The Mist Episode 8 Review: The Law of Nature

This The Mist Review contains spoilers.

The Mist Episode 8

The Mist episode 8, “The Law of Nature,” sets mankind back in the battle for humanity. Given the slightest provocation, everybody plays the fool. Kevin (Morgan Spector) makes promises he can’t keep but is firmly overshadowed as the most metamorphic monster on his way to the mall.

Maybe the creatures in the mist aren’t so bad. Especially when compared with the people in the small town the fog rolled in on. Take away food, or faced with the impending loss of food, and stability and people lose their minds. They start killing each other. They kill to protect secrets, mainly, and they do it out of sight and then create more secrets. This sounds like the monsters in the mist, hidden but deadly. We are the monsters in the mist, the series is telling us.

Even the good guys, the heroes and heroines, of the series are losing their shit. Kevin surrendered his fatality-inducing virginity when he killed his brother rather than watch him get sucked dry by leeches. This is understandable, having to pull his brother 20 feet to safety while latching on to the slippery disgusting bloodsuckers is enough to put you off your food. The mall manager goes upside someone’s head to protect his private stash of food. Eve stashes the jock who is accused of raping her daughter in a private cell. Adrian protects his privates in a selfish bid for love. Nathaly burns love in a church pyre in a selfless bid for nature. It is a vicious cycle.

The episode is filled with shockers that come as no real surprise at this point. The truth about the jock’s accusation comes out. A mother will take extreme measures to protect or avenge their kids. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do flames. Authority figures will give up anyone else rather than give away their cookies.

Let’s start with the mall manager. Nice guy, usually. Gus Redman (Isiah Whitlock, Jr) is not really prepared to take charge of a group of people in a crisis. He’s got his own routine, built up over years of stationary but steady authority. He tries to keep chaos at bay in his little community and believes he’s earned the right to a little extra nibble. When his stash and his standing are both jeopardized, he is fully entitled to lash out. He’s only human. And it’s only human to pass the blame on to someone else.

Eve (Alyssa Sutherland) finally has enough of Jay (Luke Cosgrove) and exposes her true nature. She’s a fierce mother protecting her daughter, the most natural thing in the world. Like Carrie’s mother in Stephen King’s first book, she does this by locking the most evil threat away in a closet to contemplate his sins. The boy was accused of date raping her daughter, and her daughter is flaunting a devil-may-care attitude for her mom. The mist is strong with this one. Alex (Gus Birney)  was being blamed for the dividing the town before the fog rolled in, and now that it’s here, she is getting flak for it. She was spared by the shadow creature a few episodes ago and people can’t be blamed for pointing fingers. It’s not her fault she’s acting like she was given a free pass when she was passed over. When it comes out as another case of passing the buck, she and the jock look suitable for framing.

Having Adrian come out as some kind of loveseeking demon might seem very Stephen King at first, but he’s really more like the salt monster on Star Trek. It seems the orderly at the psych ward in the hospital was right about the kid. His mom ran out of excuses for her loving son and ran out into the fog to clear her head. She winds up getting her eyes pecked out by birds. At first it looks like Adrian is right about his father, who appears uncaring as he finishes dinner while his son loses his. The man is a monster with no heart and less soul. But here the writing team tries to come up with a new creature to add to the Stephen King-inspired rogue’s gallery.

The last segment of The Mist usually features their monster of the week. We’ve seen the angelic mothman, the four horsemen. Tonight’s monster is people. Like the monster on Bugs Bunny says when he looks out the audience to face the true horror.

Yes, people are the monsters of the week this week. The episode closes on their true nature, and it’s not very nurturing. Nathalie’s is leading her dwindling flock into mystical battle. She even convinced the cop to sacrifice his only son, the one he blames himself for failing to know what it is to be a person, to the altar of the new gods. The parishioners burn their bridges behind them and follow the law of nature. Sometimes violence is necessary and not necessarily evil. As Frank Zappa once sang, “the meek shall inherit nothing.”

The Mist continues to try a little too hard to shape the novel into a cookie-cutting series. Most of the drama comes from not from expanding on the ideas of the book, or from building on them, but by blowing up small components into larger elements.

“The Law of Nature” was written by Andrew Wilder and Christian Torpe, and directed by Guy Ferland.

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