‘The Mist’ Season 1 Episode 4 Recap: Pequod

The Mist TV Series Episode 4
Okezie Morro, Morgan Spector, Russell Posner, and Danica Curcic star in Spike’s ‘The Mist.’

Spike TV’s The Mist season one episode four finds the creeping fog claiming a couple more victims. Episode four titled “Pequod” begins with the fearless foursome escaping the church into the mist only to almost immediately come across a dead body. They make it to a car without being eaten but Mia (Danica Curcic) fails at hot-wiring it while Adrian (Russell Posner) contributes nothing helpful to the situation and instead has a mini freak-out over the Mothman. They decide to wait for the mist to thin out – which literally takes 5 seconds – and then they run from the car, hoping to make it to a nearby gas station.

Over at the mall, a female mall dweller races for the door in a full-blown panic attack. Gus the mall supervisor (Isiah Whitlock Jr) decides to pass out games to distract everyone, tossing Jay (Luke Cosgrove) a football so he can play catch while the mist is eating people.

Alex (Gus Birney) is supposed to be with her mom’s group elsewhere in the mall, but for some reason, she’s not. When Jay tosses the ball in anger after a girl slams him for date rape, Alex picks it up and tosses it back. (Note: Alex absolutely has never thrown a football before in her life.)

Meanwhile, Father Romanov (Dan Butler) annoys anyone within earshot by playing the piano horribly. He tells the most devout person housed at his church that he’s always believed in God. He now believes he’s seen a demon so, yes, that verifies everything he believes. He wonders if everyone was judged right now, how many would God burn? Father Romanov has apparently crossed over into full fire and brimstone mode and is now calculating who will be sacrificed first.

Following her inadvertent creation of the Mothman and his subsequent gruesome death, Nathalie (Frances Conroy) is looking for god (her new favorite one, not Father Romanov’s God) on her knees in the carpet away from the others. Father Romanov gathers the rest of the church group and preaches to them about how he’s not going to preach to them.

Nathalie refuses to pray with the group and instead would like them all to know she and the moth are BFFs. She’ll keep searching for the moth and when she finds it, she’ll ask it why it decided to kill her friend.

The church escapees have managed to make it to the gas station but – surprise! – there’s not a single car to be found. Fortunately, just then a car pulls up. Unfortunately, the driver has a gun and demands gas. The driver uncovers his face and stops pointing the gun, apologizing once he recognizes Kevin (Morgan Spector). He introduces himself as Clay and says he has a kid in Kevin’s wife’s class. He can’t find his son and shows Kevin a picture. Kevin recognizes the kid in the photo as the kid they saw dead outside the church, but he doesn’t say anything and neither do his new buddies.

Mia tells Clay to park his car in the garage and rest, and Clay admits he hasn’t slept in two days. After he falls asleep, Mia tells Kevin they should let Clay know the truth so he’ll leave the area and take them with him. (Mia would have to dig deep to dredge up a real human response to tragedy.) Kevin agrees to talk to Clay but doesn’t agree to tell him his son’s dead.

Over at the church, Nathalie thumbs through books. Chief Connor Heisel (Darren Pettie), the dad of suspected rapist Jay Heisel, watches Nathalie and she admits people probably believe she’s crazy. (You think?!) She assures him no one is looking down on him for letting three prisoners escape in these circumstances, but he continues to pout about the fact they took his gun. Father Romanov interrupts to announce food will be served soon.

The mall dwellers are also sitting down for a meal, with Alex now back with Eve’s group following her brief foray into Jay’s territory. Alex tells a little girl a story about an owl and then offers to take the child, who’s scared of the dark, into the pitch-black mall to find the owl book. The adults allow this to happen because, hey, what could possibly go wrong? After the kids leave, it’s grown-up time and wine is poured, stories are told, and relationships are discussed. (For those keeping track, the mist has barely made an appearance 20 minutes into this episode.)

Back at church, Father Romanov blesses the food. Nathalie doesn’t eat because she’s too busy reading the journal of one of the first priests from this particular church. She tells the Father wildlife have killed people in this area before during the Black Spring, something she and Mothman discussed prior to his untimely death which she still hasn’t apologized for. Everyone listens in as Father Romanov tells her she’s looking for answers in the wrong place.

Nathalie spots a spider and adds another BFF to her circle of friends. She places the spider in a glass bottle and for some unexplained reason she thanks it.

Clay, sans gun and mask, explains why all the cars have stopped working. His car works because he got it from a survivalist and it doesn’t have a circuit board. Kevin asks if Clay can drive them to the mall, and Clay explains he can’t because he only has 1/8 of a tank of gas. He’ll need that to find his son.

Alex and her new young friend walk to the book store where the hallways are bright as they browse for owl books.

The video game dudes have a new plan. They’ve picked up a spear gun from a sporting goods store and they hook the nearest shopping cart containing one of the dead soldiers they pushed outside. They bring the dead body inside and then hook the other one. As they’re reeling it in, the line gets stuck. One of the dumb dudes heads out to unhook it. The line breaks and instead of going after his friend, the other guy closes the door and leaves him outside. As he’s backing away from the door, the dead body comes flying through the glass door – along with the mist.

Of course, this is all happening in the back of the bookstore where Alex is babysitting. There are dozens and dozens of stores in this mall and yet it’s all going down in the bookstore where Alex inexplicably took the scared-of-the-dark child to visit at exactly the wrong time. Alex and the girl scream and run for their lives while the video game dude makes tracks to Gus the mall manager’s group.

Back inside the bookstore, a creature forms inside the mist and scares the bejesus out of Alex and the kid. They’re stuck in the store; the doors were open and the light should have led them out, but now the doors are mysteriously closed and Alex and the girl can’t escape. Jay’s one of the first to arrive followed by his mall group. Eve (Alyssa Sutherland) also arrives along with her gang and they all scream at each other through the locked (who locked the doors?!) glass doors. The little girl Alex was babysitting is killed while her mother watches. The adults stare through the glass doors while inside and out of their view Alex appears to confront the mist creature.

As the adults are mourning the death of Alex and the kid, Alex walks out of the store unharmed. She claims to have fought the creature as hard as she could, which makes no sense. She looks perfectly fine and is utterly emotionless, but that’s not actually a surprise as through the first four episodes Alex hasn’t shown any emotion.

And now we’re back to the church where Nathalie is busy hanging out with her friend the spider. The Father and the police chief gossip about Nathalie and Father Romanov reveals he overheard her referring to the spider as god. Chief Wimpy Pants is the first of Nathalie’s recruits, catching a fly for her spider god as Father Romanov watches in disbelief. (Whether his reaction is over the police chief’s quick turn to the dark side or over the fact he’s angry at a woman worshipping a spider god is unclear.)

Catching up to the folks at the gas station, Carl’s ready to go looking for his son once again. Kevin won’t reveal Carl’s son is dead so Mia steps in and just blurts that sensitive information out. She doesn’t look in the least bit convincing when she apologizes for revealing the truth. Carl points the gun at Kevin as Kevin looks just slightly more apologetic. Carl, overwhelmed with this unexpected, devastating turn of events, starts pointing the gun everywhere, declaring he’ll shoot them all. Bryan (Okezie Morro) begins to wrestle Carl for the gun and it goes off, shooting Bryan in the thigh. Of course.

Mia takes charge as Bryan begins bleeding profusely. She demands Carl take them to the hospital immediately.

The situation is just as dire over at the mall. The remaining video game dude is now the target of a lynch mob. They’ve decided the rules state they must throw out anyone who endangers the group, but Jay – the alleged rapist – says they should wait for the police. Gus the mall manager calls for a vote and a clear majority want to toss the video game dude out on his butt. Jay votes against it because he’s an alleged rapist with a heart.

The video gamer will be given provisions that include 3 days worth of food and a flashlight along with a way to defend himself.

Nathalie talks to the spider as if it’s a person, but now some of the church people are getting agitated about her mind-numbingly dumb reaction to the mist. The Father asks Nathalie to kill the spider to save her soul and she refuses. Again, he begs her to do it to save herself. When she continues to refuse, Father Romanov grabs the jar and squishes the spider into the carpet.

The mall dwellers give the gamer guy the supplies, including a bat, and he pleads with them not to toss him out for making a mistake. They don’t listen. Gamer dude steps outside into the mist.

Father Romanov speaks to the church people, acknowledging killing the spider appeared cold and callous. He believes it was actually a way to help Nathalie find her way to heaven. No mention is made of whether he believes the spider will get there first.

Nathalie strides down the aisle and approaches Father Romanov at the altar. She’s clutching the glass jar in her hands and inside are dozens of baby spiders. The police chief has Nathalie’s back and they gaze at the jar like proud parents.

Meanwhile, Eve’s group at the mall creates a makeshift memorial for the dead child. Alex confesses to her mother and the group that she simply stood there and waited for the creature to kill her but it didn’t. She doesn’t know why.

The dead kid’s mom defects to Gus the mall manager’s group. She declares for all to hear that Alex is a liar, telling Jay he was right all along.

Back at the garage, Carl is going to set out on foot to look for his dead son while the former church people head off to take Bryan to the hospital. They don’t offer to drop Carl off where they saw his son and instead just drive away in his car, leaving Carl to die.

***It’s stunning how quickly these townsfolk turn on each other when the going gets tough. Also, never read owl stories in a bookstore when dead soldiers are outside waiting to be munched on in the mist. I’m sure that’s one of the first rules of survival.***

More on The Mist:
The Mist Season 1 Episode 1 Recap
The Mist Season 1 Episode 2 Recap
The Mist Season 1 Episode 3 Recap
The Mist Season 1 Episode 5 Recap