TV Review: The Exorcist (Season 1 Finale)

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

EPISODE: THREE ROOMS

THE DISH: It all ends here. After 10 weeks, the demonic possession of the Rance family must somehow come to a halt. Or will it?

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

THE DICE-UP: Now how's that for a f*cked up finale! After three months and 10 chapters, Fox's newfangled Exorcist angle did everything in its ungodly power to deliver us from evil. In your estimation, did it succeed? The Chapter of Three Rooms picked up exactly where last week stranded us, namely inside the Rance abode with Regan in full Pazuzu mode. With Ortega making a house-call, his unsuspecting ass gets tossed up, down, left and right at the hands of Regan. When he comes to, he finds himself inside some kind of purgatorial place of pain, an eerie version of Keane right there at his side rocking a pretty sweet fedora. Of course, the material Keane is strung up with Father Bennett in front of brother Simon and Maria Walters, both of whom are set to be sacrificed in the evil ceremony of ash – Vocare Pulvere. More on that in a second, but first, it's worth mentioning the flashback Regan has that harkens to a time when she was first possessed by Pazuzu. The demonic salesman here appears as if Freddy Krueger – bald, skin-charred, nails raking across the wall while talking sass, etc. A genuinely creepy moment!

So too is a shot of a lost soul Ortega was responsible for in the past. As Keane explains his failings, a decrepit rotting corpse-face appears in a hood, mouth and eye-sockets hollowed out and replaced by fetid maggots squirming about. No joke! It seems Keane is here to show Ortega the light, so to speak, to confront the horrors of the past in order to fight the horrors of the present. Keane implores Ortega to "wake up", lifting a large butcher-blade to his neck, which Ortega does on his own in reality while passed out in the Rance house. Of course, suicide would be a mortal sin, so he drops the knife altogether. Renewed with a set of brass balls, Ortega is out for blood. He rises, gives the infamous "power of Christ compels" you speech and sends Regan flying across the room. He continues, she levitates, growls, eyes blackened. Rinse and repeat until Regan finally succumbs, the demon extinguished from her human form. This sequence is inter-cut with the flashback from earlier, where now Regan is beating the salesman demon just as viciously and violently as Ortega is doing to her. 

The third room of the chapter is that of Vocare Pulvere. Keane argues his case in front of Simon, claiming he isn't dying for their cause but his own, to atone for the failed exorcism he's been scarred by for years. Maria Walters steps in to sacrifice herself to the demon summoned by ash, and soon she's left lifelessly mouth-spuming. Keane busts out of his shackles, knocks the others around before freeing Bennett. He escapes, bloodied and beaten, into the public parade for Pope Sebastian (Bruce Davison) where he can blend in and get lost. One of the best parts of the episode is when the limo carrying Sebastian stops, Simon approaches to give his respect, but is then interrupted by Keane, who shows up and slashes Simon's neck and spurts gore all over the window Sebastian is sitting in. A geyser of gore cascades. Keane gets his comeuppance. The episode ends with Keane giving a heart-to-heart with Casey, then one with Ortega. The final shot shows order restored within the Rance family, Kat and Casey alive and well, Henry and Angela (no longer Regan) feeling "safe."

And with that, I have to hand it to the showrunners…they cleary went for the gusto in the season finale. Nothing was left unaddressed, and as far as outright violence, this one reached the level you're looking for in a season capper. I loved the demonic flashbacks to the char-faced salesman, I loved the scenes with Keane overthrowing the papal commission and gorily throat-slashing Simon in front of the pope. I loved how Ortega found his own sense of moral atonement while still fighting evil on behalf of the Rance family. I loved the sheer level of bloodshed in this finale. I just wished it had maintained that level of off-the-wall insanity throughout. Had it done so, I'd confidently say I loved the series as a whole as well. Truth is, I did not love it, but I did like it quite a bit. I liked almost everything about the show, especially the standout performance of Ben Daniels as Father Keane, a man who wore his scars like badges and did so with the ability to plumb a deep sense of humanity while doing it. I like that he adhered to his own moral code, independent of the church's doctrine, and how, even when it seem the opposite, he always had the best interests of the Rance in his heart and mind. If the series continues into other seasons, the execs would do wise to retain Daniels moving forward. He was the most impressive!

THE EVILDOING: See above and below!

THE CREEPIEST MOMENT: Honestly, the creepiest moments in the finale to me were the ones Regan flashed back to. One of the major criticisms of the show as a whole was how silly and nonthreatening the demon (salesman) looked and sounded. Saving the best for last apparently, here was disgustingly sinister. Frightening really. So the scene where he barks at Regan to "let me in" came off as the most genuinely unnerving. What did you think?

THE CONFESSIONAL: I confess, I had little expectations of this show going in. And while those expectations were no doubt surpassed, the show still never reached the greatness of the film it's based on. How could it? It's not bad either, far from it, it just isn't great. What I dug most about the show as a whole was the pertinent subtext woven into the narrative. The issues surrounding real-life Chicago violence, for example, as well as the nefarious inner-workings of the papal organization itself. That to me was as frightening as anything. I also dug the demon as metaphor for something every person must grapple with in their own lives. Just as Casey and Regan were possessed by an actual demon, seeing Ortega and Keane's own inner demons as analogous parallels was a pretty nice touch.