‘Shining Vale’ 2×07 “Chapter 15: Coven”

Shining Vale 2x07 Shining Vale_Episode 207_ Chapter 15: Coven: Mrs. Stephen Edwards (Deb Hiett), Emily Harris (Eva La Dare), Mira Sorvino ("Ruth"), and Sherilyn Fenn ("Robyn")

It may be close to the end of the season, but Shining Vale 2×07 feels a lot like a new beginning. And no, not a good new beginning…just a totally new perspective on the Phelps family horror story. Featuring everything from the start of a political campaign, to the world’s most cringe-worthy baby shower — and that is, obviously, saying something — to a truly unfortunate makeover, “Chapter 15: Coven” makes a clear case that one more episode is nowhere near enough. As far as penultimate episodes go, this one is about as ambitious as it gets. Whether or not that results in the finale making like our leading lady and visiting a portal to Hell…we’ll just have to wait and see on that one.

P-Helps

Usually, Shining Vale is all about the Phelps women — and rightfully so. Something interesting happens with Terry’s story in “Chapter 15: Coven,” though, and it’s not just his decision to run for mayor. Before we get to the major campaign event, there’s his interview with Good Morning Shining Vale, where we actually get to see a little bit of his irritation with constantly being “just” the infamous Pat Phelps’ husband. It’s subtle, but it’s there the second the interviewer asks him “what everyone wants to know: what’s it like being married to Pat Phelps?” Greg Kinnear gives us just that split second, just the briefest head tilt and narrowing of his eyes, before you see Terry just kind of…wipe it all away and go back to playing the gracious politician. But it grates on him, more and more, as the conversation keeps coming back to Pat.

Later, when Pat’s upset about her surprise baby shower and doesn’t seem to care that the random attendees aren’t so random after all, Terry is even more transparent about being completely over being an afterthought.

“Has it ever occurred to you that everything that happens in this family isn’t necessarily about…you?”

(Shoutout to Courteney Cox for Pat’s perfectly mild, yet also not-at-all sorry, “no” in response to that one.) As Pat continues to show just how much it really is all about her, Terry starts to become someone — something…else. There’s something almost dark in Kinnear’s performance, as he drips sarcasm while Terry asks Pat if his “darling. love of my life. light of my soul” can “do this one fucking thing” for him. It’s like a hint that, maybe, something might not be right here. Although, Shining Vale 2×07 never quite confirms nor denies that particular bit.

Then, there’s the issue of Terry’s inability to write a campaign speech. Gaynor has to shove him aside to get it done, so he’s really, yet again, less of a big deal than one of the women in his family. So, when he actually does give the speech, Terry is (apparently) compelled to show just how big and tough he is…by doing 136 pushups. Because that is totally a necessity for proving strength, especially in a political sense. Of course, we can go ahead and put that one down as the series showing how absurd the real-life political landscape has become. But even so, he’s annoying AF here. Which, admittedly, is probably the point.

All of that aside, though, Terry’s big announcement actually comes with some vital information about Shining Vale. Perhaps more interesting: Terry Phelps…actually knows things about the town.

“Given the pagan origins of our little town, there are no public crosses and, therefore, no…crosswalks.”

Uh…huh. That explains a lot, actually. Especially the part about how the baby shower ladies have “successfully picked the last 75 mayors.” Or, well, their organization has. Whichever.

The world’s worst haircut baby shower

Shining Vale 2x07
Shining Vale_Episode 207_ Chapter 15: Coven: Courteney Cox (“Patricia “Pat” Phelps”) — (Courtesy of Starz)

Shining Vale 2×07 gives us, for the first time, a very clear picture about the origins of…everything, really. And it all happens in a very clever way. First, there’s Pat’s utterly absurd baby shower, which gives us outside reactions to what her life has been since moving here, thus showing something actually isn’t right. As in, it’s not all in her head after all. (Either that, or the delusion is spreading.) After it’s thoroughly established the “otherness” of this world, “Chapter 15: Coven” uses a combination of Pat’s book, some gifts, and a party favor.

Which, friends…side note here: Apparently, the thing we called a fortune teller in the days of our youth is sometimes referred to as a “cootie catcher”? Weird AF if true. Anyway.

Bizarre names for things aside, what we learn from the baby shower is that not only does Kam decidedly not fit in with the Shining Vale ladies — much less understand WTF is going on, which is obviously a mark in her favor — but exactly zero of them have children. Even so, they’re members of the PTA. (Hello to the weird right-wingers taking over school boards across the country. Y’all have freaky company now.) And, oh yeah, the party has a theme: Everything is giving dead. We’d call it a good “black like my soul” emo kid party, but let’s be real. Nobody at this thing knows what that means except, probably, Gaynor…and she’s judging the shit out of everybody, right along with Kam.

Which, again. Mark in Gaynor’s favor! The kid might just be alright.

But the big deal here, commentary on the wildly entertaining reactions from Cox, Merrin Dungey, and Gus Birney aside, is Pat’s gift from her anonymous Number One fan. All of Them Bitches: A History of Hysterical Women in Southeast Connecticut mentions the Shining Vale Home for Hysterical Women, which is “now divided into large, single-family…residences.” It was once the site of “human sacrifice and torture,” and it may or may not be the “portal to Hell.” Now, we could always take that as a metaphor — Hell on Earth and all that — but then, we’d have to come up with another explanation for…all 15 chapters of this story, really. So, just saying, there may be some truth to the legend.

The revelations in the book — again, a shower gift. Can’t state that often enough — send Pat underground, through all sorts of beautifully-shot, dark as…well, Hell…tunnels somewhere under the house. During her journey into the unknown, she overhears a pretty strange conversation between Ruth and Robyn. Bad enough that there’s the weird “our baby” and “his baby” (in unison) of it all. But then, well. There’s this:

“I mean, who’s she gonna tell? No one would believe her. Everyone thinks she’s nuts! And I say this as a feminist.”

…which, yeah. About that. Hasn’t that been the point all along? Make Pat, and everyone else, think she’s “nuts” all while…this happens? Make her doubt the bizarre goat, the vivid dreams of the likes of Nellie, Rosemary’s supernatural assistance in writing her definitely-possessed book? To go back to the original point/start of this section, everything about the party is draped in black. Gaynor calls the sailor suit a “nightmare clown outfit” before correcting it to a “nightmare sailor outfit” because someone tells her it’s a sailor suit. The pram looks like a baby hearse — something Gaynor calls it right…right around the time we’re thinking about The Addams Family and whatnot, actually.

And everyone just acts like all of this is normal. Or, well. The locals do. Kam and Gaynor — Kam especially — are very WTF on the whole thing. Which is exactly how they, and we, should feel. And did we mention that Rosemary returns, in the same place Pat’s book — not the one she wrote, the one her anonymous fan gifts her — in that same labyrinth of WTF inside the wall? Because um. About that. Welcome back, old frenemy. We wouldn’t be able to call this a perfectly insane freak show of an episode without you, now would we?