Shining Vale – Season 2 Episode 6 “What’s the Matter with Sandy?” Recap & Review

What’s the Matter with Sandy?

Shining Vale Episode 6 starts with a montage showing the passing of eight months of Pat’s miracle pregnancy. At two months in, Pat is eating a lot of meat and Terry is working out all the time. Cut to five months in, and Pat is packing the refrigerator with even more meat than before. We see Terry’s testosterone capsules above the fridge showing he might have over-indulged in them. He is also still working out a lot as Pat is growing bigger.

Each passing of time shows the bouncing of Pat and Terry’s bed, implying they are having sex, but as it turns out, it’s just Terry’s overactive nature, as he bounces while feeling the baby bump. The television flickers on and there’s a television news clip of a woman axing her husband to death after reading Pat’s book. 

It’s Sunday in the present day. Terry is preparing his protein powder drink as Pat is frying up a lot of meat. Pat is worried that women all over the country are axing their husbands to death after reading her book as she receives yet another alert on her phone to a news story. She suggests Terry cut down on the testosterone, as Jake walks in looking for duct tape and powdered milk, and Pat offers him meat for breakfast. What is he up to? He leaves to return to his den inside the wall. Gaynor comes in making an expresso, with her usual negative attitude towards Pat.

Gaynor returns to her home where Ennio is hanging out with her on her bed. She catches him reading her journal, which he doesn’t see as a problem. Ennio tells her that Valerie at the Vatican is more concerned about someone else other than Pat. Gaynor lists everyone before she names herself, and she is offended that she is up for consideration. She tells him to get out. 

Terry is working out and in total overdrive with all the exercise and protein shakes. Laird is with him and shares his worries that he’s running the clock down on his life. Terry reassures him that he’s got his comatose girlfriend, Claire, to think about. Laird reveals she has recently come out of her coma.

Jake has found a friend in Laird’s son, and they are hiding in the walls, looking at old telephones and wondering if messages would come through them. Jake and his friend smoke pot while hanging out.

Pat is out for dinner with Kam, and she reveals Pat’s book is on the top 20 bestseller list. They talk about all the women axing their husbands after reading it, and Pat worries the book is becoming a how-to for serial killers. Kam shrugs it off and tells her to enjoy the success of the book. A waitress comes over to them and says “Bitch, I love you.” Another crazy fan to add to the growing list.

Gaynor visits Ennio and tells him she worries that she might actually be possessed after all, as she’s angry all the time, impulsive and has a bad attitude. Ennio reassures her and claims that’s just her being a normal American girl. Ennio says he stayed in Shining Vale here because he likes it and also because he met Gaynor. She wants Ennio to perform an exorcism on her. He says he can’t do that, but Gaynor insists something is wrong with her and wants him to “blast [her] with holy water.” She says she doesn’t want to feel like this anymore, so Ennio agrees to exorcise her. 

Pat learns that the mayor’s wife killed him after reading the book. Whenever these women who read Pat’s book see her, their reaction is always the same type of crazy. She sees the principal being carried away after killing the mayor, with blood all over her, looking at Pat and saying “I did this for you.”

Pat tells Terry about the incident and says she’s worried her psychosis has got into the book. She says she almost killed Terry writing it, so maybe these women are going crazy reading it. She’s scared but Terry says his big arms will protect her, and he isn’t worried as he’s not a worrier. Terry hugs Pat and notices an extraordinary movement in Pat’s heavily pregnant stomach. He lays her on the bed and tries to relax the baby with a rendition of “Twinkle twinkle.” It doesn’t work. 

Meanwhile, Jake and his friend are wearing weird animal masks and smoking pot. They question if they are real or not. When they run out of rollups, Jake rips a page out of his notebook for his friend to roll another one.

Ennio carries out Gaynor’s exorcism, and it ends with Gaynor grabbing Ennio and kissing him. 

Pat is having another weird dream of a woman climbing out of the bath. Turns out it’s her neighbour, Nellie, who is also heavily pregnant, tells her nobody listens to a pregnant woman, and tells her to look in her drawers. Nellie also tells Pat that she was never crazy and that she should check her files at the asylum.

It’s Tuesday, and Pat goes to the asylum with a note asking to see her tapes. She claims the note is from her psychiatrist but it’s handwritten on a McDonald’s receipt. She demands to see the session tapes but is told by the nurse that she has to sign something. The thing she has to sign turns out to be her book for the nurse. Another crazy fan? 

Terry is out for a run with Laird. He gets mad when he sees someone dropping trash right next to the bin and announces that he’s going to change the town of Shining Vale for the better. They spot Claire on the other side of the road. Laird is hesitant say hello as he thinks she wants nothing to do with him. However, Terry calls her out for him, and Laird goes to cross the road, and Terry just about manages to save his friend from accidentally getting hit by a truck. Terry claims the streets aren’t safe anymore. Laird says they should have told the mayor if he hadn’t gotten all chopped up. 

Claire gets hit by a truck when trying to cross the road, and her body brutally splits into pieces. Terry seems nonplussed by the event and simply insists “I’m gonna clean this place up.” Laird is devastated by Claire’s death.

At the end of the episode, Pat realises upon seeing her tapes that she was actually possessed. She wasn’t crazy after all, as everything she had felt back then was completely correct, and it’s validation for her. 

The Episode Review

Episode six really ramps up the tension as we head towards the end of season two. There is a significant time jump of eight months which really pushes the story forward, and the montage at the start of the episode is done very well.

Pat is now eight months pregnant and displaying some rather unhealthy pregnancy cravings, while Terry is beefing up as his addiction to testosterone is evident. This was an entertaining episode that sets up the potential for some answers to everything that has been set up from the start. Here’s hoping it delivers on its promises in the final two episodes.