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Episode 1.4: About As Vile As Network Is Able To Get

posted 5 years ago by R_Kane (15828)
7 replies | jump to latest

This is not a splashy show. This is not a gory show, though it may move in that direction. Evil is starting to show that it is going to take the time to show us the creeping, incessant, banal, unglamorous venom that underpins horror. Remember Hannah Arendt’s famous quote about “the banality of evil.” Horror is flashy, splashy, and can be understood by even a dullard. It’s like NASCAR, pro wrestling and porn. Evil, as for example in the Third Reich, confounds everyone. We ask, why would ANYONE (and ANYTHING) DO that to someone? In this episode, we had a video game, possibly controlled, as Ben suggested, by a pedophile, who terrorized Kristen’s daughters and made another boy try to murder his family with liquid bleach in their milk, drown his infant sister and lesser transgressions, resulting in his parents murdering him and claiming he had run away. The torture the parents, who were clearly good people, experienced in their excruciating choice would be a delight to Evil. It does not make for good visuals. This show may lack sizzle, so far and perhaps for always, but it packs an emotional gut punch and it is abundant in its heart and its soul.

[–] tara (4) 5 years ago

I agree with you in general, but wasn't the game a separate issue from what the boy was doing?

[–] R_Kane (15828) 5 years ago

My impression was that the boy played the same Haunted Girl game as the 4 sisters played later in the episode. He and the girls received the identical Turn Off The Lights, written in red. My inference was that something malevolent inside the game made the boy into a monster. The girls may have been stopped from playing it in time—may.

[–] tara (4) 5 years ago

Boy played the game...that certainly would have tied the two plots together.

[–] atomicx (235) 5 years ago

I don't believe the boy played the game at all. There is no evidence to suggest that he did, nor was it inferred in any way. Also, the parents said the boy's behavior started changing 2 years prior, so it is unlikely that the same VR game was even on the market then. I think the VR story with the girls is a separate plot that may come into play again later on in the series.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 5 years ago

From 5 seconds to 15 seconds into ep 1.4, the narrative of the game asks “Are you over 17 years old?” and prescribes, “Turn off the lights,” —which is IDENTICAL to the beginning of The Haunted Girl game in this episode. Not good enough for you? Get off your zombie phone and pay attention.

I know. I’m asking for a lot; like social intelligence and surroundings awareness. Not to mention WATCHING THE ACTUAL SHOW. Sheesh!

[–] atomicx (235) 5 years ago

Wasn't that "Rose" that was logging on at the beginning? That was my impression. I thought that opening scene was there to show us that Rose was in fact a real person and not a supernatural entity.

Yeah, looks like maybe you are the one who needs to start "watching the actual show".

[–] R_Kane (15828) 4 years ago

In Episode 11, we learn that “Rose” in the Haunted Girl video game is not a little girl at all, but instead is a psychotic adult male who tried to kill David in Episode 10, as Ben inferred when he addressed “Rose” directly and said (and this is a paraphrase) “You are not a little girl. You’re an adult pedophile using a voice processor.” NOTE: It’s pretty clear that Ben is this show’s tech-spert and we should take him seriously when he makes a pronouncement. Doing so helps one to understand the plot. There was NO little girl’s hand at the start of Ep 4 because no little girl Rose was playing the game. It was the now-psychotic boy’s hand. The Haunted Girl game’s effects are clearly cumulative. Kristin’s girls did not become Manson-level nut jobs in only 2 sessions. My guess is that how rapidly the game’s victim descends into madness depends on the fortitude of the intended victim. I am impressed by how Evil is weaving its narrative web. Yes, it is slow. So was much of the narrative development on Elementary, another CBS prima facie “procedural.” I hope Evil reaches the same kind of patient and loyal audience. It deserves to.