I know, I know. It’s been awhile since I’ve updated any on Damien. That’s because real life got in the way with illness and work. Boo hiss. Now it’s almost the finale and I need to play catch up-fast! So here is my review of episodes six and seven. Tomorrow will be episodes eight and nine. Enjoy beasties.

Episode six is what I like to call the dream episode. Not only because of the twist at the end, but also because this episode was a dream to watch, or nightmare. Depending on your enjoyment of terrifying antichrist things. Actually called ‘Temptress’ this episode deals with the supposed ramifications of Damien’s attempted suicide. After last episodes unflinching look at suicide I was amped to see what this episode would bring up. The answer was, a lot.

Damien escapes the hospital and questioning from detective Shay. Our first hint that something strange is going on is that Damien’s apartment is spotless. No signs of where those guys messed the place up on Ann’s orders from the previous episode. Damien become obsessed with finding out how Ann knows everything about him and also finds out that John is in on it all too.

After checking his apartment for bugs and cleaning out his fridge while a confused Simone watches on, the two have a smoldering kiss. I was a touch disappointed at this, mostly because I liked the lack of romance in the show so far. The only romance I should see in horror is from the teens about to get murdered. Just saying.

Of course then Simone goes all strange with her dinner prep and talking almost bad about her deceased sister. Damien is weirded out enough to leave immediately and that’s saying something as he is the antichrist. He also meets a tattoo artist that swears he put the 666 on his head.

Damien also catches Amani speaking with Ann at a luncheon when before he swore he didn’t know her and could barely get a far away picture of her. Bradley James deceived face is amazing. It almost made me hope for everyone to start playing him just so I could see that face again.

This is when the episode goes crazy. Well crazier. Damien finds his mother. Yes his mother alive and well and in hiding. I was already suspicious of this episode, but this was what made me think that something wasn’t real. Anyone who has seen the original Omen movie knows that Damien’s poor mother is most definitely dead. The woman ends up dying again after being near Damien and steps. Really she should have known better.

Afterwards detective Shay takes Damien into questioning and things go downright bizarre. Damien takes him to see the tattoo artist, but he’s been murdered, with the daggers of Meggido. This is when I knew this couldn’t be reality. Damien has always had a warped sense of reality, but this was impossible. Not only are some of them lost, but to have them all in a random tattoo artist in the exact order they would kill Damien? Too much.

It was then I realized this was all warnings to Damien. Amani being with Ann. Simone acting strange. The daggers. The loss of innocence with the loss of his mother again. All of this was telling Damien the truths everyone else had been holding back the entire first half of the season! Kudos to writer Richard Hatem for making this mind bending episode.

The episode ends with Shay taking Damien to a dark street and people/creatures attacking the car. Damien then ‘wakes up’ and we see that not much real time has passed. Instead he is seizing on some EMT workers while en rout to a hospital from his previous suicide attempt.

Now that Damien knows the truth, what will he do with it? That’s what we find out in episode seven, Abattoir. Which means slaughterhouse and when I saw this I got all sorts of giddy as I knew there was going to be some great Damien horror coming up.

We start off with Damien waking up in the psych ward. Not only did I love this because much of the time television shows forget that real world actions create real world consequences, but also because this was the perfect excuse to set a horror show up in a psych ward. Hell yeah. Damien tries to accumlate himself there and ends up sitting between two men who both think they’re Jesus Christ. I’m pretty sure Glen Mazzara only allowed one laugh per season and this was it for Damien who did not fail to see the irony. Although the one wannabe Jesus Christ not only kept stalking Damien, but also told him to rid the world of himself. So maybe he wasn’t that crazy.

Damien is forced to see a psychiatrist that he has to meet up with daily and can call day or night. Her name is Dr. Matthews and she seems like a genuinely nice person. I am convinced she is either also somehow in on all this, or will soon be dead. We’ll see.

Once Damien is let out he immediately starts cleaning house. Literally the antichrist goes domestic and cleans up his house. Mostly he’s looking for bugs, but he also throws out Amani and Simone who had come by to check on him. Simone admits to her earlier breaking in and this does not endure her to the antichrist. Damien is also convinced Amani is plotting with Ann and the poor man has no clue what he’s talking about. I assumed this was a warning as he has been seeing Ann’s daughter, but doesn’t yet know it. Still he gets kicked out too and he even brought Damien groceries. What a sweetie.

We take a time out to see that Shay is still obsessing over Damien. The man has zero proof for anything he suspects, but still he believes Damien guilty. It makes him seem irrational and his husband is worried about him. Shay also doesn’t want his son to return to school yet after almost drowning and grows more concerned when the boy asks if ‘the dog will come back’ meaning one of the hellhounds. If Shay doesn’t watch it he might lose a lot more than a potential suspect.

Next we go to John Lyons home. A stately place where he is having a fancy luncheon and they all pray to Satan or Damien before starting to eat. Lovely. Damien interrupts and not because he threw out all his food. He confronts John about being in league with Ann and while he tries to refuse John eventually gives it up and tries to make the best of it with Damien. They are interrupted though when John’s wife Margo starts talking. This is a big deal as the woman is wheel chair bound and seemingly almost catatonic.

She repeats the usual spiel about how she loves Damien and then says she wants to serve him and also about serpents lying. John ushers them all away and we go back to Shay who has found Charles Powell. Damien’s old schoolmate who Ann had told him Damien had assaulted before. Powell denies everything Shay says. I wanted to say it was out of fear, but frankly the man didn’t look scared. Something else was going on.

Shay finds more out when he interviews another schoolmate named Cray at the station. He said that Powell was in love with Damien and tells about how they did an fire initiation that went horribly wrong on Powell and that Damien seemed to enjoy it. Shay then goes back and confronts Powell who admits to it. He says it was more than love and that he has been in and out of hospitals ever since because of all the burns. Shay then promises to make Damien pay for it.

Meanwhile back at John’s home we see Damien stalking around outside while John and Ann talk inside. John is terrified of Damien and what he might do learning of John’s betrayal. He asks Ann for her dagger of Maggido, but she refuses to give it over and instead says she will speak to Damien. I’m not sure why she thinks she can as the last time they spoke did not go well at all.

Damien finds Margo and she tells him that John is the serpent and that he makes the way for the beast and in return gets one of the ten crowns. Damien asks if they can stop all of this, but she just points outside and says that, “The dark church is ready.” Damien wanders the woods and soon finds a sort of looking church that is full of weapons and blood. He takes a hatchet and in a ‘what is he going to do?’ moment approaches Margo with it. He just puts it in her lap, but it terrifies John even more when he finds it. Now knowing that Margo has told and that he has found the dark church.

Simone also has things happening to her. Not only does she get a scare while studying the old woman who confronted Damien at the start of the series, but she meets the nun Greta. She tells her she believes Simone has seen these things and that she is not crazy. She says she is there to help. I am only half optimistic about this as I’m pretty sure her helping is probably killing off Damien. No matter what his intentions may be. It would be the only way to ensure the beast doesn’t take power.

Three more scenes in the episode and each is more dramatic than the last. The first shows John and his cronies sacrificing a goat (not a bird this time!) and praying to whatever to stop the beast. Next Ann visits Damien’s apartment and tries to smooth things over with him and John. It doesn’t work. Ann then tries to tell Damien that she’s different than John and only has his best interests at heart. I laughed a bit at that. I know she believes it, but still, really. I mean she just sent goons in to mess you up because you weren’t paying her proper attention. Totally has your best interests at heart Damien.

Damien tests her on this theory and demands she end his life with the dagger of Maggido she brought. He finds out about the ritual and that if all of them are placed right it would kill his body and spirit, but if it’s just one it would only kill his body. The beast would choose another. He tries to make Ann do it, but she can’t. Why? Because she doesn’t have his best interests at heart? Because she thinks of him like a son? Maybe he is her son? Someone did give birth to him and we never found out who. It isn’t answered though. Yet.

Finally we go to a gym. There we see Powell and Cray meet up. It has been years and they chit chat for a minute. Cray admits to talking about Damien to the police and you can see the crazy take over in Powell’s eyes. Perhaps he still loves Damien yet, but in a more antichrist way? Others have shown it and it wouldn’t be surprising that it had happened before.

Cray goes to shower and Powell sneaks behind him and with his scissors goes all sorts of abattoir on him. He also cuts out his tongue. I was going to say snitches get stitches, but Powell took it to a whole new level.

This episode really ramped up the drama and horror, not to mention moving the plot along nicely. Every week I am surprised by how much better the show gets and the amazing performances by all the actors. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season brings! Check in tomorrow for my review of episodes eight and nine and then watching the finale this Monday!