The Mist – Episode 2 (Withdrawal): Not Enough Actual Mist?

After a stuttered start on its premiere, we adjusted our expectations of Spike’s “The Mist” and that made episode two easier to swallow. On a positive note k the series is doing a great job in creating a likable core cast that we’ve started to grow fond of and want to survive (especially Eve and Bryan). On the other hand, the characters we don’t like have almost no redeeming qualities and stand out as toxic during a crisis — we obviously mean Police Chief Heisel.

TGON COMMENTS: Episodes One and Two are available to stream for free with no login at Spike.com, and it is suggested Episode Three will be posted for free after it airs Thursday night.

Without further ado, a recap:

The episode starts with our cast split into 3 groups by location: the mall, the police station, and the church.  We will review these by location, in that order, to keep things a little more organized and easy to follow.

The Mall

Our first group, those trapped/ hiding/ chilling in the mall, consists of our main girls Eve and Alex Copeland, Jay Heisel (football star and Alex’s accused rapist), the mall manager and his security team, a bunch of townies, and a small group no one recognizes.  They start off this episode with locking the front door after witnesses corroborate the gruesome scene of one of their neighbors rushing to the window bleeding with their jaw missing and being dragged back into the mist.

This is followed with the mall manager, Gus, asking for volunteers to go lock the other entrances.  One of the volunteers is a woman named Kimmy, whom had given Eve and Alex a bottle of water and obviously bonded with them in that interaction to the point Eve feels like they must be apocalypse soul mates, because she offers to go with her (and Alex tags along of course, can’t leave your 17 year old daughter alone in a crowd these days).

On their way to the door, which gets locked without any problem or scares, minus the suspenseful background, the ladies find a closed off hallway, they’ll soon learn it’s the administration hallway with all of the offices, but the hallway is full of Mist and there’s a dead body that left a bloody handprint on the glass.

They report back to Gus and the group and the situation starts to feel more dire with the enigmatic Mist creeping in.  An aggressively helpful stranger, Clint, suggests they find and use the emergency radio the government issued to all major outlets after 9/11. The plan is almost too good, and everyone is for it, but Gus says they did get one it’s just in the mist filled Administration wing.

Alex suggests they use the drone on display at the electronics store to search the hallway to see if it’s safe, which is one of the smarter things done this episode, and redeems her character from feeling completely helpless. Unfortunately, the never ending privilege of her accused rapist never ends and Jay Heisel declares himself a totally awesome drone pilot and gets to play hero. The drones relay camera reveals one open office (a door, not the software suite) and the open window the mist is spilling in from. It also reveals another dead body, and a half written message he left behind, “A-r-r,” but then in a shocking twist the drone gets stuck.  Some speculate it’s “Ann” but Eve is sure of what she saw, and her suspicions are raised.

They decide there’s nothing actively in this mist yet, and since Eve and Alex had ran through it that it must not be poisonous, so they hold a lottery of who should enter the hallway and get the radio. Of course Eve is “randomly selected”, but take-charge Clint wants to see his idea through and goes with her.

They make it to the radio without incident, but Eve slowly realizes he is too skilled with the radio and eventually gives up on stations and starts talking in code referring to Arrowhead and reaching out to Shadow 4-1. Eve seems to tie in the A-r-r to Arrowhead and then notices Clint reach for his inside pocket and she notices his gun. Clearly having an “Oh SH*T” revelation she suggests just taking the radio back to the others, and he aggressively rejects her ideas taking the testerone levels in the room from a 5 to an 11 and causing her to react. She shoves the radio and runs (decent idea but…you broke the radio, Eve). There’s a chase and a struggle and Eve gets the upper hand and establishes herself as the series BAMF, eventually shooting him while he tries strangling her, after she beat him over the head with a fire extinguisher. If anyone will survive The Mist, it’s Eve HBIC Copeland.

She returns to the group without the radio and without Clint, saying they got separated in The Mist and she couldn’t find him –this is the most agitating scene to watch, as his group of outsider friends are concerned and questioning and the best our new favorite character could come up with was “we lost eachother in a hallway.” She expresses concerns about the group to Gus, but doesn’t tell anyone about “Arrowhead” or the truth about Clint.

Cut to that night when everyone is hunkered down, we see Eve hide the gun she took from Clint, and didn’t tell anyone about. Jay leaves his spot to go to the restroom, which seems to have no running water (a problem for future episodes, and finds two of Clints group had hung themselves.

The Arrowhead plotline has us most intrigued, but we are excited to see how the mall mob will react or what the remaining member of the “Arrowhead Group” will handle this.

The Police Station

Kevin Copeland knows his family is trapped at the mall, and rather than stay put until help arrives, he decides to risk everything and #SaveTheDay. To be fair, there are limited supplies or reasons to stay at the police station, which logically moves the rest of the group to go with him.

While looking for the keys to the cruiser Mia sneaks into the evidence room looking for a fix, but Bryan catches her and stops her without telling Kevin.  The group suits up and heads for the car, making it without any problems. They do encounter a problem when a man in the middle of it road stops them and pretends to ask for help before pulling a gun on them.

Mia floors it and hits the car jacker, but in the process of speeding away ends up hitting a car and flipping their transportation. Miralculously no one is hurt, but we are left wondering why Bryan let Mia drive after their interaction.

While fleeing from the crash Mia is haunted by visions of (presumably) her dead grandmother. Bryan snaps her out of it and the group runs to the nearby church.

The Church

Two groups converge here and it makes the show more enjoyable with less jumping around, but it puts the police station group back with Officer Connor Heisel, who had abandoned them at the station. If he wasn’t annoying enough, he even ran into a moose that had been attacked, wrecking his car, before ending up a the church–he can’t even flee like a coward properly.

Emotions are high, but not as high as the horse Connor sits on. Mia goes off on him for abandoning them, but after cuffing any detaining her he is more concerned with belittling Kevin and threatening him for freeing his prisoners. The rest of their time together this episode is mostly spent with Connor making a bad situation worse and being a huge d-bag. Kevin Copeland wants so badly be a typical, protective, male-fantasy father it’s hard to watch, but when put with Connor he becomes much more likable.

Natalie grieves for her husband with a toast after stealing the communion wine, which Father Romanov isn’t happy with but allows it.

The group ends the episode with my favorite scene, Bryan joining the detained Mia on the floor and talking her through the drug withdrawals she’s experiencing (ding ding the secret word), but then telling her that she wasn’t halucinating, because he saw and heard the old lady too. This is the spookiest and most mind bending twist and it’s what we need more of in this show! Less tragic backstories, more of The Mist driving the characters to extremes.