'Outcast' Recap: 'Fireflies'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Over the course of a year and a half, Cinemax’s Outcast has accomplished a great many things storytelling wise. It’s established itself as a master of the slow burn style of storytelling, and it’s definitely proven to everyone that it can be a chilling and scary affair and of course, it’s been a fine character study as well. But despite its impressive resumé when it comes to the horror genre, I’ve yet to see the series just straight up let loose and take some risks, the kind where say, the bad guys suddenly take control and if anything, this thread of thinking is another fine lesson when it comes to being careful what you wish for, since the series gave that notion a try during last night’s episode and the end result, was stunning to say the least.
 
Because ‘Fireflies’, more or less became a waking nightmare through and through, wherein evil reigned supreme and the audience was more or less toyed with, since in the opening moments of the story, we came to learn that Kyle Barnes died on the operating table, leaving his friends and family in one hell of a bad place as they tried to reconcile their newfound loss and well, this was a dark plot thread to say the last since Allison damn near reached her breaking point and Giles slipped into a drunken depression over his actions in getting Kyle killed and really, this plot thread set the tone for a bleak story that honestly, left me with some doubts when it came to Kyle’s fate. After all, his surgery was performed at the hands of the evil Dr. Park and I’m glad there was suspicion in my mind, because as it turns out, Kyle was alive and mostly well.
 
As it turns out, the good Doctor had hidden him away in the closed off wing of the hospital, and it quickly became obvious from the locked door and the care he was receiving that someone wanted Kyle isolated, in order to sell the lie about his ‘death’, so they could have Kyle all to themselves, no doubt for nefarious purposes, and the person that made such a twisted plan come to fruition, just so happened to be Sidney. Who surprisingly showed a touch of empathy and kindness toward Kyle in the hopes of getting Mister Barnes to rest and heal and he was so relaxed around Kyle this time around that he let it slip that part of the long-term plan when it comes to the Merge, was to transform our world into some kind of strange and unrecognizable place where the creatures/demons that inhabit people’s bodies, won’t even need flesh anymore.
 
But thankfully, Kyle was having none of Sidney’s crap, and after duking it out with him and an orderly, he was able to make a wounded escape, and eventually find his way into the arms of his friends and family (with an assist from Amber) since they too had doubts about Kyle’s death and arrived at the hospital to confront Dr. Park, and while that should have signaled a happy end to this wild episode, there was one surprise still waiting for us, one that involved Aaron. Because a new friend was introduced into Sidney’s inner circle, one that Aaron didn’t care for and was happy to dispose of and once Sidney found out his protégé killed his best shot at earning a speedy upgrade to becoming evil, Sidney came to realize that there was only one way to properly deal with Aaron, and he robbed the troubled young man of his life, without giving it a second thought.
 
If anything, the best word to describe this episode is chaotic and I mean that in the best way possible. Because danger was around every single corner in this story, and kudos to this episode for selling Kyle’s death so well early on and for leaving every single character confused and slightly shattered in this tale because it really gave the story a gravity that I wasn’t expecting and well, now that we’re through the worst of it for Kyle we can move on to bigger mysteries, like who the other beacon was that helped Giles host evil, and the fallout of his Rose Giles’ actions and most importantly, what Sidney’s next move is going to be and well, when all is said and done, this show is downright scary when evil takes control and here’s to hoping it doesn’t get a chance to do so in the future of this tale because holy cow, it almost won in this story. Until next time.  

---