Things are starting to heat up in Fox’s The Exorcist. EpisodeÂ 8 picked up from last week as the Rance family watched Father Marcus and Father Tomas attempt to finally free Casey from the demon that has plagued her body for quite some time now. Throughout the exorcist, the demon took stabs at everyone in the room, first Kat for her car accident, then at Henry for his mental disorder. It’s clear that this parasite has a way of affecting more than just the body it inhabits which is truly frightening.

While the exorcism went on, Angela had Henry and Kat return home to start packing. Once Casey gets better they plan on fleeing Chicago to keep her from prosecution and public ridicule. This entire exorcism scene wasn’t too interesting, and in all honesty, it was kind of cheesy with some sub-par acting but it wasn’t a complete waste. The best part of it came in a flashback to when Angela was a teenager. She went back to a memory of herself in a basement where she watched herself play with an Ouija board. This scene, however, turned out to be a conversation between Angela and the demon who was still in the form of the salesman from the mall. He referred to her as â€œthe one that got awayâ€ and then licked her on the face because he missed her taste. For as bad as this show is at times, it can also have some chilling moments. This was the scene that gave the audience an idea of how morbid and evil this demon is. By the end of it all, though, Casey is herself again but we can still assume we haven’t seen the last of this demon.

While all this is going on, Father Bennett is still planning for the Pope’s arrival. He called the police about the bodies he found last week and their investigation led them an apartment. There they found a possessed man who shot himself in the head but this isn’t the only thing they saw. While there they found plans for the assassination of the Pope. Father Bennett warned a superior of his, but that only lead to a plastic bag being put over his head. I originally thought the papal subplot was uninspiring and a waste of time, but I now see there is a lot more to it. Now that the show is forced to go beyond the story of Casey Rance, all of this won’t seem as pointless and it might turn out to be the better plotline. It will be interesting to see how the demon plays a role in all of this, assuming the show doesn’t abandon it completely.

The reason the demon character is still very much alive, though, is because of a huge surprise we got at the end of this episode. Back at the house, Angela and Chris are still packing when all of sudden Angela started acting very hostile. She blamed her mother for her actions and out of nowhere snapped Chris’ neck and pushed her down the stairs. The episode closed on a close-up of Angela’s eye as it began to turn red.

I definitely didn’t expect the demon to jump bodies so quickly, and to Angela for that matter. I know she is the person the demon ultimately wants but for some reason I assumed she was safe. I guess credit for this can be given to the show’s writers. In general, this was their best episode. It was not only suspenseful the entire time, but it actually left me wanting more. While I don’t expect the rest of the season to be â€œmuch-watch-tvâ€, I’m a little more optimistic about where the show is headed as everything starts to come together.

Score: 8/10