The Whispers Season 1 Episode 8 Review: A Hollow Man
Allison Nichols
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Wow, would you look at that, ever since 1982 Drill has been a dick.
On The Whispers Season 1 Episode 8, we learned Drill has visited our planet before. He only talked to one kid, Thomas, whose father worked at NASA. Drill being a repeat offender certainly makes him much more interesting. This means that Drill has known about our planet for awhile, but for some reason, he chose to reappear now.
We really needed someone like Thomas to show up because no one else would have been able to provide more back story on Drill. Aside from what Drill tells the kids, there wasn't any other way for us to know anything about Drill. Thomas changed that.
We learned how Drill found out about our planet in the first place. New downside to nuclear energy: it sends out a beacon to aliens like Drill who want to come and get our children to do terrible things. To be fair, Drill claimed that his planet was dying, so he might have had a good cause.
I mean, clearly telling a kid to kill his brother would provide food for Drill and his planet.
Drill is either trying to help out his family, or he is a psycho who uses "my family is hungry" as an excuse to play God and make children provide him with some entertainment. Shouldn't he find more diplomatic ways to get food for his planet? Drill's motives don't make sense, which makes him a hard to understand "bad guy." We don't know his endgame.
Sean shared a vision he had of the future as a result of Drill's actions, but Sean's vision doesn't make sense with Drill's "I need food" story.
Drill's been here before.
Claire
We did get some big answers on Drill, but there is still so much more that doesn't make sense. Maybe Minx can demand some questions from Drill. The two of them are tight, so he might answer her. By having Drill be an alien who only communicates to kids, something the audience can't see or hear, it makes it more difficult for us to get a good read on Drill.
In The Whispers Season 1 Episode 7, we thought we killed Drill. Thomas claimed to have killed Drill back in 1982. How do we know Drill actually died then? Claire acted like Thomas held the key to ending this fight, and while he might, she should have realized that maybe Thomas just thought he killed Drill like she did hours ago.
The only thing that makes Thomas' belief that he killed Drill seem credible is that Drill wanted Thomas dead. Drill threatened Lena to kill Thomas for a reason. Maybe Drill didn't die back then, but something Thomas did either sent him home or severely weakened Drill. Do you think that Thomas killed Drill back in 1982?
I don't want Drill to be mad at you. I want you to be friends.
Minx
I really hope that we focus on Lena dealing with the fact she just shot and possibly killed Thomas. I would love to see her get angry and finally be the one to get Minx to see that Drill is using her and that he isn't her friend.The only reason Lena did what she did was because Drill made it clear that if she didn't play along, Minx would die.
Imagine if Minx decided she had enough of Drill. The shift could be really cool and lead to either Drill stepping up his game or him trying to rationalize his behavior to Minx, and maybe providing answers along the way. Drill seems to heavily rely on Minx, so what would he do if she was no longer playing with him?
Let's play a game called count how many times Wes listened to Claire over Lena. He did it a lot. Lena told him Drill was back, but he chose to believe Minx aka Drill's number one fan over his own wife. Oh, but Claire said Drill is back, so she is obviously right. Sorry, Lena. Wes comforted Lena after shooting Thomas (a fantastic moment), but he ran to Claire the minute she asked for him. Anyone else sensing a pattern? Who has more of your heart, Wes, Lena or Claire?
We caught a glimpse of Sean and Claire's life before the cheating, before the crash. They were struggling, but they had a night where they bonded over food poisoning. While it didn't help their marriage then, the memories of that night are helping them now. This small moment exploring Claire and Sean's relationship was a nice reminder of how much they've been through, not including Drill.
They were broken before Drill showed up, but they are trying to put the pieces of their family back together. In the midst of all the Drill drama, it is nice to have scenes featuring completely normal, human issues and problems. It helps to ground the show.
What did you think of the episode? Did you love seeing Claire and Sean partner up? Leave me your thoughts in a comment below. Remember you can watch The Whispers online anytime via TV Fanatic.
