However, during
the process - and unbeknownst to the others at the time - Angela (or, Regan)
has been lured into the devil's trap.
Finding its way into her consciousness, the demon takes Angela back in
time to the possession experience of her teenage years. There, he traps her. Enamored, tricked, hypnotized by her mother's
love, by some semblance of the past that she has refused to grieve and release,
her soul is locked down. On the surface,
her body is now host to the demon that infected Casey, having literally jumped from one Rance to
another.
It's momentarily
refreshing, later, watching Father Tomas and Marcus celebrate their victory in
a blues bar - kicking back a few beers, as if the Cubs just won a game at
Wrigley Field. But, alas, there is
more serious drama to come.
The harvesting
of human organs by the evil infiltrators in the church - while noticed and
called out by Father Bennet - is apparently an even more widespread operation than
viewers might have believed. One
location is dismantled by police, and the Pope's visit is diverted; but the
very Archbishop to whom Father Bennet pleas for help turns out to be on
"the dark side" himself.
Moreover, Father Tomas' lover has been discovered by her spurned
husband, who threatens to destroy the career of our childlike protagonist.
All in all,
though, this episode turned the volume up even higher in an already
spell-binding series that has captured the imaginations and sensibilities of a large
adoration of fans. Some fans of the show,
on social media, have even noted that this series has brought their faith
back. While it may sound cheesy to have
a TV show do the work of a sermon, in this case, it is not an
overstatement. The show has captured the
human angle of the age-old battle between good and evil, the one story,
according to Steinbeck in East of Eden,
that remains central to all stories.
Rather than glossing over recent problems in the Catholic Church, this
series may even exaggerate them, but in doing so, it lends itself a credibility
to modern viewers who have been disillusioned by organized religion. The protagonists, here, are indeed very
flawed (as all humans are) but one cannot help but see their earnestness of
heart, especially in the two priests, Casey's father, and the nuns. The task of
trying to do good, righteous work in a tainted world is given new breath and
expression of the screen.
Personally, one
of my favorite aspects is the inclusion of the feminine aspects of
divinity. The nuns at the convent use a
somewhat different method of exorcism.
Rather than commanding and expelling the demonic with masculine effort,
they embrace and forgive evil: in essence, they love evil until it dissolves back into the good. After all, it was Jesus who said, "fight
not evil," and this, literally, is the new strategy presented here. This
feminine approach is Father Marcus' key lesson from the sisters and their
Mother Superior, and he immediately incorporates it into his own religious
arsenal, growing in his vocation as an exorcist.
Nothing in this
series is static. People change. People get changed. Broken, redeemed, and then broken again. The refusal of the show to succumb to trite
trivialities is praiseworthy. Let's just hope it gets renewed for another season. -CLINT
SABOM [Clint Sabom also runs a blog and podcast on spiritual themes at The Graveyard Cowboy.]
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