Broken Fall
Episode 1 of Devil in Ohio begins with a woman racing through cornfields in the dead of night. She’s terrified of something that appears to be chasing her. Continuing on, she tries in vain to stop a car that races by on the road. She drops the knife in her hand and steps into the road, eventually being brought to the hospital. We then cut across to Dr Suzanne Mathis, who’s called in to check on this patient. None of the nurses seem to know who this girl is. She was found in Amon County, which happens to be a farming town well known for some pretty shady and mysterious goings-on. Those inside generally keep to themselves. When Suzanne checks her out, she notices the girl was restrained given the marks across her wrist. When the girl wakes up, she has some X-rays done but she doesn’t seem to be particularly receptive, experiencing strange flashes and not speaking to anyone. When the doctors try to do a blood draw, she freaks out, leaving it up to Suzanne to head in and calm her down. We later find out that her name is Mae but for now it’s time to flesh out the rest of the family. Suzanne has three daughters, Jules, Helen and Dani, with the former two having very different trajectories at school. Helen is the popular kid, with friends to boot and generally stays away from her sister. Jules is somewhat of a recluse, and aside from her best friend Isaac, finds solace in her photography. Thankfully, she meets Sebastian, who offers her an opportunity to do an article in the school paper. There’s drama involving Suzanne’s husband Peter, too, who’s not in a great spot with work. The development project he’s been working on has fallen apart, with the buyer pulling out, and he doesn’t have the heart to tell Suzanne. At the hospital the next day, the sheriff of Amon County shows up looking for Mae. Suzanne refuses to give up any information, especially as he appears with handcuffs and a menacing demeanour. The Sheriff smiles faintly, thanks her for her time and eventually leaves. Three days pass and with no family members showing up to take care of Mae, she’s in danger of being kicked out onto the street. Suzanne refuses to see a minor left with nothing and decides to take her in personally. Whilst Dani (Suzanne’s youngest) is pretty excited, Jules is less enthused, especially as she needs to share a room with her sister. The whole thing is temporary, at least until they can get Mae a foster home. At dinner, Mae says grace to “the ruler of demons, our Lord. Amen.” Of course, this catches the whole family off-guard but they shrug it off and continue to eat. Detective Lopez shows up at the hospital, looking for Mae. He’s been assigned her case, and appears to be more trustworthy than the other sheriff, whom we follow just after this. It’s a brief scene but the camera moves across the inside of his caravan, showing off an upside down cross on the wall. As the episode closes out, we finally see what was on Mae’s back – it’s a pentagram, carved into her skin.
The Episode Review
The first episode of Devil In Ohio gets off to an okay start, although there are a couple of clichés thrown in for good measure. The perfect family set-up, complete with the two girls of opposite social status along with the hyperactive, bubbly, innocent youngest is something we’ve seen a lot in different shows and it’s pretty tropey at this point. However, the story involving Mae is certainly intriguing and the mystery is enticing enough to keep watching in a bid to find out exactly what’s going on. It could well be that Mae is part of some sort of cult and the sheriff guy is part of that, along with others in the town. That’s guesswork at this point though but with a rather short 37 minute episode to start things off, this looks like it’s going to be a pretty brisk and enjoyable thriller. Fingers crossed things pick up from here!
