‘The Mist’ Season 1 Episode 5 Recap: The Waiting Room

The Mist Season 1 Episode 5
Morgan Spector, Okezie Morro, Danica Curcic, and Russell Posner star in Spike’s ‘The Mist’

The mist barely puts in an appearance in season one episode five of Spike TV’s The Mist, loosely based on the novella by Stephen King. Airing on July 20, 2017, and titled ‘The Waiting Room,’ episode five concentrates on four of the series’ main characters with barely an appearance by the creeping fog. The episode kicks off with Kevin (Morgan Spector), Mia (Danica Curcic), and Adrian (Russell Posner) driving Bryan (Okezie Morro) to the hospital. They’re relieved to discover the power’s still on and the hospital staff’s still busy at work.

A doctor takes care of Bryan’s gunshot wound and then informs the group the bleeding has been controlled and Bryan will probably recover. After Adrian and Mia head off to check in on Bryan, the doctor tells Kevin they’ve got about another day or two before the generator gives out, adding the mist has taken over the hospital’s east wing. Kevin confirms things outside aren’t any better.

And now we get a flashback to happier times for Eve (Alyssa Sutherland) and Kevin. They’ve just bought a house and are in the process of moving in. Eve’s actually smiling and showing emotion as Kevin gives her a tour of their new home, including Alex’s red balloon-filled room. Eve confesses she’s never been happier…or been less herself.

Back to current events, Kevin goes throughout the hospital asking if anyone’s seen his wife or daughter. He breaks down in tears after learning they aren’t at the hospital. (Hasn’t he been convinced they’re at the mall?) Of course, the hospital room he chooses to get emotional in is the same room where his brother lies in bed bleeding from his stomach. He’s been impaled with what looks like rebar, and he explains kids in the mist beat him up. They told him it was revenge for the times he beat up Ricky back in school. (This guy’s just admitted he’s a bully, so I take back any sympathy I initially felt.)

Mike goes on to reveal there’s no way these kids could have known what they knew. The mist messes with your head, says Mike. Kevin pulls up a chair and asks for Mike’s opinion on what’s going on. Mike, bluntly, states that he’s dying but he’s also pretty sure so is everyone else. So, there’s that. The doctors aren’t doing anything for him and it’s just a matter of time before an infection kills him.

Bryan wakes up in a nearby hospital room and seems okay. He’s sore but alive and Mia decides this is the perfect time to sit on his bed and hold his hand. Adrian decides this is the perfect time for him to vacate the room, clearly uncomfortable with this public display of affection. Mia is apparently also not ready for any PDAs and tells Bryan to get some rest.

Another flashback finds Kevin asking Eve what being less herself means. She reminds him she dated bad boys before she met him, and she’s still that girl. If she hadn’t met him, she wouldn’t be a teacher and she’d still be having sex with random guys.

Meanwhile, back in Mike’s hospital room he’s definitely dying. He’s also concerned about Kevin’s family and impressed with the fact Kevin’s carrying a gun. Mike wants Kevin to kill him because he’s in pain and, hey, they don’t like each other anyway.

And we’re flashing back again… Kevin’s inside the house laughing with his brother and Eve is extremely uncomfortable. Minutes after Mike leaves, Kevin and Eve make love and she keeps demanding he do it “harder.” (Why are we watching them have sex? I have no idea. Also, we’re 20 minutes in and there haven’t been any appearances by the mall dwellers or the church people, and just a second or two of the titular character.)

Catching up to Kevin in the hospital, the doctor tells him only the rebar is keeping Mike alive at this point. If they remove it without the proper tools and the ability to stop the bleeding, he’s a goner. The operating room is in the mist-filled east wing so that’s not an option. Kevin suggests he can run through the mist to the operating room so the doctor can remove the rebar. His next brilliant idea is to take his brother by himself and then have the doctor walk him through the operation via walkie-talkies. The doctor, a wise man, thinks that’s a horrible idea. Kevin, not a doctor, makes the decision to do it. After all, Mike’s going to die anyway.

Mia wanders into the hospital gift shop and after deciding on a stuffed bear for Bryan, she spots a dead hospital employee in the little office behind the shop. She plops down money for the bear and doesn’t check on the dead employee. Feelings aren’t Mia’s thing.

While Mia was shopping, Bryan was moved from the ER. After asking for his new room number, she’s shocked to find Bryan Hunt – not her Bryan Hunt, but the real Bryan Hunt – is recuperating in that room. This hospital is ground central for mist-induced coincidences.

Speaking of coincidences, one of the football players who picked on Adrian at the party in episode one walks by and heads into the bathroom. This teen ridiculed Adrian for being gay just days prior, but Adrian follows him into the restroom, uses the adjacent urinal, and then kisses the guy. He receives a beating as well as verbal abuse for the kiss. Undeterred, Adrian gets up and kisses him again. (I’d like to point out we are now 26 minutes in and the mist has still only appeared for a few seconds.)

Mia chats with the real Bryan who claims someone beat him up at Arrowhead. She lies and says she’s a nurse’s assistant, then asks who did this to him. He describes the fake Bryan (real name Jonah Dixon) and says the reason he was attacked is “above his pay grade.”

Kevin finds Adrian and hands over the car keys, warning Adrian that if he doesn’t return, he needs to get to the mall.

There’s yet another flashback but, honestly, I just don’t care enough about Kevin and Eve as a couple to recap it. (30 minutes in, no additional mist sightings.)

Mia and Adrian joke about violence during sex, safe words, and dolphins. They talk about their lives, hatred of hospitals, and bad parents. They talk, it’s depressing, and Mia decides to make a break for it. She jumps in the car and using the keys she just stole from Adrian, drives away. She abandons her new friends without so much as a goodbye wave. However, Mia’s hasty exit does provide us with another glimpse of the mist. Hooray!

Fake Bryan wakes up in his hospital bed and limps to the nurses station. He’s told Mia is visiting her friend in room 237 and when Fake Bryan arrives, Real Bryan’s asleep. Fake Bryan spots Real Bryan’s hospital chart which is clearly labeled “Bryan Hunt.” Fake Bryan limps to Real Bryan’s bed and Real Bryan opens his eyes.

Kevin wheels Mike on a gurney to the east wing, accompanied by the doctor clutching walkie-talkies. Kevin runs through the hallway, passing lots of dead bodies in the mist. Mike screams in pain and then starts bleeding from his fingernails. The operating room is mist-free as Kevin prepares to operate. Mike admits he and all his friends were in love with Eve, calling her a “strange creature.” He tells Kevin he hated him for reaching Eve when no one else could and then gives his brother the go-ahead to operate.

The doctor walks Kevin through the procedure, including injecting Lidocaine into Mike’s stomach to numb the wound. He uses a scalpel to cut a six-inch opening around the rebar, describing the rebar as sticking out of a reddish-brown substance. (I never thought I’d say this but I really miss Mothman and the church people.) Kevin makes Mike hold onto the pry bars separating the wound as he pulls the rebar out. Mike, unfortunately, doesn’t pass out during all this. Blood begins flowing from the wound as Kevin uses clotting sponges to try to get it to stop. (How does he know what clotting sponges are?) The doctor tells him to use staples to close the incision, and he does without flinching.

There’s another flashback only worth mentioning because Kevin asks Eve who Alex’s father is. Kevin makes Eve promise she won’t tell Alex it isn’t him.

Kevin races back from the operating room through the mist as Mike coughs up blood. Lots of blood. Kevin slips on a pool of someone else’s blood and the gurney goes sailing down the hall without him. Mike tumbles off onto his fresh sutures, but that’s the least of his problems. Dozens of leeches fall from the ceiling, landing on both men but not really sticking to Kevin. They crawl inside Mike’s wound and then completely cover his body. Instead of watching his brother turn into a leech creature, Kevin pulls out his gun and shoots him. Kevin flees back down the hall, unharmed.

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 4 Recap