We’re four episodes in, the threat is growing, paths are intertwining, and the characters might actually do something! I mean… a little something. At least we get a bit more worldbuilding. Alright, here we go!
1. The Blood
We finally get a name for our mysterious organization that Caretaker is a part of! It’s called The Blood, and yes, this is an organization from Marvel Comics. Its roots are more tied to “Ghost Rider,” but since Marvel was initially planning on keeping their more supernaturally-focused TV series connected, we can assume that there were plans on The Blood appearing in both.
So what do we know about this organization? They’ve been around for a long while – Caretaker himself is a seventh generation member – and focus on tracking and fighting demonic entities. There’s a surprising amount of people working for them, and they’re pretty efficient at containing possessed people.
However, they’re more focused on containment than exorcism. The victims of possession are put into a medically induced coma, which keeps the demons trapped inside their bodies but unable to do anything. It’s not exactly living, but exorcising the demons just sends them back to whence they came, so there’s nothing stopping them from possessing someone else. It’s effective, as long as there are significantly fewer demons than there are people.
2. Possession Dilemma
We learn about The Blood as Caretaker shows Gabriella around and explains what they do. Her reaction to their method of dealing with demons is less than favorable – she finds it downright inhumane. This brings us an actually interesting ethical debate – is it better to keep the demons trapped or exorcise them?
To Gabriella, exorcising the demons means the possessed people can return to their families and live full lives. It doesn’t stop the problem at its source, but it helps those people in that moment.
To Caretaker, exorcising them is a short-term solution. It saves one person, but doesn’t do anything to stop the demon from coming back and possessing someone else. It’s a solution that requires more sacrifices, but it’s more efficient in the long run.
To the show’s credit, it doesn’t try to tell us that one side is unequivocally right, and the other is in the wrong. They’re both imperfect solutions to a complex problem. Gabriella is more focused on saving the people, Caretaker on stopping the demons. It’s up to us, the viewers, to decide which is the better path.
3. Ana’s Side Gig
Meanwhile, Daimon and Ana spend most of the episode finding out what happened to Chris Yen. Well, they find the skull is missing and there’s still a corpse lying in the middle of the vault, so that kicks off their conflict.
So eventually, Ana admits to Daimon that the artifact appraisal and auction business is just a front for her real work: killing people. She makes sure everyone she kills deserves it (as we saw two times prior), but Daimon is certain she gets something else out of it. After all, their father was a serial killer, what’s to say she didn’t get that habit from him?
Well, speaking of things he got from her, apparently dear ol’ dad had a habit of bringing her souvenirs from his kills. Ana has a whole box full of jewelry, accessories, and other knick-knacks he brought back for her as trophies. Thanks to her powers, she can feel the pain coming from them, and killing other murderers is her way of alleviating the pain.
Even though Daimon disagrees, he still uses his powers to quickly cremate the corpse Yen left behind. That alone seems to take a lot out of him, so it’s unclear just how much power Daimon actually has. Nowhere near his comic equivalent, at the very least.
Where does Yen come in? He helps her out, as we saw in episode 1, though we’re not told exactly why. We also learn his work keeps him away from his boyfriend, and while I’m all for representation, the fact that he’s the one currently taking orders from a demon skull makes me think the show is already heading towards the “bury your gays” trope pretty quickly.
In the meantime, we get to see him bicker with the skull, feed it more blood, and eat dead spiders. It’s gross, but the fact that he’s still arguing with the skull means he’s not entirely possessed. How much of him is still in there is another question.
Continued below4. Cathara
So, how’s Dr. Hastings doing with Victoria? We see the two of them talk, but what we think is a memory from Victoria turns out to be from the demon possessing her. She talks about remembering being outside, eating strawberries by a lake, and playing with her children – children who are not Daimon and Ana, but were taken from her.
Oh, and the demon has a name now – Cathara. She describes herself as “a woman betrayed by all she held dear.”
So what does this mean? Well, the implication seems to be that these demons were once humans, an implication backed up by another demon mentioning a few episodes back how Ana is so good at recruiting for them.That’s not a particularly big surprise; after all, if souls are real, the souls of sinners have to go somewhere.
What is more of a surprise is the reveal that Cathara is the one who gave Hastings cancer. She can take it away, too, but Hastings isn’t ready to make a deal with her. This adds another layer to the conflict between the cast and the Cathara. For now, though, she’s screaming in pain and rage, as Yen performs a ritual with the keeper demon skull underground beneath her room.
5. Daimon’s Dilemma
Daimon’s entire motivation so far has been mostly focused on his mother and freeing her from Cathara. Enter Magoth, the demon he exorcised a few episodes back, who’s now possessing the college student from the last episode.
Magoth drops a few important details. First, he’s still calling Daimon a traitor, which is an interesting choice of words for someone who doesn’t seem to be on the side of demons. Secondly, he says the father only needs one of them, though he won’t say for what.
So he makes Daimon an offer: give them Ana, and they’ll remove Cathara from his mother. Daimon does seem pretty tempted, hesitating for a moment to ask if it’s really something they can do. Of course he’s not going to take the offer, but the temptation is still there.
Anyways, then it breaks into a quick telekinetic fight, which our valiant hero quickly loses before his sister shows up. Daimon still exorcises Magog (again) but it’s clear we haven’t seen the last of this particular demon.
Maybe we’ll actually get to see some more dramatic powers from them later on. So far, using their powers basically requires holding out a hand and staring at something really hard while the special effects add on slight glows and make things move.
Four episodes down and still waiting to get particularly engaged, but at least the plot is moving.
