Inside the Outsider: Episode 6

Plus, a glimpse of San Miguel de Allende

Welcome back to Inside the Outsider, a discussion about the HBO adaptation of Stephen King’s bestselling novel The Outsider with horror aficionado Ryan Bradford. Each week the discussion will alternate between Message from the Underworld and Ryan’s newsletter, AwkwardSD, which you should subscribe to right now. 

I woke up on Sunday with a mean case of vertigo. Either the outsider is out to get me or Ryan is sticking pins into a doll-sized version of me. Episode 6 gets off to a slow start, but then the action quickly goes off the rails, so let’s buckle up because we’re in for a bumpy ride…  

“The One About the Yiddish Vampire” opens with Holly in the bus station waiting to return to Cherokee City when she sees a news item about Tracey Powell, the guy with the weird burns on his neck who was killed in the previous episode during a police standoff. Holly recognizes him as the same person she saw in at the cemetery in Dayton. Tracey appears to her in the middle of the night, possibly in a dream, and convinces her the bus is about to crash. When she tries to alert the driver, she nearly causes an accident that could have killed her and everyone onboard.  

Meanwhile, Ralph is trying to make sense of the similarity between the drawing Merlin made and the one his wife provided after her strange visitation from the outsider. Jeannie, realizing she’s not going to be able to get her husband to stop the investigation, decides to insert herself into it by getting Terry Maitland’s daughter to describe the creature who looked like her father. 

Who else sees the leprechaun, say yeah!

Ralph goes back to his therapist, who comes down hard on Ralph for “going AWOL” and skipping his last session. Ralph throws him some red meat and tells him he saw his son in a dream. And that’s when things get very interesting. For the rest of the episode, Ralph wrestles with himself as to whether or not it was a dream. 

This brings us to Jack Hoskins who appears uncomfortable in his role as the outsider’s parasitic slave. After some dithering around the outsider makes its intentions clear: stop Holly Gibney. Toward the end, Jack puts himself in a position to do just that, and the episode ends with Holly in great peril. 

Jim Ruland: So after a very slow start to Episode 6, we've got our first true cliffhanger. What are your thoughts on where we are and how we got there? 

Ryan Bradford: Yeah, I definitely hear you on the slow start to this episode. I was getting just a little tired of Holly doing her own investigation, because I really like seeing her and Ralph together. They both seem kind of untethered without the an opposing personality to ground them (the winning Mulder and Scully relationship: skepticism vs. bat shit insanity). So, I was excited about Holly coming back, but I'm very excited about her entanglement with Jack. That's a major departure from the book, and it definitely ramps up the action toward the big showdown. 

But that's an interesting observation. This series isn't big on cliffhangers until now. Why do you think that is? I'd like to know your take on how this episode ended. 

JR: My response can be summed up in three words "It's about time!" Up until now, Jack has been a very inefficient tool of the outsider. Last episode, Jack was screaming at the trees in his Bed Beth and Beyond start-up in the woods, "What do you want from me?" Well, it's very clear what the outsider wants: it wants him to stop Holly. Jack’s had opportunities and didn't do anything with them so the outsider punished him to show that it will make Jack’s life hell if he doesn't take action. 

One angle that King introduced in the book is that the outsider's tool functions as a kind of listening device: what it knows, the outsider knows. I suspect that whatever happens in the next episode, this will be brought into play. Do you think the cliffhanger here is effective? 

RB: What I like about this ending is that it places Holly more directly into the action. She's a great character, but in the book—at least up until the end—she's this sorta ephemeral dispenser of exposition. And while I'm not a fan of the damsel-ing of her character, I feel that this is a good way to get her more involved with the story. And I could be wrong the damsel aspect—we could find out in the next episode that she's very capable of taking care of herself. At least that's what I hope what happens. 

I think this cliffhanger sort of acts a point of no return. It wasn't a gasp for me, but more of a "let's buckle up" kind of feeling. But it makes sense that the outsider would go after Holly via Jack, because she's the only one who proposes a threat to him. It's also interesting because Holly probably has the most in common with the outsider than she does with any of the other characters. 

JR: Wait, what? More in common with Jack or the outsider? 

RB: The outsider—they're both anomalies. Perhaps different sides of the same coin, to use that cliché. 

JR: I think you're othering Holly's difference. Granted, this is a Stephen King story, which means all kinds of paranormal possibilities are on the table, but the show has gone to great lengths to make the fruits of Holly's detective work the result of dogged determination, what Ralph calls "dumb cop shit," and having an open mind. There's nothing supernatural about what she does (or is). She's very much a person. I think what makes the outsider so evil is it isolates everyone and they all feel alone in their suffering. Look at Ralph, Jeannie, Glory and Jack. They are all in very dark places. They are full of sorrow, self-doubt, and fear.  

RB:  She called herself an anomaly—I'm basing this off of conversation that she had with Ralph back in "Dark Uncle," where Ralph says he has no tolerance for the unexplainable, and Holly says, "Well, sir, then you'll have no tolerance for me." Yes, she's a dogged, inexhaustible investigator, but she also doesn't fit into any of the procedural decorum that Ralph, Glory, Howie, or anyone relies on. I wouldn't go as far as calling her supernatural, but in terms of adversaries, I think she and the outsider are better matched than, say, the outsider and Ralph. I also think there's more to her than "having an open mind" because what she's asking these people to believe is objectively insane. 

JR: I definitely agree with you there, but I think Holly and Ralph have more in common than either is willing to admit.

RB: But that was a great scene, and another example of Julianne Nicholson's acting chops. "Are you fucking kidding me?" Glory says "Are you fucking kidding me? This is what you've been doing this whole time? This is what you've been doing to exonerate my husband? Is by going after the fucking boogeyman?" All I wanted was a slow zoom in on Holly's face while the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme played. 

I think we’ve all been here, Holly.

RB: I know this is a sore subject for us, but what do you think about Ralph's reaction to Holly's presentation? I'm continually disappointed that he keeps pulling further back as the circumstances become more strange. Like, when Holly first arrived, he seemed more willing to explore her theories, but now he's straight up brushing off Jeannie when she notices the similarities between her drawing and Merlin's, and focusing on "dumb cop shit." 

JR: I think you were right last week. Ralph is a lot more resistant to embrace Jeannie and Holly's ideas than I thought. As much as I hate being wrong, I'm loving watching Ralph wrestle with himself. I read an interview with David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, where he said something to the effect that writers love to write for characters who take themselves very seriously. I would extend that argument to say actors love playing those characters. Here's someone whose worldview, which is tied to his identity, is turned upside down, and he's having a slow-motion freak-out about it. Ben Mendelsohn is doing an exquisite job playing the tormented detective.  

Another thing I’m liking about the show is the way it mimics real investigations where the work is compartmentalized and different departments don’t always share what they’ve learned because they don’t recognize its value. For instance, when Holly walks into the Andersons’ home and sees the sketches on the wall. That's a great scene. She's been in the house ten seconds and already things are clicking into place. 

RB: Ben Mendelsohn is a gem, and I, too, am enjoying his private freak-out. 

You mentioning that compartmentalized aspect reminds me that this episode was directed by Karyn Kusama, who directed The Invitation, one of the best horror thrillers from the past few years. That film masterfully and patiently holds a lot back from the audience, so it doesn't surprise me that this episode felt like one big, slow unravelling. 

But that scene where the outsider takes the shape of Jack's mom to beat him up was dumb. Did we really need a slapstick fight? That seemed way off, tonally. And we definitely didn't need the cutaway to the invisible force beating him up. Given that we now know how the outsider can project itself, what do you now think of Ralph's dream with Derek in it? Was that a message (bro) from the outsider or an internal guiding force?

JR: The slapstick attack didn't bother me for a couple of reasons. It may have been slapstick to us, but it was terrifying for Jack. Also, it's only Jack who could see his mother. For us, it was an invisible presence, which checks with what we've seen on the show before. The scene that showcased the bloodshed in Jack's apartment was pretty creepy.

I honestly don't know if Ralph's son was just a dream or not, and by the end of the episode I don't know if he believes what he believes, which is great. But pretty soon, the concerned citizens of Cherokee City are going to have to lay their cards on the table. 

Our discussion of The Outsider will continue next week on Ryan’s newsletter Awkward SD.

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Greetings from San Miguel de Allende

Yesterday I flew into Querataro, rented a car, and drove to San Miguel de Allende for the San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival. Colum McCann is one of the keynote speakers at the festival, and I’m going to interview him about his outstanding new book Apeirogon for the Los Angeles Times. I’ll have much more to say about all this in the coming weeks, but I urge you to check out this remarkable meditation on grief. 

I’m also going to compete in Literary Death Match on Valentine’s Day. In fact, I had dinner with my old friend and LDM host Adrian Todd Zuniga a few hours after I arrived in the city. 

I’ll be here for a week. If you have any recommendations, please send them my way. If you’re at the festival, FFS give me a shout! I just brewed some coffee, I’ve got some frijoles soaking in the pot, and I’m ready to get to work!

Lit Picks for February 13-19

Here are my recommendations for literary events in Southern California (and San Miguel de Allende) this week. 

Thursday February 13 at 7:30pm (LA)

L.A. writer Amina Cain reads from her new novel Indelicacies with Adam Novy at Skylight Books. I loved Cain’s collection, Creature, and will be sure to check Indelicacies.  

Friday February 14 at 2pm (SMA)

If you put on a blindfold and throw a dart at a world map, chances are wherever the dart lands Adrian Todd Zuniga has held a Literary Death Match there. I’ve competed and judged LDM on three different occasions in Southern California but this will be my first in Mexico. So I’m going to read a little story about the time things went disastrously awry during my honeymoon in Campeche. Anyway, it goes without saying, if you’re in San Miguel de Allende and don’t come to the Hotel Real de Minas on Friday we’re going to be beefing. 

Saturday February 15 at 2pm (LA)

Dennis Callaci will discuss his book 100 Cassettes with Simon Joyner at Book Soup. I have no idea what this book is like but this blurb from Jonathan Lethem is intriguing to say the least: "Callaci conjures a mix of fiction and trivia and memoir and secret code, and when I say 'I wish I'd written it myself' I mean that I wish I thought I could have, or even knew exactly how it works.”

Sunday February 16 at 11:30am (SD)

Get caught up on the latest releases at The Book Catapult with the store’s co-owner and book buyer. 

Monday February 17 at 7pm (SD)

Non-Standard Lit presents Mimi Lok and Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi at Verbatim Books. I’m sorry I’m going to miss this event. Kiik read at Vermin on the Mount many moons ago and his poems never fail to leave a deep impression.  

Plan B (LA)

Jeff Sharlett reads from his intriguing new work The Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers at Book Soup at 7pm. Here’s what the publisher has to say: “erases the boundaries between author, subject, and reader to ask: how do people live with suffering?” How indeed. 

Tuesday February 18 at 7pm (LA)

Joshua Hammer will discuss his new book The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird at Chevalier’s Book. I know next to nothing about falconry except that in parts of the world falcons go for top dollar. So of course there’s a global smuggling ring that tries to exploit these magnificent birds for sport and profit. 

Plan B (SD)

Military thriller writer Mark Greaney will sign and discuss One Minute Out at Warwick’s Books at 7:30pm. It seems like yesterday when Greaney took over for Tom Clancy and now he’s nine novels deep into his Gray Man series. 

Wednesday February 19 at 7:30pm (SD)

It must be thriller week at Warwick’s because Meg Gardiner will be in town to discuss her new novel The Dark Corners of the Night with the acclaimed Don Winslow. If I’m not too jetlagged, I might have to check this one out.