Airtime: Wednesdays on Hulu
Episode: Season 1, Episode 6 (S01E06)
Tweetable Takeaway: Eddie wrestles with his conscience on #ThePath
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This week’s episode of THE PATH dealt with faith, belief, and belonging. Eddie wrestled with his conscience, Hawk struggled to determine what is real, Abe might be moving closer to the light, and Sarah remained as devoted as ever.
There were a couple big developments this week, so let’s start with Hawk and Ashley. Hawk is still seeing her despite telling his parents he wasn’t, but he can’t quite move past first base. He feels too guilty. One of their makeout sessions is interrupted by a knock on the door. Police have arrived to forcibly evict the family from their home, so Hawk takes them to the compound. Even though Sarah is furious with her son, she allows them to stay, as she’s ever the good Meyerist.
But her courtesy only extends as far as giving them a place to stay. Ashley’s mom is freaked out by the cult-like aspects of Meyerism, but Hawk’s family keeps bringing up the movement. Watching their conversation and actions through Ashley’s mom’s eyes really does highlight the conformity and strangeness of it all. They invite her to a gathering, but Ashley’s mom says she’s not that religious. Sarah cruelly whispers under her breath, “that’s why you’re alone.”
Meanwhile Eddie is having his own doubts. Cal takes him to break into a motel room—Allison Kemp’s motel room. Apparently she stole $40,000 from the center in San Diego. She’s hiding on the balcony, but Eddie covers for her. They return to the compound, where Eddie worries about what Cal would have done if they found her. Killed her? Beat her up? He meets Allison in a bar. He asks her if she thinks her husband Jason was doing good work in Peru, or shady stuff. Allison firmly believes that he was good. Eddie seems slightly reassured, but Allison tells him that you can’t fake belief. Eddie correctly points out that he doesn’t have the luxury of having doubts, as doing so would mean losing his family.
Eddie tells Sarah about breaking into the motel. Incensed, she goes to look up Allison Kemp’s denier file, but also stumbles upon her sister Tessa’s. She goes to Tessa’s house. Tessa conveniently left the door open when she left, so Sarah walks in. Her sister seems to be very well-off and judging by her pictures, a happy and involved mother. Sarah snoops through her stuff, even putting on her lipstick and using her bathroom. However, she makes a discovery in the medicine cabinet. Tessa is prescribed an alarmingly high number of psych meds such as Ambien and Klonopin. I wonder how lenient Sarah is going to be on Hawk now that she has proof that associating with Ignorants and leaving Meyerism leads to a life of popping pills.
Abe is still dealing with his sick child, but he tells his wife that he believes the medicine will fix her condition, as he prayed and saw the light. Uh oh. He’s parroting their language even when he’s at home. He does put his FBI skills to good use though, interviewing Jason’s parents. They blame Allison for his death, as he got involved in Meyerism through her and completely cut them off. He did reach out a month before his death, but only to get the number of a colleague, Dr. Rothstein.
Abe calls this Dr. Rothstein and learns that he’s doing a trial on a drug that had success in curing stage four pancreatic cancer. Jason didn’t want to join the trial, he wanted to buy the drug. Abe asks how much that would go for on the black market, but it would be so valuable Rothstein can’t even put a price on it. Ok, so Jason clearly knew about founder Steve’s condition and was trying to get the drug for him. Is that why they killed him? He knew too much? Or did he have a crisis of faith from seeing the founder dying and kill himself?
The episode ends with a Gathering. Cal preaches to a crowd, including Ashley’s reluctant family, a confused Eddie, Abe, and a distraught Mary Cox. Cal sent Sean away to Delaware, I guess because he was jealous of their relationship even though he pushed for it in the first place. Ashley storms out. She correctly points out that even though Meyerism doesn’t bill itself as a religion, they’re just like all the others. Either you’re in and you’re saved, or you’re out and you’re damned. She wants to be saved, but doesn’t want to lose the hope of seeing her father in the afterlife. She and Hawk finally make love in a van outside the chapel, which seems incredibly risky, but I’m rooting for these crazy kids.
Meanwhile Cal has a big announcement. Earlier that week, a factory was raided by ISS. They arrested several undocumented immigrants, even ones with American-born children. Nuns at a local convent tried to shelter the families, but ultimately couldn’t withstand the pressure, so Cal has invited them to stay at the compound. That’s sure to attract media attention. And attention from the FBI, but Abe seems to genuinely approve of this decision. Eddie can’t get into a celebratory mood. He keeps picturing Cal and Sarah together.
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Jennifer Trofa lives for two things: spreading the “Superstore” gospel and themed “Law & Order: SVU” marathons on USA. When she’s not binge-watching her favorite shows, she’s reading any book she can get her hands on.
Twitter: @jtrof
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Jennifer Trofa | Contributor
