The Terror is a television series about the crew of a Royal Naval expedition searching for the Arctic’s treacherous Northwest Passage who discover instead a monstrous predator.
In the latest episode of AMC’s The Terror there is further discord among the crew, Lady Silence (Nive Nielsen) is interrogated by Captain Francis Crozier (Jared Harris), and we get our closest look yet during an encounter with the monster!
At the beginning of the episode we see that Harry Goodsir (Paul Ready) has been making progress in learning the dialect of Lady Silence. Despite this, James Fitzjames (Tobias Menzies) no longer wants her aboard the Erebus, and he orders that she is returned to the Terror (Goodsir tags along). Fitzjames also comes to learn that Crozier ordered 16 bottles of spirits be transferred to his ship.
Meanwhile, back on the Terror, Cornelius Hickey (Adam Nagaitis) continues plotting away, this time by employing the ears of Billy (Edward Ashley) to report back whatever he hears their superior officers talking about. One of the men on the Terror is starting to become weary of going below deck because he believes he hears the corpses down there talking. Once Lady Silence is on board, she is brought to Crozier so he can attempt to learn what this beast is, and how do they kill it. Lady Silence tells him that a spirit is hunting them and it is no longer bound to anyone. She also accuses Crozier of no longer wanting to be alive. Soon after, Fitzjames interrupts Crozier, accuses him of stealing the spirits, and questions his leadership. This leads to an altercation in which Crozier strikes Fitzjames in the face.
During all this the beast strikes again on board the Terror. Some of the men are mortally wounded, but Thomas Blanky (Ian Hart) manages to lure the creature to the top of the ship. Once he’s there, he sets it on fire using lantern oil so the men on deck can see it, and then they unleash cannon fire upon it. Although the monster escapes, they see that they’ve wounded it. Blanky suffered a horrible wound on his leg from the monster during all of this, and must have it removed soon after.
At the end of the episode, Crozier calls a small council meeting including Fitzjames and a few others. He informs the men that he will temporarily relieve himself of his duties as he attempts to kick his alcoholism, and that Fitzjames will be in charge for the time being. After this we see Goodsir testing out some of their canned food on John Franklin’s (Ciaran Hinds) monkey. He spoke earlier in the episode about a potential disease on board, and is now seeing if it’s in their food.
The episode started off a bit slow for my liking. It seemed as though the entire show was getting in a bit of a routine in showing us the horrors of life at sea (or ice), we would witness a glimpse of a monster attack, and then we are left with a less than exciting cliffhanger. Admittedly, most of the episode stayed true to that routine, but the monster attack at the end was intense! Watching Blanky try to evade the beast as he climbed higher and higher up the ship while also braving the cold was a beautiful, pulse pounding scene. Plus, we got our best glimpse yet of the monster, and it did not disappoint. I’m hoping that next week we learn a little bit more about Lady Silence’s connection to the beast, and see if there really are talking dead aboard the Terror.