"Demon Hunter" is a strange episode, and is a prelude to the retooled third season. It's not about the hunt for a cursed antique. Rather, it focuses on a demon-hunting family of a father, two sons, and a daughter that they rescued from a demonic cult. The family, the Cassidys, track a summoned demon, Ahriman, to Curious Goods. It is revealed there is a
We do get more of Johnny, now that Steven Monarque is a series regular. We first see him in his apartment, listening to a baseball game (at 11:15 at night?) and working on a model sailing ship (??). I guess they're trying to give Johnny some depth, after his sleaze ball stalker first appearance last season. And it's kind of weird. Who knew Johnny was into model ships?
Is it just me, or is Johnny a bit too ready to go to the "Let's get something out of the vault to use against Faron" strategy? Wow, he doesn't even know what is there, except presumably by reputation. It gaslights his more casual attitude toward the cursed items that we'll see later in "Hate on Your Dial". But it stilk seems a bit abrupt. And goofy. Is he going to use the doll or the trefinator or the transportable hive against Faron and Bonnie?
We also get Micki making Jack a partner in the shop. About time. And they do expand the vault with the extra space that they find. But we've never got a clear look at the vault to know how big or small it was. Although I suppose with items like the trefinator, the electric chair, and the child's coffin, it was getting a bit crowded.
"Demon Hunter" is a strange combination of modern day military, as the Cassidys are armed with semi-automatics and demon-tracking equipment. The whole thing feels a bit like the movie "Aliens", and we get black-and-white flashbacks to how the family men rescued their daughter/sister Bonnie from a cult. And the cult sent the demon Ahriman after them, so now they're hunting it. There's a lot of talk about negative energy and how they're tracking it. It doesn't make much sense, but oh well.
Meanwhile, Jack and Micki have found a "church of necromancy" beneath the vault. Johnny shows up to help them, and Jack figures that Lewis used the vault to contain any demons that were summoned in the church. That doesn't make a lot of sense either: did the cult summon demons and then let them wander around? The demon caller controls the demon, so why would the caller let the demon wander around?
There's also nothing explained about the Cassidys. Are they soldiers, or militia, or what? How did they get involved in hunting cultists? Heck if I know. Writer Jim Henshaw never bothers to tell us. Which I've found is often a flaw with Henshaw's work. When he's good, he's very good ("The Charnel Pit", "My Life As a Dog".) When he's doing one of his homages, like "Demon Hunter" and two seasons ago with "Badge of Honor", not so much. The latter look cool, but are skimpy on the details.
By the same token, Faron just... disappears at the end. He kills Bonnie, and then vanishes. We don't hear what happened to him, and we don't see him in any future episode. You'd think the trio might want him as an ally, but as they say at the end, Faron is a bit of a fanatic.
And maybe that's the point of the episode. To compare military tactics to the trio's more... laid back approach. And Faron's fanaticism to the trio's less fanatical approach to fighting evil. But we never find out why Faron is such a fanatic about killing cultists and hunting down demons. So it all rings a bit flat.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
We do get more of Johnny, now that Steven Monarque is a series regular. We first see him in his apartment, listening to a baseball game (at 11:15 at night?) and working on a model sailing ship (??). I guess they're trying to give Johnny some depth, after his sleaze ball stalker first appearance last season. And it's kind of weird. Who knew Johnny was into model ships?
Is it just me, or is Johnny a bit too ready to go to the "Let's get something out of the vault to use against Faron" strategy? Wow, he doesn't even know what is there, except presumably by reputation. It gaslights his more casual attitude toward the cursed items that we'll see later in "Hate on Your Dial". But it stilk seems a bit abrupt. And goofy. Is he going to use the doll or the trefinator or the transportable hive against Faron and Bonnie?
We also get Micki making Jack a partner in the shop. About time. And they do expand the vault with the extra space that they find. But we've never got a clear look at the vault to know how big or small it was. Although I suppose with items like the trefinator, the electric chair, and the child's coffin, it was getting a bit crowded.
"Demon Hunter" is a strange combination of modern day military, as the Cassidys are armed with semi-automatics and demon-tracking equipment. The whole thing feels a bit like the movie "Aliens", and we get black-and-white flashbacks to how the family men rescued their daughter/sister Bonnie from a cult. And the cult sent the demon Ahriman after them, so now they're hunting it. There's a lot of talk about negative energy and how they're tracking it. It doesn't make much sense, but oh well.
Meanwhile, Jack and Micki have found a "church of necromancy" beneath the vault. Johnny shows up to help them, and Jack figures that Lewis used the vault to contain any demons that were summoned in the church. That doesn't make a lot of sense either: did the cult summon demons and then let them wander around? The demon caller controls the demon, so why would the caller let the demon wander around?
There's also nothing explained about the Cassidys. Are they soldiers, or militia, or what? How did they get involved in hunting cultists? Heck if I know. Writer Jim Henshaw never bothers to tell us. Which I've found is often a flaw with Henshaw's work. When he's good, he's very good ("The Charnel Pit", "My Life As a Dog".) When he's doing one of his homages, like "Demon Hunter" and two seasons ago with "Badge of Honor", not so much. The latter look cool, but are skimpy on the details.
By the same token, Faron just... disappears at the end. He kills Bonnie, and then vanishes. We don't hear what happened to him, and we don't see him in any future episode. You'd think the trio might want him as an ally, but as they say at the end, Faron is a bit of a fanatic.
And maybe that's the point of the episode. To compare military tactics to the trio's more... laid back approach. And Faron's fanaticism to the trio's less fanatical approach to fighting evil. But we never find out why Faron is such a fanatic about killing cultists and hunting down demons. So it all rings a bit flat.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
