There are two kinds of reviews that are fun to write: reviews for series that are really good, where I can talk about what makes it so amazing, and reviews for series that are just plain bad, so I can have fun ranting (see: Marvel’s Inhumans). Helstrom is neither. It’s not good enough to praise, but it’s also not so bad that I can go off on entertaining tangents about how bad it is. It’s just sort of… unenjoyable. But hopefully you’ll still enjoy these reviews as we start on episode 8, “Underneath.”
1. So We’re Just Going to Skip That, Huh?
Last episode ended with Daimon tricked by the Blood, surrounded and shot but also lighting everyone on fire. All the while Esther was still there, clearly with some sort of plan in mind. Clearly things were going to be tough for Daimon this episode.
Well, to quote Screen Rant’s “Pitch Meeting” series: “Actually, super-easy, barely an inconvenience.” As the episode begins, he’s already gotten out of there. No fuss, no mess, just more angst. We could have had some sort of escape, Daimon struggling about whether or not to use his powers – anything!
But nope, it just opens up with a phone call to Ana saying “Hey, the Blood is doing stuff.” Which brings us to point number two.
2. The Blood is Bad at This
For an organization dedicated to stopping demons, the Blood is really bad at their job. First the hotel gets slaughtered. Then they try to lead Daimon intro a trap that completely backfires. Then we see them keeping one of their own caged up because he’s marked for possession. They assume it’s going to be Cathara, since Victoria’s body is near death. So naturally, they’d take every precaution, right? A team on standby to stun and capture him the moment possession kicks in, contingency plans and failsafes?
Haha, nope.
They’re carving some sort of item that’s supposed to stop her, but that also requires the blood of a Keeper Demon. So why they choose to taunt Cathara with it before they actually have that blood is anyone’s guess.
Except even then, it’s not Cathara. It’s Magoth, back for a third time (or is it fourth? I’ve lost track with this jerk), who promptly uses his telekinesis to wreck the cage, kill the few people on guard duty, and walk out. Esther survives simply by being offscreen in spite of being there while it’s happening.
So yeah, they are really, really bad at what they do.
3. Daimon Snaps
In fact, the organization’s incompetence brings us to our next point. The team follows Daimon to his old family home, which coincidentally happens to be having an open house. That’s convenient, and actually gives us one almost funny moment where Daimon and Gabriella have to pretend to be a couple.
The Blood members aren’t even good at making themselves look inconspicuous, so naturally, Daimon pulls them into a trap. For a moment, it looks like he’s outnumbered and losing, until he starts using his powers to telekinetically throw them around.
That brings us to a moment that’s actually somewhat well done. Daimon holds all of them in the air, nooses around their necks, as Gabriella begs him to spare them. He calls out Esther, because of course she’s also there, and asks if she’ll plead for their lives. Of course she doesn’t, and tells him to go through with it.
You all figured out by now that it’s a bluff, right? The ropes weren’t tied off to anything, he just wanted to prove that he cared more about their lives than Esther does. Then he says he forgives her and tells her to stay away from his family. But let’s be real, the odds of that happening are slim to none.
4. Worst Laid Plans
Meanwhile, what are Ana and Hastings doing during all of this? Well, they have their own plans for dealing with Cathara. You see, Cathara and her minions set an obvious trap for Daimon by calling for an exorcist. Except Ana and Hastings also see it’s an obvious trap, so they go instead, with the dagger that gave Daimon his freakout. Thanks to its vague, undefined “eeeevil” properties, it can kill a demon along with its host.
Continued belowExcept if Ana touches it, she immediately feels all the pain it’s caused. So Hastings will have to do it. At first she objects, saying the thought of taking a life will haunt her for the rest of her days. Then she reminders “Oh, right, the cancer” and agrees to do it anyways.
Well of course that goes wrong, because Cathara still has telekinesis. Also, both Magoth and the possessed priest (whose name we now know is Raum) are hiding there, but neither of them actually do anything. Yet they still turn it around, and all they have to do is take the stab.
Then Ana gets cold feet and thinks up a new plan. If a demon leaves a host when the host dies, what if they’re resuscitated right after? So, rather than stab her mother with the cursed knife, she instead… smothers her with a pillow, then has Hastings perform CPR once Cathara leaves.
Somehow, in spite of everything, this works. Which, of course, is all according to plan.
5. New Body, Who Dis?
So when Basar said “there is another,” he meant another person marked for possession, and that’s aside from the one that Magoth took. We find out who it is this episode.
After Daimon gets the word that Victoria has been freed from Cathara, he’s actually a little upset that he wasn’t the one to do it. Gabriella dissuades him of this idea… then starts making out with him. Because of course she does.
To Daimon’s credit, he backs off and wants to give her a minute to make sure that’s really what she wants to do – so that is good. Informed, enthusiastic consent is a necessity, after all.
Then he goes to take a shower while Gabriella gets possessed. It turns out that Pete tapped her head when he shoved her out of the way a few episodes back, and that’s all it took to mark her for possession. Meanwhile, Cathara left Victoria’s body, but she can just come back and take a new host. So she takes Gabriella.
Somehow, this also gives her access to Basar’s heart, which Cathara/Victoria tore out earlier that episode as his host body died. How did it teleport into her hands? Nobody knows. But she places that in Daimon’s back, so it burrows in with a row of teeth (yes, teeth on a heart, that’s at least something new) and possesses him too.
Alright, so Cathara is in Gabriella, and her son, Basar, is in Daimon. This creates new dynamics and a powered-up threat that Ana and Hastings will have to – wait, are they boinking in the last three seconds of the episode? Oh god, no, that’s wrong in too many ways to count!
So our episode ends on demonic possession semi-incest sex scene with hosts that can’t grant consent for their bodies to be used like that. I’m going to drink until I forget everything I just watched, and I’ll see you all next week for the penultimate episode.
