S02.E02: A Is for Angel

[formerlyfreedom]

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The team is charged with investigating a man who claims that he is hearing an angel.

Episode drops Sunday, June 27, 2021.

[UnoAgain]

Good epi.. But no real answers... Was that an archangel... Was his wife turned into salt.. Can you be charged for that?...  Why hasn't kristen's mom gone to Kristen to tell her what's going on... Is that nun an angel as well?... That priest and David are gonna keep butting heads right.. 

[Chaos Theory]

Best part of the episode was Sheryl and Leland.  “You think you’re the first Demon I’ve dated?”   Interesting take on Sheryl and puts Leland on the defensive.  Loved his glee at finding the blood written message on his office wall.

Also love the new nun character.  

Edited June 27, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[For Cereals]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

Best part of the episode was Sheryl and Leland.  “You think you’re the first Demo dove dated?”   Interesting take on Sheryl and puts Leland on the defensive.  Loved his glee on finding the blood written message on his office wall.

Also love the new nun character.  

Sheryl smacking the shit out of Leland twice was everything!  I love that she is not afraid of him.

Also loved the nun too.

I wish the wife hadn’t returned home and just went straight to the shelter.

[Anela]

That was one well-deserved slap. That little incel prick. 

I need to re-watch the first season. I can't remember who Julia was (Mike's ex-girlfriend?). Talking someone into taking their own life = truly evil. Wow. 

I am glad that I could watch this on the TV. It was difficult to get into, last week. This was a good episode. 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Anela

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, Anela said:

I need to re-watch the first season. I can't remember who Julia was (Mike's ex-girlfriend?). Talking someone into taking their own life = truly evil. Wow. 

Something like that, yeah. There was the whole thing with her sister Renee telling David about how jealous she was of the bond he and Julia had.

But agh, poor David, listening to Leland taunting him with painful memories of Julia like that :(. I was seriously half expecting him to deck Leland at some point during that "confession". Judging from the blood on his hand at the end, he was clearly trying hard to restrain himself from doing just that. Will be interesting to see if and how we learn more about Julia, and David's history with her, as time goes on. I too like Sister Andrea, and I'm excited to see how she'll help David out. She seems pretty no-nonsense, which is just what he needs now, I think. 

(I also was laughing right along with him when he realized Leland was the parishioner he'd be practicing on. I like getting this glimpse into his training, and the examples of the kinds of scenarios he has to practice and whatnot. I loved the bit with the guy's confession being ripped from Scarface :p. )

Speaking of people hitting Leland, I too loved Sheryl slapping him, but my personal favorite moment was the way she nearly bent and twisted his arm back :D. Either that or her pouring out the champagne at his feet, that was good, too.  I also gasped at the thing with Leland jamming that bride and groom statue into the wedding planner's eye-thank goodness that wasn't real! I'm glad she's finally seen the light on him, and I look forward to seeing how she continues to fight back against whatever else he does to try and mess with her. 

Really liked the case this episode, too, it was really eerie and an intriguing twist on the kinds of cases they normally investigated (though I will say that freaky archangel thing looked like a weird mix between Hexus from Ferngully and a character that you'd see in The Nightmare Before Christmas, which amused me a bit. Still freaky, though)). I was so terrified we'd see Ashley's body in some grotesque position or something at the end, but what did happen to her was somehow even more chilling. I'd also guessed the reason why the husband took so long to save that last guy...and now I wonder how much truth was behind that. I'm with Ben in how you deal with something like that, but it did make for an interesting debate among the team.

And on the topic of crimes, way to nearly confess yours to the others there, Kristen. I'm interested in this new investigator she's talking to...Anya, did they say her name was? The fact Mira's not working this case, claiming she's "too close to it" is....intriguing. I know she was writing that book about all the murders of those families last season, and she was on the side of those who were trying to pin those murders on the guy whose wife was exorcised. I wonder if that played a role in her stepping away from this. 

I'm also wondering what lengths Ben will ultimately go to to learn about just what all Kristen's done, given how especially concerned he is about her. David's concerned, too, yes, but he's also distracted with his training. But maybe Ben will ultimately rope David into investigating Kristen further, too. Maybe that'll be part of what derails his training to become a priest. 

Good episode, this one :). 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Annber03

[Broderbits]

2 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I'm glad she's finally seen the light on him, and I look forward to seeing how she continues to fight back against whatever else he does to try and mess with her. 

I can't stand Sheryl so I'm hoping they inflict some serious damage on each other. Michael Emerson seems to be having a wonderful time being Leland, and between the two of them I'm rooting for him.

[Snazzy Daisy]

Watching Brandon Dirden alternating between Raymond & Michael, he is there, he is not there, it’s fascinating. Ashley turning into a pillar of salt, how is he going to explain that to the police?

David’s visits from the creepy Archangel, the talks on “second bowl” and “god’s penance”, I really hope this show will not explore the pandemic storyline, ughh… please don’t go there! 😖

During their “angels don’t haunt” and “just murder” conversations, both David and Ben realise that something’s up with Kristen. Something is definitely brewing inside of her - her PTSD or her inner darkness? Between the two gentlemen, who will confront Kristen first?

Am not a fan of Christine Lahti (Sheryl), so I ignore most of her shenanigans with Leland. 🥱

Leland’s confession re Julia, am not sure how much of it is true? I thought that Julie died because of accidental overdose, not illness.

Sister Andrea is an interesting addition to this show. Her teaming up with David, watch out Leland! My favourite moment from this episode is her “you smell” exchange with Leland. It’s priceless and Leland does look musty! 🤣

[Annber03]

1 minute ago, SnazzyDaisy said:

I really hope this show will not explore the pandemic storyline, ughh… please don’t go there! 

From what I've read, it doesn't sound like they will go into depth with that, no. There might be occasional little allusions to it, like what we saw here, but it sounds like that's all the farther they'll go. 

I liked the nod to the beginning of the pandemic, myself. Especially now we know how things played out from the time the pandemic began up to now. It makes the archangel's warnings even more ominous and eerie. 

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Leland’s confession re Julia, am not sure how much of it is true? I thought that Julie died because of accidental overdose, not illness.

It did make it sound like it was something more like cancer or some other kind of disease, yeah.

But addiction can be an illness, too, of course, so it could still fit with Leland's confession. Add in the fact that David has his own past issues with drugs and that could explain a lot of the guilt he feels regarding Julia's death. Especially since he seems to feel like he was somehow responsible for her death. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

32 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

David has his own past issues with drugs and that could explain a lot of the guilt he feels regarding Julia's death. Especially since he seems to feel like he was somehow responsible for her death. 

David’s drug issues are triggered by him wanting to see god for the second time, after Julia died, right? His other illness was the sex addiction.

Edited June 28, 2021 by SnazzyDaisy

[Annber03]

8 minutes ago, SnazzyDaisy said:

David’s drug issues are triggered by him wanting too see god for the second time, after Julia died, right? His other illness was the sex addiction.

Correct. I just remember the show also seeming to imply he'd had issues with drugs before Julia's death, too-there was that one episode with Renee where they went a little further into his past and talked about some of his issues with drugs and arrests related to them, I think it was. 

[phalange]

I like the nun because she immediately sees through Leland's bullshit.

Kristen's getting way to close to basically confessing the murder to her team. Ben is extremely suspicious now. And since Ben believed it was wrong to let the guy in the car burn even if he was a terrible person, I imagine he would have similar feelings about Kristen killing La Roux. Kristen's his friend and he cares about the kids, but if he finds out that she killed La Roux, he'll probably feel conflicted about whether or not he should tell someone. 

David having to listen to Leland taunt him about Julia was awful. Leland is truly a sadistic asshole. Regarding Julia's death, if she was sick and Leland really did talk her into committing suicide, it's possible that she still died from an overdose by intentionally taking too much prescribed pain medication.

I'm glad Sheryl is finally seeing the light about Leland, but it might be too late to fix her relationship with Kristen. 

So COVID is part of the holy plan to wipe out half the earth? When the angel/demon was talking to David about rebirth, I wonder if that has to do with all of the demon children like Lexis who will "inherit" the earth or something. 

[tennisgurl]

I love that Sheryl just went and smacked Leland (twice!) when he was trying to be threatening, and then went to his office to write insults on his walls in blood, that is pretty awesome, and I haven't even liked Sheryl that much. She cant be that surprised that a man who, in their first conversation, convinced her to ditch her date by laughing about him possibly dying of some awful illness, but I guess its surprising to see his evil turned on her and not random passers by. Of course, its possible that his brand of crazy really is a turn on for her. Not her first demon after all.

I liked seeing a bit of David's priest training, especially the guy basing his confession on Scarface, even as he struggles with juggling his classes, his investigations, and his visions, plus also being stuck dealing with Leland. His "of course it is" laughter when he realized he was going to have to take Leland's confession, then I felt really bad for him having to sit their and listen to Leland cackle about Julia like the sadistic prick that he is. 

So did the wife actually get turned into a pillar of salt? I thought that it would turn out that she really did just leave and the guy was just crazy and piling salt up, but that plot just kind of stopped. 

I loved Kristin sort of trying to feel Ben and David out when it comes to murdering murderers. "So...hypothetically....some murders could be justified right? If it was....like...Hitler....or maybe some asshole murderer....that would be an acceptable murder?" It sounds like David would possibly understand, but Ben wouldn't approve of the murder at all. Ben definitely suspects that something is up with the murder, and while David is less suspecting of what exactly is going on he can definitely tell that something is up with Kristin. 

I really like he new nun, she smelled the sulfur on Leland from the very first second. 

[AimingforYoko]

Not Andrea Martin's first time playing a nun. She played Mother Teresa on SCTV. Speaking of, I recognize a little Edith Prickly in the good sister.

[Snazzy Daisy]

Eerie and captivating art. Kudos to the Prop team! 💪

 

[Annber03]

Yeah, creepiness of the case aside, I was like, "That's some really cool-looking artwork!" :D. 

Once David pointed out the precarious setup Raymond was standing on there, I thought that somebody would fall from it at some point in the episode. Or it'd fall on them, one of the two. 

[ferjy]

On 6/27/2021 at 9:37 PM, Annber03 said:

But agh, poor David, listening to Leland taunting him with painful memories of Julia like that :(. I was seriously half expecting him to deck Leland at some point during that "confession".

Me too.... “I’ll choke your little neck!” 😄

 

[goldilocks]

2 minutes ago, ferjy said:

Me too.... “I’ll choke your little neck!” 😄

 

😆 And David’s cool and collected response was good. Left Leland completely baffled.

[ferjy]

He def looked bewildered. And frustrated, no doubt. I wonder what his retaliation will be. After he pulls himself together again. lol

[goldilocks]

They haven’t made Sheryl very likeable or watchable. Until now. Loved seeing her smack Leland about. 

[ferjy]

11 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

Not Andrea Martin's first time playing a nun. She played Mother Teresa on SCTV. Speaking of, I recognize a little Edith Prickly in the good sister.

Yep, I recognized Andrea Martin straight off. I haven’t seen her in ages, good to see her onscreen again. Definitely Edith Prickley-ish. I half expected Sister Andrea to slap her thigh with a “Puh, ha!” 😄 

[Norma Desmond]

I love the "Next on Evil" bit at the end with George, the night terror demon.

 

Good episode. I just love this show.

 

 

[christie]

Watching this I just kept on thinking "why aren't the police questioning Kristen?" 

[kwnyc]

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Sheryl smacking the shit out of Leland twice was everything!  I love that she is not afraid of him.

The fact that both Sheryl and Kristen aren'ta fraid of Leland, and that both of them push back when he shows himself is interesting. Kristen is Sheryl's daughter, after all. They might be closer in temperament than Kristen would like to admit.

 

Also, LOVED Sister Andrea's "Pain is for tourists," dismissal of David's self-hurting to "see God." The metronome is an excellent device.

[raven]

On 6/27/2021 at 9:37 PM, Annber03 said:

(I also was laughing right along with him when he realized Leland was the parishioner he'd be practicing on. I like getting this glimpse into his training, and the examples of the kinds of scenarios he has to practice and whatnot. I loved the bit with the guy's confession being ripped from Scarface :p. )

Yes!  I'm enjoying the training scenes and that one was my favorite.

I'm behind the rest of you and you're all kind of saying what I feel so I'll just say I really like David's room.  If you have to train to be a priest, you could have worse place to live. I would like to see more of Ben's place as well.

I agree that Kristen is gong to blurt out what she did (if she did it?  I think she did).   I enjoyed Sheryl slapping Leland and all of that as  much as anyone but I still don't trust her or really like her. 

Glad Sister Andrea will be helping David.  That should be fun.