TV Review: The Exorcist (Season 1, Episode 7)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

EPISODE: FAHTER AND LIES

THE DISH: Keane once again enlists the help of Ortega, but not without a price. Meanwhile Casey's health is rapidly running out of time.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW. IF YOU'VE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE, STOP READING HERE!

THE DICE-UP: Happy horror Friday friends, the battle for soul salvation continues. Indeed, Chapter 7 of Fox's middling revamp of The Exorcist – entitled Father and Lies – once again centered on the spiritual corruption of the missing Casey Rance. The show jumped off with Ortega sermonizing a prayer on behalf of Casey to a crowd of familiar faces. This while thinking of a flashback to the week prior, where Keane once again enlisted his help in hiding the poor girl's demonically possessed vessel back in Mother Bernadette's monastery. And worse, Keane advised Ortega to lie about to the Rances. The plan? Quash a 40-year grudge held by the demon and clean the family for good. But at what price? Ortega is clearly eroding morally, fibbing, fornicating, fighting with a trucker and the like. It seems his moral core must be traded for Casey's spiritual ablution. And that's not all that tolls. Back at the church, the demon thrashes around as scripture is spouted in her ear, leaflets scatter about, drawers close and undo, finally loosening and taking a hearty bite out of Ortega's wrist. Keane gives a heartfelt speech about feeling the hand of god that night he saved Casey for a split second, almost killing her, tearing up at the thought of going so far to the brink.

The shit storm of publicity and Christian protest continues to wear on the Rances. The press continue to hound about the tabloid fodder surrounding their daughter. Something deeper and more insidious seems at play though. Now grandma Chris, like papa Henry, is starting to act oddly erratic. Is it just old age and accidental brain trauma? Doubt it. It seems a slow seeping evil is permeating their fiber somehow. Chris and Angela grow a bit closer through it all. Ortega makes a house call, continues to lie about not knowing where Casey is or if she's alive. And frankly, time is running out. Casey is a moribund, fetid, flesh-rotting quasi-corpse at the moment. Ortega sees this firsthand when returning to help Keane once more, even though the demon has laid dormant all day. Worse, Mother Bernadette is kicking the whole exorcism operation to the curb, making an astute observation in so doing. Is Keane trying to save his own soul or that of Casey? Is he helping himself or others? Good stuff, and again proves why Ben Daniels is the clear cut above in terms of acting in this show. Dude's killing it (no pun). Anyway, as recourse, Ortega believes he and Keane must inform Casey's family.

My favorite part of Chapter 7 though, despite not fully knowing if it will pay off or prove a weak non-sequitur, involved the church higher-ups. You know, the sickos who cremate harvested organs to resurrect ancient souls. When Father Egan pays them a visit and calls them out for raising illegal funds and allocating them to his benefit, we not only get a grim look at the way certain churches may operate, but recompense is not without. The circle orders a hit out on Egan, the attempt of which occurs as the Father stumbles down a dark corridor to discover a stack of gorily flayed dead bodies ready to disorganize. Shit was right out of AHS; Roanoke! Egan fought back, shed blood, then got in a possessed battle of soul transference with his lowly assailant. I don't know how and why this story will play out the way it does, or if it was just meant to up the kill quotient, but I appreciate the visceral change of pace from the preachy demonic-talk to outright slasher tropes. Then again, it is straying a bit too far from the source material.

Father and Lies ended with a clear cut path to the final three episodes. It's clear that Keane and Ortega are compromised morally, and that the only way Casey can be truly saved is through the help of her own kin. Regan will no doubt play a major part in bringing her daughter back to life. Question is, how much more will she lose along the way? Will Henry and Chris be somehow sacrificed? They have been acting oddly for episodes now. Or what about Kat? Will she be in the clear? More curious, how will the other story line of the nefarious church brass tie-in? Will an organ-dust entity be summoned in order to fight the Salesman? Whatever happens, I do dig all the ethical shadings the show has given us all season long. The demon itself has proven to be a grand metaphor what corrupts the innocence in us all. For Casey it's literal. For Keane it's the past, as it is for Regan. For Ortega it's his moral center. How all this manifests as one universal problem is easily among the undoubted strong suits of The Exorcist. Here's praying the final three frames pull it all together and deliver!

THE EVILDOING:

• The demon chomps Ortega's hand whole thrashing around a turbulent hold
• The church minions order a violent attack on Father Egan, who gets in first a bloody knife fight and second a possession-battle after discovering a stack of bloody and excoriated dead bodies

CREEPIEST MOMENT: I'll go ahead and pick the lowest hanging fruit. The final shot of demonic Casey seeing her mother, sitting up, rejuvenating and blithely uttering "The Sow" was a nice show-capping bit of creepiness. Certainly sets up for some craziness to go down next week!

THE CONFESSIONAL: I confess, it didn't take until the end of the episode or the preview for next week to foresee that it can only be Regan who can help her embattled spawn. Of course that's has to be the way. The family catharsis must be a mother-daughter bonding moment of surviving abject hell. Regan's been through it and most definitely will guide Casey through it as well.