In episode 10, Sister Gabriella turns to the Church and The Blood to help her out of her rather large predicament. Victoria and Ana find that Daimon/Basar has been moved to a new part of the hospital. Henry stays with Louise during the aftermath of their battle with the demons. And Chris discovers that his duties as Keeper demon aren’t finished yet.
This episode is the season, and probably the series, finale. While the Helstrom family never quite manages to get the entire extended family together in one place for the reunion that The Blood has dreaded for 20 years, it does end with a cameo that teases how great the next set of episodes could be. This season was low budget and treated like Marvel’s red-headed stepchild, but I love it for its heart and story. Whether it gets a 2nd season or not, I hope more people discover how good it is.
Recap
We start with a flashback to 20 years ago. Young Daimon rides his bike out onto a very tall bridge over a river. He climbs over the guardrail and holds on, looking down at the water as he remembers the last argument his family had, when his dad was kidnapping Ana. This is the suicide attempt Basar told Ana about.
When Daimon’s done replaying the memory, he jumps. His fall is mysteriously broken a couple of feet above the water. He hovers there for a moment and hears his father’s voice say, “You’ll always be my son.” Then he drops the rest of the way into the river.
The world failed little Daimon and he lost everything that mattered to him. He was hopeless and alone, which led him to make a desperate, bold choice to opt out of life. Then it was his father’s love and control that saved his life. That had to mess with his head, since his father is responsible for the sequence of events that brought him to the bridge.
Just how powerful is Papa Helstrom? Does he have a psychic connection with both of his children? That statement, “You’ll always be my son” holds several potential meanings. It can mean “I love you.” Or “I’ll never leave you.” Or “You’re just like me.” Or “You’re part of the family and you can’t escape that.” Demons are immortal, so in this case it could also mean, “You can’t die, so there’s no point in attempting suicide.”
Daimon has probably spent the last 20 years reflecting on what it means to be his father’s son, with no way out. In fact, this might be the nightmare he’s stuck in while he’s possessed by Basar, since it encompasses Ana’s kidnapping within it.
At the hospital, the light is gone from within Daimon and he’s unresponsive. The doctor who checks him is confused and has him sent to the morgue for an autopsy. She tells someone to find Louise.
Raum takes the knife from Gabriella so she can’t hurt the baby or herself. Gabriella threatens to throw herself through a window, but Louise and Victoria come to her rescue first. While they distract Raum with the bat, Gabriella hits him over the head with a lamp and knocks him out. Louise hits him with the bat just to be sure, then they send Gabriella away alone in the car.
Finn/Magoth wakes up and comes downstairs just as Henry arrives. He stabs Finn with the demon killer knife shard, attempting to exorcise and kill Magoth, but it only wounds the body. Magoth is unharmed. One of the demons sends a fire poker at Henry. Louise gets in the way and is stabbed in the back. While Henry and Victoria are distracted with Louise, Magoth and Raum slip out in search of Gabriella.
Ana arrives as Louise is being taken into an ambulance. After they tell her what happened, everyone heads back to the hospital. The doctor tells Ana and Victoria that Daimon is in the morgue. Ana knows right away that he isn’t really dead. Before she can get down there, Daimon/Basar wakes up and attacks a morgue attendant.
Gabriella goes straight to church to meet with Archbishop Terrazi. He’s anxious to help her, but shocked at the shape her problem has taken. She now appears to be 9 months pregnant. She asks him to contact The Blood for her.
Daimon/Basar meets Raum and Magoth in an amusement park. They intend to use Finn’s contacts in The Blood to find Gabriella. Basar is angry that he was left behind and that they lost Gabriella/Mother.
Victoria’s taunts got to him.
Esther is also shocked to see Gabriella’s condition. She blames Daimon and tries to convince Gabriella that Daimon consciously raped her and got her pregnant because he’s just like his father. He certainly won’t be coming to save her. Gabriella doesn’t believe her.
Gabriella: “Is there a way to stop this evil from coming into the world and can I survive it?”
Esther: “Not a chance in hell.”
For some reason, people keep leaving Gabriella alone to hide or run away, as if she has superpowers and can defend herself against anything if she’s caught. She’s been amazing throughout the season, handling every kidnapped woman in a car trunk and surly comment from a demon that the universe has thrown at her. But in the last few days she’s been possessed, raped and gone through 9 months of pregnancy while the man she trusted held her hostage and abused her. Victoria and Louise shouldn’t have sent her off alone to cope with the end of that story.
Right now, she’s nearly as emotionally spent as Daimon was on the bridge. She’s losing everything she thought mattered to her and she’s not sure she’s going to survive. The same two people who weren’t enough for Daimon just failed her.
But unlike Daimon, Gabriella had another option, so she went back to her own people. Though Gabriella grew closer to Daimon, she never wavered in her faith. Since the Archbishop was sending her reports to Esther, maybe she feels like she’s been reporting to Esther as her boss all along. We know that Esther is wrong about everything, but she speaks with conviction and has the Church’s approval. Gabriella needs the familiarity of humans who share her faith and her hatred of demons right now.
Ana checks the morgue and finds that Daimon escaped with the morgue attendant’s clothes and car keys. She finds Victoria in Louise’s office and lets her know that Daimon isn’t dead. Victoria is certain that Daimon is acting this way because he’s still possessed. Ana is frustrated that Henry won’t help her find Daimon and get Basar out of him until Louise is out of surgery and stable. Victoria tries to impress on Ana that Louise is in critical condition and could die, but Ana is certain that Louise is invincible.
This is a potential new wrinkle in Ana’s powers. Can she sense when someone’s death is near? Can she give healing energy as well as drain life force?
Victoria asks how she knew Daimon wasn’t dead. Ana says their father used to say that both she and Daimon are “special”. He first said that to her when they were in the basement the day he kidnapped her. He tried to set her on fire to prove it, but Victoria and Daimon interrupted him. Victoria says that was the worst moment of her life. Ana asks if it was worse than the nightmare of being possessed for 20 years. Victoria says there’s no contest. She asks how Ana escaped from her father. Ana didn’t. She tried, but her father caught her.
Ana: “Then he buried me alive. He said he needed me to understand real fear. Real suffering. He said that I could survive it. And I did. That’s how I realized that I was ‘special’.”
Victoria hugs Ana and they cry a little. Chris walks in. “Hate to interrupt, but I have something caught in my throat. It’s an eyeball. I have an eyeball stuck in my throat.”
Back to Gabriella and Esther. Esther doubts that Daimon can exorcise the demon from the baby. In fact, she pronounces Daimon “gone” and says they’re doing this the old fashioned way. She wants to use Gabriella as bait to attract the demons to the church, capture them and put them in comas. Then she wants Gabriella to have her baby and let them put the infant in a coma. As always, she presents her plan as the only viable and moral option. The Archbishop at least objects to using the church as the scene of this ruse, but Esther ignores him.
It’s only been a few days since her last group of coma demons was turned into an army and used against her people, but Esther is ready to create another potential army.
Ana brings Chris to Henry. He says that Louise has internal bleeding and damage to her liver and lungs. Then he looks at the marks on Chris’ arm and pronounces him officially a Keeper demon.
Chris: “No. You- call the home office. Tell them I quit. Chis Yen is no one’s Keeper.”
Henry, looking at Ana: “This could be a good thing. For your brother.”
Gabriella prays alone in the church sanctuary. She turns to find Daimon/Basar watching her and asks if he’s really Daimon. Basar says that Daimon is dead, but Gabriella doesn’t believe it. Basar tells her what she believes is irrelevant.
Oddly enough, that’s exactly what Daimon would have said when we met him. Demons definitely blend with the host, rather than completely dominating them. This Basar has Daimon’s insecurities and intelligence, whereas when he was in Spivey he was much more of a physically oriented goon. Magoth has also changed personalities with each host. Still missing Bryce/Magoth. Finn is a boring goon compared to both previous Magoths, who had lively senses of humor- for demons.
Gabriella tries to reach Daimon. Basar tells her that her fate is sealed. He orders Magoth and Raum to capture her, but to be careful of the baby. The Archbishop makes his entrance in full regalia, chanting prayers, with incense. The Blood follow. Basar tells Magoth and Raum to leave with the Vessel while he kills The Blood.
I’m so annoyed with The Blood that I wouldn’t mind watching Basar go all out on them with full use of Daimon’s powers, but Gabriella doesn’t want to risk lives. She says she’ll go with the demons as long as there’s no killing. Esther allows it because she wasn’t expecting Daimon to be part of the mix- someone must have told her he was in the morgue. She knows The Blood can’t beat him. When they leave with Gabriella, The Blood follow them and call Henry.
Henry tells Victoria, Ana and Chris that The Blood know where Gabriella is being held and that Ana is the one who has to fight Daimon. But they have to reforge the demon killer knife into one piece first, to reconnect its energy, “just like a circuit.”
Chris is examining the knife, listening to his Keeper demon inner voices. He tells Ana that she needs to use her own fire and blood to reforge the weapon. Ana reminds everyone that Daimon is the fire demon, not her. Victoria tells her that she should be able to do anything Daimon can do, since they both inherited their abilities from their father. She offers to help Ana take the pain of holding the knife. This is her chance to use her father’s demonic power for good. Though the pain is terrible, Victoria assures her that they can both take it.
If what Victoria says is true, then Daimon should be able to do anything Ana can do, as well, including her succubus powers and psychic/psychometric powers. They each just need to practice their full range of powers more and test their limits to see what other powers they might not have discovered yet. Ana should be able to exorcise demons, too. Maybe she and Daimon working together could get Basar out of Daimon and get Mother out of wherever she turns up.
The demon crew arrive back at the amusement park with Gabriella still arguing and refusing to give birth. It’s funny that she can purposely push Basar’s buttons the way she pushed Daimon’s in the beginning. Magoth assures her that they’ll raise the baby and find their siblings so that they can get back to Mother’s endless war on her oppressors. Gabriella asks if Mother was violated by her oppressors the way Daimon/Basar violated her. When Basar doesn’t respond, Gabby says she knows that jab must have hurt Daimon.
Daimon/Basar, proving there’s some Daimon in him: “I am not Daimon. I am Mother’s herald. Her sword and shield. To carry out her vengeance.”
Gabriella: “Vengeance against who?”
Daiman/Basar: “Their blood lives on in you and your kind. Different names, different faces. Always men, hunting their ‘demons’. But the day is coming when the strongest of our kind will return to end this war once and for all. Many will die. And we will have you to thank.”
Gabriella: “Daimon won’t let that happen. He’ll exercise the demon before this baby is ever born.”
Daimon/Basar: “No. He will fail you. As all men do.”
Spivey/Basar barely bothered to speak in complete sentences. Some of what Daimon/Basar says is almost direct quoted from Daimon. I think the declaration that he’s not Daimon is partially Daimon himself making sure Gabby knows he’s not in control. And at the end, I think he’s also telling her, as he has before, that he’s as much man as demon and not a god. She shouldn’t put him up on a pedestal with expectations that she would have of a god. But Gabriella has never really believed him when he’s told her that faith has no impact on exorcism. She still thinks her faith in Daimon can reach him and help him overcome Basar.
And maybe she’s right, in some ways- Ana was able to draw Daimon to the surface when she fought Basar, not out of faith, but out of his love and need to protect her at all costs. Love and protection, not faith, motivated Daimon to find the strength to fight Basar to the death. He’s only alive now because of his immortality. He hasn’t regained enough strength to come to the surface again and he couldn’t beat Basar, Raum and Magoth if he did. Gabriella is being unrealistic about that. But she’s right that if he could protect her, he would. It’s just that so far, Ana is the only one who’s been able to draw him out.
Chris tells Ana and Victoria they have to hold on until the knife is done fusing, then leaves them alone in Victoria’s old cell. He says he’d rather not be inside if the whole room burns down, which is a distinct possibility. He watches the procedure through the viewscreen.
Ana holds the two pices of the knife together and pours fire energy into them. Victoria puts her hands over Ana’s hands. The knife glows red. Ana sees the memories stored in the weapon, ending with Papa Helstrom’s assault on young Daimon. The room doesn’t burst into flames, but the knife is fixed.
Victoria checks in with Henry in the waiting room. He decides to leave Victoria to wait for Louise while he helps Ana, since he doesn’t think Chris will be enough, even though he’s a Keeper now. He starts to explain that “a Keeper is a type of a guardian”, but Victoria stops him. She’s not interested in knowing the details.
Not cool, show.
Henry says that he used to feel the same way. He studied abroad and went on the road instead of running the family funeral home. He saw the Parthenon and Pompeii and the Great Wall. But one Christmas, he came home and found his little brother was possessed. He’d been marked by Papa Helstrom. “I couldn’t save him.”
Note that Henry didn’t say his brother is dead. He could be in a coma in a hotel or be walking around somewhere, still possessed.
Louise’s doctor reports that she made it through surgery, but she’s not stable yet. They had to revive her twice while she was in surgery. They’ll know more after the next 12 hours.
The demons escort Gabriella back to her room and get her settled in the tub to give birth. She tries again to get through to Daimon. He tells her no one is coming to save her. She asks what happens after the baby’s born. He tells her she’ll understand what life is truly about and then she’ll die. She starts having contractions and orders Daimon to wake up already.
Gabriella is tenacious, you have to give her credit. She has an incredible amount of faith in Daimon, which is sweet, but he’s only one person/half demon. But because she’s so certain that he can save her, she not trying to get help from the rest of his family anymore.
It’s too much of a burden to put on one person, and coincidentally the same burden that Daimon already puts on himself. The part of him that’s aware of what’s happening must be crushed by watching her plead with him to help her and hearing the things his mouth is saying back to her. Obviously this is worse for Gabriella, who’s being held hostage and forced to give birth, but Daimon is also a hostage.
When Ana and Chris get to the amusement park, she tells him to look for Gabriella while she searches for Daimon. He doesn’t want to split up, but she says nothing matters if they can’t find Gabriella. She can handle Daimon with the knife.
I’m not sure why she thinks Daimon and Gabriella won’t be together and is so certain she’ll find Daimon and Chris will find Gabriella. Maybe it’s the Helstrom sibling radar. If so, she should have said she’d lure Daimon away from Gabriella.
Daimon’s Ana radar senses her presence and he leaves to find her. Gabriella is angry that he’s not staying for the birth of their child. Chris’ arm markings sense that the baby is coming.
Daimon lures Ana into an old haunted house and keeps her busy while Gabriella gives birth. He tells her that Mother will make their family whole again. Ana is part of the family, so she can choose to join them or he can murder her.
Magoth coaches Gabriella through her contractions. She prays. And refuses to push. The baby tries to come out through her abdomen. Magoth helps the baby out in some unspecified way that could be an episiotomy or could be a fast healing, bloodless cesarean.
Louise’s blood pressure suddenly drops. The doctor makes Henry and Victoria wait outside the room while they work on her.
Daimon/Basar attacks Ana. He knocks the knife out of her hand. They use telekinesis to fight over it. Basar gets it and tries to stab Ana in the chest. Just as he stabs her, Chris helps her overcome him and Daimon momentarily come to the surface. He asks her to kill him.
Chris picks Daimon up just as Basar takes over again. The knife becomes a flaming spear in Ana’s hand. Chris makes Daimon kneel. Ana puts the sword through Basar’s demon core and pulls it out of Daimon. It crumbles to ashes, so we’re gonna assume Basar is really truly dead this time.
Daimon lays on the floor sobbing. Ana tells him not to die. He asks for the knife. Chris looks at the new mark on his wrist and says they’re too late. The baby has been born.
Magoth holds the baby and says she’s a girl. He and Raum agree she was born in blood. Gabriella sits in a daze. Raum puts the baby in a basket. They tell Gabriella she’s about to become one of Mother’s minions, just like them, embraced by the shadow side. Raum is about to slit her throat when Daimon stops him with a bolt of fire, then uses the demon kiler knife to exorcise and kill him. It becomes a spear of fire again while Daimon uses it on Raum and Magoth. Finn is left alive. Not sure about Crow.
Daimon goes to Gabriella and tries to comfort her, but she’s nearly catatonic. Ana and Chris take the baby.
Henry is with Louise when she wakes up. He tells her that they operated on her liver, removed a kidney and took out part of her lung. Her cancer is gone. She asks about the others. He says everyone is alive, but not necessarily well.
Chris is with the baby in the Helstrom padded suite. He tells Ana that he’s responsible for keeping the baby from hurting herself or anyone else now. He’ll need Ana’s help and the demon killer knife.
Daimon sits with Gabriella in her hospital room and tells her that the baby has been checked out by the doctors and seems totally normal. If they give her a stable, nuturing home she has a chance to grow up to be a good person.
Gabriella: “That thing needs to die.”
Daimon: “Before you go down that road, you might want to hold her first.”
Gabriella: “It’s not a her. It’s not a baby. It’s a monster. And it’s going to grow up to kill countless people, like it has time and time again.”
Daimon: “You’ve been through a traumatic experience. We both have. I know what it’s like…”
Gabriella: “To give birth? really? In that moment, I had an epiphany. Everything I believed, what I thought I knew, it all changed in that instant. I questioned my faith. Gave in to fear. Temptation. And for that I’m being punished.”
Daimon tries to argue that she’s not being punished, but she insists that she desrves this. God gave her a cross to bear and she will bear it, alone. She now sees herself as permanently marked, just as surely as Chris is marked. She strayed from her path and now she’s been forced back on it.
Daimon tells her she’s not alone, he’s still here for her. But she doesn’t trust him anymore. Him or his kind. She kept trying to reach him and he didn’t come through for her. She uses the excuse that he convinced her that demon possession is normal and now she realizes it’s not. “So either you’re ignorant or evil.” She regrets ever having met any of them.
Remember back in the first couple of episodes, when Daimon told Louise and Gabriella that Gabriella couldn’t handle the truth? And Gabriella wouldn’t take no for an answer and forced her way into Mother/Victoria’s room? And then Daimon explained to her that demons don’t belong in this world?
It turns out that Daimon was right. Gabriella can’t handle the truth. Mind, I’m very, very sympathetic to everything Gabriella has been through and will discuss that more in a minute. But she’s straight up retconning what happened here. No one ever convinced her this is normal. That’s all on her.
She’s the one who told Daimon he’s not a demon and who wanted to believe that good was stronger than evil and would always win, despite all evidence to the contrary. Literally everyone tried to warn her that this is terrible, dangerous work and that maybe she wasn’t cut out for it. Literally everyone, most especially the Helstroms, told her they’re demons who do their best to not be evil.
I completely understand that she can’t stand to be around Daimon and his family anymore after this ordeal. It’s fair for her to feel like he failed her. He didn’t really, but I think she has a right to react that way right now, after the way Basar tormented her and Daimon didn’t save her until the knife was poised at her throat. Anyone’s mind could snap at that point.
She’s right, giving birth is a unique experience and to combine it with that trauma would be horrific beyond words. In her mind, she was used as the devil’s tool to bring forth evil incarnate because she gave in to her attraction to Daimon. Her body is unspeakably defiled, far beyond rape. It’s totally in character for her fall back on the one thing that’s ever given her solace and fulfillment. Faith is always there for you. A distant god can’t disappoint.
The ironic thing about this conversation is that it mirrors the first night we met them, when Daimon was angry and impatient, but still saw the boy and his family clearly, while Gabriella was naive. Now, Daimon is probably naive about Baby Mother’s chances to grow up into a good person, but he’s not going to listen to Gabriella when she’s condemning his daughter for the wrong reasons.
If she told him what Magoth, Raum and Basar actually said to her, that would have an impact. But he’s not going to kill a child, especially his own child, just because she’s a demon child, same as him and Ana, nor should he. Sadly, Gabriella has already spent too much time with The Blood and is incapable of telling the truth as it happened anymore. She already sounds like Esther, who takes a hard, extreme line that has little to do with reality.
But let me point out- as usual nothing Esther told Gabriella in the church was true. Daimon is alive and he saved her as soon as he was able. Gabriella gave birth and survived it. She has not been automatically been turned into a demon, though her choices may lead to that eventually. If I’m looking at Henry correctly, she could also become a guardian angel. Energy can be transformed, after all.
Meanwhile, back in the Helstrom padded suite, Ana uses the demon killer knife to carve Baby Mother’s symbol into the base of Chris’ skull while he kneels on the floor in front of her. This must be a ritual to officially bind him to the baby, the way the cyclops version of Keeper was bound to Basar and had some connection to Mother.
Daimon goes back to the bridge and stands in the same spot, but doesn’t jump. He’s feeling fragile after he couldn’t save Gabriella in time to stop her mental breakdown and couldn’t save himself from Basar. Basar turned him into everything he was afraid of becoming. He doesn’t let anyone in, but he trusted Gabriella with all of his secrets. It ended in disaster for both of them. It wasn’t the fault of either of them, but now she blames him. The things she said to him are the things his father said to him, which he now says to himself at his lowest points.
Thanks to Mother and Basar, Daimon and Gabriella have now made each other’s worst fears come true.
I don’t think he actually plans to jump. Unlike the last time, he has a lot to live for. I think he wants to be alone for a few minutes to reflect on the overwhelming pain of the entire situation pain before he has to put on a public face. This is the last place where he heard his father’s voice and felt his direct influence. Now he’s a father himself, but only because it was forced on him by his father’s minions. How involved is his father in this plan?
Ana finds Daimon later, standing on the ground underneath the bridge, possibly in the spot where he crawled out of the water 20 years ago. He tells her that he’s fine, but when she says she knows he’s not, he admits that’s true. He thanks her for saving him and she thanks him for not giving up on her in the past.
He says he owed her that much. She tells him that they’re family- that means he didn’t owe her anything. He says, “I love you… you know that.” She says, “I do.” He chuckles ruefully when she doesn’t tell him she loves him. But then she laughs, grabs his arm and says, “I love you, too, Big Brother.”
Back at Daimon’s house, Victoria and Ana prepare tacos together for a family dinner. Daimon opens the door so that Henry can wheel Louise in. She’s out of the hospital, but still in a wheelchair. Ana and Henry contemplate the baby in her bassinet- the evil little monster needs a diaper change and no one’s volunteering.
Louise tells Daimon that Gabby hasn’t been answering her calls. He turns his face away for several seconds, their typical communication style when things get rough. He turns back to broach his tough counter subject and asks why she didn’t tell him she was sick. She says SHE FORGOT. Daimon is skeptical that she forgot for 6 months, but she stands her ground. Finally, she says she was tired of fighting. He says he understands. They both agree they feel better now.
Let’s hope that sticks, for both of them, and that Victoria, Ana and Henry are around when they get emotionally exhausted again. But OMG, I’m not sure if I want to watch these two passive aggressive at each other forever or throw pillows at them in frustration. This group of wounded souls needs to stick together as a team so they can all stabilize each other through the hard times.
Victoria brings some of the food to the table and says Henry, who’s over at the bookcase, looks like he needs a beer. Daimon hops up to get it. Louise asks Ana where Chris is. She says he flew back to San Francisco to win Derrick back, again. She scoffs at the things people do for love.
Daimon hands Henry the beer. Henry says the baby is asleep. He must have been the diaper changer. Daimon thanks him for checking on her. Henry says he’ll be checking in regularly. He puts the book he was reading back on the shelf. Daimon quotes from it. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Henry: “Well, I will see your Socrates, Professor, and raise you a Kierkegaard: The unhappiest man is one trapped in past memory or future hope, incapable of living in the present.”
Now that he’s told Daimon to get out of his head and live in the real world sometimes, if he wants to survive, Henry joins the others at the table. It’s nice to see the two guys getting along, even bonding a little.
Once they’re all at the table, Victoria makes a toast. She says that horrible things happen to good people, everyday. “But what’s important isn’t the suffering. It’s how we get through it to the other side. Together.” She toasts to everyone at the table.
Victoria’s words are in stark contrast to what Mother said to Raum when Spivey/Basar was dying. She told him that the suffering is what’s important and should be honored. It was clear that the demons’ inability to move on from past trauma is what makes them demons. The show is trying to make this positive vs negative outlook the difference between humans and demons, but it’s obviously not, even within their own canon. The Blood also honor the suffering and nothing else. And though Henry/Kierkegaard has some good advice, that we shouldn’t forget to live in the present, we also shouldn’t forget that we have to deal with the past and plan for the future. When people are forced to only live in the present and focus on the positive they become shallow and eventually act out their emotions anyway.
Speaking of The Blood and supremely unhealthy coping methods, Esther pours out some whiskey for herself, Finn and Gabriella. This must be The Blood’s version of a dinner party. They’ll be dead soon anyway, either from demons or drinking themselves to death- they don’t need a proper meal.
But the irony is, of course, that Esther and now Gabriella are obsessed with those evil, good for nothing demons who do nothing but plot evil deeds all the time. Esther has not listened to Kierkegaard and pushes her people to stay stuck in that place with her. It’s Daimon and now Ana who literally exorcise people’s demons so that everyone involved can move on. Esther’s one big idea is to trap them in a coma, forever stuck in place with their worst nightmare and their demon, with no possibility of healing.
Gabriella is wearing a proper demon hunting leather coat. Esther and Finn each drink their whiskey while watching her, like it’s a challenge. She stares back as she drinks the shot without flinching. She’s now a hardened member of The Blood’s inner circle, lost to everything but her bitterness. Mother wins anyway.
Oops. Turns out Ana is a lying demon who lies. While the family enjoys dinner, Chris sneaks in and steals the baby from her cradle.
One month later, Chris and the “baby”, who now appears to be around 10 years old, are waiting in line to take a boat out to an island. The girl is hungry, so they discuss what she’ll eat after they cross the water. Chris approves of her choice of dark over milk chocolate.
See, she can be influenced toward the good. She also probably eats continuously, with the way she’s growing.
Chris gets an internal Keeper demon alert, but he’s not sure what it means. An older man approaches them and smiles approvingly. He recognizes that Chris is the new Keeper. Chris tells Kthara to run. She doesn’t.
The other man says she was sneaky to tell the Helstroms that her name is Kthara, then tells her to reach back in her mind and remember what her real name is. After a moment, she recalls that her name is Lily. He asks her if she remembers who he is, even though it’s been a very long time since they’ve seen each other. She’s faster this time when she calls him Papa.
Papa Helstrom: “Nothing makes my heart melt more than hearing that word. Sorry Keeper, but I think we’ll be on our way now.”
Chris refuses to let go of Lily: “I’ve been marked by your bloodline. You can’t touch me.”
As they face off, the people in line at the dock drop dead, one by one. Papa holds out his hand for Lily. She takes it and walks away with him, without hesitation, a goodbye or a backward glance.
Papa: “Now what do you say we go find your brother and sister. Because there’s so many things we have to catch up on.”
Chris helplessly watches them leave. People continue to drop as they pass, an incentive to keep Chris from interfering.
Commentary
Should we, by some miracle, get a season 2, veteran actor Mitch Pileggi would play Ana and Daimon’s father, Marduk Helstrom, a high ranking demon. He’s a great choice, which just makes the fact that this show is supposedly DOA that much sadder.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Marvel (Victoria/Mother), who’s nominated for Best Actress in a Superhero Show for the inaugural Critics Choice Super Awards, an offshoot of the Critics Choice Awards that will honor pop culture and genre shows. The awards ceremony will air on The CW as a two-hour special at 8 pm ET/PT on Sunday, January 10, 2021.
Sadly, Gabriella was right to believe what the demons told her about Mother’s incarnation into a human body. Even more sadly, Gabriella doesn’t seem to have shared what they said to her with the rest of the demon hunting team, so they didn’t fully understand the danger they were facing. I don’t know that they would have killed the baby at birth, even if they’d known, but they might have kept her closer to home and the demon killer knife.
It seems like there’s nothing they can do to kill Papa/Marduk permanently, but something killed his last incarnation. It’s implied that Henry killed him with the demon killer knife when he rescued Ana. There are also hints, as I’ve mentioned, that sometime between when his brother was possessed and Marduk died, Henry became a guardian demon/angel- a Caretaker. The show has strongly hinted that angels are the other side of the coin from demons, essentially the same type of energy, just fighting for good, but they haven’t referred to angels outright.
St Teresa spent her visions speaking and interacting with angels and even with Jesus. It was an angel who pierced her heart with a fiery lance in exactly the same way Ana and Daimon used a fiery lance for exorcism and to kill demons. Possessed Daimon was shown near the angel statue at St Teresa’s, reminding us that he was still in there, even though he couldn’t break free.
Daimon’s whole personality is centered around his need to protect others, while Ana’s is focused on bringing others to justice. Henry is a Caretaker, while Chris Keeps people safe in whatever way is necessary in the moment- he might lock them away for safekeeping to protect others from them or he might throw himself between them and a mortal enemy. The definition is extremely fluid. God can be just as tricky with his words and promises as the devil, so this is still appropriate for guardian or archangels. They don’t have to follow the same rules as mortals.
You probably noticed that I equated Ana and Daimon with angels. I actually think they could still go either way. Their father made them to be part of his plans, whatever those are, but they are also their mother’s children and have self-determination. So far, they are very determined to be good people, as they understand the definition.
But they only know one side of the story. If Marduk can convince them that humans started the war in a sufficiently terrible way and deserve to suffer for it, while humans continue to persecute them, they might take a walk on the dark side. If they did side with the devils, one or both would return to the human/angel side eventually. Maybe that’s when they’d earn their wings. 😘 Sorry. Couldn’t resist.
In the comics, both willingly spend varying amounts of time in their father’s domain as adults. Say what you will about Marduk, he’s a devoted father.
The future looks okay for Henry and Louise, depending on how serious the battle with Marduk gets and what we discover about Henry’s true loyalties. I haven’t forgotten that he’s keeping secrets.
It’s hard to see a future for Chris and Derrick. In fact, if Derrick gets suspicious again, he could become a threat. But maybe he’ll turn out to be something more than human after all and it’ll be okay.
Daimon and Gabriella seem like they could either be endgame or star-crossed, even in a 5 season series, after they both go through every tragedy possible and hook up once a season along the way. Gabriella might be as stubbornly destructive as Esther, now that she’s lost her naivety. Esther isn’t self-destructive- like any cult leader, she makes sure she’s safe and sends others out to die for her beliefs. Gabriella and Finn looked like they were on board to protect themselves while killing anyone and everyone else.
I really, really don’t want to see Gabriella sleeping with Finn. I did not like the way he looked at her.
Ana was right when she referred to Daimon as a martyr. Gabriella will have a hold on him forever, now that he feels guilty for what happened to her and she blames him for it. It wasn’t remotely his fault, but they could take a long Buffy/Angel/Spike route of twisted blame and self hatred that Esther and Marduk exploit for their own purposes.
Mother/Lily hasn’t remembered yet that Ana killed Basar twice to save Daimon. We know that Ana and Daimon can’t die, other than maybe using the knife, and that Marduk is protective of both of them, in his twisted way. That could set up an interesting dynamic in S2. Lily should be an adult by the time she’s 2 months old and able to take on her siblings again. Will Marduk set up shop in Portland as a criminal overlord and try to win back the affection of his children while slowly destroying the world through the seven deadly sins?
I feel like we just lived through four years of this scenario, without the parental devotion.
If you like Helstrom, you might also like the Netflix shows Crazyhead, about a pair of female demon hunters and Kiss Me First, about a sinister cult of gamers. If you haven’t watched the other Marvel TV shows, what are you waiting for? I haven’t watched everything, but Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders, all on Netflix, had themes closest to Helstrom. A lot of people recommend CBS’ Evil. I don’t care for procedurals, but it has a stellar cast. Fox’s Prodigal Son explores the family of a serial killer, but, fair warning, it’s very into the serial killing. And also a procedural. I plan to check out the series version of The Exorcist next, so I’ll update here with what I think. Season 1 of Hulu’s Castle Rock also had some similar themes of family, mental illness, good vs evil, hereditary evil and self-examination.
Images courtesy of Hulu.
Metawitches 
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