The Gloaming Review: Beyond the Veil (Season 1 Episode 5)

The plot thickens significantly on The Gloaming Season 1 Episode 5, “Beyond the Veil.” 

Everyone has stuff in their past that they would rather keep in the past, but sometimes we are forced to face our painful histories whether we want to or not.

That is what is happening to the characters on The Gloaming.

Children are a portal to a better understanding of our spirit that resides beyond the veil.

There’s no shortage of kids that meet tragic ends on this show. Are these ghost children pulling back the curtain and allowing gloamers to enter the physical world or vice versa? It’s a very intriguing premise backed by dark magic and witchcraft so the spooky creep factor is ever present. 

Witchy Woman

We saw Grace (Rena Owen) practicing voodoo on The Gloaming Season 1 Episode 4, “Black Winged Angels,” after a phone shows up anonymously on her doorstep with video proof that Freddie (Matt Testro) killed Dorothy Moxley. 

I am not exactly sure what she is up to on this episode, but she is busy stirring the pot or should I say witch’s cauldron. Some signs point to some sort of vengeance—possibly for Daisy’s death, and perhaps it goes even further back to her own child’s death.

It is revealed that the ghost girl from “Black Winged Angels” is Valerie Gowdie, Grace’s daughter, who was killed in 1995 by Ricky Jones whose obituary was found in the bible at Dorothy’s house. Alex (Ewen Leslie) thinks Ricky might be Dorothy’s son. 

Another big reveal is that Eileen McGinty (Anni Finsterer), mother to the deceased Jenny, is Grace’s sister. 

All these connections with dead kids is doing well to build up the mystery, and it keeps the viewer engaged with and hooked on the story. 

Owen is pretty creepy as Grace with her mild-mannered facade and righteous preaching. Something is lurking underneath it all, and I am at once excited and scared to see exactly what that is. All in all, Owen has created such a fascinating and bewitching character—it doesn’t even matter to me if she’s good or evil, at this point.

Bug Problem

A little more insight is shared regarding the pesticide spraying at the fields that surround Grace’s home. The locusts Freddie hallucinates are not immediately connected to the bugs in that field, but when the dots do connect, it’s another intriguing revelation with vague meaning behind it for now. We know there is more to come. 

The episode is bookended with Freddie and his omen insect friends.

Sure, a connection is made to Grace, but this brings up more questions—especially the end scene. What does the nurse put in his food? Are the gloamers that are watching him protecting or possessing him for their evil bidding?

I honestly can’t say.

The biggest pest of the episode, however, is Gareth McAvaney (Martin Henderson). Now a pattern of violence against women has been established so I really want Molly (Emma Booth) to nail and expose him. 

But, she made a mistake. Her cryptic chess move comes back to haunt her when Gareth obtains video footage of her with the chess piece that she stole from his house on The Gloaming Season 1 Episode 1, “The Dying of the Light.”

Of course Gareth brings this to her boss because he’s the actual worst. The situation is made much more dire now that they have to race against the repercussions she might face in order to prove, legally, that Gareth is behind Jacinta Clunes’ death and more. 

Fingers (with anxiety-bitten nails) crossed that they are able to do that in time. 

What did you think of this episode of The Gloaming? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Gloaming airs Sundays at 9/8c on Starz.

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