After a tumultuous fourth episode, Episode 5 of Spike TV’s The Mist takes a more intimate approach with an episode focused largely upon the fugitives from the jail (and more recently from the church,) led by Kevin (Morgan Spector). Aptly titled The Waiting Room, this episode sees Kevin, Mia, and Adrian find aid for the wounded Bryan (Okezie Morro) at the town’s hospital that is still up and running. But things aren’t going great there, with the Mist cutting off access to the hospital’s most important areas, denying the wounded access to potentially-lifesaving medical care. Making matters worse, Kevin undergoes an unplanned reunion with his estranged brother who is not doing so well…
After such a revealing and action-packed episode 4 it is unfortunate to say that this episode does not continue the momentum and is weaker because of it. Most of the main characters introduced thus far have been able to have their personal troubles merged with the supernatural horror of the series quite easily. It doesn’t seem to work as well with Kevin and the episode relies on a series of awkward flashbacks of happier times between him and Eve (Alyssa Sutherland) to escalate the drama of his narrative.
The other main characters fare better, with Mia (Danica Curcic) stumbling into an unexpected revelation about the true identity of Bryan, and Adrian (Russell Posner) aggressively working through his issues with one of the jocks who bullies him. It takes a trip into the Mist for Kevin’s story to perk up and high stakes and gruesome horrors abound, but the conclusion is foregone long before it arrives. What makes episode 5 suffer the most, however, is the lack of the other characters and locales. Perhaps this proves that The Mist is a whole greater than the sum of its parts, or merely that Kevin’s group are the weakest part of the whole. Trying to do a more intimate episode in the wake of the previous intense one is understandable, but pacing issues and awkward backstory prevent The Waiting Room’s title from feeling too literal as we wait for episode 6 to come along.
