Damien
Season 1 Episode 6: “Temptress”
Directed by Nick Copus
Written by Richard Hatem
Created by Glen Mazzara
Starring Bradley James, Barbara Hershey, Megalyn EK, Omid Abtahi, Scott Wilson, David Meunier, Tiffany Hines
A&E
Air Date: Monday, April 11th, 2016, 10pm
Last week on Damien, after a mindtrip around the VA hospital last week culminated with him assisting a patient with suicide, Damien (Bradley James) went to his family’s estate, locked himself in the garage, turned the car on, and went to sleep. Of course, he didn’t succeed in killing himself; a couple of canine companions showed up to drag his carcass from the vehicle. Ann Rutledge (Barbara Hershey) tells the doctors it was an accident brought on by substance abuse… but Damien is tired of the copious amount of death that surrounds him.
Spoilers below.
He awakes in the hospital and Simone (Megalyn Echikunwoke) is there. She was stalking around Damien’s apartment when a pair of masked men came in and turned the place over, so she’ll have some conversation with him when the time comes I imagine. When he hears that Detective Shay (James Meunier) is en route to talk with him, he bails. He meets Amani (Omid Abtahi) at a goth club and meets a tattoo artist with an incredible story. It seems a few months two large goons showed up and dragged a body out of the trunk of a car for a tattoo. The unconscious guy was Damien and the tattoo was the 666 on his head… whoa!?!?
Damien goes to John Lyons (Scott Wilson) and is given a folder of decades old intel on Ann Rutledge with a warning – she is psychotic. Info in the folder includes an FBI file linking her to a “religious cult”. The doctor informs them that they found traces of a South American plant that causes hallucinations in Damien’s bloodstream, hence the crazy visions at the VA. Damien meets Ann for lunch and calls her out directly for all the lies and messing with his life. She tries to explain, but he flat out threatens her life on his way out. This probably won’t bode well for him.
Damien’s new lust for life doesn’t last long, as Amani tracks Rutledge to a meeting with Lyons, and Damien now knows he is being played on both ends. He goes back to Lyons’ office and takes a folder on himself and finds his mother (!?!?) Damien meets her (Bess Armstrong)… but the show has followed the film so well that we, the audience know his mother is dead. Lee Remick played her in the film and she was thrown out a hospital window by Mrs. Baylock. So is this an imposter trying to lure him deeper into the trap? We don’t have to wait too long because Rutledge shows up and soon after his mother is dead. Another tragic accident…
When he returns back, suddenly Simone and Amani are mysteriously against him, and when Detective Shay shows up and accompanies him to the tattoo parlor, they find the artist stabbed to death with the megido daggers. Shay then picks up Lyons and… attacked by old demon women… sonofabitch… I fell for the ol’ “it’s a dream episode”!!! Damn I’m usually better than that!
Despite being upset with myself for not seeing a cliched plot device, touché to the show because this episode was all sorts of f’ed up. One thing Damien knows for sure from his carbon dioxide induced nightmare, he wants nothing to do with Ann Rutledge. This was one of the best episodes so far, and now Damien appears more aware of what’s going on and who he can and can’t trust. All things look positive going forward.
Damien is back with a new episode next Monday night at 10:00 on A&E.
Image Gallery
Videos
Damien: Season 1 Episode 6 Preview | Mondays 10/9c | A&E
Check out the Season 1 Episode 6 Preview for #Damien, Mondays 10/9c following an all new Bates Motel 9/8c
Damien: Inside the Episode: Temptress (S1, E6) | A&E
Show creator and executive producer Glen Mazzara looks at the ways the good and bad sides of Damien’s psyche manifest in Episode 6, “Temptress.”
Damien: Dark Dreams (S1, E6) | A&E
Damien’s dream becomes a true nightmare in this scene from Episode 6, “Temptress.”
I actually really enjoyed this episode. Whereas most dreams make a mishmash of things, his dream-mind tried to make logical sense of the extraordinary things happening around him in his waking life.
In the end, when he woke up, and ended up crying at the end, I interpret that as his starting to accept the reality of who he is.
Of course not all will agree with that psychobabble, but I think we can all agree and be thankful that Patrick Duffy didn’t walk out of a shower with a towel around his waist.
Comment by BadTigz — April 14, 2016 @ 11:22 am
I loved the episode. While it took me a few moments to accept the “it was all a dream” aspect, it does work here. As you said, his mind was trying to make logical sense of the extraordinary. while the episode did not drive the story forward, it did put us in the mind of Damien, who now an overwhelming sense of isolation and dread in the world.
I think the show has found it footing, and is really delivering on two fronts. I like the story of the reluctant antichrist, not in a comical why, like Lucifer, but in the sense of a good man dealing with a terrible destiny. But as it does this, they also bring the horror, both in atmosphere and gore. This is horror, you get a good dose every episode, and it doesn’t feel forced.
But man, can you imagine waking from the horror of that dream to realize that reality is probably a ton worse?
Comment by Thomas Young — April 14, 2016 @ 6:54 pm
Pretty good look at it considering this week’s episode even mentioned that they can’t afford to have Damien afraid and isolated right now.
Comment by Bryan Vonky — April 19, 2016 @ 10:53 am