There comes a time in every mystery where things get messy. New information confounds and compounds existing. New characters with rich, complex backstories are shoved to the forefront. As a viewer you find yourself breathless trying to keep up with all this newness, and by episode’s (or episodes) end, you find yourself, mouth agape wondering just what in the hell is going on.
The Outsider Episode 3, ‘The Dark Uncle’ is exactly this episode. We experience a deluge of new information about the Maitland’s visit to Ohio which are compounded by the youngest Maitland’s visions. We’re introduced to two new characters — one a nameless prisoner, and the other Holly Gibney (Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo), and go down a wild, and with the acerbic cop Jack Hoskins (Marc Menchaca). Oh yes, this is all while constantly being unnerved with this sense of dread — both from a quick flash of a demonic creature in the early part of the episode, and the same camera trickery/soundtrack manipulation/pacing we saw in the premiere episodes.
In short, The Outsider Episode 3 was a lot to take in. Frankly, it was almost a bit too much. Trying to keep up with so much information while also constantly being terrified made for a less than ideal viewing experience. Was ‘Dark Uncle’ a bad episode of television — absolutely not. The acting, particularly from Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo is absolutely tremendous.
Erivo’s performance stops you dead in your tracks with how good it is. In lesser hands the “unique” personality of Gibney would’ve been an absolute mess. Her staggering mental capacity for remembering literally everything, as well as her ability to string events together in her mind is a lot of heavy lifting for a performer. Erivo more than carries the weight — her verbal cadence is machine gun like and precise but imbued with a fragile humanity while her physical presence is both weighed down and bolstered by the blessing and curse of her gifts. It’s a complex performance that is utterly captivating.
However, we’re also given this whole, unexplained storyline with the mysterious man in prison who is labeled a “child killer.” A lot of time is spent on this character without any clues, to the point you could find yourself yelling, “WHO IS THIS GUY?” at your television. We eventually come to find some breadcrumbs as to how he sorta kinda connects to the Maitland Family, but this storyline is all a bit too vague and jolting for us to really sick our teeth into emotionally. It’s a real clunking part of the episode.
The true test for The Outsider is if it can pivot out of an episode — that is an information dump and table-setting episode — to weave a compelling horror/mystery story where all these wildly disparate characters and clues comes together. If it does, then it’ll be on True Detective level of excellence. However, if it stumbles out of this episode and is a continued jumbled mess, then we’re looking at a show we won’t be talking about once the series concludes.
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