Chapelwaite came to our screens to terrorize the night! Chapelwaite 1×01 “Blood Calls Blood” is a transition episode that introduces the characters and a few mysteries to be solved. Despite being a bridge episode, it manages to keep you tense and hooked on the show, wanting to know how this story continues. Let’s review!
Here we go!
Chapelwaite 1×01 “Blood Calls Blood” begins with blood and death. A man murders his wife and almost succeeds with his son, who manages to narrowly escape. Of course, this horrible event is spreading like wildfire through the town and that is no good for the traumatized child who has just escaped the clutches of death.
We didn’t understand at first why they made him leave. We mean, he was a child and he was not to blame for anything, why should he leave as if he had done something wrong? It’s unfair, very unfair. But, years later, we understood why: the villagers believe that this house and the Boone family, his family, is cursed… and no one wants to go near them.
Seriously, this made me want to scream in frustration because Charles was just a traumatized child, who had just watched his own father kill his mother, how he tried to kill him, and how he died in front of his eyes. He needs comfort, he needs love, he needs a hug, but he doesn’t need superstition.
However, in the 19th century, superstition was the order of the day and if something like this happened it was not because a sexist and abusive pig had taken the next step towards being a murderer, it’s mean that all that family and that house are cursed. The fantasy of a superstition, of an unsolved mystery, of dark forces fighting to manifest themselves is a much more attractive story.
Although we must confess that after discovering some strange phenomena in that house … we don’t completely rule out that something strange and that doesn’t feel of this world happens in Chapelwaite. In fact, considering this and reviewing the words of Charles’s father, “I can’t stop. Blood calls blood,” we see it all from a different prism: what if something possessed Charles’s father and he couldn’t fight it?
But time is money and in Chapelwaite 1×01 “Blood Calls Blood” many things change after 33 years. Charles grew up, became a captain, got married and had 3 wonderful children but he, just lost his wife. Thus, the family arrive back at Chapelwaite and the welcome is anything but warm.
The weight of superstition, of the curse that everyone thinks haunts the Boone family, is still there so many years later and they don’t want them there. But not only that, racism makes its appearance. Charles’s children are half Polynesian and that’s too much for a superstitious and conservative Maine people. They don’t know them but they try by all means to get them out of there, from kindness to threat.
And we have an idea of where they can get that racism and those absurd ideas about curses … they can fuck off. We find it really brave and good to show this. Racism has been around for so long… and I like that Chapelwaite 1×01 “Blood Calls Blood” talks about this openly and let’s see how absurd it is. They are children but they are not accepted just because they are of another ethnic group. Damn town! Children are children and don’t understand hate, adults are the ones who are full of it.
We’re glad that Charles stood up to them (the scene in the Church has stuck in our mind, Bravo, Charles!), Although I imagine that living in that house must be very difficult for him. He keeps having nightmares about what happened and somewhat… strange hallucinations. But we wish they had focused more on the emotional aspect of what it means for Charles to come home because it harbors such horrible memories… fingers crossed that they will address this issue in subsequent episodes.
The only one who seems to accept these strangers that everyone has turned into outcasts is Rebecca. She is personable, kind and she wants to help them… but she also has an ulterior motive: she somehow uses them to write a book about Chapelwaite and the Boone family. This little betrayal has hurt us more than we expected.
The whole town wants the Boones out, and the one person who reaches out to them and starts to get to know Charles and the children, turns out that she only approaches them to use them. We hope this changes over time because we really saw a connection between her and Charles. We know, we know, his wife just died and it’s still too early to think such a thing but we think that their relationship will grow over time and their lives will intertwine without their realizing it. In fact, Rebecca tries to integrate Charles into the town as much as she can. Also, we love how she’s with the children.
Rebecca teaches them some different games… but the children have fun and forget for a while the rejection of the town and the loss of their mother. In fact, it was Rebecca precisely the one who realizes what is happening with Charles’ eldest daughter. She hasn’t talked about her mother yet or how she feels after losing her but Rebecca knows how to see through it and she understands what is in her heart.
That makes for a lovely conversation between father and daughter. She blames him for the death of her mother. How not to do it? It is almost instinctive. When we are children we think of our parents as superheroes, they can achieve everything. She hoped that Charles would do something for her mother because he is her father and, in her world, he has the solution for everything and when Charles could not do anything, that illusion collapsed and she lost her mother. So she blames him for it.
In the end, she understands that her parents are not superheroes and that her father would have given everything to save her… but he couldn’t do anything. That hug between father and daughter has given me life. Although it had a disturbing ending …
And there are many disturbing things in Chapelwaite. Strange noises, strange visions, ritual killings by a man who still has no face … and a family history that is a mystery. But it is a mystery that we are eager to unravel.
Who do you think the murderer is? Honestly, everyone in that town could be a suspect … and we don’t trust anyone.
Here ends our review of Chapelwaite 1×01 “Blood Calls Blood.” We will be back soon with the review of episode 1×02. Stay tuned!
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to share with us in the comments below!
Chapelwaite airs Sundays at EPIX.