1x08 2 Fathers

Well this is an interesting episode now isn't it. At the start of the episode I think we're finally getting a handle on where this show is go
ing. They're hunting The 60 a collection of demons (or psychopaths that like to pretend they're demons). They identify using a patchwork quilt of demonic hierarchy symbols. This is a premise I can get behind. This is something I understand and know. And yet at the end of the episode this ends up as one of the least "active" episodes of the season despite of all the potential. Evil still hasn't settled on reality or fantasy, but for the first time I'm starting to lose the need for that. They're starting to find a way to thread that needle by giving me a different premise that works for me.

And yet almost everything flops. Every story line fails to spark. Presumably they're all just setups. First of all, I hate this assault story line where people randomly give out drugs and don't tell you what they are until you've consumed it. That's nightmare fuel for me. It's a disgusting practice even worse than everything related to Beer Pong, and it's always free love hippie types who do it. These are people who are supposed to be all about consent, unless it's about "Do you want drugs?" Nah those they will just slip in the drink jug and never tell you like it's just something you're supposed to know. I can not understate how much I hate that story line. Not just here in this show but EVERYWHERE. I hate it in Teen Parties where no one tells the nerd that the punch if spiked. I hate it when someone gets lost in the woods and they have "special" mushroom drink that's hallucinogenic. I DO love when it's subverted like in EuroTrip when the kids assume the special brownies have drugs but they're just really good.

We have a lot of setups here. Grandma Sheryl is caught with her boyfriend, the sinister Leland Townsend. The infamous Andy has surprised returned from mountain climbing. A plot line so silly it sounds made up. The girls end up going to finish the VR Game and "say goodbye". One month later Ben finally meets up with his Ghost Hunters love interest. Kristen and David go to see David's father about the demonic symbol he's been painting. Any one of these could be an interesting plot point on their own. There's room to grow there. However none of them really do anything in this episode.

In order, Grandma Sheryl's boyfriend Leland never gets screen time so we don't get delicious Michael Emerson chewing the scenery. We don't get any mesmerism. There's no fall out from her not ending the relationship or even tension as we expect fall out and have to watch her dodge suspicion. Andy comes home to the girls mostly happy to see him. We find out his relationship with his mother in law is antagonistic which we could have guessed based on how she speaks of him to her daughter but it's openly hostile which ... isn't that interesting. His daughters are frustrated with him and hesitant to welcome him into their hearts which is semi-reasonable because it's more the older daughter than the younger ones. But he wins them over by allowing them to finish the VR game. But he doesn't learn anything interesting about their life while he was away. The most interesting part is that, for the first time with all four girls talking at once, I actually understand what each of them is talking about. As for the VR game, there's nothing that spooky or interesting. Rose390 shows up but there's no indication that she's a player character (child or adult) as she starts to do things like open her demon jaw in ways that a player character wouldn't be able to do. They say goodbye on the AR ouiji board and that's it... nothing happens. No hint of anything happens. In a weird twist, one of the most unexpected actually, Ben's love interest gave him the wrong number. I don't know why they've gone with this weird story line but the girl I thought was a paranormal skeptic (didn't she meet Ben on a paranormal skeptic forum?) apparently have a ghost sister who got her to write the wrong number. Now my girl is hot. She's very attractive. But Ben being the sort of guy who apparently breaks up with a woman because she mentioned astrology can't decide if a woman he likes is worth sleeping with because she mentioned a ghost. But nothing... it goes nowhere. I think they end up having sex. Finally we have what is i think the main plot which is the talk with father dearest about his demon sigil. In theory this is the most interesting story. First they're spiked with mushrooms at the PG orgy (everyone is dancing, his father is in a thruple... it's clearly supposed to be an orgy but PG so it's just dancing). Ben sees a woman who turns out to be an ancestor of his. The sigil turns out to be the slave brand used by her owner. His father is trying to reclaim it. One of his step mothers uses it in her pottery but she said he got the sigil from that and he eventually admits he got it from history. So why is she using a slave sigil in her pottery? who knows? But Kristen see that same pregger give birth to a ghoul and it's interesting.. but nothing happens. She isn't shook from it when she's snuggling in the cab ride home. We don't see a normal baby or a ghoul baby later. In any other episode I'd be quite fine with Ben's slave narrative but here it is just like, why?

The whole thing starts out at a point where I'm engaged and interested but every story just never delivered. Not even a minor delivery to setup for a later one. At the end I'm basically where I was at the start of the episode and I'm confused why.