Season one episode five of Fox’s The Exorcist delivered a huge surprise twist that should have made fans of the source material scream with joy. Airing on October 21, 2016 and titled ‘Through My Most Grievous Fault,’ the episode was a game-changer for the fledgling show. Episode five began with Marcus (Ben Daniels) drawing in his Bible and Father Tomas (Alfonso Herrera) worried about the Rance family. Casey (Hannah Kasulka) is covered in boils, chained to her bed while her father, Henry (Alan Ruck), tends to her. She’s in horrible shape and as he’s about to leave the room, she asks him if he wants to hear a secret. She puts one of her chains around his neck when he takes a seat on the bed next to her, and the demon whispers in his ear. Henry walks downstairs and Angela (Geena Davis) knows something is wrong but not what. She was asleep and missed out on watching the incident on close-circuit.
Kat (Brianne Howey) is listening to music in her room when she hears banging in the walls. She taps back, asking if Casey can hear her. The racket in response sends her back to her bed and back to listening to her headphones.
Angela’s keeping busy cleaning the kitchen as the banging increases over her head in Casey’s room. She gets up on a chair to clean a gross mess on the ceiling that’s leaking from Casey’s room when Henry walks in and looks at her precarious position. Meanwhile in Casey’s room the demon tries to get inside Father Tomas’ head by talking about his grandmother. Marcus takes Casey’s head in his hands, telling it to leave her body. Casey continues to try and get to Father Tomas and as they both watch, one of Casey’s big toes breaks and turns sideways.
Angela looks through old photos and Henry lurks in the doorway. He stares at her and she says she’s not sure how much more she can take of the banging noises. Henry leans in and asks her if she believes in God and she responds by saying he probably has low blood sugar from not eating. He follows up by asking if she’s lied to him and she dodges the question, telling him she could use some cooperation. She wants to know why he’s blaming her for this, saying she’s not going to take the blame.
Father Tomas bandages Casey’s toe while Marcus tells Casey she has to fight the demon. She speaks to Father Tomas as if she’s his grandmother, telling him she never wanted this for him. He begs her to stop while Marcus tells Father Tomas not to look at it. Father Tomas doesn’t listen to Marcus and instead argues with Casey. He races from the room and Marcus chases after him, assuring him he can do this. They run back into the room as Casey screams and flies through the air, banging off the walls and reciting the Little Piggies nursery rhyme.
Father Tomas and Marcus chain her back to the bed while Henry prays in his bedroom. He leaves the rosary on the bed when he hears dripping in his closet. He looks up and something’s coming from the ceiling and has saturated a box. In the box is a Bible and he opens it to see pressed flowers and a red feather.
Marcus cradles Casey in his arms and her physical condition is deteriorating as is the Stranger’s condition while he floats above her chest. The Stranger doesn’t want her to fight him, warning her she must bring “her” to him.
Kat tells her mom they need more help, and should call in the police or professionals who do something with Casey. Angela says no and asks her to stop discussing it. Kat says they have to do the right thing and in walks Marcus with the news Casey is sleeping. Angela makes him some tea and Marcus assures Kat he would never hurt Casey.
Father Tomas takes some time to himself to wash up in the bathroom but then hears Jessica knocking on the door. She’s calling for him to come to her and the lights in the house flicker. He enters Casey’s room and now it’s Jessica instead of Casey who’s inside. He tries to convince himself she’s not Jessica but he’s weak and as she touches his face, he reminds her she’s married. She asks for his hands and he says, “Unclean spirit!” She touches her own breast and then puts her fingers under his nose and whispers in his ear that she’s hungry, making him kneel before her as she caresses his head at waist level and as he begins to get intimate. While Tomas sees Jessica, we see it’s Casey – of course – who’s gotten into his head.
Fortunately, Marcus enters the room and stops Father Tomas, knocking him away from Casey who responds by making a horrible pun: “Just as I was getting a’head’.” Marcus pushes Father Tomas from the room and tells him he’s now been compromised. Marcus thinks Father Tomas is a liability. Kat sneaks a look into the room before Marcus can push her away from the door.
Father Tomas takes a walk in the rain to Jessica’s. He’s clearly upset and is no longer wearing his collar.
Marcus asks the demon its name and she tells him an excommunicated priest would be quite a jewel in their crown. He calls it a coward and it responds by telling him he’s not fit to perform an exorcism. It talks about his father while she asks if it’s taken Casey because she’s a woman and he thinks she’s weak. It tells him to bring “her” to him, and he asks who. Marcus calls it a spiteful, jealous spirit and says Casey is fighting to get him out of her. He holds Casey’s head and then he sees his mother in the room. Marcus says, “Mom?” while we get a flash of a scene of Father Tomas kissing Jessica. Mom tells Marcus she and his father never wanted him and he was a mistake.
Father Tomas and Jessica are getting hot and heavy while in Casey’s room Marcus’ mom talks about how his father brained her with his hammer (her head is bloody and distorted on one side). Mom strokes Marcus’ head and tells him she should have flushed him when she had the chance. Casey takes his mom’s place and he asks her if that’s all she’s got. Casey floats above the bed and tells Marcus to “come to us.” He screams at Casey as Father Tomas and Jessica make love at Jessica’s house.
Sirens are approaching the house and Angela figures out Kat has called the police. She screams no and Marcus offers Casey his hand, knocking him aside as the police rush into the room. They grab Marcus and Casey falls back onto the bed. They take her out of the house on a gurney and haul Marcus away under arrest. Angela yells at them that they can’t do this and that Marcus is a priest. Angela cries out that this will kill her daughter as Henry simply looks on and Kat tries to tell her mom it’s for the best.
From inside the house Kat watches as her sister’s placed in the ambulance. Before she’s settled inside, Casey lifts the oxygen mask off her face, stares at Kat, and smiles. Kat looks surprised and horrified.
The police question Angela and Henry as the ambulance drives away in the fog. The police assure Angela that Casey’s going to have the best care. They want to know what happened in the house while on the road to the hospital the ambulance is seen crashed into a tree. Inside the ambulance Casey is obviously doing something to her attendees. The back door opens, Casey walks out, and it’s just a scene of bloody carnage in the back of the ambulance. She flees the crash scene.
The news breaks in saying Casey has been missing for two days and her family fears the worst. Marcus watches the news from his jail cell. He massages his own shoulder and then seems to have an epiphany, saying, “He is coming.” Father Bennett shows up to bail him out and Marcus tells him he needs to warn His Holiness.
Back at the Rance house, Angela is startled awake from a bad dream and sees Henry sitting on the edge of the bed in the dark. He asks if there’s something she needs to tell him. She apologizes and says she hasn’t let him in recently. She wants to know what’s troubling him and he places a Bible on the bed, telling her she needs to confess. She picks it up, sees the inscription, and understands what has upset Henry.
Tomas, still collar-less, visits the church and kneels in the aisle. He prays, saying it’s his fault and asking for his brothers and sisters to pray for him. He hears a noise and Angela is in the back of the church lighting a candle. They sit in a pew and discuss patron saints and lost causes. Tomas says they will find Casey and that people don’t just disappear. But Angela thinks Casey had already disappeared even before this possession. Henry’s accident, Kat’s accident, and now this. She asks why he became a priest and then remembers it was because of his grandmother. She tells him her parents split up when she was a kid and that she moved around a lot. And here comes the huge twist … are you ready? Angela reveals when she lived in Washington DC as a kid she had an imaginary friend. (It’s a ‘tingles up your spin’ scene!) She said he looked like a little red bird to her and he could make her do just about anything. He made her feel special at first, but then thankfully she can’t remember most of it. She just wanted to move on with her life but her mother was always finding new ways to use her story to make money. Angela ran away from all that, changed her name, and never saw her mom again. She reinvented herself but no matter what she wasn’t protected. She chose Angela – for Angel – thinking the name would protect her.
As Angela tells Tomas her story, a stranger arrives at her home and rings the bell. Henry goes to answer the door.
Angela says she dreamed she could have a life, but nothing she did mattered. She says, “It’s coming for me, Father,” as we see that Henry had been at home looking at the inscription on the Bible which reads, “To Rags, Love, Mama, 1974.” Angela is Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist book and movie!
Henry opens the door and the woman standing there introduces herself as Chris MacNeil. She says she’s there to see her daughter.
A flashback shows Regan and her mom on a talk show promoting Chris’ book, The Devil in My Daughter. Regan says she doesn’t remember what happened to her.
* * * * * * *
The Exorcist airs on Fox on Fridays at 9pm ET/PT.
