S01.E04: Rose390

[HazelEyes4325]

I finally got a chance to watch this (I had to wait for the hubs to get back home after a weekend away so he could watch it with me) and I think I have a basket full of unpopular opinions:

1 - I realized that I genuinely like this show, even if I have to not think about it so hard.  I willingly admit that I overthink TV shows, but I also get creeped out easily so this one is easier for me to watch if I just take it on face value.

2 - Even though I complained about the L's (don't ask me to name them--they are just the L's in my mind) I think they are a pretty realistic as a group of sisters.  Yes, they are annoying, but most groups of girls that age kind of are (says the Girl Scout troop leader...).

3- The Grandmother is the worst, but I want to see more of her.  I mean, this sort of seems like a waste of Christine Lahti so far.  I think it could be interesting to wrap her a bit more into the story.  Plus, Christine Lahti is amazing...

4 - I would love it if they just dropped the whatever flirtation is going on between Kristin and David.  The show doesn't need it as it has enough going on with their own personal crises.

5 - I want more Ben.

I couldn't figure out why Kristen was crying at the end until someone here mentioned that it might be that because she thinks/realizes the mother killed her son and--ding ding ding!--that makes complete sense.

The psychopathic kid story line was truly creepy and I think fairly well done, even though I couldn't believe that no institution would take this kid.  Then I reminded myself to not think so hard about it...

As for the husband, my guess is that he is dead but they just don't know about it yet.  I have no interest in seeing him, but I would like his story at least ended somewhat well.

[Mermaid Under]

On 10/18/2019 at 3:53 PM, LittleIggy said:

Children in peril is a common horror genre trope.

Hansel and Gretel

[teddysmom]

I like this show a lot but...

1. WAY too many kids.  Why would they write Kristen as having four loud obnoxious daughters?  IMO (maybe unpopular) it just adds too much distraction that she's dealing with all these kids, the church investigations, etc.  And it's not like they can write some of them out of the show, like a lot of shows do when the realize they wrote too many characters into a pilot. 

2. Christine Lahti is wasted here and I can't even figure out what her deal is. She can't remember her own grand children's birthdays? Ever heard of a calendar? 

3. Where is the Dad?  I didn't know Americans were leading Everest expeditions. It's kinda shitty that he takes off leaving his wife to deal with those girls. 

I didn't get that the parents killed the boy. I heard David say that, but how are they covering it up? There is blood "but it's not Eric's". 

If your child tried to drown your infant daughter, no matter this age, that's a crime and you should call the police, not kill him.  He's obviously mentally unstable, and he just attempted to commit first degree murder. WTF

I love Aasif Mandvi.  And Mike Colter.  And Katja Herbers ( I do recognize her from Westworld now).   

[LittleIggy]

23 hours ago, dargosmydaddy said:

That brings up a question I had from episode two... could this job really pay as well as working for the DA? Does it come with health benefits (because it doesn't sound like her husband's job would be the type that comes with family coverage...)? The fact that the church was apparently able to match whatever the DA's office was offering sounds really... unlikely... to me. Particularly since her work for them seems fairly low-key and not particularly full time. 

The job working for the DA’s office sounds more like contract work. It wouldn’t have health benefits in that case.

[12catcrazy]

This was the best episode so far for this show.  The sociopathic and/or demon possessed son was evil personified.  I can see how the parents could've decided to take matters into their own hands and protect themselves and the other children, even by doing the unthinkable.  

I always feel for parents who have kids with bad mental illness issues because it isn't easy to get help.  Back in the 80s I read an eye opening book by Nancy Spungen's mother, about Nancy and the effect she had on the family.  Apparently Nancy was mentally ill, and the Spungens were nice upper-middle class Jewish people who tried to get their daughter some help but hit wall after wall.  They didn't have the money for fancy private sanitarians, but had too much money to get any kind of public help.  Nancy made the family's life a living hell and the mother confessed that she was actually happy that Nancy decided to leave home when she did (still a teenager) because the rest of the family was at the breaking point.   Mrs. Spungen made an interesting point about how her mentally ill daughter was made into some kind of teen idol that young girls wanted to emulate, and how Nancy was the LAST person any young person should have aspired to be like.   It was a good book and I believe is still in print.  

[kwnyc]

Quote

as for the psycho kid, I mean, what could they have done? Already attempted murder at 9? What real options did they have, just wait until he can be charged with a crime? What would psychology be able to do?

Kristen went with "first do no harm..." giving the priests the language to go ahead with the exorcism, because she thought the child was a danger to others. Again, it shows her pragmatic side, which is probably going to save her ass more than once down the road.

And, yeah, the parents definitely killed the psycho kid. From what I've heard, it is very hard to get someone that young institutionalized (and in the case Kristen had been working on, she was trying to get the kid tried as a child, and not as an adult.)

And Clark Johnson! Yay! (Acosta's mentor/exorcist.) So far, it seems like Ben is the most stable, reliable character in the show. He realized what was happening with the VR device, made the assumption that there was a predator in the game looking for kids (whether a human or not is another story...) and fixed the headset (as far as he knows.) And if his house (as seen last week) is in the same place as it is in real life, he lives about 6 blocks away from Kristen.

Yeah, Grandma's not the best role model or babysitter. Hell, for all we know, the VR headsets "fell off a truck." And no doubt, that plays into Kristen's mothering. As we get more backstory, it will be interesting to see how she grew up with this particular mother, where the father was, and why she and absent-husband decided to have 4 kids. (Again, I'm one of 4 sisters, each of us 2 years apart, and I totally get that dynamic.)

Yes, this episode creeped me out very well, and I am not sure I should watch it at night.

[Dowel Jones]

2 hours ago, teddysmom said:

3. Where is the Dad?  I didn't know Americans were leading Everest expeditions.

Oh yeah, definitely.  There are several alpine companies that do everything from basic mountaineering to treks to summit climbs, including Everest. 

[Babalooie]

2 hours ago, kwnyc said:

And, yeah, the parents definitely killed the psycho kid.

How do you think they disposed of the body?  That part has me puzzled.

[12catcrazy]

1 hour ago, Babalooie said:

How do you think they disposed of the body?  That part has me puzzled.

Watch Dateline or 48 Hours - all sorts of ways for killers to dispose of bodies! 

[leocadia]

8 hours ago, 12catcrazy said:

Back in the 80s I read an eye opening book by Nancy Spungen's mother, about Nancy and the effect she had on the family

Great book!  I think it's called "And I don't want to live this life".  It is very true that there is very little help out there for "incorrigible" children.  As a parent, you want to love them and are hesitant to put their future in jeopardy while involving the law (who likely won't be able to do much anyway) but they can be extremely abusive and make life hell.  Demon or psychopath, I found the kid 100% believable and I totally felt for the parents with no where to go for help. 

[Grammaeryn]

7 hours ago, Babalooie said:

How do you think they disposed of the body?  That part has me puzzled.

Tub with lye, dismemberment, fire, pigs who knows? I watch way too much True Crime!

[LittleIggy]

According to the preview, this week’s New Amsterdam is going to have a child psychopath storyline. 

[Dowel Jones]

11 hours ago, Babalooie said:

How do you think they disposed of the body?  That part has me puzzled.

They got him a guest slot on For The People.  Never heard from again.

[Whimsy]

I like this show.  I almost stopped watching after the first episode.  The only thing I hate are the four daughters ALWAYS talking over each other.  I don't believe that would happen as constantly as they have in this show.  The same with ALWAYS being with each other.  At the very least, the oldest one would be trying to find some peace and quiet.  I do like their interactions when they are alone with each other, though.  They at least all take turns talking.

I agree that the husband will eventually come back.  Probably not right on time.  There'll probably be a scare about him being lost or something.  But, I don't think he's dead. 

[Dbolt]

Not as many glaring errors in this episode as the ones before, but I was baffled by Kristen’s “God wouldn’t make a 9 year old psychopath “ statement. There are clearly documented cases of child psychopaths. I mean psychopaths don’t just become psychopaths at a certain age like puberty. I know the show was trying to show her encouraging David but that statement was too dumb. 

I think the father is dead and Kristen knows it, she just doesn’t want to tell the kids. 

[Katy M]

12 minutes ago, Dbolt said:

I think the father is dead and Kristen knows it, she just doesn’t want to tell the kids. 

As a psychiatrist, I think Kristen would realize that would do far more harm than good.  They're either going to find out eventually or think that he abandoned them.  If the former, they'll lose all trust of their only remaining parent.  If the latter, well, they'll feel abandoned.

If he's dead, Kristen doesn't know it either.

[Jennabelle88]

On ‎10‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 10:44 PM, Eliza422 said:

seriously, I think it was a combo of fear from the vid game, meeting a mom so desperate as to kill her own child, and her husband is away and she’s dealing with all this alone...I think?

That was what I took from it. It was very heartbreaking.

On ‎10‎/‎18‎/‎2019 at 4:14 PM, Katy M said:

Actually, I did need to be hit over the head.  I didn't realize it at all until David said that.  

Same here. I was wondering where he could've gone! Lol

On ‎10‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 8:28 PM, dargosmydaddy said:

Kristen mentioned an episode or so ago that her husband was supposed to be back in three weeks. Of course something may come up, but you'd think there would be at least some communication as to a delay within the next couple episodes.

Of course, she could have been lying about this, and will just make up excuses when he doesn't appear. Something hinky is definitely going on with their relationship, but I'm not entirely sure how aware Kristen is of this (i.e. He may already be gone for good... maybe not dead, but gone... and she is in heavy denial or just lying for the sake of making her own life easier. Or maybe she really is expecting him back shortly. I don't know.)

Many speculate the husband is dead, but didn't they just video call him? How did they do that with a dead man? I believe he's alive and well, but I believe there's marital problems, thus causing him to stay away.

[dargosmydaddy]

5 minutes ago, Jennabelle88 said:

That was what I took from it. It was very heartbreaking.

Same here. I was wondering where he could've gone! Lol

Many speculate the husband is dead, but didn't they just video call him? How did they do that with a dead man? I believe he's alive and well, but I believe there's marital problems, thus causing him to stay away.

I thought they just left him a message in the previous episode, after the girls freaked out when the Ouija board told them he was in Heaven. I might have missed an earlier call where they actually speak to him, though?

[Whimsy]

32 minutes ago, Jennabelle88 said:

That was what I took from it. It was very heartbreaking.

Same here. I was wondering where he could've gone! Lol

Many speculate the husband is dead, but didn't they just video call him? How did they do that with a dead man? I believe he's alive and well, but I believe there's marital problems, thus causing him to stay away.

24 minutes ago, dargosmydaddy said:

I thought they just left him a message in the previous episode, after the girls freaked out when the Ouija board told them he was in Heaven. I might have missed an earlier call where they actually speak to him, though?

They were just recording a video message to send to him.  They didn't call him. 

[KaveDweller]

6 hours ago, Dbolt said:

Not as many glaring errors in this episode as the ones before, but I was baffled by Kristen’s “God wouldn’t make a 9 year old psychopath “ statement. There are clearly documented cases of child psychopaths. I mean psychopaths don’t just become psychopaths at a certain age like puberty. I know the show was trying to show her encouraging David but that statement was too dumb. 

Exactly! All adult psychopaths were children once. You don't start as a normal kid and then turn into a psychopath at age 18. Maybe she was trying to say that since God wouldn't make one, it must be the work of a demon? But that doesn't really fit with what she said later.

2 hours ago, Jennabelle88 said:

Many speculate the husband is dead, but didn't they just video call him? How did they do that with a dead man? I believe he's alive and well, but I believe there's marital problems, thus causing him to stay away.

I was really expecting Kristen to get a call in that final scene notifying her he was dead. It would have made things super creepy.

But I also agree that her having a living husband (even one we never see) gives her more drama with the attraction to David. 

[absolutelyido]

On 10/21/2019 at 9:13 AM, teddysmom said:

I like this show a lot but...

1. WAY too many kids.  Why would they write Kristen as having four loud obnoxious daughters?  IMO (maybe unpopular) it just adds too much distraction that she's dealing with all these kids, the church investigations, etc.  And it's not like they can write some of them out of the show, like a lot of shows do when the realize they wrote too many characters into a pilot. 

2. Christine Lahti is wasted here and I can't even figure out what her deal is. She can't remember her own grand children's birthdays? Ever heard of a calendar? 

3. Where is the Dad?  I didn't know Americans were leading Everest expeditions. It's kinda shitty that he takes off leaving his wife to deal with those girls. 

I didn't get that the parents killed the boy. I heard David say that, but how are they covering it up? There is blood "but it's not Eric's". 

If your child tried to drown your infant daughter, no matter this age, that's a crime and you should call the police, not kill him.  He's obviously mentally unstable, and he just attempted to commit first degree murder. WTF

I love Aasif Mandvi.  And Mike Colter.  And Katja Herbers ( I do recognize her from Westworld now).   

Yeah, I'd like to be in the writer's room to hear the discussion of how great it will be to include another scene of the 4 girls all talking (actually yelling) at once so you can't understand what any of them are saying. Why is this such a great idea that they have to repeat it again and again? Do they actually think its cute?

The other problem with so many of them, and always being together, is that there is no way to establish any of them as a character. I don't even know what any of their names are. I know one has a heart condition, but don't remember her name and certainly couldn't pick her out from the others. 

[KaveDweller]

1 hour ago, absolutelyido said:

Yeah, I'd like to be in the writer's room to hear the discussion of how great it will be to include another scene of the 4 girls all talking (actually yelling) at once so you can't understand what any of them are saying. Why is this such a great idea that they have to repeat it again and again? Do they actually think its cute?

The other problem with so many of them, and always being together, is that there is no way to establish any of them as a character. I don't even know what any of their names are. I know one has a heart condition, but don't remember her name and certainly couldn't pick her out from the others. 

I think the one with the heart condition is the little one that freaked out while playing the game that had a warning about not playing if you have heart conditions. The one on the floor screaming when Kristen got home. 

That's all I know about the kids. 

[bkathi]

On 10/18/2019 at 12:30 AM, meatball77 said:

I think it was the creepy courtroom psycho messing with her kids in the game.  I would like the kids more if they weren't so obnoxious.  So loud.

And four kids in a room with two bunkbeds.  That's just absurd.  So she lives in a two bedroom house, with six people (five with her husband away).

I thought it must be the guy from Lost behind the game.  

[Dbolt]

21 hours ago, Katy M said:

As a psychiatrist, I think Kristen would realize that would do far more harm than good.  They're either going to find out eventually or think that he abandoned them.  If the former, they'll lose all trust of their only remaining parent.  If the latter, well, they'll feel abandoned.

If he's dead, Kristen doesn't know it either.

That would be the case if Kristen was a GOOD psychiatrist but I have seen little evidence to support that 😀

[teddysmom]

14 hours ago, absolutelyido said:

Yeah, I'd like to be in the writer's room to hear the discussion of how great it will be to include another scene of the 4 girls all talking (actually yelling) at once so you can't understand what any of them are saying. Why is this such a great idea that they have to repeat it again and again? Do they actually think its cute?

When the daughters start it makes me think of those loud shows on Nickelodeon which i can't take for more than 2 seconds as I'm flipping.  I really wanted Ben to yell at them (I realize this is not appropriate language for kids) "WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!"

Maybe it'll be like Mom and the kids will just slowly disappear.   Or maybe the Dad will come back and take a couple of them to Tibet with him. 

I wonder since they got the S2 pick up if they'll retool it a  little now. It has real potential to be a kind of new X Files type show. 

4 hours ago, bkathi said:

I thought it must be the guy from Lost behind the game. 

I like that idea.  So do we think he is a real living demon? 

[kwnyc]

3 hours ago, Dbolt said:

That would be the case if Kristen was a GOOD psychiatrist but I have seen little evidence to support that 😀

Is she a psychiatrist (MD) or psychologist (MA or PhD?) Because if she were an MD, she'd probably be able to get a full-time staff job at many health care facilities. They call her a "psychologist" on the show's official site. 

[Simba122504]

On 10/18/2019 at 9:41 AM, ketchuplover said:

Dear God ...

For the love of you please let there be one demonic possession before this series dies. Thank you

They must be saving that for the season finale leading into S2. Don't tease the supernatural if you don't plan on going there. Hell, even Scooby Doo brought in real supernatural monsters depending on what version you're watching. Mulder & Scully were surrounded by weird shit.   Maybe Michael is one? 

[hookedontv]

Not sure if anything I have to say hasn't already been said yet, and some of my thoughts may be unpopular, but here I go in no particular order:

1. (OK, actually this is #1 in order): SHUT UP GIRLS! I was friends with plenty of kids came from large families and they were never as loud or as obnoxious as these girls. The screaming, talking over each other, and just basically moving and living as a PACK is unrealistic in my humble opinion. When they come on screen I truly get close to turning the channel, and I've actually fast forwarded through some bits.

2. Grandma - I am not a Christine Lahti fan AT ALL. In fact, she bugs me to no ned. She's sprung up on shows I've watched before: Law & Order SVU, Hawaii Five-O, and others. Something about her rubs me the wrong way, even how her eyes always seem red and wet (I am probably the only one who notices that.) Her character in Evil is ridiculous, clueless, shouldn't be watching those obnoxious kids (but frankly, who besides a family member would agree to watching such a shit show of sisters?) However, Lahti looks GREAT for her age, I should be so lucky.

3. I don't think the husband is dead, though it really is an interesting idea. There are always Everest guides from the US leading expeditions, though I was obsessed with Everest for a while and know that there is a "season" for climbing which is a relatively short window of a few months if I recall correctly. He should be back, it wouldn't take him away all year long. It will be a shock to go from the quiet, natural, buddist atmosphere to 4 screaming girls. However, what if he came back and he wasn't quite himself? What if he came back different, i.e., possibly possessed? That that might be interesting.

4. This particular episode was very creepy for me. I truly believe there are psychopaths out there, and many start the same behaviors as children. I think that child would have at least been sent off for a 3 day hold (if not more) in a pysch ward after the drowning attempt. Those parents, man, talk about being at the end of their rope.

Sorry for the rambling, but this has been infinitely more enjoyable than dealing with the pile of work on my desk this morning.

Let's see what tonight's episode brings!

[TVForever]

On 10/19/2019 at 8:47 PM, icemiser69 said:

Given how David has the hots for Kristen, I do expect something to happen between those two before Kristen's husband comes back.   And I do expect him to come back.  Kristen has to have that emotional conflict, and she can't have it if her husband is dead. 

Unless the husband IS dead and Kristen has known all along and has been lying to her family. Now she would be indulging in her attraction to David, but unable to reveal to her daughters why it's "okay".

That could cause some emotional conflict.

[cleo]

Coming in late,  but as to the father I thought Kristen got a check in an early episode and her mother criticized it saying something about - that's the amount he thinks will do for a month? 

I liked this ep, it reminded me of the Angel ep though where there was a demon trapped inside a psycho kid. Good times.

Interesting the titles all have numbers.

I was not sorry the little weaselly guy was not in it.

Impressed by the effects for a network show.

[msrachelj]

On 10/18/2019 at 3:08 AM, luvly said:

So am I the only one who needed to watch a couple of light-hearted comedies after this one? That was way darker than I was expecting. I kind of wish Kristen had been the one to present the "fake it til you make it" philosophy to the kid because David isn't well-trained enough to realize that he was basically teaching a budding psychopath how to assimilate and manipulate for personal gain.

That Ouija board is definitely going to come back to haunt them.

I thought that about David too. Not too smart, he should have known better.

[msrachelj]

On 10/21/2019 at 10:13 AM, teddysmom said:

I like this show a lot but...

1. WAY too many kids.  Why would they write Kristen as having four loud obnoxious daughters?  IMO (maybe unpopular) it just adds too much distraction that she's dealing with all these kids, the church investigations, etc.  And it's not like they can write some of them out of the show, like a lot of shows do when the realize they wrote too many characters into a pilot. 

2. Christine Lahti is wasted here and I can't even figure out what her deal is. She can't remember her own grand children's birthdays? Ever heard of a calendar? 

3. Where is the Dad?  I didn't know Americans were leading Everest expeditions. It's kinda shitty that he takes off leaving his wife to deal with those girls. 

I didn't get that the parents killed the boy. I heard David say that, but how are they covering it up? There is blood "but it's not Eric's". 

If your child tried to drown your infant daughter, no matter this age, that's a crime and you should call the police, not kill him.  He's obviously mentally unstable, and he just attempted to commit first degree murder. WTF

I love Aasif Mandvi.  And Mike Colter.  And Katja Herbers ( I do recognize her from Westworld now).   

Yes. All they had to do was tell the cops the little psycho tried to murder his sister. They wouldn't have to deal with him at home anymore. Now they have to live with murdering their own child. 

[rhys]

I'm so glad I came here to read. I totally missed that the parents killed Eric! Wow.

I have 3 granddaughters who are sisters & * they are loud.* Crikey, it hurts my ears when they get excited about something.

the AR was very cool in this episode.

[Sakura12]

I was told to check out this show for Halloween. It's not scary, but it does take a lot to scare me. This episode was definitely disturbing when they revealed the parents killed their psychopath son. They did say they tried everything else, I didn't catch the name but they said they gave to him to someplace that was supposed to take care of him and they called a week later and told them to take him back home. Kristen was crying because she just saw a mother driven to kill her kid to protect her other kids. Didn't Ben from Lost say that in her therapy note she dreamed of getting rid of her kids? I'm thinking she was thinking about that. She saw a mother that actually carried out that dream. 

As for the rest of the show, why did they feel the need to give the lead character 4 kids? Especially if they are not going to be actual characters. I think 2 would've worked for that. If they wanted her home life to be chaotic just make them younger say, 5 and 3 or something. I also don't see how she could have had 4 kids, been an established mountain climber and gone to I'm assuming graduate school (they don't call her Dr.) at the age she appears to be. I also think she's pretty lucky that they may be annoying talking over each other like that but they don't act like most sisters that close in age do. I babysat two sisters that were a year apart and all they did was fight and yell at each other. They could maybe get along for 30 minutes than one of them would do something and the other would start screaming. I'd probably let them talk over each other rather than deal with them all crying. So I guess she's doing something right. 

Also are we going with none of the cases they work on are supernatural, but the things happening to the characters are? 

[kwnyc]

Quote

As for the rest of the show, why did they feel the need to give the lead character 4 kids?

I'm waiting for the shoe to drop on this one. Not many people in the US have 4 or more kids these days, unless there is some kind of religious/cultural factor. If the reveal is that Kristen is a fallen away Catholic, it's kind of simple, but makes sense.

I'm one of five kids (including 4 girls with an a two year difference between each one), and the question I was often asked growing up is: are you Catholic? And the answer was yes.

Still not happy with the Dad being away most of the time...if you are going to ask for/commit to having 4 kids, then you need to be on the ground with them, not halfway around the world. (And for those who cited military, that's a public service choice that also provides income, housing and health care for kids.)

So I think there's a lot to unpack in Kristen's background, and I would like to see more of it sooner rather than later.

[Morrigan2575]

I find the kids annoying and, utterly unbelievable, they actually take me out of the whole show. Maybe they can go hiking with dad and take grandma along?

[angelusgirl]

On 10/21/2019 at 12:26 PM, 12catcrazy said:

This was the best episode so far for this show.  The sociopathic and/or demon possessed son was evil personified.  I can see how the parents could've decided to take matters into their own hands and protect themselves and the other children, even by doing the unthinkable.  

I always feel for parents who have kids with bad mental illness issues because it isn't easy to get help.  Back in the 80s I read an eye opening book by Nancy Spungen's mother, about Nancy and the effect she had on the family.  Apparently Nancy was mentally ill, and the Spungens were nice upper-middle class Jewish people who tried to get their daughter some help but hit wall after wall.  They didn't have the money for fancy private sanitarians, but had too much money to get any kind of public help.  Nancy made the family's life a living hell and the mother confessed that she was actually happy that Nancy decided to leave home when she did (still a teenager) because the rest of the family was at the breaking point.   Mrs. Spungen made an interesting point about how her mentally ill daughter was made into some kind of teen idol that young girls wanted to emulate, and how Nancy was the LAST person any young person should have aspired to be like.   It was a good book and I believe is still in print.  

I read that book in high school! I remember the name to this day-"and I don't want to live this life"

[Bruinsfan]

On 10/18/2019 at 6:13 AM, icemiser69 said:

And then the lame excuse that was used at the end by the mother, that her son ran away.

Apparently he ran away so fast he forgot some of his blood and left it splashed on a wall.

On 10/18/2019 at 9:25 AM, Emma9 said:

Same. Her perspective on the subject was creepy in its very matter-of-factness, which I liked - my favorite moment from her character thus far.

It was nice that Kristen wasn't sugar-coating it, but an exorcism wasn't going to help that family. Removing the problem child from the home and getting him into inpatient treatment at a facility with experts in antisocial personality disorders is what she should have been pushing for, not David's if-all-you-have-is-a-hammer approach to exorcisms.

The constant high-pitched screeching ought to be enough to make any demons think twice about haunting that house.

[LexieLily]

I was recommended this show by a friend (thanks @Annber03!) and thanks to a month-long free trial of Paramount Plus I was able to watch two episodes that she recommended. This episode was one of them. I read through this thread and didn't see anything similar posted so I thought I'd share a theory I came up with and see if anyone else got the vibe. 

The parents didn't murder the psychopathic son. Older Sister did. 

I thought the show kept trying to push the baby as being the catalyst of being Eric's issues, but they also said that Eric's issues didn't start until two years earlier (when they moved into the neighborhood/that house, according to Ben) and Mom wouldn't have been pregnant yet with baby girl. Mom made a point to tell Kristen at the end that she loved all of her children equally, as if she was trying to convince herself as much as she wanted to convince Kristen/Ben/David. I think 'loving all of her children equally' was meant more in terms of Eric/Older Sister. Older Sister didn't look that much older than Eric. Maybe they went to the same school, saw each other in the lunchroom, took the same bus. There wasn't anything about Eric going to a special school.

But if the only punishment (in Older Sister's mind) that Eric got for biting his sister for laughing hard enough to draw blood and need stitches was that he got locked in his room at night - which clearly didn't work if Older Sister had to sometimes sleep in an air mattress in Mom and Dad's room to keep herself safe from Eric, while Eric kept his room and still got run of the house, I could see Older Sister growing resentful and taking offense. And then there's Eric calmly chilling out there alone by the pool when he's trying to drown his infant sister, with no parental supervision in sight. 

Mom had that line about loving all of her children equally for a reason. Maybe she heard it a lot from Eric or Older Sister that she didn't. A ten or eleven year old isn't going to understand the complexities of psych holds and mental illness and basketfuls of medication. She's just going to see the police showing up at school to collect her brother, her parents spending all of their time and money on Eric and nothing changes: Eric's still in the house, he's still hurting people, her parents still seem to be afraid of him.

Except now there's a brand-new baby in the mix. A baby that Eric was totally cavalier about trying to murder-via-drowning. 

So maybe Older Sister took the lead to protect herself, her sister, and her family, and murdered her brother. She could have overdosed him on any of his medicines, or whacked him. That would explain Mom and Dad struggling to explain the blood.

In that case, it leaves a darker, more of a dysfunctional interpretation of Mom's desperate insistence to Kristen, David and Ben that she does love all her children equally. If Older Sister did murder Eric because of resentment that went deeper than normal sibling rivalry and a large part of that hypothetical was because Older Sister felt like their parents favored Eric or that the family ended up always having to bend to Eric's whims, Mom's statement hits different. Covering up for what Older Sister did by claiming that Eric ran away, that is the mom's way of making it up to Older Sister by making it even. By finally putting her first. Protecting her in a more tangible way than locking Eric in his room and hoping for the best.

[leocadia]

So I think I may be haunted (and I didn't skip the intro I swear!).

I consider this episode to be one of the most legitimately frightening of the series and this week I had a delivery going to a person named Rose...and the tip was $3.90.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but it still gave me a bit of a chill.  🫢

[Milburn Stone]

On 10/17/2019 at 11:37 PM, LittleIggy said:

That was the best episode so far, IMO.

100%. Even though I don't have kids, I understood the parents' misery, and was scared the whole way through. My brain knows the parents should be (and will be) punished for what they did, but my heart wants them to be treated with mercy and to receive clemency (even though they won't). For an episode to be able to make me feel that way (and not, "parents should get the chair"), given what they did, is extraordinary.