The Velveteen Rabbit
Episode 2 of The Devil’s Hour starts with Chloe deciding not to take Lucy’s advice and open the door to let Shane in. Only, when she opens the door, she finds that Shane has been impaled and killed by someone - it was actually his body, not Tilly’s, that was taken out that night. ..
Gideon gleefully retorts that he was in the crowd that night, and watched all of this unfold. As Gideon continues, he makes Lucy promise to lie and claim she doesn’t believe him; if she doesn’t, everyone at the station is going to think she’s crazy. ..
Mike and Lucy are out in the garden when they hear a noise. It sounds like someone is trying to get into the house. They go back inside and see Isaac standing in the doorway, looking at them with a cold look.
Ravi continues to lead the murder case, which is complicated by the fact that he’s also a suspect in the Bridgeside Lodges murders. The evidence suggests that Hobson is connected to Jonah Taylor’s teddy bear, which may help solve the case.
Ravi begins his investigation by trying to find out who Lucy Chambers is, following several different leads. One woman confirms that the car appears to have been moving around a lot, popping up in different locations. Then it disappeared one day.
Ravi realizes that the killer has been using this as a way of scouting out as many different “Lucy Chambers” as possible and whittling them down to the one they’re after. The scenes that follow are great from a character perspective, as we learn that Ravi is generous (he gives £10 to a homeless man and doesn’t think twice about it) and he’s attentive with his work, wanting to take everything seriously.
Dr. Bennett asks Isaac about his emotions and Isaac replies with a heartbreaking confession that he doesn’t feel any emotions himself. He’s been having strange visions where he sees a man moving around the room, and it seems to be the same man as the one from the garden. Dr. Bennett asks Isaac if he knows who this man is, and Isaac replies with a sad answer that he doesn’t know.
Lucy is understandably freaked out when Isaac claims he’s right next to her. And when Lucy leaves the room, a dark figure seems to be standing in the corner.
Lucy heads downstairs and into the dining room, examining the wall Isaac was so fixated on. She knocks, immediately bringing her next door with a bottle of wine to welcome the new neighbours. The thing is, they don’t drink. It’s a bit awkward and doubly so when Lucy starts to see Debbie’s face as burned and stretched out. She also finds Meredith has a toy that happens to fit the exact topper that Isaac has been constantly buying all this time. She’s incredulous and can barely believe it.
Gideon and Lucy continue to discuss their experiences, with Gideon insisting that he is completely sane and Lucy insisting that she is. ..
The Year 6 boys encourage Isaac to slap himself in the face and Lucy is not happy. She points out that something is broken inside her son and she has no idea how to fix him.
Lucy Chambers is home and finds the door wide open. It turns out it’s just Mike who let himself in. He has something to say to her and he wants to make it official, which will break off what they have going on. Lucy drops a clanger when she confesses she thinks of someone else when they have sex and it’s no one in particular but just not Mike.
The killer was after Isaac, but he got away. Mike and Lucy are looking for Isaac, but they don’t know where he is. Ravi thinks that the killer may have taken Isaac to do something bad to him. Gideon is probably taking him to get information from him. Who knows what else is going on in this house!
The Episode Review
The Devil’s Hour concludes its second episode with a tense and dramatic hour, one that manages to tighten the screws and really show Lucy’s world starting to become unhinged.
The acting across the board has been great and the entire series has a really strong hook and premise that is reminiscent of other thrillers in this genre, but continues to carve its own unique slice of the pie. ..
The series has a really nice tone to it and the sudden flickers, teasing toward a more sinister truth being obscured from us, is a nice touch. Sure, it can be a little slow at times but even as a slow burn, this is certainly enthralling.
