My Temple Will Be My Grave
Episode 3 of Spectros begins in Sao Paulo, 1943. Lou Watnabe is stuck in a prison cell, side by side with a Japanese lady whom he tells to stop singing. She declares herself a witch by the name of Zenobia and promises to heal him if he’ll succumb to her wishes. He agrees, and she heals his wounds, prompting us to skip back in time and see the history surrounding a figure called Sado Khan and sacred ashes. Those ashes, as it happens, were abandoned in favour of Lou (now going by the name of Celso) having a daughter which has caused serious problems to brew between the living and the dead. Unfortunately the dead have now risen and as the mysterious figure from before enters the house, stalking Zenobia and Celso, she hurries through the rooms and prays to the porcelain doll. Meanwhile, the trio of kids drive toward Zenobia’s house too. En-route we learn that the man stalking them is actually a spirit inhabiting this body, one that acted as the warden for the encampment Zenobia found herself in in a past life. After snatching up the doll, Zenobia uses the last of her energy to burn the intruder, which is where we see him bursting out the house and coming face to face with the kids. They grab the doll and hurry away while Zenobia and Celso discuss the ramifications of what’s happening. Unfortunately the car breaks down, prompting Pardal to pop the hood and observe the damage. It’s bad alright, so bad that it’ll take a few weeks to fix. Mila suggests they go to the police instead but the others aren’t so sure. Interestingly, it appears as if the spirits are being repelled by the doll. As they keep walking the group notice something awry as people keep repeating the same phrase again and again. Celso arrives at the bar and buys strong alcohol. Only, he doesn’t drink it and instead heads back to Zenobia’s, where he admits that Mila is the one who has the ashes. He promises that he’ll do anything for her but if Zenobia tries to hurt Mila, he’ll overcome her with the power of love. Back in the present our male officer continues to sweeten up Leo, and together they begin talking. He tells the officer he knows what’s going on and asks if he believes in ghosts. Leo goes on to tell him he walks around the neighbourhood taking photos, noticing strange behaviour and the pictures don’t seem to be developing correctly either, showing blank spaces where these strange people should be standing. Back in the past, the mysterious stranger from the first episode arrives and gives the trio a safe passage past the police lining the streets. That passageway leads them through to Pardal’s neighbourhood and eventually his house, where he finds a family friend. As the episode closes out, Leo’s theory is that the dead are coming back to life, while the trio see all the work Leo’s put into this theory by examining the wall of evidence he has in his room. Carla begins experiencing more headaches while Pardal’s friend betrays them all for money, leading the police to their room. Carla meanwhile, falls on the floor and begins foaming from the mouth, convulsing violently, as the police burst open the door and charge inside. With a cliffhanger ending and some more supernatural elements during this episode, the opening act is ultimately what saves this one and keeps things interesting. The well-timed flashback back to the 1940’s gives the series a sense of history and this, combined with the slick animation for the story about Sado Khan, is enough to make this the best episode of the series so far. It also helps that a lot of this episode follows a linear pattern, with the opening 20 minutes or so not jumping forwards in time once, beyond the jump from 1940’s to our “yesterday” timeline. Given we already know the guys get captured by the police, there’s little in the way of tension with these police chases, replaced with questions surrounding just how long they can keep this charade going during the night. As we approach the halfway point of the show, Spectros has been an enjoyable but indifferent supernatural series. There isn’t anything particularly outstanding with this one, but there’s equally not anything that great about it either. It feels destined to be another mediocre supernatural offering, and that’s where it’ll wind up going unless something changes in the coming episodes.
