Outcast - S1E4 - A Wrath Unseen

Previously on Outcast, “All Alone Now”

Reverend Anderson reminds Kyle that the sin of pride is the most deceptive of all. People don’t often think of having pride in their accomplishments as a bad thing. But Kyle points out that once you start feeling pride in a job well done, you may not notice when the job isn’t done well. And with that, Anderson has to swallow his own pride and admit he needs Kyle’s help.

Two years ago, Anderson believed he exorcised a demon from Mildred (Grace Zabriskie), a member of his congregation. But after hearing of Mildred’s recent strange and aggressive behavior from her daughter, and a sit down with Mildred, Anderson fears the woman is possessed. Worse, it appears as though it never left and he’s been having weekly Scrabble matches with a demon pretending to be a kindly and devout woman. Yikes. 

Unfortunately, whatever is inside Mildred is one step ahead and tells her daughter of the Reverend’s exorcism attempt years prior. The daughter bans Anderson and Kyle from seeing her mother at all. This begs the question: How many other people have been walking around town with demons? Also, what does this mean for Kyle’s wife Allison? The implications of her still being possessed send Kyle and Anderson - against the latter’s better judgment - over to Allison’s. This most likely won’t end well since she has a restraining order against Kyle.

Chief Giles isn’t too proud to admit when he’s wrong, even if he only admits it to himself. At a dinner party at his home, he presents the watch found in the woods to his friend, who lies about where and how he lost it. In turn, Giles doesn’t let on where it was found. Fully suspicious, Giles takes off for a solo hunting/camping trip, when really he’s staking out the trailer. Sure enough, he watches as his friend arrives in the night and burns the trailer to the ground. Giles changes his mind, calls Mark, and orders him to send all the evidence from the trailer off for analysis. Giles may not be thinking demonic possession when it comes to his friend, but the audience sure is. His friend’s wife is suddenly no longer a vegetarian and craves meat, plus Giles’ dog didn’t like the looks of her at all. Was the trailer the spot of an exorcism attempt?

If there was one understandable lapse of judgement due to pride, it was Mark’s decision to confront Donnie, the man from Megan’s past. Donnie interrupts their date night to say hello, and sets off Mark’s cop instincts. Even though Megan brushes him off as an unimportant asshole from her past, Mark questions Kyle and learns Donnie was a foster child taken in by Megan’s parents, and he regularly raped Megan. While Megan deals with Donnie’s reemergence in her life by destroying glasses in the woods, Mark pulls Donnie over on his way out of town and beats the hell out of him on the side of the road… in full view of his dashboard cam.

This episode wasn’t as scary as the ones that came before it, but it certainly was sad. Poor Norville had just two people in attendance at his funeral, with a surprise appearance from the man who killed him: Creepy Old White Dude in the Hat, who pretends to be an old friend of Norville’s and really enforces the idea that Norville had been depressed and suicidal for awhile. As he claims to be sticking around to take care of Norville’s affairs, and since he pays a visit to Mildred, it’s safe to say he’s setting up to insert himself in Kyle’s life.