Welcome back to the third installment of the biweekly October Faction review! “The Horror Out of Time” was another curiously titled episode, but more than made up for it with some of the best moments in the series so far. With that in mind, why ruin them for yourself? Go watch the ep and come back when you’re done, spoilers ahead.
1. As close as Deloris is getting to a story
I’ve talked about how Fred, Geoff and Viv have all had their episodes in the spotlight so far, which means in theory we should have had a Deloris-heavy episode this time, but apparently that’s just not the case. We definitely got more Dee than usual, but her adventures were fairly disparate, which is becoming a bit of a disconcerting trend for her. Early in the episode we have a great scene between Deloris and Viv that shows how much great, understated chemistry there can be between the two of them when they aren’t placed at odds with one another. But from there Deloris is dropped into the most cliche country bar-beatdown scene on earth and will inexplicably give a childhood monologue at any opportunity.
Tamara Taylor does the best with what she’s given, but it’s never really felt at any point like Deloris is a fully formed character. She has her own swathe of relationships and side-plots, but it doesn’t seem like the character has her own motivations or a destination for her character arc, whereas the other members of the Allen family had this clearly defined by the first episode. Her backstory with Basil feels empty, her tensions with the locals of Barington-On-Hudson aren’t as weighty as they are for the other protagonists, and her relationship with her family feels more informed by her being a mother than by her being her own person. I don’t know, maybe I’m just annoyed that we didn’t figure anything else out about her impromptu grave-robbery from last episode.
2. Viv and Cathy, Dynamic Duo
Viv and Cathy have one of the most entertaining friendships on the whole show, but I still have no idea if it’s any good or if it’s just a beautiful trainwreck. Cathy continues to be a 60 year old dad trapped in the body of a teenage girl, especially since they knuckled down and decided to make her even more catholic. I feel like the show should get props for being able to casually talk about therapy which is a weirdly low bar that a lot of shows can’t hurdle.
This episode achieved a small miracle as well, there was not a single piece of weird, fake teen slang thrown in, and for that alone I think it could be the best episode of October Faction yet, a true achievement. To be fair, Viv does say “I’m the firmest believer in the scientific method” offhandedly to Cathy as if that’s a normal sentence people say, but at least the writers are making progress. Also Cathy immediately blurts out Viv’s secret to Sarah Waisglass’s Madison under very little pressure, which is a real eye-brow raiser. I really liked the interplay between Madison and Cathy though, although I get the sneaking suspicion we might never get a scene between them again.
3. Oogly-Booglies & Ookie-Spookies
Okay, for a show with a bloodstained logo, a million Buffy pastiches an episode, and a central premise tied to things that go bump in the night, October Faction is criminally lacking in monsters of any variety. The only fist-fight in this entire episode is Deloris beating a very normal, squishy-skinned human up in a bar. I mean she confronts like half a dozen bikie vampires in one scene and we don’t even see her throw a punch! I can’t condone this, honestly.
At one point Fred and Deloris get full ‘SEAL Team Six’-ed up to go kill the aforementioned bikie vampires and then they’re just already dead?! Not on. Honestly, what’s with these vampires? Why don’t they die in sunlight? Why do they have those weird predator teeth? All I want is just one single sharp-toothed, agoraphobic vampire and then I want to see him punch someone in the face before, subsequently, being punched back, that’s all I need. Please October Faction, just punch a vampire, do it for me.
Continued belowBut in other villain news, I am sorely disappointed that Alice Harlow doesn’t grace our screens this episode. Instead we get some more hints as to what Presidio are scheming and the tease of a cyborg (time travelling???) vampire hunter who leaves me intrigued and hopeful for an actual fight scene. (C’mon, just have one bit where the robot dude is like “I don’t think you understand what’s at STAKE here” and then like, a stake pops out of his arm and they stab a vampire, that’d be super cool, c’mon, I know you’re listening Damian Kindler, you gave me Beastmaster, I know you can give me this)
4. Good concept, bad execution
This episode seemed to have a lot of moments that would have landed well if they were just a bit more crisp. Like the opening where we cut between Fred and Deloris’ wedding and their initiation into Presidio. On paper it’s a really interesting sequence, but something about the pacing and the cheap sets just stops it from feeling punchy. Similarly, we have a scene where Fred cheats on Deloris, in theory that’s a huge moment, maximum drama, soap ensues, but instead it just feels wooden and it’s brushed past almost immediately. On top of that we have the really janky scene transition when Deloris gets pulled from her car and an inexplicable sequence where government agents apparently have to steal surveillance footage from the police instead of just seizing it.
Now, I might be the only person who’s irked by this, but sometimes October Faction does this thing where halfway through a line of dialogue there will be a one-second flashback to the thing they’re talking about to remind people what happened in the show they literally just watched. They do it in Stranger Things a lot too and it kills me slowly, it’s so choppy and I really hope it’s not a permanent thing.
On the flip-side to all this, some of the behind the scenes stuff was top quality this episode. The use of diegetic and nondiegetic music was really engaging, and the costumes team were at peak performance. Viv’s outfit was perfectly on-brand, Geoff’s coat was a stunner, the tacti-cool looks for Fred and Deloris were nifty, the bikers looked biker-y, it was a treat to the eyes.
5. Geoff fucked up bad
He fucked up so, so bad. This might be the first episode where I had some real empathy for Geoff, mostly because we realise that his life has just collapsed in a lot of ways. To be fair, he quoted something in Latin (big no-no) and said “nonetheless” and “beg to differ” in his second sentence to someone he’s trying to casually make friends with, but he’s getting better and I feel like it’s time to cut him some slack.
Gabriel Darku’s line delivery was a little stiff at points. But when we see him hardly holding it together after a call with his estranged boyfriend, he shows some genuinely touching facial acting that’s really amazingly framed and shows how capable an actor he is. Also I really like his coat, it’s a super nice coat and I wanna get one. But, obviously the biggest moment for Geoff was inadvertently becoming the worst kid ever and making fun of a kid dying in a drink driving accident because a ghost punked him. Even though I could sorta see the plot twist coming, the weight of it all just sat with me and I feel like Gabriel Darku really translated just how colossally screwed up Geoff’s life had become because of that critical moment. It’s a sequence that I didn’t think would work as well as it did, so props to Darku.
“The Horror Out of Time ” is undoubtedly the best of the first three episodes. It seems like the show is finding its footing in a major way, even if it doesn’t seem to capitalise on that newfound momentum. Pop back next time for episode four “Soirees of Future Past.”
