This is a continuation of articles for the episodes of Stephen King’s, The Outsider television series
The past few episodes so far have been setting up the entire show’s story for us to put together, which has been a crazy roller coaster of new evidence, new questions, and a whole lot of unanswered ones too.
So far, thanks to Holly Gibney, we know that Terry Maitland’s tragic case is far from being closed and may be pointing to something much larger than a singular serial child killer. We also know that whatever has done this to Terry and his family, has also done this to multiple other families in the surrounding states and seems to ‘feed’ off of people’s grief and the grief he, or she, spreads throughout towns and cities.
Holly finds through her investigations that whoever, or whatever, is creating havoc in people’s lives has done this many times before and tends to stick around after they’ve created grief and spread horror through people’s lives. In a sense, she figures out that it sticks around because it tends to feed off of what it’s caused. She finds herself on a long trail of victims, who are painted as perpetrators, stemming from the last victim, Terry Maitland. By figuring this out she has a handful of loose information to base her claims on and do some research. She comes to the conclusion that the entity might have a name, “Grief Eater”. A grief eater is just that, something supernatural that feeds off of grief and sadness that it creates.
When I was first watching the show and noticed small details pointing to what could have been the culprit, my first instinct was a skinwalker. Which was fine because those are cool, right? I was fully expecting a skinwalker because that’s what I’m used to when it comes to cryptids, which would be the typical mythical creatures of lore, but I knew Stephen King wouldn’t disappoint and I was right.
Gibney retraces every step Terry Maitland and his family had taken the weeks before the murder happened, and came to suspect number two, Heath. When Terry and his family were visiting his elderly father at his facility, Terry and Heath tumbled into each other while passing quickly in the facilities hallways. That’s when Maitland was scratched. Now, that doesn’t seem important, but it matters.
Maitland also seemingly scratched the strip clubs manager when he was there, meaning whatever is going around wreaking havoc, it’s being spread by a singular cut or scratch to each new victim.
I love this episode because we’re finally getting down to business when it comes to learning what the heck is actually going on. The show is keeping us, viewers, completely hung up by new evidence and strange acting characters, to the point of not wanting to look away for the sake of possibly missing a small, important detail. The visuals in the show are quite dull if I’m being honest, but what’s to expect from a King series, anyway?
At the end of the episode, the kid who took the van reveals a small secret he was keeping to himself for weeks—he saw the man who originally took the white van. And guess who that man might be? You got it, the hooded figure who is continuously seen at multiple scenes of grief and terror. He’s also the same ‘man’ who visits Terry Maitland’s daughter nightly. Who is this guy?