BallerStaf2003 said:

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So what was the purpose of the flashback to the bear cave?

Is that to show that el Cuco is definitely there Bc of the immense grief felt by them being trapped there?

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It was to show how the brother knew the cave was there. It was his "kinfolk" who got trapped looking for the kids. After that the cave was sealed and forgotten by almost everyone.

M.C. Swag said:

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There's a difference tho. The "helper" is the mind control.

But until this most recent episode, we never had any indication that El Cuco could access the mind of the person it scratched.

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I figured there would be more talk about this.

All of a sudden the characters were like "it can see everything he sees and everything he thinks" and I literally paused it and was trying to figure out when/how we decided that was the case.

bobinator said:

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I figured there would be more talk about this.

All of a sudden the characters were like "it can see everything he sees and everything he thinks" and I literally paused it and was trying to figure out when/how we decided that was the case.

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Yeah, that was a head-scratcher. Interesting way to introduce a macguffin. Or maybe pretty standard.

Decent chance this ends with them killing a Claude but not being sure if it's the right one right?

Just FYI, this was originally billed as a "limited series," since it was based on a single book, but now promotional items are saying "season finale." So it looks like HBO is leaving the door open to pull a Big Little Lies (another limited series based on a single book) and do a second season that would be an original work.

I'm choosing to use that as evidence for what I just posted.

How can we stretch this out another hour without really moving the plot along much?

I know -- we'll introduce the idea that El Cuco can see whatever the person it's trying to form into can see despite there being no indication of that being a thing before now (and nevermind that it apparently couldn't see and know what Terry Maitland knew or it would have chosen to murder the initial kid during a time where Maitland's alibi couldn't be proven, setting this whole El Cuco search in motion)... That way we can have the whole episode centered around not letting Claude know the plan, but then have it foiled at the end by Claude's brother (who also had the timely "oh I happen to know the entire history of the place where this monster just so happens to be holing up"), essentially having what they did that entire episode with Claude be pointless.

We've now had some some random visitor at the jailhouse explain the monster and another somewhat random recently introduced character explain how to find the monster.

Sorry guys, I know I promised... But the writing on this is absolute dog ***** This is a 2 hour show that has 8 hours of fluff. Well acted, good production quality, but the pacing and writing is crap.

I get what you're saying, and it's a fair conclusion from what they've chosen to do, but I guess my frustration is that they chose to do it.

Like... it doesn't have to be fluff. There are some parts of this story that aren't that fully fleshed out. Example, what's up with this other child murder all of a sudden?

It feels like a five hour story made into a ten hour story, but I don't necessarily think that's because of the story itself as much as it is some baffling decisions by the creators.

I think it was mentioned in a previous episode that El Cuco is in Claude's head.

double aught said:

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I think it was mentioned in a previous episode that El Cuco is in Claude's head.

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Yea but not in a literal sense.

Yeah, like Prop Joe said, if it can do that, then it's also an idiot. The only explanation for it choosing to go after the first kid when it did is if it gets off on confusing manhunts. It picked literally the worst possible moment to kill that kid.

bobinator said:

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I get what you're saying, and it's a fair conclusion from what they've chosen to do, but I guess my frustration is that they chose to do it.

Like... it doesn't have to be fluff. There are some parts of this story that aren't that fully fleshed out. Example, what's up with this other child murder all of a sudden?

It feels like a five hour story made into a ten hour story, but I don't necessarily think that's because of the story itself as much as it is some baffling decisions by the creators.

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If it's anything other than something to be used as a personal justification by the DA to finally change his mind that Terry wasn't the killer and/or to show there is more than one El Cuco, I'll be surprised.

The story itself is fine... Not King's best work, but a fun read.

I think it simply boils down to the creators/HBO needed 10 episodes and there wasn't enough meat on the bone for that.

There's so many little side-stories that we swap to that I'm not a fan of but I'll accept your previous explanation of it being how different people deal with grief and wrapping their mind around this thing.

Except those side stories don't get fleshed out at all. They are little bites that don't actually improve the story in any way... And when I say little bites, I mean 30 seconds of worthwhile dialogue and then a lot of staring and meandering. Why this late in the game when the action is ramping up to the finale are we going back and having Maitland's wife talk to the detective's wife? Why are we showing the district attorney (or whoever that is) seeing that the creature has attacked elsewhere and that the lawsuit Maitland's wife will be throwing at them will be a slamdunk? Does any of that really matter this late in the game? Were we all really looking for closure or more insight on how this lawsuit is going to play out?

Maybe the flashback cave-in scene will have some meaning in the last episode... but I kinda doubt it. Yeah you can maybe make the stretch that the creature likes that specific cave because of all of the pain and suffering that went on inside of it, but was that really worth 25 minutes of the episode this late in the game? There's so many different things about this creature that were never fleshed out, but it's somehow really key for us to know why it chose that specific cave? It's filler.

I'm frustrated because the acting has actually been pretty damn good and there was a ton of initial intrigue about this mystery, but it has become so plodding. This should have been 5 episodes.

The cave thing is a good example of what I'm talking about. That could have been good, but like... earlier. Like you said, why now?

I know your complaint is that there's not enough meat on the bone, but I guess mine is that maybe there is, but they've chosen to give it to us in a bizarre order.

Yeah i would have been fine with a cave backstory earlier showing how maybe the thing was even around back then and feasted on the trapped townsfolks pain and suffering (with the reveal later that they didnt each die off or even eat each other but rather this thing did them in). But at this point in the story "why this cave?" doesn't really matter much.

So that was the PI that got shot and not the boyfriend, right?

double aught said:

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So that was the PI that got shot and not the boyfriend, right?

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Yeah, the only person shot (that I could see) was the PI. I was ready for the boyfriend to die after their moment just before in the car. We may find him under fire at the start of next episode...

I thought the bear cave was it was actually the cucos home and people thought the scratches in it were from bears.

Like bears didn't usually live around there. There was a prehistoric Saber tooth cave they could explain so they figured this other cave was bears.

Maybe I'm wrong but it at a least gave more reasoning to me

IMO, he went to live in the bear cave because it was forgotten and off the beaten path and he was also attracted to all the pain and tragedy that had occurred in the cave.

Drifter. said:

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IMO, he went to live in the bear cave because it was forgotten and off the beaten path and he was also attracted to all the pain and tragedy that had occurred in the cave.

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Yeah it's not completely out of left field. There's a lot to complain about with the writing but that's not it. Either way, next episode will determine how many watch season 2, if it's indeed being extended like tccts May be suggesting above

Ending to episode 9 was phenomenal. Built tension so well and Ralph's reaction was perfectly done.

Can't wait for the finale.

BallerStaf2003 said:

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So what was the purpose of the flashback to the bear cave?

Is that to show that el Cuco is definitely there Bc of the immense grief felt by them being trapped there?

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I think at the very least it's just an "origin story" for this thing

There's no way it's from this cave. It's a timeless "demon." It'd be all to convenient if it was from this small town cave within driving distance of Terry Maitlands home.

M.C. Swag said:

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There's no way it's from this cave. It's a timeless "demon." It'd be all to convenient if it was from this small town cave within driving distance of Terry Maitlands home.

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I agree. This thing isn't from Tennessee. The only reason it is in that town and hiding in that cave is because it followed Claude there.

Drifter. said:

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M.C. Swag said:

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There's no way it's from this cave. It's a timeless "demon." It'd be all to convenient if it was from this small town cave within driving distance of Terry Maitlands home.

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I agree. This thing isn't from Tennessee. The only reason it is in that town and hiding in that cave is because it followed Claude there.

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And the reason they showed the cave in incident was to show how the brother knew the cave was there when it wasn't marked on a map and no one else knew it was there.

I think it's a very good show. Of course it could have been wrapped up in less episodes but that's tv. The acting is incredible. Ben Mendelsohn is one of my favorite actors. The actor playing the character named Jack is an Aggie too.

Theory, Claude is actually Claude! and El Cuco led him to TexAgs

Eh. That was good, I guess, but surprisingly simple and easy, relatively speaking. I enjoyed the series overall, despite its issues, but I don't know that I'll be watching a season two should there be one.

Loved the first few episodes. Gradually lost a lot of steam. Maybe they could do it creatively, but another season seems like it would be a disaster

Pretty good.

Much better time spent than watching some mindless dreck like Survivor or Big Bang Theory.

Timber rattle snake

So what were the implications of the post-credit stinger? Holly said earlier in the season that she doesn't listen to music...

GreasenUSA said:

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So what were the implications of the post-credit stinger? Holly said earlier in the season that she doesn't listen to music...

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As soon as "she" said who's Terry I knew the game was up. Did you see what was on her forarm?

Wait, I forgot about that. What was that all about (the "Who's Terry?" thing).