I was worried that I would have a hard time getting caught up, but it was easy enough to jump back into the plot without too much struggle. I suppose that's one of the strengths of having a show that hinges on vague mysteries, a viewer can jump back in with a "broad strokes" mind set and still keep up.
I wasn't really feeling the episode for the first half. People are conversing on issues that have been brought up before, but the episode hit the 25 minute mark and I found myself wondering if anything had actually happened. It was very strange. It's not even like the episode was boring, it just didn't feel very eventful.
There was one highlight where Skarsgard's nameless character outspooks the attorney who tries to put the screws to him by talking about how he tortured people in Iraq. "The Kid" throws out a Bible verse, stands up, and has the lawyer backing away in fear within seconds. It was kind of glorious. Skarsgard may not be getting a lot of screen time at this point, but he's making every second of it count. A part of me wishes he had more, but I think using him sparingly now is for the better.
Once the episode hits its second half, things really escalate. We have a very tense scene with a creepy old barber, a stunning revelation as Pangborn reveals that Henry's dad pinned the blame of his death on Henry and that Pangborn took effort to keep the kid out of prison, and a jaw dropping finale. This is the stuff that'll keep you watching. It pulls you in and makes you want to find out what happens next. If the episode's slow start bugged you, I think what happens here more than makes up for it.
The episode does put great songs to use, both in the opening and closing scenes. It's always nice to see Tom Waits get some attention and the song does work. Roy Orbison's "Crying", however, will likely be the more memorable inclusion, due to its use in the aforementioned closing sequence. In lesser hands, the song's inclusion probably would have come off as corny or cliche, but it actually worked really well here and helped augment the horror of what we were seeing.
With everything that went down in the second half, the next episode has plenty of momentum going in. Here's hoping it can put it to good use and build on it in order to make for even more captivating episodes as we move in to the season's second half.
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