Welcome Dreadfuls to my review/recap of This World is Our Hell. As always, this piece contains SPOILERS, so if you have not yet seen it, please go do that first. Then come back and see if you agree with my assessment.
In the last episode, Vanessas’ backstory, and to a lesser extent, John Clare’s backstory and how the two intertwined was examined through the method of her memory as recalled under hypnosis. In keeping with character development through the use of back story, this week’s episode examines the history of Ethan and Kaetenay, their relationship, and his relationship with his biological father. We learn a bit about Hecate and Rusk. We also check in with Victor and Henry to see how they are progressing with their experiment on Balfour (Jamie Ballard), the maniac we first met in Predators Far and Near. Sir Malcom is the recipient of Kaetenays’ story; while Marshall Ostow comes to understand and maybe even respect Rusk through listening to his tale. Hecate employs her not inconsiderable skills to use Ethans’ guilt over his history to persuade him that her Lord is superior to his God.
The episode opens in the middle of “The Devil’s Asshole” as Ostow refers to it, aka the New Mexico badlands. It is two days hard travel to Ethans’ father. The Posse is in hot pursuit. The horses are thirsty, but Ethan knows there is a river in a canyon not far ahead. When Ethan and Hecate reach it, the riverbed is dry, and there is no other source of water for days.
Hecate shares how she came to the worship of Lucifer. When she was a child, her mother “enlisted” her. Evelyn Poole watched as Lucifer raked his claws across Hecate’s five-year-old body. She was betrayed by the very person who should have protected her. One gets the shivery impression that Hecate is understating the method of “enlistment”.
Hecate wants to know why Ethan’s father is after him, why he feels so guilty, and what he thinks that the God who created him as Lupus Dei will do for him. He is looking for forgiveness, but as Hecate points out, he doesn’t feel forgiveness from his God. She tells him that the only way for him to be at peace is to embrace his sins. Ethan relates his story. His father enlisted him in the Army, to try to make a man of him. He could have refused, or deserted, but he wanted to make his father proud. His Commanding Officer was a senators’ son, and initially a friend. His platoon came across a band of Apache, camping by this very river, and he took part in the slaughter of tribe, down to the last man, woman and child. The CO proved himself to be a cruel S.O.B., smashing in a childs’ head with a rock, because he wasn’t worth the bullet, and laughing about it. Ethan killed him and rode to the last Apache stronghold to beg their leader, Kaetenay, to take his scalp.
I think that at the risk of disturbing the flow of Ethan’s story, this is the best spot to check in with Victor and Henry. They are in Henrys’ lab in Bedlam, preparing to test the conjunction of electricity with Henry’s serum on Balfour. Balfour is in Bedlam because he, possible Jacobite, dared to try to kill the Queen. We are led to believe he becomes a raving maniac during his time in Bedlam. Although he could have been a raving maniac first, I suppose, and that led him to try to assassinate the Queen. I digress. The man is quite composed, having already been dosed with the serum, but is confused as to what is about to happen to him.
Victor promises Balfour that when they are done, he will have no memory of his crime or this treatment, or even of being in Bedlam. “Every moment that has benighted your life and set you on your dark course, I will take from you. You will re-enter this world an innocent lamb. After all, it is our memories which make us monsters is it not?” He injects Balfour with an electrified dose of Henry’s serum, through the eye socket directly into his brain. A full day later, Balfour is still catatonic, and Henry thinks that Victor may have been a bit excessive with the voltage. In the ensuing conversation, we learn that both Victor and Henry were cast out of Cambridge; Victor because the Dons of Cambridge didn’t approve of his work, and Henry because he assaulted a member of the Faculty. Henry wonders if Victor would undergo this treatment if he could have every horrific moment struck from his memory – every time that his work was denigrated and he was treated like filth. Victor replies that he would not, and Henry tells him that is the difference between them. Henry wonders if Victor will be able to go through with giving this treatment to Lily, if it works. Victor appears to be unsure about that, but remembers the perfectness of the first few days of Lily’s life. Balfour wakes. He is physically normal, no skin discoloration, no eczema, his eyes track normally. He has no memory of trying to commit regicide and claims to love the Queen. (Scotsman, though, so perhaps not). Victor goes home, where he sniffs Lily’s nightgown, then hangs it above the tub where she was reborn, and gets busy cleaning the lab. He too is physically transformed, no longer looking like the addict he was at the beginning of the season.
Back to Ethan.
As Hecate and Ethan look across the desert later on in the evening, they see the Posse’s campfire. Hecate suggests that whatever the army made him do, whatever the Apache made him do, his God watched it all unfold and laughed. She wants to call creatures of the night, the army beneath the sand to strike down their enemies. Ethan permits it. Hecate begins her ritual, during which she spills Ethans’ blood onto symbols she has drawn in the sand, and recites an incantation. They hear the resulting chaos in the Posses’ camp across the desert. The next day, Ethans’ horse collapses, so he puts it down.
Later, in a cave that Ethan remembers from his time with the Apache, he translates the paintings on the cave wall for her – the story of the First Apache. Hecate proposes that this may not be the story of the beginning, but a prophesy of the end. And asks him what he sees his role as, the Saviour who ends the darkness, or the Wolf who loves it. He remembers that he and the tribe spent weeks in that cave. They had been hunted to near extinction, but he knew that guns, ammunition and food could be found at his father’s ranch. He told them where the guards would be, and where to find the food and guns. Kaetenay promised him that no shots would be fired. Ethan’s answer to Hecate is that he has annihilated a tribe, betrayed his family, slaughtered women and children and he will send his father to hell and laugh while he’s doing it. He’s done trying to be good. There is a scene that I will leave to your imagination, except to say that while that action is going on, Hecate tells him what he will need to say while killing his father; and promises him that thereafter he will feel no guilt. The following day, the last few drops of water in the canteen are gone, the second horse dies, and they strike out on foot. Eventually Hecate collapses, and Ethan carries her for some way before also collapsing.
We will leave Ethan and Hecate there for a while, and see what Sir Malcom and Kaetenay are up to, and what has happened to the Posse. We will start with Sir Malcolm and Kaetenay.
Sir Malcolm and Kaetenay are some way behind the Posse, but Kaetenay thinks they will catch up by nightfall. This will be a killing pace for the horses, and Sir Malcolm knows it, but Kaetenays’ plan includes obtaining new horses. Malcolm realizes that he intends to kill every member of the Posse. Kaetenay points out that the Posse stands between them and the demon who is even now trying to corrupt Ethans’ soul. He would have no problem killing an army to save Ethan, and will happily give his life to do it. Sir Malcolm is shocked when Kaetenay tells him that Ethan will kill him the first chance he gets. In the evening, close to the Posse and waiting for them to fall asleep, he tells Malcolm the story of Ethan and himself. Ethan wanted to die for what he had done to the tribe, but Kaetenay judged it crueller to make him live. He used Ethan to fight the army that he had served. But Ethan took to it, like a man desperate for redemption. By that time, there were 39 free Apache left in all the world, being hunted by 5000 men. The Apache died man by man, and as they died, the survivors became crueller and did monstrous things.
The men go to sleep. Kaetenay tells Malcolm he will take care of them while Malcolm goes for the horses.
Over at the Posse camp, Ostow asks Rusk how he lost his arm. Rusk tells him during the Boer War, his platoon was chasing an assassin, but were ambushed. He cauterized the wound to his arm, left the survivors behind, and continued to track the assassin. He caught up with the man, dragged him to Cape Town in chains and then reported to the infirmary. They settle for the night. Rusks’ Scotland Yard companion wakes when he hears the horses stirring, and catches Sir Malcolm. While Malcolm is being held at gunpoint, Kaetenay is slitting throats. Masses of rattle snakes emerge from the sand, intent on killing the men. Kaetenay freezes as one snake approaches him and the man he is about to kill. When it is within striking distance, he kills it and the man he is holding with one swipe, but is bitten by a snake that has approached from the side. Men wake up and chaos reigns. Malcolm shoots Rusk’s companion and takes horses. Rusk and Ostow fire from behind some rocks. Malcolm, shooting from the saddle, rescues Kaetenay. They ride off, leaving Rusk and Ostow the only survivors, the rest of the men having been killed either by Kaetenays’ knife, snakes or gunfire. Inspector Rusk, not knowing who caused the deaths for certain but assuming that it was Ethan, vows that he will no longer try to capture Ethan alive, but given the chance, will shoot him in the back and butcher all his kind.
Further into the desert, Sir Malcolm and Kaetenay rest. He refuses Malcolm’s help, saying only that if he dies, he dies. He tells Malcolm that he was not allowed to die when his son abandoned him. Instead, he was given a vision of the world cast into darkness, overrun by animals of the night, and the knowledge that if they lose Ethan to evil, the night will never end.
As Ethan is trying to muster some strength, Sir Malcolm and Kaetenay approach, Kaetenay slumped over his horses’ neck. Malcolm gives Ethan water, and Ethan gives some to Hecate. On discovering that Hecate is alive, Malcolm draws his gun. Ethan protects her, while telling Sir Malcolm that he shouldn’t have come. A group of Ethans’ fathers’ men approach and take them into custody, except Kaetenay. His fate is left to Ethan to decide, and Ethan tells them to let him die slow, he’s not worth the bullet. Malcolm protests that they cannot leave him there, but Ethan replies “Let him burn”. Now, I wonder if this is because Ethan truly wants Kaetenay to die slowly? Or is he giving Kaetenay the best chance for survival because he knows that his father will definitely kill the Apache?
Sir Malcolm, now dressed in borrowed clothes, meets with Ethan’s father, Jared Talbot (Brian Cox). Malcolm asks to see both Hecate and Ethan, but is told that they are resting. Watching this scene was very much like watching two dogs circle each other, while they try to decide which is the Alpha. Some civil yet barbed conversation later, Sir Malcolm decides that he doesn’t care for Jared at all. Jared believes the Apache are little better than animals while Sir Malcolm believes they deserve the respect and dignity all humans deserve. Jared implies that Malcolm will die if he tries to come between himself and his son.
Hecate finds Ethan’s bedroom and thanks him for saving her. She reminds him of his plan, and he confirms that he intends to enjoy this reckoning which has been so long coming. Their conversation is interrupted as Ethan is summoned.
Jared tells Ethan that he is there so Jared can save his soul. Jared begins the story of the night the Apache attacked. Ethan says he was in the stable stealing horses. Jared takes him into the blood stained chapel, where the family made their stand. The Apache made Jared watch while his oldest son was slaughtered, and his wife scalped. They made him watch while Ethans’ sisters’ eyes and tongue were cut out so that she would wander blind and mute through this place of death. She was made to suffer as the Saints suffered. He says “You brought the Devil to my door, and gave him the Key”. Jared demands that Ethan get down on his knees and beg mercy of God, that he repent or he will send Ethan to hell himself. Ethan replies “I am done repenting and I belong in Hell.”.
Fade to Black.
So I would like to point out, in the scene between Jared and Ethan, nowhere did Jared say Ethan’s sister had died. In fact, at one point, he explicitly said that he hoped she would. So there is a question mark in my mind about Ethan’s sister. Alive or dead? Perhaps alive and mentally deranged? Is that what Jared meant when he said she was made to suffer as the Saints suffered?
We now understand how Ethan became an Apache, and why he hates both his biological father and his Apache one. What we still don’t know is how he became Lupus Dei, or indeed how he even became a werewolf. Was he bitten? Is it a genetic inheritance from his father? Are they a family of werewolves? Or did Kaytenae turn him? I believe that Kaytenae will survive his rattler bite because I do not believe his part is yet done. If Ostow and Rusk catch up with Ethan while he is at his fathers’ ranch, they will die at Jared’s hands, I am convinced. I think that the scenes between Victor and Henry were not germane to this episode at all, and were included merely to remind us that Victor and Henry are still working on their joint project, and to show us that physically at least, Victor is recovering from his drug addiction, now that he has purpose again.
What did you think of this episode? Did you enjoy it? Hate it? Are you meh about it? Let me know.
Here’s a sneak peek of next weeks’ episode.
Reblogged this on Forty Two and commented:
Ethan’s backstory and relationships with his fathers.
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