Can I say again how slow this series is? I mean we’re on
episode 8 now and I was actually stunned to realise how far into the season we
are and I really can’t see how we’ve managed 8 episodes of content out of this…
I mean looking back, was there really enough?
Damien’s therapy isn’t going really well, he continues to
be super conflicted and tortured and lost. Hi therapist pokes him with some
very interesting comments about choice and predestination and basically how
Damien is almost accepting the inevitability of him being evil without actually
seeing he has a choice. And more, with that lack of understanding he has a
choice, he’s denying his own responsibility for whatever happens.
Damien himself also raises some interesting elements on
his potential PTSD which would be really fascinating if he actually had PTSD
and wasn’t actually the antichrist. Damien feels silly about having PTSD, he
has seen so many people who have suffered incredibly that he feels selfish,
shallow to actually have PTSD when he’s considers the terrible horrors he has
seen people endure. This is a wonderful examination of both survivor’s guilt
and how many people with PTSD are shamed because X person has it worse – like their
pain is somehow less important because they are not the most suffering person
in the entire world
This would be excellent, in fact all of these sessions
with the doctor would be pretty good if it weren’t not just for him actually
being demonic – but also because she is also on team cultist.
Damien is posted the severed tongue from his murderous
friend Charles and after a brief meeting in which Charles declares his eternal
devotion and also rambles terrifyingly about the apparently many people he’s killed
for Damien (Damien seems to think this includes Kelly but, given the
supernatural way she died I don’t think so). Damien absolutely loses it and
beats Charles half to death.
But only half. He choses not to give into his desires to
murder him. But, as he then asks the doctor – is that his good instincts
telling him not to murder or his evil instincts making him preserve a serial
killer? This conflict is also excellent –hey all the Damien psychological
torture hasn’t been especially great until this episode but now it’s really
fascinating to watch as the conflict builds and is legitimately difficult to
unpick
Damien fed Charles to Detective James instead – and Charles
is arrested, detained and examined by a psychiatrist… Damien’s psychiatrist.
Having heard Damien wishes Charles was dead, she happily obliges in the name of
Damien, stabbing Charles to death with a pen before being shot by Detective
James. She leaves a suitably ominous note pad scrawled with “here is wisdom”
just in case James isn’t freaked out enough
Which he well and truly is. He continues to pursue Damien, despite his boss telling him not to, his husband demanding he see a psychiatrist and his car magically bursting into flames and almost killing him. To top it all off, his child is now drawing spooky burning car pictures.
Damien seems to
be aiming for themes of psychological instability, but it’s more reality
instability – because all of their “delusions” are actually true. This isn’t
mental illness, it’s gaslighting by supernatural powers. Which would still be
interesting if it weren’t for the habit of using actual mentally ill people as
spooky props.
Meanwhile Simone and Amani are hanging out with the
spooky assassin nun (who totally isn’t an assassin honest, but does now have one
of the magical devil killing blades). They compare notes on Ann Rutlidge being
the big dark protector of Damien and Amani realises Veronica, his new lady
love, is Ann’s daughter and has been playing him all along
He is Not Happy about this. He confronts her and she
confesses all (except for the demon bits) and begs for forgiveness, professes
her love and blames it all on her mother. Except she then tells her mother everything
as well… and tries to investigate Assassin Nun for her. She’s a complex woman
Veronica and I’m not sure what her motives are – nor am I likely to find out
now since she stalks said nun, they struggle over a gun and Veronica gets shot…
witnessed by Simone. And lo she descends into the fridge alongside Kelly and
this show needs to step back away from dead love interests that can cause
manpain
Unaware of his manpain cause yet, Amani has gone to
Damien to profess his undying, eternal devotion, while Damien is totally sorry
he got his loyal servant up to the neck in devil stuff. This relationship gets
more tiresome.
Oh and Ann tries to kill her devil-slaying knife. God
says no.
