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'The Outsider' Episode 5 promo sees Jack want to join investigation and Holly convinced of Terry’s innocence

There are some unsettling visuals in the promo, one of which is a set of what appears to be bloody footprints. Except, those footprints did not look anything remotely human. There is also a brief glimpse into a kind of shadow, slowly solidifying into something physical

HBO’s adaptation of Stephen King’s southern gothic horror novel ‘The Outsider’ teases viewers with the supernatural with just the slightest of hints every episode. Episode 5 saw a series of murders of children across the country where the only connection is that the alleged murderers crossed each other’s paths at some point, if only for a fraction of a moment. 

The episode also saw private investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo) delve further into these spooky connections -- connections that just might prove Terry Maitland’s (Jason Bateman) innocence, even if posthumously. 

What can viewers expect from episode 5?

The episode is titled ‘Tear-Drinker’, an odd name that could mean many things. Like all titles so far, the relevance will appear at the end of the episode, but one can take a guess. It could be an allusion to South American moths and butterflies that drink tears, perhaps a metaphor for odd cravings.

That would fall in line with the increasingly telltale signs of a shape-shifter at play in the story, one that takes the looks of men and women and murders innocent children.

According to HBO’s official synopsis of ‘Tear-drinker’, “Holly searches for clues in the Dayton case with fresh eyes. Jeannie (Mare Winningham) gives Ralph (Ben Mendelsohn) an ominous warning.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Ralph will have received one. In episode 3, Terry’s daughter Jessa (Scarlett Blum), who has been claiming to see a strange “man” in the dark of the night, said that he told Ralph to “stop” and if he didn’t, “bad things will happen”. 

In the episode’s 46-second-long promo, we see police officer Jack Hoskins (Marc Menchaca) in a heavily-wooded area, audibly asking no one: “What is happening to me?” 

When Jack had, earlier in the season, visited the barn where Terry’s clothes were found, he was suddenly attacked by something in the dark, only moments after he caught a glimpse of a faceless man (perhaps the same one Jessa keeps getting visited by). Since then, he developed angry blisters on his neck and appeared to zone out oftentimes. Even in the previous episode, we saw multiple occasions where Jack was in a state of catatonia. 

The promo video also sees Holly telling Ralph about being convinced of Terry’s innocence, asking him to look at a set of photos to identify places where something or someone could hide. We also see Jack trying to convince Ralph of letting him join the investigation of 11-year-old Frankie Peterson’s death. Ralph asks Jack to tell him everything about what happened in the barn the night he got attacked.

There are some unsettling visuals in the promo, one of which is a set of what appears to be bloody footprints. Except, those footprints did not look anything remotely human. There is also a brief glimpse into a kind of shadow, slowly solidifying into something physical.

And finally, as we hear Jeannie tell Ralph to drop the investigation, we see a dark figure in the room, perhaps the faceless entity, as someone drops a glass. 

‘The Outsider’ airs Sundays, 9 p.m. EST (8 p.m. CST) on HBO.