S01.E03: Dark Uncle

[formerlyfreedom]

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Despite being on mandatory leave, Ralph continues to scrutinize the confounding circumstances surrounding the night of the murder. Jack has a hair-raising experience at a remote barn where key evidence and a mysterious substance have been found. Glory deals with fallout at her daughters’ school and with Jessa’s increasingly concerning nightmares.

Airing Sunday, January 19, 2020.

[WaltersHair]

This is definitely going in a direction I hadn't anticipated. Parasite? Infection? Is the series so dark no one sees that giant rash?

Glory is just so strange. I find her as strange as the new PI.

[AimingforYoko]

1 minute ago, WaltersHair said:

Glory is just so strange. I find her as strange as the new PI.

Well, Glory just had her husband accused of a horrific crime, saw him shot dead in front of her and still has to deal with the bullshit from the town. I'm inclined to let her be strange for a while. 

It seems pretty obvious Holly's on the spectrum, while having some savant abilities.

I was wondering what the thing in the prison was about, then they tied it in at the end.

[BC4ME]

8 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

I was wondering what the thing in the prison was about, then they tied it in at the end.

I feel like I'm missing everything. It's just so dark I can't tell what's going on. How did they tie it in?

[AimingforYoko]

Just now, BC4ME said:

How did they tie it in?

He worked at the hospital Terry's dad was staying.

[blixie]

So whatever attached to Terry originated at the hospital where his dad was, mimic'ed him and then moved on to kill again, and now it's attached to Jack? Seems like Jack was  big enough douchebag even before he was possessed by a child killing monster.

[Cheezwiz]

19 minutes ago, blixie said:

Seems like Jack was  big enough douchebag even before he was possessed by a child killing monster.

I must say, the actor portraying him is doing an amazing job, because I just want to beat his face in repeatedly!

[Bulldog]

I'm no forensic expert, but I'm fairly certain one shouldn't urinate at an active crime scene. 

And was it explained why Ralph brought his wife along on the meeting with Glory and the kids.  Obviously, it was good that he did, but it seemed kind of odd to me.   

Edited January 20, 2020 by Bulldog

[Cheezwiz]

1 minute ago, Bulldog said:

I'm no forensic expert, but I'm fairly certain one shouldn't urinate at an active crime scene. 

Professionalism isn't one of this guy's strong suits.

[Robert Lynch]

There is always a douchebag in every King novel.

[PotterOtherP]

Another Rain Man character here to save the day by being endearingly autistic. At least Jeopardy didn't come on while they were in the bar.

Other irritating cliches:

"You're on leave, stop working!"

Creepy little kid who sees things.

World-weary cop with a tragic past.

Mom who shuts everything down so the plot doesn't move too fast.

I'm afraid this is going to be another mystery that starts great and but gets muddled quickly.

[Chaos Theory]

32 minutes ago, PotterOtherP said:

Another Rain Man character here to save the day by being endearingly autistic. At least Jeopardy didn't come on while they were in the bar.

Other irritating cliches:

"You're on leave, stop working!"

Creepy little kid who sees things.

World-weary cop with a tragic past.

Mom who shuts everything down so the plot doesn't move too fast.

I'm afraid this is going to be another mystery that starts great and but gets muddled quickly.

Only one of those I find especially irritating.   The “rain man” character.  Then again I HATED Rain Main.   The rest of them I can buy as just part of the plot.   I mean the cop on leave has a realistic reason to want to investigate.   It’s not just that he is bored.   Something is hinky with the case and at least three people are already dead....and the cop is directly responsible for two of them.  
 

Mom on the other hand has good reason to want it to all just go away.   Her kids are being adversely affected and regardless of Terry’s guilt or innocence the quicker people forget the quicker her daughters can get back to what passses for a normal life.
 

I am dubious about spooky kid.  So but Stephen King.  So I’ll let that pass as well.   I am just feeling lucky that spooky kid isn’t evil spooky kid.   

Edited January 20, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[LakeGal]

I don't really like the camera angles they are using.  Everything is always so far away.  I don't like having to guess who is talking when they are in a room at the end of the hall and around a corner.  Why did we see an entire conversation shot looking into a window with bars on it?  It wasn't till they finally moved a bit closer that I even realized that there were 4 men in the conversation.  Everything is dark and confusing enough without doing artsy camera angles to make it impossible to know who is in the conversation.

[DoubleUTeeEff]

12 hours ago, blixie said:

Seems like Jack was  big enough douchebag even before he was possessed by a child killing monster.

I know, right? No one is going to be able to tell the difference between his Before Possession and After Possession personas.

3 hours ago, PotterOtherP said:

"You're on leave, stop working!"

This one is right up there with criminal or cop who is about to retire and then gets pulled into one last job which of course turns into a clusterfuck.

3 hours ago, PotterOtherP said:

Mom who shuts everything down so the plot doesn't move too fast.

This is the one that is annoying me in this particular show. I get that Glory is in a terrible situation but it seems to me that she has some motivation to help if she actually cares about her husband's innocence coming to light.

I will say, that I do actually like the PI. Although I was wondering why she bothers to write anything down since she seems to have a photographic memory.

And this is the first episode where I was excited to see where things are headed and kind of wish I could binge it now.

[TattleTeeny]

I thought this episode was good but I was becoming impatient (partly because my connection kept pausing and spinning and buffering or whatever) with the blurry "through a door/window" angles and long, still shots.

[kay1864]

4 hours ago, DoubleUTeeEff said:

Although I was wondering why she bothers to write anything down since she seems to have a photographic memory.

 She did say she had to look at a calendar to see what day today is. So maybe her memory is selective.

[iMonrey]

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So whatever attached to Terry originated at the hospital where his dad was, mimic'ed him and then moved on to kill again, and now it's attached to Jack?

But what does Terry's father have to do with this, and why were there detectives questioning him before Terry had even died? When they were saying they found Terry's fingerprints but it looked like they belonged to a 90 year old man I thought maybe Terry's father had switched bodies with him  . . . or something.

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I don't really like the camera angles they are using.  Everything is always so far away.  I don't like having to guess who is talking when they are in a room at the end of the hall and around a corner.  Why did we see an entire conversation shot looking into a window with bars on it?

This. I can't decide if this is supposed to mean something, or whether they are just being overly clever or artsy-fartsy. When Ralph and his partner (?) went to confer with two other guys the entire conversation was shot through the window at a distance, and I couldn't figure out who they were talking to. Then that odd establishing shot of Ralph at his therapist's house, shot from behind him through the doorway. 

Worse, when Holly went back upstairs after leaving the bar, she stops midway and starts freaking out or something, and they cut to an out of focus shot of someone getting up from a TV and looking out the door or window. What the actual fuck was that?

The show is making some really weird choices in directing. I spent the whole episode thinking I had missed something because I couldn't figure out what the guy in prison had to do with anything.  

[cpcathy]

I’m laughing reading everyone’s assessments. I was ticking off groped as soon as the episode was over. This one did not live up to last week’s episodes. I really hated the scene shot through the office window, and was wondering if Bateman was the director (he was not). 

[izabella]

20 hours ago, Bulldog said:

I'm no forensic expert, but I'm fairly certain one shouldn't urinate at an active crime scene. 

I was completely confused as to what was going on there.  Why did Jack go there?  At night?  By himself?  Who was he shouting to?  The rash...that means he is possessed now? 

[blixie]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

But what does Terry's father have to do with this

The black orderly worked in the facility where Terry’s father was a patient, the monster pretended to be him and then killed two little girls. Other than that I don't think his dad has anything directly to do with it so far at least. Just  same location as the doppleganger monster  probably took care of his dad.

[nb360]

3 hours ago, izabella said:

I was completely confused as to what was going on there.  Why did Jack go there?  At night?  By himself?  Who was he shouting to?  The rash...that means he is possessed now? 

I am also completely lost. I'll re-watch and hopefully will understand.

[ferjy]

On 1/19/2020 at 11:16 PM, blixie said:

Seems like Jack was  big enough douchebag even before he was possessed by a child killing monster.

lol If there’s anyone who didn’t need a doppelgänger, it’s him. One Jack is more than enough. 

 

[jenn31]

20 hours ago, PotterOtherP said:

At least Jeopardy didn't come on while they were in the bar.

I kept waiting for someone to drop a package of toothpicks.

 

[ferjy]

16 hours ago, LakeGal said:

Why did we see an entire conversation shot looking into a window with bars on it?  It wasn't till they finally moved a bit closer that I even realized that there were 4 men in the conversation.

 

11 hours ago, iMonrey said:

When Ralph and his partner (?) went to confer with two other guys the entire conversation was shot through the window at a distance, and I couldn't figure out who they were talking to.

Add me to being perplexed at the odd camera shots. That scene was frustrating, especially since all their voices were so similar. It might as well have been Ralph talking to himself throughout the whole conversation. 

 

[Johnny Dollar]

The plot of this episode jumped around so much it was making me nauseous. 

Glory needs to listen to her daughter. 

They’re not being very subtle with what’s going to become of Asshole Cop Jack. Perhaps it would be a bit more interesting if the servant of the Big Bad wasn’t such an asshole. 

[Starchild]

 

On 1/20/2020 at 7:54 AM, Robert Lynch said:

There is always a douchebag in every King novel.

There is, and he's always the same, and he's always used the same way in every book. I am disappointed to see this trope again.

 

19 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Worse, when Holly went back upstairs after leaving the bar, she stops midway and starts freaking out or something, and they cut to an out of focus shot of someone getting up from a TV and looking out the door or window. What the actual fuck was that?

I think that was a flashback to her father watching the session videos of her as a little girl being tested. Presumably his reaction was "Damn my little girl is some kind of freak." Holly mirrored that reaction after Ralph commented on her parents' allowing that treatment of her.

 

19 hours ago, cpcathy said:

I’m laughing reading everyone’s assessments. I was ticking off groped as soon as the episode was over. This one did not live up to last week’s episodes. I really hated the scene shot through the office window, and was wondering if Bateman was the director (he was not). 

I'm laughing because I first read that as "wondering if Batman was the director" lol. Because of course if he was, outside the window is exactly where the camera would be.

 

15 hours ago, izabella said:

I was completely confused as to what was going on there.  Why did Jack go there?  At night?  By himself?  Who was he shouting to?  The rash...that means he is possessed now? 

He was called to go there, but being a douchebag who didn't want to do his job, he detoured by the strip bar first, so by the time he got there, everyone else was gone. It seems he encountered the monster there (maybe still there since discarding its Maitland persona?), who is now exerting some kind of control over him. This is the fate of douchebags in King books lol.

 

7 hours ago, ferjy said:

lol If there’s anyone who didn’t need a doppelgänger, it’s him. One Jack is more than enough. 

I haven't read this particular King book yet, but I get the sense that he won't be used as a doppelgänger source, but as a way to control Ralph. Coming in the same episode as the warning delivered through Terry's daughter, I think maybe this is what she meant about something bad happening that Ralph should be afraid of.

[izabella]

8 minutes ago, Starchild said:

He was called to go there, but being a douchebag who didn't want to do his job, he detoured by the strip bar first, so by the time he got there, everyone else was gone. It seems he encountered the monster there (maybe still there since discarding its Maitland persona?), who is now exerting some kind of control over him. This is the fate of douchebags in King books lol.

Yeah, it's one thing to discard bloody clothes, but what about Maitland Replica's body?  Whose was it and where did it go?  Conjured out of thin air? 

It seems this creature can't operate on its own and needs human bodies to do his work, yet has amazing powers nonetheless. 

[blixie]

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Yeah, it's one thing to discard bloody clothes, but what about Maitland Replica's body? 

The lurking in a hoodie person is the double, he just changes forms to impersonate (poorly) the people who he wants to take the rap, I think Jessa even said his face was blurry. Which is what hoodie guy looked like when we had shots of him. He was in the barn with Jack we saw a flash of him. I don't know why sometimes he dopplegangs and some times he doesn't or why he feels compelled to stick around in Georgia when he skipped Dayton so fast and easily by hopping a ride on Terry, or why he wants to have sit downs with Jessa instead just happily skipping on to the next town/person to copy/kill.

[iMonrey]

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Why did Jack go there?  At night?  By himself?  Who was he shouting to?

I can answer that last part. He was shouting for Butch Cassidy to come out of the barn, a reference to the ending of the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

[UnknownK]

31 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I can answer that last part. He was shouting for Butch Cassidy to come out of the barn, a reference to the ending of the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

They showed the cop bitching because the crime scene was an hour away, then showed him at the strip club, and finally at the crime scene at night when everybody was gone. So did he stop by the club and wait for the crime scene to be empty before he got there or was that out of order?

[iMonrey]

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They showed the cop bitching because the crime scene was an hour away, then showed him at the strip club, and finally at the crime scene at night when everybody was gone. So did he stop by the club and wait for the crime scene to be empty before he got there or was that out of order?

He said the forensics team (or whoever) would have it all wrapped up and be gone by the time he got there since it was an hour drive. Apparently out of his jurisdiction. He was just called to the scene because it was related to his case. Apparently since he knew they'd be gone by the time he got there he felt like he might as well take his good sweet time. 

[Dowel Jones]

Personally, I'd like just a little less David Lynch and a bit more Dick Wolf in the direction.  Just a tad, though.

[BigBlueMastiff]

Glory is driving me crazy with the lack of follow up questions with her obviously distressed daughter. I guess this t slow he pacing, but it doesn’t seem necessary. How much could a young child articulate about the dream man? Ask some questions Glory!

[Robert Lynch]

And my dad thought it was the cable, but I told him it was the visual quality that sometimes lights it up or darkens some scenes. I seen this more than once on some HBO shows.

[stacyasp]

why dont or didnt they show Glory the video they had of Terry at the train station/ strip club( when he said he was at the conference) so she could see why they suspected him in the first place! Maybe her attitude would change.  It seems like Jack is morphing into Ralph?  I mean we havent really seen a clear shot of Jack its always from a distance or behind or profile nothing head on

[ctlady]

On 1/20/2020 at 8:11 PM, izabella said:

The rash...that means he is possessed now? 

I'm guessing that's how this entity/parasite is getting into its hosts - via the skin.  Thus when Terry's daughter mentioned the cut he got on his arm when they were on vacation in Dayton.  The parasite most likely got in him that way

[maystone]

On 1/21/2020 at 7:40 PM, BigBlueMastiff said:

Glory is driving me crazy with the lack of follow up questions with her obviously distressed daughter. I guess this t slow he pacing, but it doesn’t seem necessary. How much could a young child articulate about the dream man? Ask some questions Glory!

It seems to be her parenting style. She told a story about how when Maya (the older daughter) believed there was an evil leprechaun stalking her in the house, Glory just kept telling her she was being ridiculous and leprechauns weren't real. Maya was still scared. But Terry jumped in, affirmed her fear, then made it all better by saying that leprechauns couldn't leave Ireland, so she was safe. She seemed frustrated and sad when she was recounting it.

[PotterOtherP]

"My husband was 100% not the murderer who brutally killed a child the same age as my children and is still free to kill again because he wasn't my husband."

"That creepy man wasn't real honey, go back to sleep."

[Starchild]

21 hours ago, maystone said:

It seems to be her parenting style. She told a story about how when Maya (the older daughter) believed there was an evil leprechaun stalking her in the house, Glory just kept telling her she was being ridiculous and leprechauns weren't real. Maya was still scared. But Terry jumped in, affirmed her fear, then made it all better by saying that leprechauns couldn't leave Ireland, so she was safe. She seemed frustrated and sad when she was recounting it.

I didn't see that movie, was that monster confined to Ireland? Because if it wasn't, that wouldn't have comforted me at all.

[Robert Lynch]

3 hours ago, Starchild said:

I didn't see that movie, was that monster confined to Ireland? Because if it wasn't, that wouldn't have comforted me at all.

That whole Leprechaun trilogy was so ridiculous. Hint Hint: The guy who plays the Leprechaun is the actor that plays in Willow and be sure to catch a pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston in one of the movies.

[tennisgurl]

I think its pretty impressive how Glory is still able to be civil to Ralph at all at this point, considering his lack of professionalism and shoddy skills as cop led to not only the death of her husband (and several other people) but also her family being ostracized, including her daughters being expelled (oh sorry, taking a sabbatical) from school for the sake of the kids bullying them. Yeah, I am not a fan of Ralph, he has yet to make up for that huge massive fuck up of arresting Terry without even bothering to do any basic investigating or finding out if he had an alibi all because he was either having some weird dead son baggage or he wanted to be a big badass who arrested the bad guy in front of the whole town. I am glad that the new PI lady is here as another main character, I can root for her a lot easier. 

I do agree with Ralph's wife though on how to deal with nightmares or never asking follow up questions. Just telling a kid that anything they are afraid of isnt real wont help, how can you help them with a nightmare if you dont let them tell you about it? 

So we have random psychics, kids with creepy visions, angsty investigator with a dark past, scummy rednecks, judgmental townsfolk, some creepy lurking something or another, references to drinking and alcoholism, throw in a writer and a trip to Maine, and we can win Steven King bingo!

[Ellaria]

On 1/21/2020 at 7:40 PM, BigBlueMastiff said:

Glory is driving me crazy with the lack of follow up questions with her obviously distressed daughter. 

Agree. It is easy to sympathize with Glory's difficulties right now. It would be overwhelming. However, her dismissiveness about Jessa's "nightmares" makes me want to scream at the TV.  Any child would be traumatized by this series of events and, IMO, nightmares would not be uncommon. Glory trivializes Jessa's nightmares and is always telling her to "go upstairs." Jessa usually sleeps alone in a dark room. Yikes! While Glory has no reason - at this point - to consider that the supernatural may be involved, she may not be handling this properly.

(I'm not intending to be judgmental here. I'm reacting as a parent and thinking that there has to be a better way.)

Overall, I'm enjoying this series. It is appropriately creepy, as is all of King's works. Jack appears to be screwed and I can't say that I'm sorry about it.