Shining Vale season 2 has been a bit of a drag, but episode 6 has offered some real progress. It is still very little and does not come with the promise of furthering itself in the upcoming episodes, but it is something. The following is a recap of Shining Vale Episode 6.
Spoiler Alert
What is Gaynor doing?
Another awkward phase of being a teenager is hating cliches but desperately wanting the romantic ones to happen to you, but organically. Or maybe it was just us. But Gaynor has developed a soft spot for the hot priest. It has been more than eight months since he has been in town, and he is comfortable enough to be hanging out in her room. Gaynor is a smart person, but she took Fleabag the wrong way. Ennio tells her that Valerie He is more concerned about someone else than Pat. Gaynor lists everyone before she names herself, and she is offended that she is up for consideration. There are a lot of reasons to dislike Gaynor, and her unreasonableness has always been the first. Her hatred for her mother has never made any sense, especially since Pat’s condition was not something she could control. Even after Pat came back and tried her hardest to be there for her children, Gaynor was not even willing to be in the same room as her at most times. That is why Gaynor was so offended that she would be the one that Valerie was concerned about, because it meant that she was what she had thought her mother to be. If Gaynor had looked at it medically, she would have wanted to seek help, but since she is letting her crush lead the way, she goes to the priest’s house for an exorcism, and at the end of that, she sleeps with him.
What is Jake doing on the walls?
Jake has found a friend, and they are hiding in the walls, looking at old telephones and wondering whether messages would come through them. How is his entire family so obsessed with themselves that they don’t notice when they don’t see Jake for days on end or even know that there is another person in their house, hiding in the walls? Either way, Jake is enjoying this, and he and his friend indulge in some green recreation while killing time. They are also wearing those hideous animal masks.
Why is Terry exercising so much?
The answer may be purely medical. Terry is taking shots of testosterone, and he is in a bit of an overdrive with the exercise and the protein. That is also giving him rage, as he himself points out, and he has a lot of energy that he needs to get rid of. During this time, there is another surprising aspect of this whole thing that comes to light. One thing to remember is that Shining Vale uses the trope of exaggeration to drive home the absurdity of a point, which is also called ‘reductio ad absurdum.’
The testosterone has made Terry a lot more assertive, and when he is out for a jog with his friend Laird, they spot the latter’s ex-partner on the other side. Laird is hesitant to wish her well since he thinks she wants nothing to do with him, but Terry calls her out for him. Also, Terry barely manages to save his friend from accidentally getting hit by a truck. However, it could be comic, or it could be pure evil that at that very moment, Laird’s partner gets hit by a truck, and her body brutally splits into pieces. It is hard to say whether Terry is in shock at this or if the testosterone has pushed out all other feelings, but the only sure thing is that the older Terry would have been a lot more sensitive to the whole thing. Maybe this is the show’s way of saying that Terry has received a factory reset, and Pat’s problems are about to get very real.
How does Pat realize that she is possessed?
Throughout the episodes of season 2 so far, Pat has convinced herself that she had a mental breakdown and was not possessed, which is the exact opposite of what she was saying at the end of season 1. It makes us wonder about the way her experiences were disbelieved at various levels, first by her family, then by society, and finally by herself.
In the present day, Pat is eight months into her pregnancy, and the only thing she wants to eat is meat. That is all she has been cooking, and it is the only thing she has been craving. Pat’s only worry is that women all over the country are loving her book and then axing their husbands after reading it. That is a cause for concern because Pat doesn’t want her book to become a guide for serial killers. The mayor’s wife killed him after reading the book, and essentially, whenever these women see Pat, their reaction is always the same, as if they are in on some secret that is only transferable through the book. It is almost as if the book unlocks some hidden rage in them that ends up altering their personalities altogether.
On a different note, Pat comes to know that the reporter who had been run over, Claire, is back from the coma. There seems to be a recurring pattern of people getting run over in this show. Meanwhile, when Pat tells Terry about the spate of killings, he advises her not to take it so seriously, as he feels that she is overthinking because of the hormones. That was a legitimate concern for Pat, and it is surprising how easy it has become for her to disbelieve herself. That night, she has a dream where a pregnant Nellie tells her to look in her drawers. Nellie also tells Pat that she was never crazy and that she should check her files at the asylum. Technically, this should have caused Pat to roll her eyes, but it is important to remember that this is the first time someone has validated Pat. Therefore, at the end of Shining Vale episode 6, she goes to the asylum the next day, where she finds a note asking to see her tapes. When Pat is doing that, she realizes upon seeing her behavior that she is actually possessed. She had not just been crazy, but everything she had felt back then was completely correct and valid.
Final Thoughts
Pat may finally start believing in herself, but the world is still not doing that, and it could easily mean another trip to the asylum. Therefore, whatever Pat does does not need to be calculated, keeping in mind that nobody is likely to believe her. Maybe Nellie will have to come to the rescue and tell her what actually happened in the house.
