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Even with All Hallows activities this week, it was still another slow-building episode of Chapelwaite … but I suppose that’s what happens when you take a short story and stretch it out to 10 hour-long episodes (and completely re-write the main part of the story because Charles Boone has no wife and kids in Stephen King’s short story). But there were a few key building blocks this week that will hopefully come into play soon.
The biggest news of the week in Preacher’s Corners is a birth. Unfortunately, the mother is unwed and her baby is horribly deformed with what appears to be a cleft palate and no eyes, the skin covering the sockets. It is quite a horrific sight and, of course, the people who’ve seen the baby believe it to be a terrible omen for the town. And it doesn’t take too long to figure out who the father is before he shows up to see the child — of course it’s Minister Burroughs. It’s always the minister in these stories, isn’t it? Luckily, he doesn’t see the poor child as evil and even agrees with the mother that the two of them should leave town. But does Mrs. Burroughs suspect her husband? She may, the way she showed up to offer her ‘support’ to the young, overwhelmed mother. But she really seemed to be on a fishing expedition for a name.
Charles also went to the minister to ask a favor, to allow him a few moments at the Sunday service to lay out his business plan for his saw mill and the town. Burroughs said they’d both be pilloried if he handed over his pulpit to Boone, but there was an event later that afternoon where he could speak. And he did, although not everyone was interested in what he had to say even if it did benefit the town financially. Undeterred, Charles said he’d be in town to take names for potential employment. And no one showed up. A lot of people stood and gawked at him, and Mrs. Mallory tried to tear up his appointment book while accusing him of basically killing her husband and enchanting their daughter, so Charles is going to find it more difficult than he imagined to build a fleet of whalers.
We also learned this week that Loa Boone, the middle child, has rickets, and her father hoped the doctor in Preacher’s Corners had some newfangled medicine that would help heal her leg. He does not, so Charles designed a new leg brace for her and had it crafted at the local foundry — one of the few places in town where he isn’t a pariah — and presented it to her in time for the All Hallow’s festivities in town. Earlier on the children’s first day at school, Loa was bullied, purposely tripped and her necklace of shells torn from her neck, so the new brace was a less cumbersome blessing. Too bad though the town is still suspicious of the family. One man refused to give the kids their treats, and another blew flour in their faces to lighten their dark skin (ah, racism).
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Earlier, young Susan Mallory seemed to be in a state of sleepwalking, having found her way from town all the way to Chapelwaite, asking for her father (the man whose throat was slit and then set afire at the end of Episode 1). Charles snapped her out of her stupor and of course she panicked. Rebecca took her back to her mother, who instead of being grateful, blamed the Boones for their problems, including Susan’s illness. Perhaps her sojourn into the cold night hastened her demise but she shuffled off this mortal coil on All Hallow’s, driving her mother into the street with grief, lashing out at Charles in particular. It took a gunshot into the air from Constable Dennison to disperse the crowd, and back at Chapelwaite Charles told Rebecca to put the children to bed immediately.
Finally fed up with the town blaming his family for its ills, Charles made his way to the family cemetery on the property and started digging at his cousin’s grave. Rebecca watched with horror as it appeared Charles had gone mad, but what she didn’t see was what he found when he opened the coffin — nothing. It was empty, much to his surprise and horror (but not ours). What he doesn’t know is that back in town, someone or some thing, has attacked the constable’s wife in a moment that actually made me jump.
So … Episode 2 had a slow build-up but about mid-way through the story started to gather some steam with the death of Susan, the attack on the constable’s wife and the empty grave. Let’s hope things keep rolling along now.
What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments section below!
Chapelwaite airs new episodes Sunday at 10:00 PM on EPIX. Episodes are also available on the EPIX app. Subscribe through Apple TV channels using our Apple TV Plus affiliate link.
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