S is for Silence
The team journeys to Sacred Trinity Monastery, a silent retreat in the frozen NY countryside, where they are also required to be silent, to assess the case of the deceased Father Thomas, who died the previous year, but who's body shows no hints of decay, even many months after his passing. The church is therefore considering him for sainthood.
Kristen is forced to deal with the chauvinistic monks, but befriends a young nun named Fenna, who is presenting signs of stigmata.
Ben finds himself drawn to the monastery's way of life, but has difficulty quieting his over-active mind during prayer.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Artistic License – Biology: Bot Flies are similar but don't quite work the way shown, and aren't common in upstate NY. Especially during cold winters.
- Body Horror: The monks interpret the sores that erupt on much of their congregation, which seem to be wriggling and are horrifically painful, to be evidence of demonic infestation. It's actually more mundane but no less horrifying. It's a botfly infestation, and they erupt out of the skin when oil is applied and cuts off their air supply.
- The Bus Came Back: Father Mulvehill has apparently been Reassigned to Antarctica at the monastery to dry out from his gambling habits. He is therefore their resident exorcist.
- Crazy-Prepared: The monks insist no words be uttered on the premises, even talking in one's sleep. They do this by having everyone sleep with gags.
- Foreshadowing: Kristen gets a Casper themed impression board to communicate. Her later amusing herself by shouting "Boo!" at a skeleton relief may be what causes a lot of issues later in the episode.
- Impaled Palm: Averted with Fenna's stigmata. They appear more like large circular blister/burns on the palms of her hands, but don't go all the way through. Kristen suspects that they are just blisters from her working with a heavy wheelbarrow, but this doesn't explain the ones on her feet, or the bleeding wound on her rib cage.
- Language Barrier: Subverted. This would be a problem in the outside world, as Fenna only has basic English and Kristen has no knowledge of Dutch. However, because of the enforced silence, they get along quite well with gestures and basic signs.
- Left Hanging: We don't get a full explanation of why Father Thomas' body hasn't decayed over the past year, only that it has finally started to by the end of the episode. Ben suspects it to be either a chemical compound in his tomb, combined with his body hosting a swarm of botflies. We also don't get a full explanation of all of Fenna's stigmata, as the botflies and wheelbarrow blisters don't explain the wound on her chest.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Did Kristen saying "Boo" cause the box to open and release the demon? Or was the box just full of swarming botflies and it happen to burst open at that exact moment.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The monastery was founded to guard a large, ornate wooden box, which is said to contain a demon that will be released if anyone speaks on the premises. Naturally, Kristen accidentally says "Boo!" to a skeleton statue, and the box pops open, but it remains ambiguous if there was anything inside to begin with, except perhaps the flies.
- Shout-Out: In order to communicate, the assessors are given clip boards with old school children's impression sheets, which allow them to write to each other and then erase it by pulling the sheet off the board. Naturally, being children's toys, they come pop-culture themed, but are out-of-date by a few decades. Kristen gets a Casper board, Ben gets Robin Hood, and David gets Star Trek: The Animated Series.
- Sigil Spam: Subverted. David thinks the spiral sores correspond to one of the sigils on the demon map. Ben discovers that, no, that's just what botfly sores look like.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: For all the emphasis on keeping the demon-box closed, the monks take zero practical steps in making it stays that way, instead just not speaking and hoping that works. They don't, for example, nail it shut, chain it shut, or bury it. They just keep it on a pedestal, and hope nothing accidentally or deliberately opens in.
