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'The Outsider' Episode 9 promo shows Ralph in crosshairs of Jack’s sniper rifle as they try to find El Cuco

In the promo for episode 9, we see the team questioning the man who had stopped the Claude-El Cuco from abducting the little boy. The man says he remembers him to have “weird eyes”

Episode 8 of HBO’s adaptation of Stephen King’s southern gothic horror novel ‘The Outsider’ was a milestone. The show had so far only hinted at the mysterious El Cuco (or some kind of bogeyman). In ‘Foxhead’, however, we saw it in action. Even if we can’t see what it really looks like -- the shape-shifter took the form of Claude (Paddy Considine), as it tried to abduct its next victim -- we did see it devour a man and an animal when it accompanied Jack Hoskins (Marc Menchaca).

With just two episodes left in the miniseries, the pace of this slow-like-molasses show is now bound to accelerate further. So what lies in store next?

According to HBO, in the episode called ‘Tigers and Bears’, the group considers its next move as Claude deals with the weight of his role. 

The weight of Claude’s role is one that needs to be considered only for a moment. Claude had no part to play in this except for his unfortunate run-in with El Cuco, then in the form of Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman). Add to that, whatever the allegations of the cops in Tennessee may be, Ralph (Ben Bendelsohn), Holly (Cynthia Erivo), Yunis (Yul Vazquez), and Andy (Derek Cecil) were proof that he was home all night, nowhere even close to where the incident had taken place.

In the promo for Episode 9, we see the team questioning the man who had stopped the Claude-El Cuco from abducting the little boy. The man says he remembers him to have “weird eyes”. The team realizes that the creature may just be hiding in one of the many caves in the town and forms a group to take it down.

As we see Jack -- an excellent sharpshooter -- place Ralph in his crosshairs, we hear Yunis’ voice in the voiceover asking the most important question: “What if it can’t be killed?”

With just two episodes left, the stakes are now as high as they can get. There are still many questions: What exactly is the nature of this creature? Why does it attack children? What will happen to Jack? And will they really be able to defeat the monster?

'The Outsider' airs on Sundays at 9 pm EST (8 pm CST) on HBO.