The Exorcist S01 E06: “Star of the Morning”

Last week’s episode of The Exorcist dropped a bombshell on fans when it was revealed that Angela Rance is Regan MacNeil. The demon that possessed her all those years ago is now after her daughter Casey, who has gone missing. What happened this week?

The show opens with the talk show that Angela/Regan was on, discussing her possession. It’s obvious from her expression when she made the conscious decision to run away and start fresh, when the host asks her if she thought her story would follow her the rest of her life. Her mother Chris put herself and Angela on the show to promote her new book.

Henry and Angela argue over her big news and her visiting mother, while Kat gets acquainted with her new found grandmother. Chris tells her that she did locate Angela once she left, but her daughter didn’t want anything to do with her. She reached out again when she saw her on television pleading for help in finding Casey.

Henry is having enough trouble recovering from a brain injury, and Angela’s latest development is causing even more havoc for him. Chris offers to stay at a hotel, but Henry insists that she stay with them, in Kat’s room. Angela doesn’t want her there, but Henry believes Chris may somehow be able to help them find Casey.

The Rance Family is doing everything possible to locate their missing daughter. They have a large assembly of volunteers fielding tip calls and distributing flyers. Angela falls asleep while manning the phones, and dreams that the demon calls her, knowing her true identity.

Angela meets in private with Father Tomas and Father Marcus. Marcus is angry that she withheld valuable information from them. The priest tells her they must find Casey before there is nothing left of her to save. If integration with the demon and host happens, Casey will be lost, and not even an exorcism could bring her back. Marcus presses Angela for any more information that she may have failed to share with them before storming from the room.

Father Tomas follows, and Marcus tells him he is going hunting, turning down the younger priest’s offer of help. He contends that when the balance of nature is disturbed, there is trouble. Marcus tells him that he will never be an exorcist, as he has too much to lose. Frustrated Tomas tells him he will go hunting as well, aided by volunteers and police, as Marcus continues on his way.

The family holds a press conference on Casey’s apparent kidnapping. (They’re calling it a kidnapping since authorities believe it unlikely that a young woman could break free from the restraints and cause all that damage herself). Tomas announces that St. Anthony’s is offering a $100,000 reward in the case. Chris is beside her family at the podium, and responds that she is Casey’s grandmother when questioned by a journalist. Reporters whisper that her daughter was possessed years ago.

Authorities question Henry about the exorcism, and point out that it was done without church approval, although Angela tells them it was done with parental consent. Police managed to keep the exorcism aspect of the situation out of the papers. They’re interested in speaking with Marcus, but Angela doesn’t know his whereabouts. She is shown a picture of the inside of the ambulance. The case is considered a kidnapping, but could Casey alone have done the damage depicted in the photo?

Kat is on her computer watching a video of her mother on the talk show when Chris interrupts. Chris explains that she lost her career because of Angela’s experience, and wrote a book as a means of survival, as her acting days were essentially over. She told Kat that Angela played with a Ouija board and had an imaginary friend she called Captain Howdy. Chris cautioned her daughter about playing with it so much, but she wouldn’t listen. Chris blames herself for Angela’s possession because she was away working on a film when her daughter needed her the most.

Maria Walters pays Tomas a visit. He apologizes for not telling her about his plans for her donation, but she tells him it was a good use of the money. She asks if the service he wanted to provide, but keep secret from the church, was an exorcism. The priest declines to talk about it. She invites him to an event at her home. The Friars of Ascension charity is honoring the papal planning committee. Tomas tells her he is busy trying to find Casey.

Jessica reappears in this episode. She tells Tomas that she moved out of her home and that her marriage is over. She’s rented a place where she can pretend to be single and where he isn’t a priest anymore. He tells her he won’t visit her, but we know that doesn’t last, as he comes over for dinner.

Marcus is still spending time with his tour guide friends. They research Tattersall Landscaping, a now defunct business. They discover that The Walters’s acquired the company but never reinstated it. Why are so many of their vehicles on the road when they are no longer solvent? They believe the trucks are responsible for snatching people for use in summoning demons.  It turns out that The Walters are very charitable to the Friars of Ascension. Father Bennett and Marcus listen with interest to these new developments.

Back at the makeshift call center for Casey, Tomas overhears that wild dogs have been going crazy in a particular location. He texts Marcus right away to let him know that nature may be coming unbalanced.

At the Walters’s soiree, Bennett recognizes the chief of police working the Rance case. He is even more suspicious of Maria, having met a professor in attendance who seems to be pro demon.

Angela returns home to find that Chris has a reporter at the house getting her story about Angela. She throws him out then tells her mother she should leave. They argue, and Chris is hurt that her daughter always knew where she was even after she left. The fighting is interrupted by a call from the coroner. They think they have recovered Casey’s body, but when she and Henry go to make an identification, they are relieved when it isn’t their daughter.

Marcus ventures into underground tunnels to find Casey, finding it unusual that rats are fleeing that location. Casey is found, but quickly escapes Marcus. He finds her near the water and they have a struggle. The demon leaves Casey, who can only tell Marcus, “He’s coming back. Help me.”

This episode dropped its own bombshell. Mrs. Walters and her cronies are into summoning demons. They had their own private after party, and the demon they summon enters the police chief working the Rance case. It looks like Mrs. Walters and her trucks had a hand in the murder of the nine people used for their ritual.

As always, I’m looking forward to the next episode. Fortunately, this time we only have to wait one week.