Father Son Holy Gore

Hulu’s The Path
Season 2, Episode 1: “Liminal Twilight”
Directed by Michael Weaver
Written by Jessica Goldberg

* For a recap & review of Season 1’s finale “The Miracle” – click here
* For  a recap & review of the next episode, “Dead Moon” – click here
What’s next for Meyerism? For Eddie and Sarah Lane (Aaron Paul & Michelle Monaghan)? And what about Cal Roberts (Hugh Dancy), whose Golden Boy status has all but plummeted to the depths? And what about everyone caught in between?
We start Season 2 in Peru. Eddie wanders in search of answers, as Dr. Steven Meyer (Keir Dullea) appears to come alive once more. He all but springs from bed, almost in a frenzy. He goes to the balcony while Eddie walks in to find the bed empty, seeing Steven on his feet. The doctor doesn’t understand about Eddie’s “visions” and insists they must leave right away. Eddie asks him to reveal that he’s sick to the followers, so that they understand: “There is no fucking Light.” But the doc isn’t interested, and a whole new dimension of The Path has opened up.
Cal and Sarah have a ceremony started, on the site of where Dr. Meyer experienced his “transformation” from the Light. Everyone stands round to watch, as the two take their oath to be Guardians together. Problem is Sarah’s become quite suspicious, worried about where Silas went; of course, we know. In the meantime, Kodiak (James Remar) – another 10R – is brought in by Sarah to be a part of things, although Cal and Felicia (Adriane Lenox) don’t necessarily like it. Excited to watch the tension between Cal and Sarah play out through this season, as well as witness what that’ll bring in the long run.
Everyone is experiencing new things. Eddie works and lives outside the commune, without his family. Sarah takes on new responsibilities, new anguish, and debates with herself/her family whether or not to let Eddie see their kids on his birthday. And Cal, he tries to dull the pain of having killed Silas by diving deeper into Meyerism, as usual. How long until the memories of his old friend dying before his eyes will break Cal, or break someone else for its weight? Well, right now Mary Cox (Emma Greenwell) is again in the eye of Cal’s storm, which she may always be, but here’s news: she’s five months pregnant, she and Sean (Paul James) expecting a child together. Is it Sean’s baby? Might belong to Cal. Uh oh.
Sarah does let her children see their father. She sneaks them off to spend time with him, reluctantly letting Hawk (Kyle Allen) and Summer (Aimee Laurence) go on but still feeling a tiny bit guilty. Back at the ranch, Cal preaches and Sarah does her part next to him. When he talks of Silas, though, it visibly stings her. On their excursion, Eddie chats with the kids and it’s clear Hawk is bitter, although Summer loves her father; she insists he has to have a cake for his birthday, so it’ll keep him “sweet for the rest of the year.” Then Eddie runs into an old friend, Chloe Jones (Leven Rambin). They hang out, talk, catch up on the ruin of their lives. At one point Eddie goes to get in the water with his daughter, and Hawk notices a strange mark on his arm; dad passes it off as a workplace accident. I’m inclined to believe it has something more to do with Peru.
The Meyerism Council are trying to make fiscal decisions, and so on. But everything isn’t smooth, and the rest of the council can see the divide between Sarah and Cal. She won’t take his bullshit, not much longer. And that, coupled with the guilt, is going to crush him.

At family supper, Sarah’s brother Russell makes a big deal over her wanting him to keep an eye on Cal. This starts a big conversation, which reveals Sarah’s mother doesn’t exactly trust Cal anymore, not after Kodiak speaking in mysterious ways. Speaking of, Kodiak is on a hike with Richard (Clark Middleton), who has found the body of Dr. Steve Meyer, fallen from a cliff and decomposing brutally on the side of some rocks. This doesn’t help Kodiak’s feeling of unease towards Cal and whatever’s been happening in the movement.
What actually happened to Steve?
Also, Abe Gaines (Rockmond Dunbar) is still among the Meyerism movement, out with some of the others doing their duties. Moreover, Joy – wife of Russell – gets close to Abe, so close they embrace a moment. Yikes! Now that is some trouble brewing.
Across town Russell and Cal are at an auction, the latter going over the Meyerist budget to a price of $5-million on a piece of property. This is the beginning of his missteps, which will surely put the entire commune into crisis, sooner or later. And then there’s Hawk, feeling guilty about going to see his “heathen” father. Inside, Sarah won’t allow her true self to abandon Eddie, no matter their religion. This is another divide that will definitely widen.
Eddie dives deeper into normal life again, going out for a beer with his work buddies; they rib him at first, but genuinely like having him around and are more than happy to have him out for drinks. A couple beers deep, he makes a call to Sarah.
Things get worse when Sarah discovers Cal dropped $5-million of their cash on new property. She heads out into the night by car, listening to the message Eddie left for her. On the road she hits in animal. She stops her beaten up car and rushes to it: a small deer, bleeding. She weeps over its corpse, then in the trees sees another deer, possibly the mother; it runs away after a second locking eyes with Sarah. A weirdly emotional moment. Cal comes to her aide, and she starts expounding upon her doubts. Her belief is slipping. He does his best to bring her back towards the Light: “As long as the work is real,” he tries to tell her. But she’s not happy, she only wants truth.

The truth comes out. Cal admits to what happened with Silas. He breaks down, he acts like he’s remorseful – “I don‘t want to live like this anymore, I don‘t want to live with the way you look at me” – yet so much of it rings false. Then Sarah wants Silas dug up, to prove the truth.
At the same time, Kodiak and Richard explore the actual truth of other things in the movement. They’re getting closer to the truth: someone pushed Steve from that cliff, he never jumped, didn’t fall.
However, I’m still very interested in Abe and his particular story. He sneaks over a fence and heads to the backdoor of a house. He goes further, inside. To where his family’s waiting. And that story he’s telling the movement, about the death of his child, it’s lies; the baby is just fine, healthy and happy. He’s doing a big undercover operation, and that’s taking a toll at home. He’s a good man, though. That much is clear. “I promise you,” Abe tells her wife, “I‘ll be home soon.” Oh, I hope so. I hope Cal doesn’t do something drastic if he finds out what’s going on.
In Peru again, before, we see Eddie receive more prophecy from Dr. Meyer. The doc says Eddie is the “chosen son” for whatever comes next, when the Light takes him, or whatever the hell. Memories of that moment play in Eddie’s mind and plague him. Not to mention that strange marking on him which Hawk briefly spotted; looks like a fleshy tree.
Is there something binding Eddie further to Meyerism than he wishes to admit?
I felt this was a great start to Season 2. So many strange things, lots of intrigue. Who knows how it’ll all come out in the wash. Next episode is titled “Dead Moon” and I’m looking forward to more development on the Silas and Steve fronts. Kodiak is a great new character, as well; fuck yeah, Remar!