The Mist Episode 7 Review: Over the River and Through the Woods

This The Mist Review contains spoilers.

The Mist Episode 7

The Mist episode 7, “Over the River and Through the Woods,” sees the characters trapped in the fog take more risks than any of the people who populated Stephen King’s novella might have dared. Some of these are calculated risks, designed to find answers or flee worse outcomes. But the TV series also shows the increasingly insular groups take stupid and unnecessary risks that defy both logic and common sense. This isn’t always because their brains boggled the mist’s mind-clouding effects.

Some of the risks make perfect sense. Mall manager Gus Redman (Isiah Whitlock, Jr) nibbles behind the closed doors of his office on a sweet snack while fights are about to break out over the food rations. He knows he’d have his ass handed to him if anyone caught him, but the audience can understand, even identify with the choice. He is sitting in his own office. This is his private stash. The military is on its way. He doesn’t even look particularly guilty when he asserts his limited authority over the mall cop who can’t take it anymore and starts gobbling at the stores.

But in that same mall, we see Alex (Gus Birney) almost cuddling up with the Jay (Luke Cosgrove), the boy who is accused of raping her. Eve (Alyssa Sutherland) has another mother on the case, just waiting for the high school star athlete to touch her daughter so she can cut off any offending limb that does it. Nothing happens while they are under the watchful eyes of the group, but Alex has to go that one extra step. She challenges her mother, as if they are on opposing sides, by flaunting support for the star quarterback. And Eve takes it. She makes an angry face and grunts a few objections, but in the end, the kids are cool to hang together. Even though Eve would prefer tossing him out like an old pigskin and shutting the automatic doors behind him.

Kevin (Morgan Spector) and his group, which now includes a former gay-bashing jock now unafraid to hold hands with Adrian Garff (Russell Posner), are forced to take shelter in the only place at the hospital where the doors are secure, the psych ward. The psych orderly sees the good and bad in people. He recognized Mia’s mother as one of the good souls to pass through the hospital, and sees the bad and ugly in Kevin and his gang. He takes a long hard look at Adrian and decides the kid has to die.

Kevin has really made a turnaround. The evil intent of the mist has taken hold of him. He stepped over the precipice when he was forced to kill his own brother. Tonight we see that this was just the beginning. He’s gotten a taste for blood, and it suits him so well, the former understanding liberal voice and self-appointed savior of the community is slowly getting hooked.

Mia (Danica Curcic) picks a very odd time to decide to kick her habit. She wants to be trusted. She wants to trust. Mia takes an antidote to addiction that people normally endure while under general anesthesia. It is too painful to feel the poisons leave the body. The mist poses threats beyond comprehension. You have to be ready at a moment’s notice to beat feet the hell out of there. This is a perfect time to be strapped to a gurney screaming at your best friend, your only friend, the guy you just learned wasn’t even who he thought he was, not to let you go no matter how much you scream. People make some stupid decisions on TV series, but this is worthy of a sit-com.

Bryan (Okezie Morro) is Jonah now. He was always Jonah, but it took a life or death struggle with himself to bring it out. Mia has nothing to live for, she’s broken faith with the only people who gave her a chance and revisited her past. Jonah is having flashbacks brought on by Mia’s agony. The arrowhead project is beginning to creep into his mind. We never knew what the project was all about in the book, but the cumulative evidence all points to the military base as the origin of the encroaching mist.

The police chief also makes a bold choice. He picks sides in a spiritual war. He doesn’t make this decision based on cool calculations. He’s just had enough. After 15 years on the force, Connor Heisel (Darren Pettie) is fed up with the worst crimes. Last week we saw him become humanized by the crazy lady, this week he lets the animal out. Again because of Mrs. Raven (Frances Conroy). He beats down the priest who won’t confess. Father Romanov (Dan Butler)and Nathalie Raven commit to their own strange choice. They venture out into the mist in a trial by ordeal to determine which of their faiths is the strongest. The priest puts on his best robes to brave the fog, while nature-loving Mrs. Raven strips herself of any defense and decides to go au natural. When the four or five horsemen of the apocalypse come by to pick up strangers, they decide it’s easier to latch on to the religious garments in the nude, the priest In robes going out among the mist.

The series continues to build its suspense, but a lot of the choices these characters make are distracting, and very much determined by the expectations of series television. There is too much conflict for the sake of conflict.

“Over the River and Through the Woods” was written by Daniel Talbott, and directed by Matt Penn.

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