The Exorcist 2.02 "Safe as Houses"
Directed by Deran Sarafian & Written by Adam Stein
But the episode itself decided to instead open in The Vatican City, in the underground Officio di Exorsismo. It's pretty clear that the Exorcism that was performed last season has had a drastic impact on the Church right the way up the ladder, and Father Bennett (Kurt Egyiawan), a demonic posession expert who is very much a believer, is present in full force, not holding anything back. He believes that corruption is rooted deep within the Church and has even gone so far as to accuse a Cardinal. We're in very much uncharted waters here in terms of The Exorcist storyline, as director Deran Sarafian and writer Adam Stein are introducing some completely new material that does a good job at broadening the world of this universe and showing the various goings on inside the Vatican. At this stage it's too early to tell how all three storylines will connect together, but for now, the groundwork is very much established for future shenanigans in the Catholic Church to come.
Marcus himself is with Tomas, where we left off in the last episode. Here, both of the characters find themselves pushed into a corner and are running out of time. This is where we got to see Ben Daniels shine with a speech about Lucifer being the poison cursing through Cindy's veins, and once again reminded us just how great the cast is. Both Daniels and Alfonso Herrera have been fantastic as Marcus and Tomas respectively, and have really helped add that extra dynamic to the show with the two leads. Their interactions are always great, and whenever they're surrounded you can't help but want them to get out alive. The fact that there's a clear difference between the two characters has really paid off in the show's benefit as well, making them all the more distinctive.
The weakest of the three storylines is unfortunately the slowest, at least in this chapter, with Andy and the children feeling like it dragged this week. The change of pace and tone almost feels like we're in a completely different show without Marcus and Tomas present, but the focus on Caleb allowed us to see that he was under the influence of a demon rather than simply just being suicidal. Rose herself is debating about whether or not to report the incident as suicidal behaviour which would risk putting Andy in trouble, but the tension behind the is clear. Caleb admits that Verity took him out to the well and she shouldn't be without her fair share of the blame either, and Verity ends up telling a different version of events to cover her own tracks. It ends up being enough for Rose to take Caleb's word that it was just a small thing and nothing too serious, but of course, with evil on its way, time is slowly running out for the kids. In a way the slower pace does allow its time to focus on setting up and create a morbid atmosphere, but I kind of wish things could move at a quicker pace here, especially as we've seen how quickly the show can deal with the Cindy storyline in the past. The pacing is a bit jarring at the moment but once Marcus and Tomas arrive on the island, things should hopefully improve for the better.
The Exorcist 2.03 "Unclean"
Directed by Ti West & Written by Manny Coto
The third episode of the second season was written by Manny Coto, who's notable for being the executive producer and showrunner of Star Trek: Enterprise, so I was interested to see how he would approach the horror genre in a show that's tonally different from both that and his previous work that he's written scripts for, 24: Legacy's pilot and 24: Live Another Day, the mini-series that proceeded it. Here Unclean puts Father Tomas and Marcus on a collision course with Andy and the kids, as hell continues to visit his foster home.
The set up almost seemed like it was the show setting into a formula and were it not for Andy and his family's introduction earlier in the series I'd have been worried that it would be following a mostly formulaic approach similiar to Supernatural's earlier monster of the week episodes, only with less variety as there's only so much you can do with demonic possession stories. Thankfully this doesn't look to be the case but there were alarm bells there for a second, especially given Fox's past history of turning even the most exciting concept into a bog-standard procedural.
It turns out that things haven't quite gone the way that they expected and the show ends up offering a last minute twist on the typical possession story, almost Scooby Doo-esque in a way that plays against type with our expectations. It looks like that Mrs. Graham has been drugging her daughter to make it look like she was possessed, and certainly loses any contention for best parent of the year award. It looks like she's been reading too much of Chris MacNeil's book, and promptly whacks Tomas over the head with a hammer to prevent the secret from getting out, just interrupting one of the show's quieter moments as Marcus confronts Harper in the bedroom.
The way this show pays attention to what's going on really pays off in its favour. There's several great scenes of foreboding imagery that continue to establish the backdrop for Unclean very well. For instance you have the shot that's reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds with the horde of black crows in the field, something which is unlike anything anyone's ever seen before. You know because of the religious connection that they have something bad is coming. It may be taking its time to come, but Unclean does a good job at slowly and subtly building the suspense.
The show itself also continued its country-hopping Vatican conspiracy story this week as things switched to France. This demonic ritual led by Cardinal Guilott kicked off the episode, but thanks to Bennett's newfound ally in the female exorcist Mouse, Guilott and his cronies don't stay around for very long as they're disposed of in one of the show's more gorier sequences. Her character is one that we're introduced as we add another one to this growing list of cast members (surely they won't all make it to the end of Season 2 alive, right?) and it quickly becomes apparent that Mouse and Bennett are going to be the new Marcus and Tomas of the side-story, their methods being very different and their characters being opposites. It turns out to Bennett's horror, Mouse has Sister Deloris, fully integrated with the demon, chained up and is acting off its information, but she has to at the same time remember it's a demon. They aren't exactly the most trustworthy sources of information ever.
Overall, Unclean was an improvement on Safe as Houses and certainly the episode that I preferred. Both were still pretty good episodes of television however as the storylines continue to balance across its three threads. Will we ever see Mouse and Bennett meet up with Tomas and Marcus? Or will they be the Tomas and Marcus of Europe? How many countries does the show plan on crossing off its list before the end of the season? It remains to be seen just how evil the evil in the woods around Andy's house is, but from what we've seen so far, it's not going to go quietly into the night.
What did you think of these two episodes? Which one did you prefer? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to check out the next episode of The Exorcist on Fox this Friday at 9pm.
