So this was the first episode where I realized what they meant when people said that this show would scare you one minute and have you crying the next. This episode balanced the two factors very well and I was incredibly impressed with Elizabeth Reaser’s performances as Shirley. She carries this episode and in it you get to see how Shirley has largely been the linchpin for the family in many ways. She’s the one who has “Moved On” the most from the tragedies that happened when she was younger but it’s primarily because she’s pushed so much away. She’s angry at both of her brothers, she doesn’t talk to her father but she is still on good terms with her sister’s despite her and Stephen both writing Nellie off in the first episode.
This one didn’t have as many scares as the first one but it did perfectly recreate the loud banging scene from the 1963 film(The scene with the pictures banging and the door “Breathing”) and honestly, I was hoping they would add something like that in the show.
We also get to see how Shirley learns to cope with Death both as a child between the kittens she found and when she sees her mother in the open casket. As a mortician, Shirley genuinely wants to help people learn how to cope with the death of a loved one but it’s when she has to deal with the death of her sister that she ultimately breaks down. This is where Reaser’s power as an actress lies, her final scene while performing the autopsy on Nellie’s body is a scene of complete despair and a powerful one at that.
