"My name is Eddie and I was in a cult."
This is a review of The Path: Season 2 in its entirety. All 13 new episodes were made available to the press ahead of time even though the binge model is not currently what Hulu employs, releasing their episodes on a weekly basis, so this review won't delve into spoilers except for basic set-up/plot points.
The Path returns to Hulu with a slightly longer season, some more top-notch performances, and its usual muddled sense of self - as if it were a show in need of its own movement, or cult, of clarity.
We left off last season with the revelation that the exiled Eddie Lane (Aaron Paul) was seeing honest-to-goodness prophetic visions, indicating that he was taking on more of a "Chosen One" role despite having lost his faith. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Meyerist "Movement," when you lose your faith, you lose your worth and Eddie starts Season 2, which picks up months later, living a lonely life and secretly seeing his kids sporadically thanks to the good graces of Sarah (Michelle Monaghan).
A lot of this season -- which is a touch overlong, yes -- deals with the good and bad, light and dark, of the movement and the steps made to cleanse the cult of its false elements. As usual, we're dealing with a heavy load of fundamentally damaged characters so the story can often get bogged down in turmoil. Not a moment goes by when someone isn't out on the edge, being pushed to the limits of their own sanity as they just try to do their best to keep things afloat. Sometimes it's compelling, but usually it's tiring.
While Eddie's on the outside, and at times trying to move on with his life, the movement is being looked after by two crazed posers - Sarah and Cal (Hugh Dancy). Now, Cal knows he's a poser while Sarah makes the mistake of believing Cal when he says that she was chosen to co-lead. Regardless, these two make for a tumultuous pair, what with Cal being eternally in love with Sarah and Sarah having to come to terms with Cal's horrible, murderous secret. Ambition clouds their judgement at almost every turn and the elders see it.
Monaghan's Sarah is probably the most interesting character on the show as she's constantly being torn between love and duty, or doctrine, when it comes to Eddie being a "denier." At the same time, we discover that she'll do anything to keep the fires burning when it comes to the movement and that means compromising a huge part of her own sense of morality in order to undo a giant real estate debacle perpetuated by Cal. But that's how the blundering bond between these two gets formed. They both trade off covering for each other and saving each other from utter ruin.
Clearly though, it's Cal who's poisoning the well. Cal, for lack of a better term, is a hot mess at all times. Just when it seems like he's got a handle on things, he crumbles into dust, rage and/or pettiness. He's almost too tortured to be believed. He's almost non-functioning. Between Cal and Hawk (Kyle Allen) this season, we get an overdose of overreactions and needless escalation. Too often, characters, based on very little, are driven to wild extremes. They'll reverse their opinions and points of view on a dime. I wouldn't say that they're being forced to service the story, really -- not entirely -- it's just that it's somehow within their character to leap to conclusions and go off the rails easily. It works at the start of the season (though it doesn't make it easier to endure) but then gets super sloppy by the back half.
In fact, things really sort of disintegrate toward the end. No one ever has the full conversation that they need to have so instead we get a ton of characters meeting up for thirty seconds, exchanging "not enough information," and then parting. Leading to all sorts of disasters and misunderstandings. All of it's done too in order to rein everything in and lead us back toward the story of Cal being the fake leader and Eddie, for whatever reason, being the one who Steve, the cult founder, chose to succeed him. Or, you know, "the light" chose him. Either way. Regardless, you wind never really knowing how anyone feels about each other on The Path. Everyone becomes as muddled as Meyerism itself.
That being said, Season 2 has a bit of a leg up on Season 1. Mostly, I'd say, because it stretches things out beyond the cult compound. Not only do we follow Cal and some other new faces in the new New York City center (part of Cal's desire to expand Meyerism into a tax-exempt religion) but we also track Eddie in his life as an ex-member. And Eddie's arc involves trauma treatment, support groups, and even a new love interest in childhood friend Chloe (The Hunger Games' Leven Rambin). Later on, Eddie's crusade take on a new form as he starts to take an extreme interest to those who Meyerism has exiled and shunned, whether they be family members or simply people who washed out of the cult do to trivial reasons. It's within these elements that Season 2 shines.
Even Cal gets to have a (brief) moment of maturity during a trek out to Los Angeles when he's faced with pampered self-severing people who are in as much, or even more, pain than he is. Overall though, the enormity of character chaos casts a dark cloud over The Path and prevents it from climbing those final steps of the ladder.
I will say, in closing, that Rockmond Dunbar had a much more interesting arc this season. If you'll recall, his FBI Agent, Abe, had infiltrated the movement last season. With this story came the inevitable "Will the undercover cop actually start drinking the Kool-Aid?" question and, for the most part, his story sort of fizzled out after he blew up at his own boss and ruined his shot at a promotion. Well this year, that same question is in play, but its handled a lot more successfully. On top of this, Abe is also sometimes the unknown connective tissue between other stories, creating a natural bridge so that plot can move forward.
The Verdict
The Path contains ace performances from its three leads, and Season 2 works hard to expand the story up and out of the compound as Eddie attempts to live a post-cult life. Secrets and lies start to strangle the show though and by the final episodes everyone's almost become a spun around version of their original self. Loyalties change on a whim, tempers are always flaring, and after a while you just everyone to chill out and meditate.
Established side characters (Ali Ahn's Nicole, Clark Middleton's Richard), plus some new faces (James Remar, Britne Oldford), help shoulder the burden this season, giving us some great peripheral stories, but too often, when it comes to the main characters, we're watching someone on the cusp of becoming totally unhinged.
The Path: Season 2 debuts with two episodes on Wednesday, January 25th on Hulu.
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