Episode 8 of The Mist opens with Kevin and the gang driving through the Mist. They pass a road sign where someone has spray-painted “DEATH IS HERE” on it. I personally think it’s great that someone had the presence of mind to go grab some spray paint and put this on a sign for no reason right as the Mist full of monsters was rolling into town. They pass Adrian’s street so Adrian demands they pull over and check his house to see if anyone’s left inside. The rest of the gang is fine with this because they’re almost out of gas anyway.
At the church all of the congregation is full on Team Nathalie. Nathalie has this new theory that the Mist only kills bad people, which is why she wasn’t killed (because she’s awesome). She’s so sure of this, in fact, she can’t wait to go right back out in the Mist. Chief Heisel, meanwhile, is super happy that Father Romanov was killed because Father Romanov apparently kinda insinuated that Heisel’s wife died because Chief Heisel was a sinner. Chief Heisel holds a grudge! Also interesting: Chief Heisel is pretty sure his son Jay did indeed rape Alex.
Adrian returns home to find his homophobic father calmly eating dinner while Adrian’s mother lies dead in the living room. Dad explains that she died after going into the Mist and being killed by a flock of birds. Dad doesn’t seem terribly shaken up about this which is… suspicious.
Meanwhile back at the mall, Jay and Alex, the young woman he’s accused of raping, continue to flirt and make out while Eve watches and seethes. Understandably. Shelly, the mother of the young girl who was killed by the Mist monster, sees Jay and Alex making out, and thinks that’s awfully weird. She tells Gus this and Gus tells her to calm down, which she doesn’t respond to very well. Another guy tells Gus to back off, and Gus says either “I’m just trying to keep them all safe” or “I’m just trying to keep the mall safe.” Seriously. I went back and watched it a few times, and I’m not sure which it is. But it works either way, so who cares.
Meanwhile, Eve and another woman hatch and execute a plan to trap Jay in a supplies closet. It works. Jay’s locked in a closet now.
This next part is pretty nuts, which is really saying something for this show, but here goes: Nathalie and Chief Heisel (Jay’s dad) decide that they’re going to lead the congregation out of the church and to the mall, so they can all find Jay and kill him together. In doing so, they’ve decided, they will defeat the Mist because the whole reason the Mist ever happened in the first place is because Jay raped Alex. Nathalie bases all of this on a somewhat similar set of circumstances that she thinks prompted that other natural disaster back in the 1860s. I don’t really know what to say.
While Kevin waits in the jeep for the rest of the gang to return, Vic (the teen who was banished from the mall for being a reckless idiot) ambushes him and tells him he just got back from the mall where Eve and Alex are still alive but everyone at the mall is turning against each other. Kevin’s all like “Good news Vic, we’re going back to the mall!”
Oh by the way, during all of this, Jonah and Mia have sex and a cuddle session in Adrian’s garage. For real.
In Adrian’s house, Adrian and his dad have a tense stand-off in which his dad tells him that he’s an unlovable monster and he’s also the reason his mom basically decided to kill herself by wandering out into the Mist alone. Just when you’re about to feel bad for Adrian, Adrian shoots his dad and confesses that HE’S the one who raped Alex and framed Jay because he’s in love with Alex and didn’t want her to end up with Jay. This is a genuinely unexpected and completely horrible twist. To cover up for this, Adrian tells Kevin that his dad tried to kill him and so he killed him first in self-defense. This cover doesn’t last long though because Kevin figures out something is up and then deduces that Adrian is actually his daughter’s rapist. Adrian knocks Kevin unconscious and tells the rest of the gang waiting in the car that Adrian’s dad killed Kevin and now they’re both dead. Phew.
Back at the mall, Gus and Shelly have a heart-to-heart in which Gus asks Shelly to stop being crazy and Shelly threatens to tell the rest of the survivors that she knows Gus has a secret stash of food in his office he’s been hoarding for himself, and then Gus kills Shelly. What… is… this… show.
The rest of the people find Shelly’s body and of course assume Gus killed her (which he did), so, cornered, he decides to tell them that Alex is in fact the one who killed Shelly. Oh jeez.
Lastly: Nathalie and Chief Heisel get ready to head to the mall but a group of the congregation decides they’d rather stay behind in the church after all. Nathalie gives them her blessing, locks them in the church, covers the entrance with gasoline, and sets the church on fire, killing them.
Goodness gracious! This was a very eventful and unpleasant episode of The Mist.
