THE OUTSIDER (S1E3) “Dark Uncle”: The Grueling Aftermath

At the end of last week’s two-part premiere, the body count was astounding. We lost Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman), the suspected murderer and rapist of 11-year-old Frankie Peterson, due to a court shooting. The rest of the Peterson clan are either dead or in critical condition: Joy (Claire Bronson) died from a heart attack, Ollie (Joshua Whichard) was shot dead by Detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) after having shot Terry, and Fred (Frank Deal) tried to commit suicide and is in critical condition.

Last week, we were left with a lot to chew on: the two places at once conundrum, the enigmatic hooded figure that’s always lurking in the background, the young girl who’s convinced that there’s a creepy man visiting her at night, and Terry’s incriminating clothes that end up at a rustic, secluded barn one hour away from Flint City. The intrigue steadily continues in “Dark Uncle”, episode 3 of HBO’s curious mystery-horror mixture that takes effect almost immediately.

In “Dark Uncle“, Things Only Get More Complicated

The final reveal of last week’s two-episode premiere underscored Terry’s old clothes in a georgic and seemingly random barn, which are inevitably found by the farmer. An establishing shot of the barn takes us in the midst of the police investigation. And it just so happens that the barn containing Terry’s clothes is about an hour away from Flint City. Strange indeed. What’s even more bewildering is not knowing what kind of substance is on Terry’s clothes. At first glance, the officers on site believed it to be semen, but once they take Terry’s clothes back for testing, the goo is unable to be recognized.

In this episode, things certainly do get more complicated, but the pulse kind of slows down. In a more deliberately unhurried and leaden approach, “Dark Uncle” is meant to reflect the soul-diminishing rhythm of grief and trauma.

Ralph is forced to be on paid leave to deal with the dour aftermath of the shooting, but he can’t stop himself from investigating further. As expected, the case becomes more involuted when two sets of fingerprints appear on the buckle. One set belongs to a middle-aged man, and the second belongs to an older individual. Yet somehow both pairs of fingerprints match Terry Maitland. Ralph then goes to Alec Pelley (Jeremy Bobb) and Howie Gold (Bill Camp) for assistance on the case. Pelley thinks that they have to go back to Dayton to find some answers.

Luckily, Pelley and Gold know the perfect person for the job. They phone Private Investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), who inherits a faculty for remembering dates, facts, and the smallest of details. Her stature is prominent and highly lauded, yet she’s quite the odd one.

In “Dark Uncle”, Holly Gibney is a welcoming addition to the series. Through a collection of flashbacks, it’s divulged that Holly was aggressively poked and tested as a child because of her eccentricities. But she survived her childhood abuse, and now she’s a skilled PI who ventures to Dayton to find any clues regarding the Maitlands’ visit early March.

She visits the hotel they stayed at, and the retirement home where Terry’s father resides (although she isn’t allowed to meet with him). The trip to Dayton hasn’t been very fruitful, but Holly discovers another case similar to Terry’s. An employee at the retirement facility caring for Terry’s aging father was charged with murdering two young girls. And we also get glances of this imprisoned and guilty worker spending his last day in prison avoiding a brawny white man set on killing him. The former employee ends up committing suicide instead of dying from the hands of the white man, probably because the employee is innocent, similarly to Terry.

Another character who gets some vital screen-time is Detective Jack Hoskins (Marc Menchaca), who still drinks his sorrows away at strip clubs, and tries relentlessly to get into fights. In this episode, however, Jack gets seemingly infected by whatever dark force is swallowing this town.

On a different note, Jessa Maitland (Scarlett Blum), Terry’s youngest daughter, keeps seeing “The Man” in her bedroom. Glory (Julianne Nicholson) keeps on telling her it’s only a dream, but Jessa is persuaded that he’s real, and she’s compelled by “The Man” to tell Anderson something about the Terry case. What Jessa ends up disclosing to Anderson about what “The Man” said is essentially an eerie threat — but then again, Anderson has nothing to fear, because it’s only a child’s nightmare, right?

The concluding scene of “Dark Uncle” spotlights a fidgety and genuinely frightened Jack pledging loyalty to the hidden dark force. “Whatever you need me to do,” Jack repeats over and over again as his awfully infected neck gets increasingly worse. It seems like supernatural components are creeping in.

A New Face & A Contagious Evil

The wonderfully brooding Ben Mendelsohn continues to be an engrossing lead, giving Ralph doleful eyes and a heavy heart. Throughout the episode, Ralph admits that he made a grave error with Terry, but he still has trouble opening up about the trauma of killing Ollie.

Getting more screen-time is Ralph’s soft-spoken wife, Jeannie (Mare Winningham), who strives to help Glory with her daughter’s vivid nightmares. Whilst it’s nice seeing the series step back a bit, and letting the characters wallow in their forbidding reality, Cynthia Erivo steals the show as PI Holly Gibney.

Erivo takes on a fast-talking and quick-thinking role with scarily precision. Holly Gibney is a peculiar character who quickly arrives on-scene, but her compassion, resolve, and detective skills do come across as genuine. And a lingering evil continues to curse the town, including Jessa, and now Jack, who’s lawful authority can be an asset for whatever force is controlling him now.

Ep. 3 Of The Outsider Allows The Characters To Breathe A Bit

The Outsider still maintains a throbbing score, contemplative cinematography, and strong editing to create a sense of overarching gloom that impacts every character. Ralph is still in a state of unspoken grief about the shooting. Holly still weathers bleak memories of her turbulent childhood. And Glory must juggle the unfair ramifications of her husband dying a guilty man (at least from the community’s perspective). Things slow down in “Dark Uncle”. Even so, the characters must grapple with their dark reality, and that’s distressing in itself.

Are you all caught up on The Outsider? What are your thoughts on the show? Let us know in the comments!

The Outsider is available to watch on HBO every Sunday at 8.