The Path: The Miracle
May 25, 2016 6:33 AM - Season 1, Episode 10 - Subscribe
Eddie, Sarah and Hawk deal with the aftermath of Eddie's outburst.
This episode is all over the place so it's a bit hard to give a synopsis but here goes: Eddie is labeled a denier, but Sarah intervenes so he doesn't have to sign paperwork that would keep him from seeing his kids. Meanwhile, Alison returns to Meyerism and reveals what was in her husband's diary. Sean's parents come to the compound before Mary and Sean's marriage. Sarah decides that she and Cal should be "professional" with each other. Cal relapses into some very bad habits with Mary before her wedding. Sarah goes from suspecting Cal has something to do with Silas's disappearance (prompted by Felicia) to being excited to be his spiritual partner. Later, she will return to being suspicious after Mary's father reveals that Cal was driving out of the compound on the night of her Pachamama dream.She also discovers that Cal wrote the last three rungs. Instead of ratting Cal out, Sarah decides she'll have to take him out another way.
Meanwhile, Eddie visits the cop on the eve of his daughter's daughter's surgery and prays with him. Cal reveals that Steve has become "pure light." Alison is recommitted into the faith, Sean and Mary wed, and Hawk takes his vows. The cop's daughter recovers without needing surgery. Meanwhile, Eddie pursues the source of his visions to Peru and makes a startling discovery.RICHARD IS RISEN.
This episode is all over the place so it's a bit hard to give a synopsis but here goes: Eddie is labeled a denier, but Sarah intervenes so he doesn't have to sign paperwork that would keep him from seeing his kids. Meanwhile, Alison returns to Meyerism and reveals what was in her husband's diary. Sean's parents come to the compound before Mary and Sean's marriage. Sarah decides that she and Cal should be "professional" with each other. Cal relapses into some very bad habits with Mary before her wedding. Sarah goes from suspecting Cal has something to do with Silas's disappearance (prompted by Felicia) to being excited to be his spiritual partner. Later, she will return to being suspicious after Mary's father reveals that Cal was driving out of the compound on the night of her Pachamama dream.She also discovers that Cal wrote the last three rungs. Instead of ratting Cal out, Sarah decides she'll have to take him out another way.
Meanwhile, Eddie visits the cop on the eve of his daughter's daughter's surgery and prays with him. Cal reveals that Steve has become "pure light." Alison is recommitted into the faith, Sean and Mary wed, and Hawk takes his vows. The cop's daughter recovers without needing surgery. Meanwhile, Eddie pursues the source of his visions to Peru and makes a startling discovery.RICHARD IS RISEN.
I should add I felt so awful when it's revealed that Summer has been using her Christmas present from Eddie to write "Daddy come home" all over the place. That was a heartbreaking reveal.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:46 AM on May 25, 2016
posted by miss-lapin at 6:46 AM on May 25, 2016
There's a part of me that wishes they hadn't skipped over SO much from Eddie punching Cal to this. Eddie got labeled a denier for THAT? One would think there would have to be some sort of tribunal or something where he would bring up that Cal had interfered with his family and bribed an IS. Considering how precarious Cal's position, that could have easily been parleyed into unseating Cal, which seems like something Felicia would support. Seems like a convenient bit of "Let's just skip over this problematic stuff and land where we want to land, k?"
posted by miss-lapin at 11:40 AM on May 25, 2016
posted by miss-lapin at 11:40 AM on May 25, 2016
This one hit home because literally the reason my mom is a Mega Catholic is because I had a heart murmur that closed by itself before I needed to have open heart surgery as a baby. She took infant me to one of the masses where they do blessing of the sick and to this day she's convinced that's what healed me.
I'm interested to see where Abe goes with this moving forward.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 3:33 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm interested to see where Abe goes with this moving forward.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 3:33 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I just have a bunch of unconnected thoughts.
Well that didn't resolve anything at all.
When Eddie hallucinated in the motel bathroom I thought I was watching Faults for a second.
What does Eddie do for money?
I pitied Sarah, instead of hating her, even at her most dogmatic and awful (willing to kick Hawk out). I have no idea what it's like to fervently believe; I can't say for sure what I would do in her place. I had viewed her as a Meyerism robot until this episode. It will be interesting to watch her develop her own motivations next season.
posted by Monochrome at 7:11 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well that didn't resolve anything at all.
When Eddie hallucinated in the motel bathroom I thought I was watching Faults for a second.
What does Eddie do for money?
I pitied Sarah, instead of hating her, even at her most dogmatic and awful (willing to kick Hawk out). I have no idea what it's like to fervently believe; I can't say for sure what I would do in her place. I had viewed her as a Meyerism robot until this episode. It will be interesting to watch her develop her own motivations next season.
posted by Monochrome at 7:11 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I also wondered about Eddie's money. We see him working in the call center in a previous ep, but it's unclear how he would have enough money to just up and go to Peru.
posted by miss-lapin at 8:11 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by miss-lapin at 8:11 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I didn't get the impression Eddie went to Peru. I thought it was part of his vision problem. (Because even when Eddie was in Peru when the series begins, Steve's Senescent Snake Room was still just a part of his drug vision, wasn't it? Steve's Room does exist though, as Cal was there etc.) Either way it's hard to read. In my mind's eye the room is shot differently (or is a different room?) when Eddie is visiting.
CAL: "Sitting here today we have all three of our secondary plot lines"
Now that's what I call morning wood, Eddie.
I didn't find this episode satisfying. It's getting hard to relate to most of the (adult) characters, a concern I last felt when practically everyone in the show was giving Hawk the evil eye for having a girlfriend. A number of scenes felt forced: "were you here on the full moon a month ago"; Sarah going through Cal's office; stutter-cam to highlight Eddie's mental state.
If there is a new character coming to the fore (Steve), well that's something to look forward to. Something needs shaking up a bit; most of these characters seem to be going into season end in stasis, which I think is why the episode was disappointing to me. Cal's still hiding stuff, Hawk is resigned to the path, Mary's still got a dark side and so does her dad repeating his scene for the third time, Eddie's been disenchanted before and is again, etc. On the whole though I'm glad I watched (wouldn't have caught it without Fanfare!).
Finally, it's interesting that both The Americans tonight and The Path deal with "faith" and have characters who say that literal belief is secondary to having faith and doing the right thing.
posted by sylvanshine at 11:41 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
CAL: "Sitting here today we have all three of our secondary plot lines"
Now that's what I call morning wood, Eddie.
I didn't find this episode satisfying. It's getting hard to relate to most of the (adult) characters, a concern I last felt when practically everyone in the show was giving Hawk the evil eye for having a girlfriend. A number of scenes felt forced: "were you here on the full moon a month ago"; Sarah going through Cal's office; stutter-cam to highlight Eddie's mental state.
If there is a new character coming to the fore (Steve), well that's something to look forward to. Something needs shaking up a bit; most of these characters seem to be going into season end in stasis, which I think is why the episode was disappointing to me. Cal's still hiding stuff, Hawk is resigned to the path, Mary's still got a dark side and so does her dad repeating his scene for the third time, Eddie's been disenchanted before and is again, etc. On the whole though I'm glad I watched (wouldn't have caught it without Fanfare!).
Finally, it's interesting that both The Americans tonight and The Path deal with "faith" and have characters who say that literal belief is secondary to having faith and doing the right thing.
posted by sylvanshine at 11:41 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I agree with you to some degree. The more I think about the ep, the more it feels REALLY forced in order to get characters into set places for s2. This is particularly true of Sarah who suddenly seems to be wildly vacillating in order to get her to 1 be Cal's partner 2 yet know she has to take him down. That transition was SUPER FAST.
I think we have with Steve either 1 Steve actually physically returns 2 Steve uses Eddie as his prophet. Either way that is a pretty dramatic shake up.
Some fun things I found out about owls and mythology:
"The Aztecs and Mayans, along with other natives of Mesoamerica, considered the Owl a symbol of death and destruction. In fact, the Aztec god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, was often depicted with owls. There is a saying in Spanish that is still in use today: cuando el tecolote canta, el indio se muere ("when the owl cries/sings, the Indian dies"). Other Native American Tribes saw the owl as the carrier of the elders' spirits "
Regarding the connection between owls and human sacrifice in Peru.
Snakes are part of a trinity in Peru involving condors and pumas. I couldn't find much on the actual snake mythology, although it's clearly very important in Peru. It's important to remember while in christian imagery the snake is associated with evil, in other mythologies it is connected to rebirth. As such, its presence may indicate that Eddie is the "rebirth" of Meyerism or Steve.
I do appreciate the writers winding in these influences and not awkwardly explaining them so if you want to find out more you can, but if not you can just watch it for the drama.
posted by miss-lapin at 7:44 AM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think we have with Steve either 1 Steve actually physically returns 2 Steve uses Eddie as his prophet. Either way that is a pretty dramatic shake up.
Some fun things I found out about owls and mythology:
"The Aztecs and Mayans, along with other natives of Mesoamerica, considered the Owl a symbol of death and destruction. In fact, the Aztec god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, was often depicted with owls. There is a saying in Spanish that is still in use today: cuando el tecolote canta, el indio se muere ("when the owl cries/sings, the Indian dies"). Other Native American Tribes saw the owl as the carrier of the elders' spirits "
Regarding the connection between owls and human sacrifice in Peru.
Snakes are part of a trinity in Peru involving condors and pumas. I couldn't find much on the actual snake mythology, although it's clearly very important in Peru. It's important to remember while in christian imagery the snake is associated with evil, in other mythologies it is connected to rebirth. As such, its presence may indicate that Eddie is the "rebirth" of Meyerism or Steve.
I do appreciate the writers winding in these influences and not awkwardly explaining them so if you want to find out more you can, but if not you can just watch it for the drama.
posted by miss-lapin at 7:44 AM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
Mary's father, as I suspected,is key in beginning to unravel Cal's lies about the night Cal vanished. But why would Sarah trust a man who just tried to buy his daughter and claimed he tried and failed to buy her off of Cal? I mean to say he lacks credibility doesn't really capture the essence of how crap a witness he is. And he's the ONLY one saying Cal wasn't on the compound that night. The only other thing she has is Felicia's suspicion (which comes from WHERE exactly? Sarah correctly says Felicia is making a big accusation. She is. We know it's true, but there's really absolutely no evidence to make that intuitive leap so where does it come from?)
The healing of the cop's child after Eddie's prayer (a miracle) is yet another miraculous incident surrounding meyerism including Steve's resurrection (which neatly takes places around Christmas). So there is clearly something genuinely mystical going on-though what it is I don't know. But Cal is going to crap his pants when he finds out that Steve is back.
This is assuming, of course, that Steve really is back and that this isn't a dream/vision of Eddie's. The line between reality and vision is blurring with Eddie (the snake in the hotel) so we may start next season discovering that this last part was a "dream" but that Steve has named Eddie as the one true prophet of Meyerism. (I'm still team eddie.) Sarah is gonna be super embarrassed when she finds out she spurned the one true prophet for a false one. OH PLEASE LET THIS HAPPEN I WANT FATE TO BITCH SLAP HER SO HARD.
so now we get several months to bat around ideas and theories and hopes and dreams "Like PLEASE SAY BITCH Aaron Paul. PPPLLLLEEEEEAAAASSSEEEEEEE."
posted by miss-lapin at 6:45 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]