has been really wonderful, and I hope they can finish things up in a way that tops everything they've done so far.


FINAL SCORE - 8.5/10

'Outcast' aired the season finale on Friday, Aug. 12, so if you missed it, check it out, streaming on MaxGo.com. That's how I watch it. Can't wait to see how it ends!