The Outsider Review: The One About The Yiddish Vampire (Season 1 Episode 6)

What’s possible leaves people in two camps: either you believe, or you’re a skeptic. On The Outsider Season 1 Episode 6, “The One About The Yiddish Vampire,” the episode works tirelessly to place each of its characters into one of those two camps, and proceeds to push on the boundaries of what they believe possible.

For that, the episode is a fascinating study of skepticism and how it tears at the fabric of someone’s reality. Ralph wants nothing more than to deal with what’s right in front of him, the possible that the world allows. But Holly is pulling on those threads, and there are signs Ralph may be coming around, but perhaps only slightly.

The meeting of the principals places each of them in a distinct camp: those who choose to believe, and those who refuse to accept it. Glory, Howard, and Ralph are on one side, and Alec, Yunis, and Jeannie are on the other. As the audience, we know which side is correct, and so it places an onus on the non-believers, in a way, as their refusal to believe is holding up potential progression of the story.

The show makes that struggle a way into Ralph’s soul. So much of the episode’s potency comes from Ben Mendelsohn’s Ralph Anderson fighting himself. Every moment of every scene, Ralph struggles to accept anything he’s told, squirming and covering his face as theories are forced on him in lieu of facts. His frustration is palpable, as it does not connect up to his worldview as a fact finder.

The scene between Ralph and Glory is like a punch in the gut, that Holly’s theory lands with such a thud that Glory is even starting to consider Terry’s guilt. The way Julianne Nicholson plays the scene is so heartbreaking, that once she puts out Terry’s guilt into the air, she has a visual reaction to it, as though it’s physically harmful to her.

It’s a quick but essential scene, showing two skeptics losing faith in the process but still trying to hold onto something they no longer can control.

There are hints that Ralph may come around, though. He does not have a major reaction to Holly’s blacklight trick, but it does prove Jeannie has been telling the truth about her nighttime visitor on The Outsider Season 1 Episode 5, “Tear-Drinker.” Ralph questions his son’s dream-like visit from the same episode, too, but the way he speaks of it in hushed tones almost sounds like he is trying to convince himself.

One aspect of the episode that doesn’t quite work is Jack’s mother. The moments of taunting him is a small window into his upbringing and the relationship with his mother, but the sudden launch in the air and beating that ensues comes off a little goofy. The shots where Jack is being hit by nothing are far more effective.

Jack taking Holly to the barn, and Holly now certain of Jack’s involvement with The Outsider, leaves open the possibility that the show is about to blow wide open. Jack isn’t one to be subtle, and so his insistence to continue going to the barn leaves them both on a path where one of them is likely not coming home.

Holly is now aware of his servitude, or at least his involvement, to The Outsider, and her survival hinges the rest of the season’s events, which is a rather exciting idea. Will this be a way to explain The Outsider’s motives, or will Jack look to take down Holly? Perhaps it will be a little bit of both.

The Outsider Season 1 Episode 6, “The One About The Yiddish Vampire,” is able to internalize Ralph’s immense struggle in a way where his ignorance is not frustrating, but a way into rehabilitating him. This case weighs heavy on his heart, and getting it right is what sends him down a path of anger. He’s no longer in the world of evidence, and perhaps this is where he can find the closure he so desperately needs.

For that, the episode does a marvelous job for Ralph, and allows Ben Mendelsohn to steal another episode away. His quiet, focused performance is the glue on The Outsider, and opening Ralph up to the possibility of the unexplained is a fascinating journey.

 

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The Outsider airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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