My Love and I
Episode 6 of Devil In Ohio starts with Suzanne at the hospital, questioning why Dani didn’t get in touch. Well, given how Suzanne has been blowing her off all season long, that’s perhaps hardly surprising! Mae and Peter both show up too but they soon learn that Jules has gone missing. As we know, she’s off with that shady boy. This shady guy, Noah, drives with Jules up the road but suddenly slams of the brakes and urges Jules to step out the car. He takes her out to the middle of nowhere and encourages her to look up, where she sees all the stars in the sky. Just before he takes her back home (properly this time!) he marks her forearm with “something to remember her by”. That happens to be an A, the same A that was on the back of Suzanne’s car. And as we soon learn from Mae later that even, he’s actually part of this cult and is Mae’s brother! Lopez gets his photos printed out from the night and tries to work out what the connection is here between the Dodd’s, the rituals and cults. It would appear that they’re building some sort of accelerant, which would tie in with the fire listed in Enoch’s file… and also with Peter’s fire up at Windemere. A witness to the original fire happens to be a guy called James Dressler, who Lopez deduces could well be a key part of this. Dressler happens to be a priest, and Lopez heads up to speak to him. Unfortunately he doesn’t get many answers, as he admits he doesn’t know who started the fire back then. Jules eventually rocks up late at night but this brings back painful memories for Suzanne, as we see flashes to her past. It turns out that cop trying to get her down from the tree wasn’t actually part of a cult after all. He was Suzanne’s stepfather, Dennis. As Suzanne heads to mandated therapy and reveals all, we learn he was a monster at home, abusing Suzanne’s mother and that eventually led to Suzanne leaving. The turning point in all this came from one horrific incident where Suzanne was handcuffed to a radiator while it was left on, which burnt her wrist and explains the scars. Although her mother showed up to comfort her, a further flash at the end of the episode confirms that she let this abuse go on for a while as she tried to appease Dennis and calm him down. The therapist, Dr Daniels, believes that there’s further room to explore her trauma and encourages Suzanne to head back again for another session. Suzanne refuses. She’s been through therapy before and doesn’t think this will help. Over at the shouldering ruins of Windemere, the Financial fraud unit show up and start looking around, trying to make sure everything is in order and it hasn’t gone awry. If they do find evidence of foul play, it could well point to Peter trying to make a fraudulent insurance claim to recoup his losses. Given the lowball offer from Cheryl and the bank demanding he repay the debts, it doesn’t look good. Peter certainly looks worried over this development too. However, he believes Mae is more worried, and he confronts her about the burnt property that afternoon. She drops to her knees and begins praying, mumbling to Peter. He pries free from her grip in disgust and heads back inside. It’s clear Peter has started to suss out that Mae may be responsible or know who started the fire. That night, he speaks to Suzanne about this and tells her that Mae needs to leave, given how disruptive she’s being to the whole family. That night, Mae makes dinner for everyone but Suzanne shows up late. The mood is very different to earlier in the season, with Jules standoffish with Mae and awkwardness all around. Jules also refuses to eat the butternut squash soup Mae has made for everyone. Peter has Jules’ bowl instead, and it’s immediately clear that it’s laced with something as he comes over dizzy and sleepy whilst talking to Suzanne. After dinner, Mae follows Jules out and brings up that Noah is a bad guy and he didn’t protect her growing up in the cult. No one knows better than Jules about siblings that aren’t always there for each other and Mae urges Jules not to go down this path. Thankfully she listens and doesn’t show up to see Noah, driving off just as he arrives at the meeting spot. As for Noah, he relays back to his dad that meeting Jules was a bust. However, Malachi points out that Mae is their most valuable offering. With her gone, Mae has exposed her weakness. Noah is tasked with exploiting that.
The Episode Review
As we approach the business end of this season, the various subplots are all now starting to collide together into the final chapters. Mae’s part to play in all this has already been made clear, however the familial ties that bind everything together, and quite how Jules plays into this, is something that will hopefully be explored in more detail. The familial drama around this has largely felt like busywork for much of the run-time and there isn’t really all that much substance to it either. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still enjoyable to watch but compared to the cultist mystery, it doesn’t have anywhere near the same intrigue. It’s not perfect but the mystery is enticing enough that you’ll be compelled to find out what happens next. Roll on the next episode!
