A brave knight slain...
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
This week's Outcast was quieter than most, but the tradeoff was a lot of great character development and storytelling. For Kyle and Anderson, this meant investigating another potential possession -- but it didn't exactly go like the others did in that there was no exorcism attempt. Instead, the incident raised even more questions for our budding duo about how the demons operate and whether they have actually been cast out or not.
Specifically, this storyline was pretty big for Anderson, who could hardly believe one of his loyal churchgoers was a demon in disguise. I particularly enjoyed his tête-à-tête with Uma (Twin Peaks' Grace Zabriskie) and their "little game" of banter. Kyle realizing his wife could potentially be doing the same thing as Uma was also intriguing, though it didn't amount to much in this episode. Norville's funeral, which kicked off this episode was also nice, but I was a little surprised Anderson didn't recognize him from his sermon a couple weeks back.
Meanwhile, Megan's storyline was considerably meatier this time around, as it involved both Mark and Kyle to some extent. Here, we got a better sense of Donnie and what he did to make such an impact on Megan. The result was super intense, although, fortunately, nothing major came from it in the present -- aside from Mark beating the crap out of Donnie on camera, which is bound to have major repercussions in the future.
Mark and Kyle's scene together was also really well done, as Mark was clued in to how much Kyle has done for Megan over the years. While he clearly hasn't forgiven Kyle for his recent behavior, it's good to see the two finding common ground in Megan's personal safety -- and their shared hatred of Donnie, of course.
I also enjoyed the visual payoff of Megan shopping for glassware (odd) and later smashing them to pieces with a hammer (awesome). Speaking of which, this episode also featured some very clever imagery and visual metaphors throughout. The most obvious example was a young Donnie literally stepping on Megan's white horse, both physically and figuratively crushing her dreams of finding her "Knight in Shining Armor." This was in addition to the recurring shots of Anderson's "trophies," which were suitably creepy, and various animals foreshadowing events: the dead cicada skin, the looming crow, etc.
But perhaps the most notable subplot here was Chief Giles' investigation of Ogden, who had direct ties to the abandoned trailer. Not only did we figure out the gold watch belonged to Ogden, but Giles confirmed Ogden was up to no good when he spotted him torching the trailer. Whether this has to do with the possessions or not still remains to be seen, but I'm inclined to think so after Giles' dog freaked out at Ogden. (Dogs know, man.)
The Verdict
Outcast was fairly light on supernatural stuff this week, but the pacing of "A Wrath Unseen" was markedly on point. Mainly, I think it stemmed from the good balance of subplots, especially the ones concerning Megan and Giles. Not only did they give us a little more plot to chew on, but they helped break up the relatively slow (but almost as engaging) Kyle/Anderson storyline. Overall, this was a strong episode, despite it's low-key vibe.
Editors' Choice
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