There’s nothing like a life or death situation to make personal issues worse. In this episode of The Mist, Alex and Eve weren’t on the best of terms before there was a weird, killing Mist surrounding the town. After years of Eve being the “bad cop” parent, Alex is much more a fan of her father. Now that she’s essentially trapped on a mall island with her mother, things aren’t improving. As we learn more about The Mist, I see so many opportunities for relationships to be exploited. This is one of them.
The last episode ended with the man and woman who were with Clint hanging from the bathroom stalls. We learn that they’re military after Jay cut them down and sees their dog tags. But there’s one guy that didn’t hang himself. Apparently, they didn’t include him in their suicide plan. Either he’s too low on the totem pole or he’s the leader. We’ll have to see how it plays out.
Mrs. Raven’s library research has given us a potential name for The Mist – The Black Spring. It sounds like the town was cursed in 1865 after a woman was killed. Stephen King often finds a way to inject some kind of folklore in his stories that date back decades, centuries or across dimensions. Often that old myth is related to whatever weird thing is currently happening. I hope someone else delves into this piece of town lore.
Whenever I’m watching shows about small towns with overly aggressive sheriffs, I can’t help but wonder if those characters are based in reality or not. But Sherriff Heisel is definitely out to prove his superiority at every turn. He’s the alpha male archetype that often shows up in Stephen King stories. That guy is usually a jerk who either ends up dead, killing several people or both.
While Sherriff Connor is clearly problematic, I think Mia and Kevin are a bit more. They’re both being positioned as authority figures, but what they’re willing to do to accomplish their goals is unclear. Right now their motives are clear – Kevin wants to get to the mall, and Mia wants to not be under arrest. What happens when they get what they want?
Alex being confronted by Jay is a peak example of male privilege. He’s so caught up in proving that he’s innocent that he re-victimizes her by encroaching on her personal space and touching her. I hope that this behavior is addressed for what it is, but I don’t think it will. *sigh*
It’s probably not appropriate to say that a character’s death is poetic, but Mikhail turning into a moth was kind of poetic. I would like to point out that there were figures in the mist that seemed to be watching everything play out. I’m sure we’ll learn more about them in future episodes.
The situation at the mall feels like it’s starting to become volatile, like a pot of water starting to boil. I’m both annoyed and intrigued at the way that Gus is handling the group. He is a professional delegator. He’s delegating the creation of rules. He’s delegating the writing of the rules. I can’t help but wonder if he’s going to delegate the enforcement of the rules, too.
Eve is now officially about that life! She is in full mama bear mode, and I’m here for it. Jay is obviously overstepping, and Alex needs to be protected from him. He also needs to know that he’s not seen as some “poor misguided kid” by everyone. His behavior is predatory.
But wait, who baptizes someone in the middle of a life-threatening, natural disaster? Father Romanov’s motives for trying to “save” Adrian don’t feel positive to me, especially when the baptism went from a loving ceremony to a much more aggressive one. I’ve never seen a baptism that ended in the person being baptized yelling that he/she is a sinner. I was a little pleased when Adrian removed the key from the priest’s pocket. My respect for him has gone up a notch.
Alex’s idea to send balloons with “help us” signs on them was cute. It also injected a moment of beautiful hope. When hope shows up in a romantic comedy, it’s a beautiful thing that will eventually flourish. When hope shows up in a horror movie, it’s a beautiful thing that will eventually be stomped out by the terror. I’m looking forward to more horror.
Ashia R. Sims is a Digital Strategist by trade, storyteller, and technology enthusiast by design. She combined her experience in television/film production, public relations and copywriting into a career in digital strategy/content marketing consulting. Now she spends her days consulting with clients on how to monetize their content and teaching digital marketing courses online and in person. She represents one of the early generations of kids to grow up sitting in front of a computer and enjoys tech talk about the newest smartphone, the coolest app, the latest in data analytics and other digital news.
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