F is for Fire
Sister Andrea is able to decipher one of Leland's annotations to the sigil map, which points to a young girl in Queens named Mathilde Mowbrey. The team goes to investigate only to discover the Mowbreys had actually already requested an exorcism for Mathilde, who appears to be a budding pyromaniac haunted by a spirit from the Islamic faith called a Djinn, which appears to latch on to Kristin and bring out her darker impulses. Meanwhile, Ben and David clash over how to handle the Djinn, using either methods from Catholicism or Islam.
Cheryl, in turn, seeks out therapy under an assumed identity from Dr. Boggs, in order to determine how to reenter Kristin's life.
Ben tries to record evidence of Abby's continued assaults on him.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Ambiguous Ending: Was Mathilde telling the truth about not originally being a pyromaniac, and the Djinn corrupted her into it before being exorcised, or was she always mentally ill and with actual pyromania and the Djinn only built on this. Or was there ever a Djinn at all and she was mentally ill, and Kristin's own deteriorating mental state is causing her to latch on to the image of the Djinn? Or is the Djinn still haunting her?
- Clingy Macguffin: Kristin discovers that Mathilde has an identical tea set to her daughter Lexis, and, disturbed by this, secretly throws Lexis' in the trash. At the end of the episode, she discovers the tea set has mysteriously returned to Lexis' bed, and has changed color to bright red.
- Crazy-Prepared: Ben attempts to be this in his interactions with Abbey, attempting to either prover her existence once and for all or completely debunk her as a delusion. He first tries setting up his smartphone with an app that will only record him if he talks at night. It records nothing. Then he tries filming himself as he sleeps, but the tape shows him sleeping normally.
- Did Not Think This Through: Sheryl's deception of Boggs was bound to fall through eventually. She not only gave him an alias, which his insurance company would have immediately noticed, but she didn't bother to give an alias for her first name, gambling that Kristen never told Boggs her mother's first name. Kristen mentions it in their very next session, and Boggs leaps into action.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Up until this point, Kristin's feelings for David, despite her marriage to Andy, have been portrayed sympathetically. However, under the Ifrit's influence, she dolls herself up and deliberately goes to a bar for a hookup, only stopping herself after going to the bathroom. She later tries again on another night, but stops herself from leaving the house. These two times are portrayed as her being corrupted by demonic forces.
- Good Is Not Dumb: Zig-Zagged. It only takes just over a single session with Sheryl for Dr. Boggs to sniff out her deceit, and he immediately takes steps to stop treating her, as it is a gross violation of ethics. But then he falls for Sheryl's Crocodile Tears and agrees to not fire her but refer her to another therapist, and not report her.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The Mobreys are duel-religious household, with the father Catholic and the mother Islamic. Ben clashes with David over whether they should use Catholic practices only in this situation, and the mother decides to recruit her imam to help, independent of Ben's ideas. In the end, the excorcism is performed by the priest and imam begrudgingly working together.
- Hot as Hell: The Ifrit has shades of this when appearing to Kristin, seemingly encouraging her to cheat on Andy with a man at a bar, and generally indulge in her desires.
- Jerkass: Father Mulvehill, the exorcist David brings in to help the Mowbreys, has shades of this. He takes several opportunities to mock the Imam, despite the fact that they are explicitly working towards the same shared goal, and has the audacity to claim that he has authority because the "head of the household" (Mr. Mowbrey) invited him.
- This Index Is on Fire: As the team are dealing with a Djinn associated with fire, specifically an Ifrit, multiple fire-themed tropes come into play:
- Evil Is Burning Hot: The Ifrit has the motif.
- Flaming Skulls: When the Djinn appears to Kristin, it has an elongated skull going straight up, which is constantly on fire.
- Infernal Background: The Djinn seems to trigger fantasies of fire and sexual passion in Kristin's mind, which appear this way.
- Pyromaniac: Played with. Mathilde claims that she is not one, and that the demon (an Ifrit, or fire-Djinn) has been setting fires in her house, despite her family having taken steps to limit combustable substances. By the end of the episode she appears to have fully developed into one, but it's left ambiguous whether the Djinn corrupted her into becoming one, or if she was always mentally ill and used the Djinn as an excuse. Or the Djinn is still haunting her.
- Never My Fault: Taken to a new extreme by Sheryl. Instead of accepting responsibility for not believing Kristin, she decides to try to manipulate her into letting her mother back in her life. She goes about this by assuming an alias and getting therapy from Dr. Boggs to try and get his advice.
- Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: At least sex with other people for Kristen, who is in a monogamous marriage with Andy. The Ifrit's tempting her with casual sex at bars is therefore portrayed this way.
