There is a splendid irony in The Path: A Homecoming. Eddie has based his return to “the truth” through a lie and as a result he is getting mixed signals from his wife Sarah. The lie, which he seems to have turned to in desperation, is having a knock on effect. The woman he “transgressed” with, Miranda Frank (Minka Kelly) refuses to “unburden” because she did not do anything.
Away from the Lanes, Cal (Hugh Dancy) is hiding the truth about the cult’s leader Steven Meyer (the man has a tumor and there is no question of resuscitation.) The hierarchy are relying upon prayer and Cal goes along with it.
Back at the compound, Cal gets word that his estranged alcoholic mother Brenda (Kathleen Turner) is being evicted after setting her apartment on fire. Cal tries to look after Brenda but she knows which buttons to push on her son. She agrees to move to sheltered housing if he takes a drink.
Cal agrees and it turns out that he is an alcoholic as well. After the two share a drink, they arrive at the home and when Brenda antagonizes her son, he reacts angrily. Cal grabs her arm and shouts at her.
Sarah gets a call from Cal who explains that he is sh*t-faced. She advises that he take a cab and sleep it off. Eddie is furious to learn that his contact outside the cult is following him. He tells Alison (Sarah Jones) that if she comes back he will kill her. “You don’t know my background,” Eddie says, “This is not a threat.”
Meanwhile Sarah shows a depth of hate and anger towards the innocent Miranda, whom she believes slept with her husband, and Abe Gaines (Rockmond Dunbar) begins to infiltrate the cult as he looks for Mary.
As disturbing as the whole Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) storyline is, the woman essentially is allowed to bully Miranda, who was brought to the compound against her will. While the interaction and backstory between Cal and Brenda is even more unsettling.
It is revealed that Cal’s father took him away from Brenda and the two joined Meyer’s cult. Cal’s dad returned to Brenda and “drank himself to death.” The would-be leader of the movement Cal has been sober for over 12 years and when he does take a drink, at Brenda’s insistence, he gets violent.
The whole thing feels a little like an Oedipal “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” It is interesting to note that Cal can be so easily manipulated by a woman he clearly hates yet, at the same time, feels responsible for.
Eddie’s decision to live the lie is causing Alison problems. Lane learning that Alison’s husband “committed suicide” swayed him away from doubts brought on by his vision. However, he is getting frustrated at Sarah’s lack of reciprocation and when he learns that Miranda is in the compound he goes to see her.
Hawk continues to help his new friend Ashley Fields (Amy Forsyth) whose mother has gone broke after Ashley’s father kills himself. The girl is curious about the movement and Hawk’s apparent kindness. The two are slowly bonding and after the Lane boy helps Ashley and her mother light their house, she kisses him on the lips at school.
Cal and Brenda have another meeting at the sheltered home and Eddie finally gets into the “program” area to see Miranda. Knocking on her cell door, he gets no answer even after calling her name. Opening the door he finds the woman prone on the ground with spilled juice next to her.
Eddie shouts for help.
The entire Miranda situation is interesting. Eddie (Aaron Paul) must have known that the woman was not going to “unburden” for something she had not done. In his panic to distance himself from Alison and turning back to the “truth” Eddie did not really think his actions through.
It is revealed, via Miranda, that the Lane family are “like the Kennedy’s.” Like royalty, their actions are pretty much sacrosanct. A trait they share with Cal as well as Sarah’s parents. Although Eddie is not on as high a rung of the ladder as either his wife or Cal.
The movement may well be in search of ultimate enlightenment but the group’s members are not saintly nor are they “without sin.” Sarah’s father, while smoking pot, tells Eddie in no uncertain terms that he is not happy with his son-in-law’s transgression. Sarah herself is furious almost to the point of violence that Miranda will not unburden her transgression.
Cal means to take over the movement from Steven Meyer and is hiding the leader’s being brain dead from a tumor. On the other side of this tale is Gaines promising Mary’s beaten to a pulp father that he will get his daughter back. Did Mary tell Cal the truth about her father? Time will tell.
There is also fact of the group abducting survivors from catastrophes, like the tornado, as a part of their recruitment process the younger the better apparently. The Path has a lot going on here. Even Alison, whose husband tried to leave the movement is on edge, she throws a temper tantrum when Eddie threatens her outside his house.
While not all the movement members fall in the same league as Cal (at the Peruvian retreat where Meyer lays comatose one of the other members tells off the would-be leader for not praying) the entire organization, with its rungs and “need to know: structure just begs to be corrupted.
It will be interesting to see if Eddie starts to doubt once more after the debacle with Miranda. One also wonders if Alison will give up on him after the threat.
The actors all deliver. Dancy is disturbing yet vulnerable as the “man who would be king” of the movement. Paul is a walking mixed signal; all angst and doubt one minute and then calm confidence a second later. Monaghan is revealing disturbing depths to her “Jackie Kennedy” of the Meyer Movement and Kyle Allen has made young Hawk Lane his own.
Director Michael Weaver, who cut his directorial teeth on dramedy and outright comedy, would seem to have been an odd choice for this cult drama until one watches the episodes filmed thus far. Weaver has woven the tale well with all its layers and glimpses of darkness underneath.
The Path airs Wednesdays on Hulu. Tune in and relish the performances and peek at the darkness of these people aiming for ultimate enlightenment.
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