Revival Season 1 Episode 10 Review: Rend the Veil

Revival Season 1 Episode 10, “Rend the Veil,” keeps the twists and turns coming until the very end as the series wraps up its first season. 

The episode ends the season much in the same way that Revival Season 1 Episode 1, “Don’t Tell Dad,” began the season. With high-stakes actions, big reveals, poignant emotional beats, and, of course, an episode-ending cliffhanger.

“Rend the Veil” is an unsurprisingly satisfying season conclusion from a series that started strong out of the gate and continued to deliver each week.

Some Answers

A lot of things that have been building all season come to a head on “Rend the Veil,” starting with the showdown with Blaine. In the end, as is fitting for any opportunist charlatan, Blaine’s house of cards topples pretty easily.

He does plenty of damage first, including shooting Wayne, but it doesn’t take much for the military to take him down. Frankly, I love that for him. It’s what he deserves.

The biggest developments of the episode, though, are the ones related to Revival Day and Em’s murder. 

We already knew going into the episode that the creek water was one component of Revival Day. It was also pretty obvious that Em’s murder was the other. “Rend the Veil” fills in the rest, and in the process reveals Em’s killer, or should we say killers. 

After a season of back and forth of Aaron being a suspect and then being ruled out as a suspect, only to find out some new shady detail about him to land him back on the suspect list, “Rend the Veil” finally confirms that he IS in fact the Em’s killer. Kind of… maybe?

At the very least, Aaron is the one who targets her. He all but finishes her off before Lester, maybe, jumps in to complete the job. 

That’s right, in the episode’s biggest reveal (at least the biggest that is not also a cliffhanger), it turns out that Lester, the local town eccentric, was the person in the bird mask. 

Lester partnered with Aaron in a bid to uncover the secret to immortality, but their partnership went sour. It was Lester on the other end of the mysterious calls with Aaron and Brent. And it was Lester who hired Brent to kill Aaron.

It’s not exactly clear if Em was already dead when Lester jumped in, though. It seems like she was. That makes Aaron the physical murderer.

But, as Lester admits, that’s just a technicality. They killed her. It doesn’t matter who was holding her down when she took her last breath.

If you read the comics, the Lester reveal isn’t surprising. For everyone else, the series did a great job planting the seeds of this twist throughout the season. 

They kept Lester on our radar just enough. His involvement in Em’s murder doesn’t feel totally out of left field. At the same time, he didn’t seem suspicious enough to warrant more than a little side eye until the last episdoe. 

That’s a tricky line to walk because viewers want to be surprised, but they don’t want to feel tricked. Revival Season 1 walks that line very well.

More Questions

“Rend the Veil” isn’t all about answers, though. It also leaves viewers with lots of questions. Questions that set up lots of exciting avenues for a potential and much-deserved Season 2 to explore. It also gives us one pretty stunning cliffhanger that I really want to see the fallout of. 

Let’s start with some of the character threads that the season left open. The most compelling is where the series leaves Wayne at the end of the episode. 

He’s in a pretty bad place at the end of “Rend the Veil.” He is no longer Sheriff, and let’s be honest, rightly so.

Whatever redemption he got at the end of the season as a character, there still have to be consequences for his actions. I’m glad the writers didn’t just let him off the hook. 

Regardless of how justified the loss of Wayne’s job is, it’s going to be a tough blow for him. Being Sheriff is such a central part of his identity. I imagine he will feel lost without that sense of purpose.

Add to that the even more heartbreaking fact that Cooper blames him for losing Em, and you have the making of a great Season 2 arc for Wayne.

One other thing I like about where the series leaves Wayne is that he is still struggling to communicate and be vulnerable with Dana. It’s different than at the beginning of the series.

Wayne has grown. Still, growth is a process. It’s slow with steps forward and steps back. I appreciate that writers are showing Wayne as a work in progress. And, of course, I’m excited to see the great scenes between Melanie Scafono and David James Elliott that Wayne’s struggles produce.

One of the most intriguing plot developments on “Rend the Veil” is the government capturing one of the light creatures. Or, as we now know, one of the Reviver’s souls. 

The government having a Reviver soul to study and use as they see fit is a frightening prospect. Even more concerning, they knew about the creatures and what they were. 

They already have a plan for the Reviver souls. Given their track record concerning Revivers, that plan can’t be anything good. 

There are a lot of other threads left open and tidbits planted for next season on the episode. However, it’s the episode-ending bombshell that’s going to have fans talking the most.

Just as the episode seems to be wrapping things up in a (mostly) neat little bow, Dana finds out that Aaron wasn’t the only member of the Weimer household involved in Em’s murder. 

Nithiya Weimer, Aaron’s wife, was the online friend who convinced Em to go to the bridge on Revival Day. Nithiya is the one who ultimately put everything into motion.

And that’s not even the most shocking part of the cliffhanger. The episode ends showing Nithiya with a very much alive Em. What?!?

There are more questions than I can reasonably fit into this review, so I’ll say this: Syfy, do the right thing and renew this show!

Final Thoughts

• As exciting as this episode is, the best moment is the montage of sister moments when Em is dying. It is such a beautiful encapsulation of Dana and Em’s relationship. It had me feeling all the feels.
• Early on, I had some ideas that Nithiya might be more involved in things than it seemed.  I liked her so much, though, that I pushed those thoughts away. I was rooting for her. Lesson learned. Always trust your suspicions. 
• I’m super curious if the Abel family land disputes with the tribe are related to the magic of the creek. 
• One more thing that is super exciting about a potential Season 2 is that “Rend the Veil” is where the series diverges significantly from the comics. I could be wrong, but Season 1 covered most of the source material story. We are in uncharted territory from here on out. 

---

What did you think of this episode of Revival? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!

Critic Rating:

Audience Rating:

 

Check out our latest TV recommendations, updated weekly!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!