Welcome aboard to the world of the supernatural, Southern fried style. It’s Robert Kirkman’s Outcast, the Cinemax adaptation of his 2014-2018 Image Comics series. Set in Rome, West Virginia, Outcast is the story of Kyle Barnes, a man haunted in many ways by demonic possession throughout his life, and his return to his hometown of Rome to solve these mysteries after separating from his wife and daughter after his wife’s own demonic possession was misinterpreted as a domestic violence situation. In Season 2, the mysteries of Rome deepen for Kyle, and he’s thrust into the dual roles of demon hunter and caretaker for his young daughter Amber and traumatized sister Megan.
Everything from the past nine – – nay, nineteen episodes – – comes to a head in our season (and possibly series) finale. Let’s dive into “To The Sea” — and as always, spoilers within.
1. Back to the Pulpit
We left off last week with Reverend Anderson returning to his church, looking only for sanctuary before leaving town but finding a plea for help from the congregation. His pulpit brings him the strength to provide not comfort to Rome’s Christians, but truth – – that there is no escape for what is to come. There’s no comfort in Scripture, he reminds everyone as he tears pages from the Bible much to the crowd’s surprise. Good will triumph over evil as long as it lives in people’s hearts – – and that people take the action to fight, not run towards the text of an ancient book.
As much as I hate to quote Scripture here since the Reverend just said it’s a load of bull, I have to quote James 2:17 to summarize this sermon. In the New International Version, the verse translates as “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
Time to get out and fight the demons within, Rome. Your churches and your Bible aren’t going to save you now. They’re not the Reverend’s flock anymore – – they are his army.
2. Family Reunion
Someone else also returned home last week, as you may recall: Simon Barnes, Kyle’s dad. He’s also been the one watching over Susan Barnes after she disappeared from the hospital. The father and son reunion is tense, as expected – – would you welcome back the parent who abandoned you a generation ago with open arms? Most likely not. (Even Simon’s friends aren’t welcoming him home either – – Junkyard Bob greets him with a shotgun.) Kyle shows some of the backbone that Patrick Fugit mentioned in our interview with him last week – – this realization that he is not going to make his father’s mistakes, that he needs to put his family, and by extension, all of Rome, first.
No time for family therapy though; there is work to be done. Simon urges the Church of the Beacon to prepare, and Kyle receives the news from Junkyard Bob that Allison and Amber have disappeared from their safe house. Father and son finally bond, with father passing on to son how he can use their shared abilities to save Kyle’s family.
3. Confrontation versus Retreat
The Reverend and Giles have a heart-to-heart as he makes plans for Rose’s burial, wondering and lamenting that even the local funeral director isn’t safe from demonic clutches. (If you can’t trust them, who can you trust?) But it’s not just a case of where the wake and the repast will be held. Giles has questions and lamentations about fight or flight. While he was going to “drink away the apocalypse,” Rose saw it head on – – and even though it was too much for her mental state to bear, she at least faced it. And she also prepared. She had a list of where the citizens or Rome stood. And Giles knows that is the way we have to honor her memory.
4. Switching Sides?
All along, we’ve been led to believe that Kyle and Amber are to be the saviors of Rome, the ones to stop the Merge. Dr. Park, however, finds them to be the start of the Merge – – and as long as they are separated, the Merge will not happen. His mysterious benefactor encourages this course of action, and Blake (who has been holding Megan and Holly hostage) has this same vision. He wants Megan to take him to Amber so that father and daughter stay apart. Will Megan sell out her brother and niece for her daughters? Also . . . huh? Has Kyle been playing us all along and is the Merge what will save Rome, instead of destroying it? The allegiances and sides are switching late in the game, and it can confuse, but that’s also part of this show’s beauty: the slow reveals and the idea of nothing as it seems.
Continued below5. The Beacons Unite
Like “water drawn to the sea” (ROLL CREDITS!) the Beacons from 30 years ago reunite with Simon and Kyle in the forest to finish his job. Allison and Amber join the flock, revealing they have been with Simon all along as Simon did not think Kyle was ready to accept they were a part of this fight against darkness as well (something Amber’s known all along – – these kids are really smarter than the adults). As the darkness overtakes the forest, Simon commences ritual killing of the other Beacons, with Amber and Kyle on the list. With the knife at Kyle’s throat, Giles, Reverend, Dakota, and their army fight off most of Simon’s army, but father and son remain locked in tussle.
And then, there’s Amber: “LEAVE MY DADDY ALONE!”
The battle concludes. There is a sense of finality in that forest but it’s not the merge. It’s something worse. In Amber’s attempts to save her father, has she inadvertently let out something even worse?
Just at that moment, Susan Barnes – – Mama Barnes – – awakes.
And then we fade to credits.
6. Final Thoughts
The beauty of this show, or perhaps the frustration, has been the slow burn. Like layers of an onion, mysteries upon mysteries upon mysteries reveal themselves. If you were expecting some sort of final battle to close a circle, you didn’t get it here. In fact, new doors have opened: Dr. Park’s interest in both Blake and the pregnant Megan, the newly possessed Beacons and how they will integrate into Rome, the tension between father and son as they protect the very different things they hold dear. This is only the surface of this world, and fans would be done a great disservice if we did not see these stories continue. (Hello? Netflix? Hulu? Amazon?) There’s too much at stake to leave it behind now.
Thank you for taking this journey with me. Here’s hoping we have a third season because as Patrick Fugit correctly predicted to me in that interview: all hell is going to break loose.
