We start with flashback – Seth in prison and not doing so
well in a fight which Seth keeps fighting because the other guy keeps insulting
his brother. Carlos visits him and sells him the dream of “El Rey”, a place in
Mexico he and Richie and go and be protected, never having to worry about
whoever after them. He’s not interested for himself – but for Richie? That’s
tempting
In the present we see Carlos conducting business – which
includes ripping out the throats of guys who try to con him with his huge
vampire teeth. And he’s professional enough to answer a call from an
increasingly panicked Seth, to tell him where and when to meet to cross the
border into Mexico, while cleaning the blood from his fangs and pausing between
blood feasts. He does correct Seth when Seth calls him Mexican
Seth is clearly trying to control Richie by giving him a
gun he doesn’t like, and they drag Monica, their hostage, out from the boot. He
intimidates Monica into staying quiet and tries to almost ask Richie to behave
while he goes to get them food – clearly afraid of what Richie will do.
He goes to get the burgers and sees a woman – who he
takes into the bathroom and has sex with – apparently his ex-wife. Well, that
divorce was amicable. But in the hotel room, Reggie is getting creepy with
Monica
Time to check in on Rev Jacob and his family – and Jacob
is still not making the best decisions, now letting his highly inexperienced
son drive his (and I use the term loosely) vehicle. Kate tries to talk to her
dad about the grand, life
changing revelations of last episode and he backtracks from all of them.
And then the RV breaks down and Jacob says he doesn’t have a tool box. This man
is not looking very competent right now (admitted I don’t have a tool box
either – but this is a sensible realisation of the damage I will do). Jacob
goes into the bar they’ve stopped outside to ask for help.
Policeman Freddie consults a professor about the symbols
in the serial killing (which Reggie has been leaving behind too); who demands
the gods and the people who worshipped them be treated with respect. He shows
him Reggie’s knife with the symbol on it. And yes, they’re doing this in the
same bar that Jacob’s just entered because where else would you investigate a
serial killing? The knife is ancient and used in ritual sacrifice and super
duper non-existantly rare. It suggests the killer worships the vision serpent
and comes with 2 gifts – the ability to see and the ability to take action.
Back at the hotel, Richie unties Monica’s hands – but is
clearly having trouble and starts rambling about his intelligence; Monica tries
to calm him down while mentioning her children. She looks at Richie’s drawings
which means she has to drag up a compliment for his gruesome sacrifice
sketches.
She treats his wounded eye – and Richie hallucinates an eye in the hand and the voices start up again. And he starts to hallucinate – this time he hears Monica trying to seduce him. when she protests she didn’t say anything, he ties her up and gags her. While he gets a vision of snakes crawling over her.
In the café Seth has to tell his wife that the plan has
changed, they’re not crossing together he thinks it’s too dangerous for her to
be along (what with Richie being, well, Richie). Seth gives her a stack of
money to be happy with instead and she recites a long anecdote which basically
comes down to “I’m not a prostitute – how dare you try to buy me off.” And she
adds that she worked on the robbery as well – she was the one who cased the
bank and laid the groundwork for the job. And she waited for him to get out of
prison – not his money.
She would like him to abandon Richie, which Seth is
obviously not eager to do. He talks about Richie’s intelligence and how living
with their abusive father, Richie used his intelligence to try and keep his
father away from Seth who their father focused on. He also saved Seth’s life
when their dad set the place on fire – Seth feels obligated. She worries that
he will never be saved and warns him that he has a mental illness. Seth is in
denial. So she smashes up his car and they have a blazing row before he tells
her to leave and that they’re over
Over to Jacob again and the Rev has a temper tantrum when
it becomes clear his RV is pretty much junk. The nice man giving him advice on
how to fix the thing takes him inside for a drink and they talk wives, families
Cut to the bar – yes this show likes to cut between
scenes a lot - the professor tries to get Freddie to understand the blood cult
that worships the demigoddess lover of the Serpent god. He
tells the story of a woman who the Serpent God was infatuated by – who the cult
kidnapped and sacrificed to him, turning her into a “harbinger”. The killer
isn’t after blood – he’s trying to “see something”. Flash to Richie losing it
again and pointing a gun at Monica – and she asking him to at least tell her
how he knew her name and her husband’s pet name for her during sex. She babbles
about her sex life with her husband and Richie protests he didn’t hear any of
that – he just hears voices in his head! He describes what he saw to her – it was
a flashback to when she was with her husband. he says he sees too much and he
rests his head in her lap.
And Carlos prays at an altar dedicated to the Snake gods
demigoddess lover – complete with the symbols. He credits her for the power to
rip out people’s throats (and we see his little way of resolving business
conflicts).
Over to the bar again, Jacob this time, and Kate comes in
the bar to find her father pretty drunk. She goes back to the RV and searches
the bags there… and finds a warrant to test blood alcohol levels in
investigating a crime of vehicular homicide. It looks like Jacob got drunk, ran
someone over, killed them and is now running to Mexico.
The professor makes a comment about the 9 Lords of the Night
(when Freddie makes him give the knife back), Mayan gods. And we cut to 9 men
meeting with Carlos who has a truck load of young women to offer them. The men
grow fangs. The Professor and Freddie track the killings and find they outline
a corridor which the professor calls “the safe zone” of the cult’s lands –
centred on the border crossing
Seth has a close call with a pocket full of bullets and a
cop – but his wife is there to point a gun at the police man’s head and give him
chance to flee. Richie, in the hotel room with Monica, says something ominous
about “the night coming” and starts hallucinating again – horribly snaky ones
this time. While he’s choking on a snake hallucination, Monica grabs his gun.
But there’s no bullets in it – Seth attempting to restrain his brother.
To the bar again Kate is rather cleverly trues to find
the truth of the accident and her dad gets the RV working again and reverses it
– hitting her. She’s not hurt but she takes the keys off him and decides to do
the driving. The professor leaves, giving Freddie one last mythology nugget of
a Mayan legend of the brothers who went into the underworld and tricked the
gods at their own game. Thank you exposition and foreshadowing man!
Seth returns to Richie to find Monica, dead – her body
mutilated like the serial killer victims. Seth is duly disturbed and doesn’t take
Richard’s “I can see now” as reassuring. He grabs Richie and pushes him against
a wall trying to get him to stop – “this is not who we are.” He maintains his
desperate hope that all will be fine when they get to their destination
The first episode, it seemed like they were backing away
from Richie’s hallucinations being sexual (and, as in the film, his motivation
for raping women). Now there seems to be
some backtracking –though the sexual visions are secondary to the violent ones,
they’re there as an undercurrent. But it never goes the way of the film and instead
we pull back to him discussing his visions with Monica and the terrifying
vision of him resting his head in her lap is more disturbed child seeking
comfort than sexual (still deeply terrifying for Monica). I think the show is
continuing to try and maintain some of the bones of what happened in the film
without going to the places the film did.
We still have the sense that Seth may not be mentally ill
and may be woo-woo of some kind.
Even if he’s not mentally ill, he’s presenting as such –
and his representation with Seth shows a lot of conflicts that many loved ones
of mentally ill people go through – including the denial. But the whole thing
also shows mentally ill people not only as really dangerous – but as a
grey-hair-causing-burden to their loved ones as well. It makes me hope for more
woo-woo and less delusion.
We have a lot of female victimhood still – I hope Seth’s
wife hangs around a little while to help counter that
This episode was heavy on the exposition and
foreshadowing which makes sense after the rather breakneck action of the last 2
