The Mist Broke It’s Own Rules With Episode 5 “The Waiting Room”

Once a show has established its own pattern it’s an unwritten rule on television they should stick to their pattern. For the Mist that means following multiple simultaneous storylines as the Mist strangles the town, and they’ve surprised us each week with how well they’ve juggled it, and it’s added an important sense of anxiety to the show that helps the psychological thriller aspect and lack of monsters.

Episode 5 found them breaking their own pattern and focusing only on the “police station group” of Kevin, Adrian, Mia, and Bryan. Typically if a show breaks it’s own pattern it’s a stand out episode resulting in an Emmy nomination and huge buzz, but this deviation excluded our favorite characters and forced an emotional journey we weren’t expecting or really wanting.  [That being said it was an interesting episode, just not our favorite]

The episode opens with the group rushing into the hospital after Bryan got shot in the leg in the struggle for the car, which Mia argues is Kevin’s fault for failing as a leader.

The hospital seems limited to the ER, with supplies low and knowledge of what’s going on with the Mist on par with everyone else. The Mist has filled the East Wing and OR, with all supplies (food, medicine, generator fuel) running low. Luckily Bryan’s wound was easily treatable with available supplies and minus blood loss making him weak and need rest he will be fine (unless something else kills him).

Kevin takes an opportunity to ask around to see if anyone has seen Eve or Alex, and of course, no one has, which reinforces the idea that they’re still at the mall.  In his search Kevin finds out his brother, Mike, is at the hospital. We learn that when the Mist came in Mike was working road construction and it got in his head and projected/manifested as teens who “knew him too well, saying it was revenge for a kid he used to bully, and as he ran for the hospital one of them jumped him and shoved a piece of rebar into his stomach (specifically, into his liver).

Kevin talks to the doctor, who confirms what Mike said that without access to the OR he will die, and even if he doesn’t they don’t have the medication to prevent a nasty infection. So amidst a million flashbacks and soul searching Kevin decides he has to save his brother, by taking him into the Mist filled East Wing to an operating room and having the doctor radio instructions to him on how to save his brother. We will give Mike credit for keeping his amusingly unlikable person going in times of crisis

Fact: most children’s book authors have no medical training

A lot of flashbacks this episode, depicting early days of Kevin and Eve moving into their current home (young Alex is mentioned but not shown). A lot is revealed about the dynamics confessed to her survivor group’s last episode with Kevin being more emotional and more doting. It also revealed a lot of Eve’s drama with her past and a lot of the men in town (and their current wives). Cut to a scene with Mike insulting his brother’s wife for her past and add in the most gratuitous sex scene that, while unnecessary, was extremely well done and highlighted chemistry that’s impressive for actors we’d only seen do one other episode together even though married on the show. Kudos to Alyssa Sutherland’ s delivery, But we prefer her in the more dramatic, survival role.

So we see how/why Kevin and Mike were estranged before following them into the operating room. Kevin does a surprisingly good job, but Mike starts coughing up blood on the gurney ride back. Shout out to the SFX team and prop makeup, because the surgery looked sick and downright nasty.

Squeamish Beware:

Mike was awake for all of that and was a good sport until being dumped on the floor when Kevin slipped on some unknown third party blood (gross).

While they are trying to recover from the slip and runaway gurney spilling post-op Mike in the dirty Mist filled hall we see a new threat. The Mist has formed a swarm of leeches on the ceiling that are raining down on the brothers. You can see the large mass of leeches behind Kevin in the image below when start eating into Mike, Kevin is forced to make a hard choice and perform a mercy kill on his brother that he wasn’t able to at the beginning. All that work for nothing, but Kevin is still allied and an ineffective hero.

Adrian spent the episode seducing a jock and one of his bullies that happened to have come to the hospital with his mother when the Mist showed up. All in all a boring storyline for Adrian, but when he followed his prey into a restroom and didn’t follow the unspoken etiquette of not using the middle urinal we knew it was on. He ended up kissing the boy, getting the crap knocked out of him, kissing him again, and having sex in the bathroom. Oh to be young and in love.

Before taking Mike to surgery, Kevin left the car keys with Adrian, a big mistake when Mia manipulates him with the conversation to distract the young and takes them and then flees with the car. We still theorize Adrian has darkness inside Him, but he was no match for Mia

Mia had good reason to flee. She realized the real Bryan Hunt was at the hospital, and the person she has been surviving with is actually Jonah Dixon, who it appears mugged the real Bryan Hunt before losing his memory. Jonah searches for Mia and realizes the other man is Bryan but this storyline is left unresolved for (hopefully next week). We hope they go back to the regular format and Kevin can learn to do anything right…and that Mia goes back.