'Outcast' Recap: 'All Alone Now'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

After spending a couple of weeks setting up our characters and the universe they inhabit, Outcast finally decided it was time to go for broke and unleash hell upon us because man, last night's episode, 'All Alone Now' was an hour long rollercoaster ride that set up a couple of new plot lines, added to the mystery surrounding Kyle Barnes and quite frankly...brought the terror with one disturbing story.

But before we get into the scares and chills that came along in this episode, let's take a moment and discuss a burning issue right away...what is the deal with the Chief of Police and what does he know about what is really going on? Think about it for a moment, he tries to stonewall Mark in processing the camper, and after Mark got back from a day of collecting evidence, he took the whole mess over. He's been pretty aloof about all the weird things happening in his town and well, it's hard to gauge if he's trying to simply keep a lid on horrible things from the public, or if he's somehow involved with the darkness that's spreading. This wasn't a gigantic plot point from this story, but it's one that seems to be slowly building week in and week out and it's intriguing to say the least.

The terror however, that's really the true highlight of this episode and holy cow...the show went all out to make things uncomfortable for us this go round, by introducing us to a police officer named Blake who just so happened to be discovered and possessed by the darkness. Now, the show deserves some serious credit for the opening sequence of the episode where the evil finds Blake for a couple of reasons. For one, possession stories often introduce us to the poor soul taken over by a demon well after the possession happens but this episode gave us the raw beginning of Blake's nightmare and it was something fresh and unique to watch, but it was all downhill from there and the other incredible moment we were privy to last night...is when the show went all out in demonstrating what kind of powerful evil claimed Blake when he went after his partner's wife with violent and brutal impunity.

It made the meeting between Blake, Reverend Anderson and Kyle Barnes all the more chilling as the two holy men did their best to free Blake from the evil within and well, it's quite stunning after a couple of episodes where they were successful with their exorcisms, to see them fail in their mission to free Blake's body and mind from evil. It would seem now that there are some people beyond saving, which is scary to say the least and well, it seems that Blake and the darkness within enjoyed the violence bestowed upon it. It kept pushing and pushing to get a fist slammed into its face, which now begs the question...is this how the Darkness finds new victims, by breaking down the loved ones of the possessed and filling their hearts with anger and fury to the point where they are ripe for the taking? 

The bottom line is that this was a damn good episode. There was not one wasted moment in the story and there are honestly too many skin crawling, spine tingling moments to discuss in one single recap. But, despite the scares, this is a show that loves to build more mystery every single week and last night was no exception to that rule. After all, one has to wonder exactly what happened in Megan's past with the man that has clearly come to town to find her, and the only thing we learned last night about Brent Spiner's Mystery Man is that he is a simple, well groomed creature that just so happens to be filled to the brim with the darkness. Either way, this show is getting better every single week it is on the air and who knows what kind of horrors await us next week. Until next time.

---