'The Outsider' Episode 8: Fans wonder if man who pinned El Cuco’s Claude got scratched, importance of 15 years
Episode 8 of HBO’s ‘The Outsider’ revealed El Cuco or whatever shape-shifting entity it is. It possesses the face of Claude Bolton (Paddy Considine), something that makes sense. After all, the creature takes the shape of others before it goes on to the next kill cycle.
Little still, however, is known about the said creature. We only know that it can possess people, it takes on others’ shape (down to the DNA), and it’s always hungry.
What exactly is the nature of this creature that feasts on children and inflicts cruelty wherever it goes? On ‘The Outsider’ subreddit, this matter has always been discussed among those who haven’t read Stephen King’s southern gothic horror novel the show was adapted from.
Reddit user kevinsg04 wrote about the episode “I'm a little confused at how powerful or weak this thing is… it seems like it can easily get into people's locked houses in the middle of the night to talk to family members without even coming close to being ‘caught’. It also appears able to send a ghost thing to someone and have them beat up that someone with impossible strength (the ghost ‘grandma’ throwing Jack? across the room in his apartment/hotel room).”
The user was referring to that instance a couple of episodes ago when Jack Hoskins hallucinated his dead mother and was beaten up by the aforementioned hallucination.
Reddit user woop2, talking about how El Cuco almost abducted his next victim, wrote on Reddit: “I think El Cuco was controlling him somehow because he was grabbing the back of his neck weird and the kid wasn’t responding to the people yelling. And when El Cuco let him go he looked dazed.”
In the episode, a family arrives in Cecil, Tennessee, to attend the cave festival. The young boy in the family, perhaps aged 10 or 11, shows interest in visiting the secluded caves. A man in a mask approaches the boy and takes him to one of the caves. His voice sounds a lot like Claude’s. But the boy’s sister soon realizes he’s missing and raises a noise. Soon, the people at the festival see the boy with the masked man and catch them. Somehow, he escapes.
The idea that El Cuco can possess men has already been demonstrated with Jack. But it is nevertheless interesting to consider that it can do it to others who are not already emotionally traumatized, which is one of the best guesses as to why Jack was possessed.
One of the more interesting observations about the episode, however, came from user I-Did-It-4-Da-Rock, who asked if the man who pinned the masked Claude at the fair got scratched by El Cuco. We already know that is this scratch that allows the creature to take the shape of others. And now with his Claude identity completely uncovered, it would be the logical next step to find a different identity.
Reddit user CrimsonBrit had a very separate but interesting theory about the timelines. He wrote, “Did anyone else pick up on the few mentions of something happening every 14-15 years? the music that Ralph’s heard when his mom died and again when his son died. Alec said he tasted copper in his mouth, which reminded him of his tour in Iraq 14 years before. The cave-vacationer dad says to his wife ‘Deb, after 15 years of us coming to this thing, I think I can say in full confidence, I'm officially bored to shit with it’.”
The user further added, “I don’t know if I’m just looking for something deeper, or if perhaps El Cuco comes back every 15 years and somehow it impacts people in different ways?” While it may be a stretch, three separate mentions of “15 years ago” in the same episode is little more than a coincidence.
All in all, even with the El Cuco reveal, ‘Foxhead’ left viewers with even more questions than they had before. It was nonetheless one of the most exciting episodes of the show so far!
'The Outsider' airs on Sundays at 9 pm EST (8 pm CST) on HBO.
