The Exorcist “Chapter Eight: The Griefbearers” takes the exorcism of Cassie to an end, or sorts. The conspiracy to kill the pope seems to have been thwarted by Father Bennett and the Rance’s are preparing to pack up and move away from Chicago.
But things are far from over. The small victory claimed by Father Tomas and Marcus was merely an intermission while the players changed over. As Keane pointed out in the previous episode, the demon inside Cassie was trying to extract vengeance for a 40 year grudge.
Captain Howdy has returned and he is angry at Regan and her mother for casting him out all those years before. His torture of Cassie is meant to weaken Regan / Angela and it works. She ends up with the demon inside of her.
The demon is still orchestrating a pretty big take over bid against the pope during his windy city tour. The body count continues to mount up. Father Bennett, who went from annoying papal representative to a man full of integrity and purpose, survives his encounter in the Tattersol warehouse.
He then attempts to warn the pope through Cardinal Guillot only to be murdered for his efforts. It appears that the demonic conspiracy spreads much further than the Friars of Ascension in Chicago.
Bennett’s death is a shocking moment. We had just come to like the priest who got Father Marcus defrocked.
Cassie has now been cleared of Captain Howdy. The demon has gotten what it really wanted all along, Regan. As the girl is sent to recover in a medical facility, the Rance family take a breath.
Their respite, however, is short lived. As Angela and Chris talk about old times, Angela’s changes. She calls her mother “Little Stinkpot” (which was Chris’ nickname for her, along with Rags) and when she turns to face her daughter, Angela’s face has changed.
With a cold look, Angela grabs Chris’s head and twists it until her neck snaps. The body falls down the stairs and Chris’ face looks over her own back at Angela.
Meanwhile Father Tomas returns to his church to find a man and a woman sitting on a pew. It is Jessica and her husband. The man is aggressive and at one point it looks like he might get physical with Tomas.
In the end, he tells the priest that he will be complaining about Tomas sleeping with his wife. Jessica swears she will get the whole thing straightened out.
Marcus has realized that things are not over and rushes from the bar where he and Father Tomas were celebrating their victory. Kat and her father talk about a change of scenery now that things, they think, have calmed down.
Show creator Jeremy Slater has pulled out all the stops to take Blatty’s vision and intensify it. It appears that Captain Howdy will not be satisfied with Regan / Angela after all. The demon is clearly trying to take out the head of the Catholic Church.
This episode offered up two very shocking deaths. Father Bennett getting suffocated in the back of the limousine was surprising and shocking. Then, just as it looked like the good guys were winning, Chris MacNeil is murdered by Angela.
We knew that the exorcism of Cassie ended too soon. The demon gave up far too easy. However, it seemed that the thing would just show back up in Cassie or perhaps jump over to Kat. The swap with Angela / Regan was a surprise.
The Exorcist returns on Friday, 2 December. Tune in and see who the demon goes after next.
Cast:
- Alfonso Herrera – Father Tomas Ortega
- Ben Daniels – Father Marcus Keane
- Hannah Kasulka – Casey Rance
- Geena Davis – Angela Rance
- Brianne Howey – Kat Rance
- Alan Ruck – Henry Rance
- Kurt Egyiawan – Father Bennett
- Deanna Dunagan – Mother Bernadette
- Muzak Makkar – Jessica
- Kirsten Fitzgerald – Maria Walters
- Robert Emmet Lunney – Salesman
- Sharon Gless as Chris MacNeil
- Francis Guinan – Brother Simon
- Torrey Hanson – Cardinal Guillot
Father Bennett is such a strong character in the show, and if they kill him off that quickly, I don’t know if I would continue watching.
Valid point, but everything seems to be gong pear shaped at the moment, it seemed that Bennett was going to die, precisely because of the POV shot through the plastic bag…
Actually Father Bennett’s fate is ambiguous. We see his vision blurring and then blacking out. If the prowess he displayed in the bowels of Tattersal are anything to go by, he just may survive the Cardinal and goons.