'Outcast' Recap: 'This Little Light'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

At its core, Outcast is truly a story about good vs. evil. There are good guys, there are bad guys. There is a grand conflict brewing where the entire world is at stake, which means that last night's season finale should have been pretty by the numbers; with a grand showdown between good vs. evil, with good coming out triumphant, full of experience and a new found resolve to continue to fight the good fight at every single turn.  

But, 'This Little Light' bucked that standard style of storytelling completely. This was an ugly, angry and outright devastating season finale where plenty of mistakes were made, and we're not talking about people's feelings being hurt, we are talking about outright destructive mistakes that there are no going back from. But before we get too deep into that, let's take a little time today and discuss some of the more interesting little nuggets this show provided us with when it comes to the evil and how difficult those first few hours and even days are for the possessed, because this one picked up right where we left off last week, with whatever darkness that is now inside of Megan trying to adjust to a brand new life in this brand new body it happenes to inhabit. 

If anything, we learned not only are those first few hours dangerous to say the least...but they're also incredibly confusing for the the possessed. They don't understand a single thing that is going on around them, and to top it off, the sounds and sensations of the world they now inhabit is almost too much for them to bear. Which means evil Megan's first experiences on earth were outright terrifying as she wandered the city in the middle of the night, without a clue that Kyle and Reverend Anderson were trying desperately to find her. The reasons for such an intense search on Kyle's end quickly became clear. He has come to realize that there is a limited window to remove the evil from a person, the longer it stays, the more damaged the person is when it is finally removed, making it critical to find his baby sister in time to free her of this madness.

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Kyle also worked it out with the Reverend that at some point, these creatures seem desperate to find some sense of normalcy when they are frightened, something that feels familiar and safe which led them right back to Kyle's house, in the hopes of finding Megan there. But alas, when they arrived she was nowhere to be found, but that does not mean their theory wasn't spot on, they were just a few minutes behind Sidney, who discovered Megan cowering in the house and did his best to help her by calling in his lackeys; Ogden and Kat to take her someplace safe, and in the process, Sidney was finally able to figure out how to get his hands on Kyle Barnes for far more nefarious purposes...his daughter. 

He makes use of Patrica's son to kidnap the girl and then taunts Kyle to meet him alone, something Kyle is happy to do, if it means his baby girl is safe and it leads Kyle oddly enough, into a locked storage room with his daughter inside Caldwell's just off of main street, where it is revealed that Sidney has more or less set up a triage/adjustment center for the newly possessed in this town, giving them proper care as they adjust to their new lives on earth. This of course, should have been the moment where Sidney reveals the master plan for his kind, but instead...he merely points out the fact that he needs Kyle before heading off into the night. Thankfully, Anderson followed Sidney the whole way; and goes inside to save Kyle, leading to a stunning battle royale where Megan is saved and freed from the demon. But not by Kyle, oh no...it turns out little Amber has the same power as her father and it is her hands that free her Aunt from the horrible darkness within.  

Yet while one should expect a happy ending here, there is none. Sure, Megan is free, but her husband is dead and she is shattered over this fact. Anderson thinks he finally has Sidney exactly where he wants him and goes back to the demon's trailer to burn it to the ground, only to discover the next day that there's a good chance he burned Patricia's son Aaron alive instead of his enemy and Kyle and Amber decide to leave and hide to not deal with this madness any further...only to have a group of people at a gas station stop and stare at them in awe. It's proof that evil is still everywhere, and growing stronger by the day, and despite his best efforts to stop it, Kyle Barnes is still for one hell of a fight. In the end though, this was simply a stunning season finale, only because this is one of the few times in storytelling that you come to realize that evil is outright winning the grand battle against good, and that final image of all those people staring down Kyle and Amber is burned into my memory, because it speaks to that fact and that we are going to be in for one hell of a ride come season two. Until next year.

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