Stan’s The Gloaming
1×05: “Beyond the Veil”
Directed by Sian Davies
Written by Victoria Madden

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Black Winged Angels” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Heathen Dogs” – click here
Freddie’s in a liminal space between life and death. Like when he was a kid, dying for about seven minutes. Right now, he’s alive, but in a coma. He hears someone calling to him, waking in his hospital room. The Gloamers are there with him, always there. Daisy is, too. She steps up to his bed and leans in for a kiss.
Suddenly, she’s gone, and insects are writhing all over the ceiling. That’s what he sees, anyway. He has a fit and shakes. The cop at the door rushes in and calls the nurse. Freddie calms down immediately, his vitals returning to normal. The bugs remain at the periphery of his mind.

When Molly wakes up she hears Freya knocking at the door. She’s told about Jacinta’s accident and death. Freya worries her visit frazzled the woman, but Molly assuages her fears. She wonders if Jacinta’s connected to Dorothy’s case. She did a background check on companies funding Jacinta’s mayoral campaign and they’re all tied to the Star of the Forest Church.
Alex found a newspaper clipping in that old 1850s Bible: an obituary for Ricky Jones. He believes it’s possibly Dorothy’s son, given they know she “gave birth at some stage.” In the meantime, the connection between Jacinta and Gareth has Ms. McGee digging into her obsession further, going to the Peppermint Bay restaurant to see who Jacinta was with the night prior. Molly talks to a man who says the pair were having a rather aggressive confrontation before they walked out. Alex thinks she’s going too hard at Gareth. She does have all the puzzle pieces, she just doesn’t have enough to legally connect them.

We see more of Gareth’s explosive temper with women when he turns up at Jacinta’s office seeking a file he desperately needs. He treats one of the women there very threateningly. Good for her standing her ground. Something tells Father Gore it won’t go well for her. Women around this guy seem to meet with terrible fates. Probably dumb that he never thought of wiping off the blood from his hand on Jacinta’s car. Because it’s found later by crime scene techs.

Shelly works slinging chicken, chips, and everything else. She has Grace drop by for a potato cakes. She notices the woman locking her door. Grace wants to have a talk about Freddie and Daisy. She mentions Daisy being in the tunnel when Dorothy was killed, but Mrs. Hopkins claims to know nothing. She warns to tell Freddie not to say anything to the police, or “the devil” will get him. She leaves behind the video of Freddie killing Dorothy. At home, she has Eileen coming to look for Stephanie. Why can’t Mrs. McGinty go in and get her daughter? Are the “old ways” keeping her from doing so? Eileen makes mention of losing a child, suggesting Grace may have lost her own once.

“Bloodline is everything”

Gareth’s at the station and talking to Inspector Grimshaw. May not bode well for Molly, by the look of things. The footage from the chessboard is brought up. She’s the one who placed the chess piece there after stealing it from Gareth’s house. She’s in deep shit for it.
Meanwhile, Alex looks into Ricky Jones. The kid was arrested and convicted in 1995 for murder. He killed a 10-year-old girl named Valerie Gowdie. Then Eileen comes looking for Alex in hopes he can “help Jenny.”

More backstory on Alex and Molly— they were together for four years a couple decades ago. No wonder they’re awkward occasionally. Doesn’t mean they aren’t close. Alex is currently looking into the old Bible. A priest tells him it may be a Scottish crofter Bible— “Christianity fused with folklore, pagan traditions, superstitious belief in black magic” like a voodoo religion. There’s mentions in this Bible, which the priest says is less 1850s and more 1700s, of a matriarchal religion. The priest further mentions starlings which do “the dance of the witch” as being signs of the crofters.

Alex goes to see Stephanie. She starts asking if he killed Jenny. She interrogates him as to why he’d been going up there with her on that day. He calmly explains Jenny asked him to go up there while she was digging into her own family history, believing she wanted to show him something that day. Stephanie hates her mother because of how much attention was given to Jenny, like she “never existed.” While Alex is at Grace’s place, he notices a blue piece of wood just like the one found in Dorothy’s hand. Blue paint is meant to fool demons, like the blue bottles in the trees, and keep them out of the home.
Another piece of info: Eileen and Grace are sisters.
At a wake for Daisy, Molly gets a look at the girl’s room. She sees a strange picture, among the nicer ones, of Daisy with her arm in a sling looking sad and standing by a cabin, collecting wood. She takes the photograph. What’s the significance? Is it the location? Or is the broken arm? Could be something odd about these foster parents, particularly because they’re part of Grace’s creepy occult prayer circle.

Poor Lewis is having a hard time of it.
He’s hearing the ghostly voice of a child singing. Something’s haunting him.

Connections are coming together.
Valerie, the girl murdered by Ricky, was the daughter of Grace. Oh, my. And the death of Grace’s daughter still haunts her. She hears Stephanie’s baby in the night, going up to the room to cradle it, calling the child Valerie. So much is connected in Hobart. Many of those connections are weaved together with horrific tragedy.

In the hospital, Freddie’s quoting Revelation 9:3 as the nurse tries to feed him.
The Gloamers are near, as usual— always watching.
The final shot of the episode shows us a shot of the ground beneath Grace’s home. In the earth are buried bones.

“Out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth and power was given unto them”

One hell of an episode! So much mystery coming together. Intrigue is through the roof.
And it’s so, so dark. Got to love it.

“Heathen Dogs” is next.