We’re inching ever closer to the end of Outcast‘s first season, so let’s take a look at what happened in this week’s new episode, “The Damage Done.”
The episode opens with Reverend Anderson trying to clean himself up after his bloody encounter with Sidney at the end of last week’s episode. In the midst of the encounter, he forgot all about his weekly poker game with his friends (including Sheriff Giles), and the entire event is marred by the thoughts running through his head. While the reverend is a mental trainwreck, Giles takes the time to confront his friend about the night of the fire. In the end, Anderson lets Giles in about what happened with Sidney, but he doesn’t want any interference so that he can solve the issue (in a divine way) himself. I really like this attempt at pairing up Giles with Anderson because it’s so clear that they have a deep history together that we haven’t yet been able to explore. It also brings Reg E. Cathy more into the main story of Outcast, and that’s always something to be appreciated. It’s also great to see such a forceful and hand-on version of Reverend Anderson for once. It’s been fun watching him exorcise the town, but his post-Sidney demeanor is a wonderful new side of the character that I hope we see more and more of as time goes on.
The primary focus of the episode is the annual Remembrance Day celebration, and the event causes Kyle to think more on his past. As we’ve seen throughout the series, Kyle has been deeply affected by his “gift” (for lack of a better word at the moment) for his entire life, most recently culminating with the destruction of his marriage after the possession of Allison. Allison, too, is beginning to dwell more on what happened to her now that it’s affecting her relationship with her daughter in such a drastic way. Allison’s characterization is one of the most interesting on the show to date, and a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that so much of her character is a mystery. We still don’t know what’s really happening to her (not that I’m complaining; the slow-burn nature of the series is one of my favorite aspects of Outcast), so every new development is a welcome peeling of the onion.
It still feels entirely like a side adventure, but we did spend a bit of time with Megan this week as she continues dealing with the fallout of her husband’s actions. We’re lucky that Wrenn Schmidt is such a wonderful actress because this story could easily be written off (at least for now) as completely unnecessary, but Schmidt is always able to bring the right amount of emotion to the story.
The episode was light on sheer horror, but the dark mood persisted as the story was able to progress nicely. Overall, “The Damage Done” was a solid episode of Outcast (if a tad weaker than the previous installment), and it continued to open doors along the hallways of the series’ mythology. One of the greatest things about Outcast is the underlying complexity that is always present, though it isn’t revealed in a straightforward way because of the show’s slow-burn format. This format can drag with plenty of shows, but Outcast knows exactly what it’s doing, and it handles it spectacularly.
What did you think about this week’s new episode of Outcast? Are you still excited that the show has already been renewed for season 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
[Photo Credit: Cinemax]
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