The Outsider Episode 9 Tigers and Bears Recap and Review

Lions, Tigers, Bears, and of Course El Coco. Check out all of our Outsider coverage to get caught up on what you might have missed and some easter eggs you might have missed.

We return to Cecil, Tennessee along with the Scooby gang and of course El Coco. We open up on a barn where a young boy is looking for something in the hayloft. His flashlight misses another young boy who is hiding. The young boy who is hiding quickly tags the other and claims he’s it. They run off into the woods. Their father calls them back to the house. They do not answer. He looks in the barn and heads out into the woods. Still no boys.

Now Howie watches the Cecil PD talk to Ralph and Yunis about where Claude was. They both vouch for him. Ralph mentions that the abduction looks similar to the Peterson murder, and they all agree to let Ralph interview the witnesses. Howie is skeptical that there is a monster and voices it to Ralph. Ralph says it’s time to believe and Howie should too. Some REALLY Important information comes out when the gang discusses the monster.

Relevant Monster Information

• Claude and El Coco are now connected, and they cannot reveal any information to Claude without El Coco knowing too. That does not sit well with his brother.
• They have no clue how to stop it. Not even one thing as Claude’s brother points out.
• Claude’s brother is going to get him out of dodge and Howie is going with them.
• I can’t understand a goddamn thing Claude’s brother is saying. His accent is too thick.
• The gang is torn on whether to contain him (Team Holly) or to kill it (Team Yunis and Ralph…maybe).

Ralph tells Jeannie the monster is in Cecil, and she almost hits a jogger pulling out of the driveway. He tells her he is going to catch or kill it. She warns him not to go after it, and he tells her he is just going to share information and let others do the catching. She is VERY worried about him doing anything with El Coco.

The boys from the beginning are headed to the caves. The younger one warns of dad’s punishment. The older pushes on ahead into the caves and the younger quickly follows behind.

The gang is watching the video of El Coco run away. They comment that it’s scared and hungry. They are curious about where El Coco could be holding up. Andy mentions there is a cemetery nearby. They ask bro if there is a place with a family connection. He says something about bodies floating out of the cemetery with the flood. Holly gets up in a huff and bro mentions Claude is all he has left to Ralph clearly raising the emotional stakes.

Dad is out looking for the boys, and he looks ready to give a whooping. He asks the lady that runs the entrance to the caves if she has seen the boys. They snuck in so of course, she hasn’t. He grabs a flashlight and heads into the caves to look for them.

We are now moving at a brisk pace as the Bolton brothers and Howie leave town, and we finally visit the D.A. from the beginning of the season. The police have found a boy, dead, with a face all torn up. They asked if he wanted to see the body and get briefed. He is rocked by the news and tells his secretary that he doesn’t need to see it but to give them all his contact information.

The Bolton brothers are headed out and Claude does mention how fucked up the monster is. It looks like its just Claude and Howie so brother didn’t make the trip. Claude says he has to puke and that Howie needs to pull over. Claude pukes everywhere. Claude mentions El Coco feels like a virus, and he is powerless to stop it.

Dad is making his way into the caves. The boys well ahead of him are now in a cave with water up to their legs. Now Holly and Andy have found the cemetery. She is talking about the Spanish Flu which I happen to have read a ton about this weekend. She is worried about the cause of death Andy is more worried about the McCallums in general.

Ralph is interviewing the boy that El Coco almost abducted. They went through exactly what he said to him. We also learned it was his grandpa, not his father who took him to the caves. Ralph is concerned that El Coco scratched him. The boy said he did not. Now Andy and Holly are walking around the remnants of the CaveaPooloza. Andy wants to know why he ran the way he did. It was the opposite direction of the caves. Holly goes back to look at the map and finds some residue on the wooden map. Hmmmm maybe some of that ectoplasm.

Ralph is now interviewing the grandpa. Grandpa wants to know about the scratch question. Ralph tells him its routine. Yunnis wants to know if grandpa has anything to add. Grandpa said he had weird eyes. He said his eyes were too far back in the socket. The cave festival family leaves and Ralph asks the local PD if they have a bear cave that would correlate with the story. The District Attorney is looking at crime scene photos. We don’t get much but it seems pretty brutal.

A GROSS jump cut to frying chicken as we catch up with Howie and Claude. Claude wants to get back to town (remember he can’t know anything). Howie wants to keep him away. They eat chicken and discuss how Howie represented Claude when he got into a bar fight. Howie does not remember him. Howie says to take it as a compliment.

The boys are lost now. The oldest thought he knew where he was going, and he clearly does not. Dad is now calling out to the boys with no luck. They can all hear one another as they yell back and forth. We see a sign for a Bear Cave (this doesn’t bode well). The father enters Bear Cave and tells the kids not to move. Dad leaves the caves to call in support. It is Appalachia and it looks like the whole freaking town is there to help. There is a pretty rad crane shot as the help heads to the caves.

The gang is trying to crack the Bear Cave clue. Bro discusses how the two boys were lost in the cave. The clothes did look weird for the flashbacks. It is a brilliant little turn of storytelling that we are getting their story told in parallel despite it happening years ago. The boys’ voices are drawing the search party deeper into the cave. Now that we know the jig is up we learn the mine collapses and traps them inside. Claude’s brother discusses how they all starved. He describes how thirty-four people died. Four relatives including his grandpa. Despite the caves being sealed up people have been getting back in and bro shows them how to get in. Bro wants to know what the plan is to get it. Ralph says he will have plenty of help. Bro is dubious.

Well shit look who came to visit Jeannie. It’s Marcy Maitland. Marcy tells Jeannie about the lawsuit. They are discussing Ralph. Marcy tells Jeannie she was really pissed about Holly’s report. They discuss the veracity of the report. Marcy wants to make sure the air is clear and that while she doesn’t believe El Coco she respects Jeannie’s beliefs.

On the way to the caves Yunis and Ralph talk about the reality of the monster. Ralph is having trouble reconciling his new reality. Alec tells him to take small bites. To handle what he can and then move on.

Now Howie and bro are smoking pot and discussing things as Claude sleeps. Bro wants to tell Claude all the information. Howie says stick to the plan and then goes digging for leftover chicken. Bro tells Claude everything and Claude is pissed because his brother just tipped off El Coco who is waking up with all this information and has now sent Jack out on a mission. Well shit.

Howie is desperate to get through to the other half of the gang. They cannot, so they do the second worst thing and that’s to head out to try to catch them at the caves. Jack is armoring up. He has all kinds of weapons including a pitchfork (yikes). He is setting up a sniper’s nest. Well someone is going to die. He waits.

Holly and Andy are in the first car. They are playing movie trivia and Holly is an absolute banger at it. The stop and prepare to get out. They share a kiss and pull up. Jack spots the cars and puts down his bottle of Jack and gets set up to take the shot. He shoots Alec and we hear 6 more shots. Alec is for sure dead, and we are left until next week to figure out what has happened to the rest of the crew.

Stray Thoughts

1. Clearly the title is taken from Wizard of Oz and boy are we WAY over the rainbow.
2. All of this talk about El Coco as a virus is a little too on the nose for me with all the coronavirus news out there.
3. With the finale taking place within and around caves it super reminds me of Mark Twain and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It’s worth a look into its symbolism.
4. Speaking of caves. There has been some truly awful stuff that has happened in caves. Maybe we should just stay out.
5. There are five people who first arrive at the cave. There are seven total shots. Jack clearly missed some of the shots. I guess we wait and see who makes it.