Burning Alive
With over three quarters of the series now finished, The InBetween has been a pretty enjoyable, formulaic, supernatural crime thriller. Although it does have a few mediocre episodes and the overarching narrative plods between its two main stories without any real urgency, the show itself has been fun, escapist entertainment this summer. We begin the latest episode of The InBetween with Cassie experiencing a horrific vision of burning alive in her car. As she relays the message to Tom and Damien, they arrive at the scene of a crime involving a burnt car. As they tell the victim’s wife the bad news, they tell her they suspect he was murdered, especially give the car was tampered with. Before they can look into it further however, another car appears with another burnt corpse. Whatever they’re dealing with, it appears to be a serial offender. Returning for more haunting shenanigans, Ed re-appears and taunts Cassie. Unsettling her, Cassie experiences more visions involving flies whilst trying to keep a sane face in the presence of the new worker at the bar, Andie. She relays the message on to Tom who realizes the bugs may coincide with a contract exterminator buying chemicals used for the fires in the cars. After bringing him in for questioning, he vehemently declines and after speaking to Cassie on the phone, Tom also doubts whether this man is really responsible. This is thrown into question further as they witness another arsene attack, this time involving trip-wire. The detectives then set their sights back on Vera again as the one actually behind the attacks. After hearing a heartfelt story from Andie, her stalker, Max, happens to be a ghost following her around. Cassie speaks to him and defiantly tells the ghost that Andie hates him. At a loss in how to deal with him, she reluctantly calls on the help of Ed to help her out. He agrees, prompting Cass to tell Andie everything, momentarily distracted by another vision of burning. With the help of Ed, Cassie manages to banish the spirit and free Andie once and for all. Tom and Damien arrive at Vera’s and after seeing the familiar bobble-head from Cassie’s visions on the table, realize this is the right house. Throwing a molotov at Asante, the young child, Gabe, is the one responsible. It turns out his Mother was asking him for help the whole time and the two were conspiring together to go after Vera’s enemies. With the case wrapped up and Cassie’s ghost ordeal drawing to a close, she experiences a vision of Sally packing clothes for Seattle. As it happens, Damien’s comatose wife died in the night, leaving Asante to his grief while sitting by her side in the hospital. Although the case itself plays second fiddle to the ghost drama encapsulating a lot of the episode, The InBetween does well to inject some pretty slick special effects in its wake. The melting bobble0-head and realistic fire do well to pad out the episode although at times these two narratives don’t gel well together. This episode in particular really highlights the problem with the series as a whole, as Cassie’s random visions of fire feel very deus-ex-machina rather than a natural progression to solving the case. Ironically, the best episodes of the series have been when the detectives have used their wits instead and come to a natural conclusion. Still, despite all that The InBetween remains an enjoyable show. While it pales in comparison to many others in this genre, the smart decision to run this during the quiet summer months allow the show some breathing room. Whether it’ll be renewed for a second season remains to be seen but for now, The InBetween offers enjoyable entertainment, flaws and all.
