Another week means another underwhelming week on The Mist [potentially until the finale].  This episode ran into the same problems we’ve been seeing, too much build for not enough action coupled with pacing issues where some characters lose gravity and draw us out and others don’t get enough screentime to impact us.

The unnecessary romantic subplot between Mia and Bryan/Jonah came to a climax when they went to scavenge for full and ended up hooking up in the backseat of a car like a couple of crazy kids. With Adrian having a breakdown only feet away and Kevin sitting in the car surrounded by dead mist, which was surrounding the couple you’d think it would be more of a romance killer, but uneccesary romantic subplots always find a way.

The Mist – Spike

And that’s the problem, it feels like the entire show turned into subplot spiraling around Alex’s rape, with the Mist causing deadly hallucinations being merely a hurdle.

The Mist – Spike

This can even be seen in Alex and Jay starting to get too close and acting like the teens they are in the mall, goofing off and having fun while people die around them, And going so far as kissing, which of course Shelly catches them doing. She takes the intel back to the main mall group and starts to crank up the mob mentality that Alex is tied to the Mist (that’s why it didn’t touch her) and a liar (what if she’s part of it?!), and like Eve said in the last episode, we’re always nine meals from anarchy – and this group only has one day of rations left.

The Mist – Spike

Speaking of Eve, our favorite character got the least screentime this episode, but it was glorious for what it was.  She opens the episode overarching her daughter and deciding she needs to eliminate Jay. It all seems very insidious in the beginning, but eventually she traps him in a storage unit in the basement, equipped with a bed, food, water, and even toilet tissue. Though it may be against the constitution to detain someone, she performed the most civil type of citizens arrest we’ve seen on the show and handled her potential threat with style and a little humanity. A+, Eve, we are proud you keep this show afloat, too bad you couldnt teach your daughter how to make good decisions and to not ignite confrontation in an already hostile environment.

The Mist – Spike

Things in the mall go from hostile to downright violent when Gus confronts Shelley and he accuses her of setting the fire and trying to kill Alex. She confesses and also admits she doesn’t think Alex is tied to the Mist, but then she turns the tables on Gus and threatens to expose his hoarding food. Had she made it back to the group and they’d expose eachother they likely wouildve thrown Gus out of the mall and possibly her as well, but they would’ve had more days of food left and not been such a hangry mob. Alas, Gus goes from peace keeper to villain when he bashes her in the head to silence her and then chokes her to death. To make matters worse he blames Alex and the mob grows angrier with a new leader.

The Mist – Spike

In a less unified move, the church group develops into a murderous mob as well. With a huge “wtf” moment where Nathalie convinces Connor that he needs to go with her to kill his own son, Jay, who brought the Mist upon them by raping Alex. There’s some interesting dialogue about how he needs to find his purpose and he’s supposed to keepnorder but he has been upkeeping the wrong laws, but it seems a stretch that he should kill his own son And he’s very agreeable to it. Before leaving the church through an underground tunnel system (doesn’t look sewer-y enough, and also why was no one using this?!).

The Mist – Spike

If Nathalie hadn’t already lost us, she sure did when she locks in the parishioners that didn’t want to join her and sets the church on fire. A little overkill and a little too tropey with using a crucifix to lock the door, but we are excited for them to finally reach another group and explore chaos with less structure.

The Mist – Spike

The chaos this episode was all about Adrian and the “big reveal”! Shocking spoiler: Adrian raped Alex.

The Mist – Spike

After stopping in his neighborhood for fuel, Adrian splits from the group to check on his house and family. In true Mist fashion we learn Adrian’s mom is dead, having had her eyes pecked out by birds on the first night. We only learn this after his sadist of a father tells him his mom is in the living room and let’s him discover the horrible mess himself. Based on that and the verbal abuse that follows it’s not surprising when Adrian shoots him, and we can’t really feel bad for him either.

The Mist – Spike

But we hold 0 remorse for Adrian and he is the worst kind of villain who just wants loved but is predatory with everyone he meets, as we’ve pointed out his manipulative behaviors in every episode. He also crossed the line when he turned on Kevin after being manipulative and down right creepy. And lying to the group and putting then all in danger to continue tobthe mall so he can be with his victim? Too much and we hope he is exposed soon, and that Kevin can make a comeback.

The Mist – Spike

Did we mention Vic rejoined the group after house jumping since his expulsion? He was annoying, unhelpful, gave them unheaded earnings about the mall, and referenced a video game. Classic.

The Mist – Spike