The Exorcist season 2 finale review: Unworthy

After a crazy-intense season of The Exorcist, it was hard to imagine the season finale could measure up. Now, everything has fallen into place.

Well, it’s been a wild ride. This season of The Exorcist was full of great characters and tense side plots, but it always came back to Andy Kim. Now, his story has come to an end.

After establishing that the demon inhabiting his body wants nothing more to kill entire families, the question was always whether or not it would succeed in that goal. It never felt particularly likely that it would kill any of the kids, because that would be pretty dark even for The Exorcist. But of course, that still left Andy (and Rose) in peril. And now, we finally have our resolution.

I wasn’t all that surprised that Andy died. The season leaned so heavily on saving him that, after the unlikely triumph over the integrated demon in season 1, it made sense to shake things up this time. But what surprised me was that even though Andy defined the finale (and in many ways, the season), he died halfway through the episode.

The pacing was unexpected, to put it lightly. After an entire season building around the demon tightening its grip around Andy’s family, tying up that plot line right smack in the middle of the episode and devoting the rest of it to the characters was a bold move.

But the second half of the episode should remind fans of what The Exorcist does even better than spine-twisting demons and spittle-flying Bible verses: its characters. Despite my lasting suspicion that it was all another demon vision, I ended up enjoying the second half of the episode immensely more than the first.

The real emotional punch came from Andy’s kids. Even after Andy is gone, his presence reverberates throughout the remainder of the episode as Tomas delivers his final message to the children. It was pretty much impossible not to feel moved, watching Verity’s face start to crumble. Though it was a tragic ending in many ways, it felt authentic; not just grabbing at heartstrings, but accepting that loss is sometimes inevitable, and exploring its consequences.

And of course, the end of that plotline was absolutely perfect, with Rose bringing all the kids together once more to foster them herself. Honestly, I don’t know enough about the foster system to know whether adopting five kids at once could realistically happen, but I don’t really care. I was so glad to see them all get a happy ending.

Another big focus of this episode was Marcus and Tomas’s relationship, and that’s what gave the finale one of the strongest emotional foundations of the season. So far we’ve seen our two exorcists almost constantly at odds with each other, patching up their partnership just in time to weather the storm of their next confrontation.

“I don’t want to lose you.”

For the first time in a long time, the finale gives us Marcus and Tomas fighting for each other, instead of against. It was great to see Marcus being so emotionally open with Tomas, and Tomas reassuring him not with an affirmation of his own prowess, but rather by faith that Marcus can save him. This nicely set up Marcus leaving at the end of the episode; though they have finally come back around to trusting each other, Marcus’s own issues have always stood between him and the people he cares about.

And of course, the shot at the very end of the episode suggests that Marcus won’t be gone for long. Poor Peter — I can only assume that’s who Marcus was looking for at the docks.

This episode sets up some really cool plot threads: Marcus’s two protégés hitting the road together, with Mouse no doubt guiding Tomas towards a more militant type of exorcism. Marcus, with a powerful and mysterious vision that somehow involves Tomas. And Bennett — poor Bennett. As much as I love him and as little as I want to see him come to harm, having him integrated and as an antagonist would be pretty awesome. And horrible. I have to desperately hope Tomas can pull another integrated-exorcism out of his sleeve.

Looking back

I had been withholding judgment on the season as a whole until seeing how they tied everything up: now, I feel confident in saying that as much as I enjoyed this season, it’s definitely a step down from its predecessor. Season 1 was closely tied to the original canon of the book/movie, and used that connection to deepen the plot and characters rather than references for references’ sakes. As season 2 has moved farther away from its roots, it has also lost something more than familiarity.

The problem is that the more exorcisms you show, the less effective they become. Season 1 kept up a healthy ratio of about 30% demon-stuff, 70% characters and conversations. To me, it felt like season 2 reversed that ratio. It tried to compensate for diminishing returns on creepy voices and spine-cracking action by showing more of it; but in the end, what makes the horror elements effective are the character moments that shape them.

But what season 2 did do, and did very well, was have a lot of fun. It’s goofier — I mean, there’s literally a shot in this season finale of Bennett about to cut a nurse’s head off with a pair of giant scissors. It’s silly, but it’s fun. And whether The Exorcist aims to be a true horror show or a supernatural procedural, it has some great ideas and some excellent characters, and that’s where it really counts.

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The question now becomes, will The Exorcist get a third season? I’ll certainly be praying for one.