The Outsider Episode 6, ‘The One About the Yiddish Vampire’ was an episode that frustrated the characters, and the audience alike.
This frustration was bound to happen. When Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo) presents her findings to everyone, you (like Holly), knew that it would be met with utter disbelief, contempt, and bile. There was no way Ralph (Ben Mendelsohn) who is the king of denial, suppression, and repression was ever going to buy into this supernatural story. And you for damn well sure knew that Glory (Julianne Nicholson) was not going to be happy with a boogeyman theory as the only explanation to the strange happenings surrounding her husband’s death.
We knew this was going to happen. Holly told us (via Jack Hoskins) that there was no way any one would believe her. But, still, as an audience member it is wildly frustrating for the series to basically revert to square one. Instead of moving the story forward, we’re now in a holding pattern where Holly now has to convince everyone of everything we’ve already seen proven out over the course of the past two episodes.
Understandably, it’d be bad storytelling to have everyone blindly agree with Holly. With any mystery there’s always setbacks, frustrations, and resets. However, we’re now having Holly planted firmly in arguably one of the weakest parts of the series — the glacially paced Ralph Anderson arc. Again, it makes sense that the by-the-books detective would have a hard time believing in the supernatural. It’s also perfectly fine that it’s going to take some time for him to drop his disbelief. However, this story arc has been paced so incredibly slow, for what seems to be a predictable outcome.
This frustration only compounds the “give us something…anything” storylines of Tamika (Hettiene Park) and Claude Bolton (Paddy Considine). We’re given almost no breadcrumbs as to why Tamika is so obsessed with her partner Jack Hoskins. We also really don’t have any clue as to anything about Claude. We just keep coming back to him at the Peach Crease. Yes, he’s acting a bit erratically, but give us some inkling of a clue as to why this is.
Slow, methodical pacing in a mystery is perfectly fine. However, The Outsider feels like it’s been slowly chipping away at the mysteries, and character arcs, that it feels especially with the end in sight, that it may just be too slow. A big reveal is coming, but it does not feel like the series has put in the work to position itself for this reveal. With four episodes to go there is an insane amount of story that needs to come together, and if you look at the trailer for the second half of the season — there’s a lot of characters and lore we need to dive into. That’s a lot of work for a small amount of episodes.
The ending of The Outsider Episode 6 was undoubtedly the best part as it involved the two storylines that have progressed nicely — Holly and Jack Hoskins. The tension was crazy high, and both Erivo and Marc Menchaca did excellent work ramping it up with the slightest movements of their eyes. The final shot of Jack menacingly force Holly to turn towards the barn was the best cliffhanger the series has had to date.
Overall, The Outsider Episode 6, ‘The One About the Yiddish Vampire’ was a solid episode of the series, but the frustrating pacing of the series derailed so many moments of tension and storytelling. The frustration of finding literally anything out is robbing the audience of experiencing great, terrifying moments, and wonderful nuanced performances. Hopefully the final episodes of the series course correct things in the right way.
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