Spike’s The Mist
Season 1, Episode 6: “The Devil You Know”
Directed by James Hawes
Written by Noah Griffith & Daniel Stewart

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “The Waiting Room” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Over the River and Through the Woods” – click here
Bryan (Okezie Morro) is figuring out he forgot so much since being at the military base. He may not even be himself. The man in the hospital, the one Mia (Danica Curcic) talked to before taking off, he lunges at Bryan, and the two men fight brutally in the hospital room. Bryan keeps pleading, violently: “Tell me who I am!” All before he has to choke the man out.
In the hallway, Kevin (Morgan Spector) is left with his brother’s blood all over his hands, after having to put Mike down, leeches covering his body in the mist. There’s other bad shit going down, too. Adrian (Russell Posner) can tell, even if the adults, the nurses, the doctors are keeping secrets. Apparently people have been… disappearing. Nevertheless, he and Kevin and Bryan want to leave.
At the mall, Eve (Alyssa Sutherland) and Alex (Gus Birney) are surviving. As are the folks at the church, from Father Romanov (Dan Butler) and his staunch faith, to local cop Connor (Darren Pettie) who’s having a crisis of faith and of duty and of manhood. The man of faith and the man of the law, they chat a bit. The priest talks of being “loyal to God” and it’s less like an assurance, more like trying to gain favour against Nathalie Raven (Frances Conroy), her unholy worship. The woman’s still speaking of “the Black Spring,” she’s trying to bring others into her fold. Romanov combats this with a hymn on the organ. Drown it out. Not so easy, though.
Only now are Kevin and Adrian finding out the keys are gone, so is the vehicle. Shit. At the same time Mia’s out in the mist, on her own personal journey.
There’s trouble brewing at the mall, as well. The woman who lost her child to the mist sees only resentment when she looks at Alex. I worry there’s something sinister brewing, whether by her hand I don’t know. But she’s throwing off dark vibes.
There’s a danger in the relationship between Connor and the widowed Mrs. Raven. A parallel of how fanaticism mixed with the arm of the law can possibly turn into an ugly thing. Hasn’t happened yet, of course. There’s a connection already apparent between the two. We’ll see if it goes where I feel it’s headed.
Kevin’s sneaking around in the hospital. He finds Dr. Bailey with a nurse, mouth taped shut on a gurney. The doc asks for help. Then he attacks, putting a needle into Kevin. Out goes the lights. Goddamn, that’s not good. After an hour gone, Adrian’s beginning to wonder if something went bad. More importantly: the fuck is this doctor up to? Well, Kevin wakes strapped to the gurney, mouth also shut. All under the guise of medical “experiments” and trying to help people. Same shit the Nazis said, like Mengele.
While Nathalie’s new faith in nature is a bit disturbing, on the opposite side is the church. And while Romanov isn’t entirely full steam ahead, one of his followers is determined to stop the blaspheming, no matter what it takes. This is where things get scary. All forms of faith can turn mad, from the organised religions to the more pagan-like worship. It’s all corruptible.
In the mall Alex winds up being locked in a small room. Someone pours lighter fluid under the door, igniting it. The place goes up in flames. Who comes to her rescue? Jay (Luke Cosgrove), the guy who raped her. He risks himself to put out the fire, burning his hand. Then she accuses him of pulling the stunt to “play hero.” Is he gaslighting her, in the most brutal of ways? Hard to tell. Certainly conveys the often problematic relationship some women wind up in, by no fault of their own, with the men who’ve assaulted them.
Mia’s out on her own, looking for a big bag full of cash. She encounters something after coming through a patch of mist. A presence in one of the rooms. Writing appears carved on the wall. Music plays suddenly from a radio, despite her smashing it to pieces on the floor. Between withdrawals and the mist, she’s up against the shit, man. “It‘s not real,” she tells herself. But it’s painfully real, as her mother appears to scold and shame her.
And what about the priest’s crazy worshipper? He hauls Nathalie into a dark room, bullying her into being loyal to God. He starts slapping her around. She gets the jump on him, smashing a nearby window and locking him there with the mist. You get what you give, buddy!
I worry most about Kevin. He’s had it rough. He’s being tortured via experiment by Dr. Bailey, wanting to see more of how the mist reacts with people. So he drugs the poor dude up, sealing him in a room and letting the mist in to do its work. Kevin experiences a hallucination of various things: a bending gurney, a white owl, a version of himself. All before Bryan and the kid come to get him out.
Mia barely gets away with her life, too. After tangling with her mother in mist form, she manages to escape. Bag of cash in hand. Why risk herself? What’s her plan? I guess she’s still withdrawing, so it could be the junkie brain fuelling her decisions.
There’s a sinister side to Jay, no matter how he acts. The way he comes up against Eve is especially telling, to me. In these moments he’s dark, almost grotesque. And mama bear, she does not back down. Punches him right in the face off the bat. This lady does NOT fuck around! Love her.
At the same time she conspires to give people hope. Photocopying a bunch of leaflets to make it look as if troops are coming for them soon. It’s a good gesture, a thoughtful one. Shows that Eve has both sides of a leader in her, that she’s tough first and foremost, as well as capable of treating people well. Gonna need that in the days, weeks, months to come.
And at the hospital, the power goes out, the automatic doors giving way to the air outside. The mist starts coming in and everyone’s forced to head out or find a place to hide. So where do they go? “The only place the doors will stay shut.” In the psychiatric ward.
Great, tense episode. Really didn’t know what was about to happen with Kevin. Now I wonder, will this affect him? Will he have a neutrality in his blood in some way that’ll protect him from the mist? Could get interesting. It will, I’m sure. Also, the crowd at the hospital are being forced into a smaller space, which is always good for claustrophobic tension and suspense. Maybe some outright madness.
“Over the River and Through the Woods” is next week, can’t wait to see more.