The Chosen Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Spirit
After 2 episodes with an upward momentum, The Chosen Season 2 Episode 5, “Spirit,” falls back into familiar territory. Within this 48-minute episode, very little excitement happens, and the narrative is hardly advanced.
We see Jesse and Simon from the last episode shortly after the opening credits. At first this is thrilling, giving the viewers hope that the continuation of their stories will keep the script in top form. Sadly, this isn’t the case.
Jesse is still grateful for being healed. He is walking everywhere he can and willingly telling others about Jesus. This includes the rabbis who want nothing more than to get Jesus punished.
Back in these times, faith and religion were taken quite seriously. If a law as simple as honoring the Shabbat was disobeyed, you could be thrown in jail — or worse.
Fortunately for Jesse, the rabbis are more interested in Jesus’ wrongdoings. After all, He was the one who told Jesse his sins were forgiven. He was the one who told Jesse to pick up his stuff and leave.
The truth is that these 2 rabbis don’t care what Jesus did, they care more about Jesus breaking tradition.
Once we leave Jesse’s side of the story, we see Simon camping on his own, practicing his self-defense moves, and praying. Now that he is alone in the wilderness, Simon has become a little paranoid.
Any random sound puts Simon on edge, causing him to climb the nearest tree and watch rabidly what befalls anyone remaining on the ground.
While he dodged the bullet of becoming an assassin, Simon isn’t in the best spot. At any point, someone can find him and report him to the people he was working for. It’s safe to say, those people wouldn’t let him off easy, or even at all.
Simon’s sporadic behavior seems funny until he comes across Caleb.
Caleb is literally a man possessed. It’s never shown how or why he received this demon, but it doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t in control of his own body.
With scars on his arms and legs, Caleb warns Simon to stay away. He smells Jesus on him and the demon finds it revolting.
This is a good depiction of evil hating anything the good touches. Oftentimes we only see good and evil as being opposites. The fact is that they can barely stand to be in the same room together.
When the light comes, darkness is dispelled.
The demon knows he holds no power against Simon, Jesus, or His followers, but that doesn’t mean he won’t lie to them. The more someone tells you that you have no power, the more you will believe them.
While Caleb’s interaction with Simon holds my interest to a degree, things aren’t extremely interesting until the demon recognizes Mary.
Mary’s demons equaled 7 in all. Each one kept her imprisoned to sin and guilt. When Jesus freed her from them, the demons traveled the world telling their friends about the now-infamous Mary.
Not only does the demon know Mary’s former name, but Mary knows the demon as well.
The scenes with Mary and Caleb are nothing less than thought-provoking. They both know uncomfortable truths about each other and are more than willing to speak them out loud.
Just like us, Mary is emotionally wounded when her past is mentioned. She is ashamed of the life she lived — especially when it is brought up in front of her friends. It’s understandable when she decides to run away.
Simon: You are the Messiah, aren’t you?
Unfortunately, she isn’t wholly present when Jesus calls the demons out of Caleb. She misses out on His wonderful display of faith.
Once the demon is dispelled, the episode returns to random scenes that are loosely tied together.
Simon talks with Jesus, Mary returns to the bar she was delivered from, and a man who knows Jesse watches everyone from a tree. All these scenes are fairly intriguing but not enough to keep me from doodling on the paper next to me.
The absence of an overarching theme pushes home that we are watching nothing more than a filler episode, and disappointment sets in as the credits start to roll.
Every time The Chosen takes a step forward, we are brought back to the bottom of the stairs and left hoping to restart the journey once again. With at least a season and a half worth of episodes left to watch, hope is dwindling fast.
What did you think of this episode of The Chosen? What do you think Mary is up to? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Chosen airs Sunday at 8/7c on The CW.
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Charles E Henning
Charles E. Henning lives in a quaint town of Illinois with his ever-loving wife since 1998. He is new to writing reviews, but has over thirty years of fictitious writing for his own personal fulfillment. His interests range from science fiction to character-based dramas, but he is a sucker for anyone in a cape.