AMC’s “The Terror” sets an eerie table in Episode 4, “Punished, as a Boy”

“Punished, as a Boy,” the fourth episode of AMC’s new historical fiction/horror series The Terror, takes its foot off the accelerator, slowing the story down just a bit relative to the first three episodes. This easing of the pace allows the haunting atmosphere to sink in as new narrative elements align. The tension and eeriness increase, as cinematic vistas become harbingers of the supernatural.

BEWARE: SPOILERS FOR “PUNISHED, AS A BOW” LIE BELOW

“Punished, as a Boy,” opens in November 1847, approximately five months after the events of Episode 3. Lady Franklin (Greta Scacchi), accompanied by Sophie Cracroft (Sian Brooke), petition the Royal Admiralty in London to go looking for her husband, who hasn’t been heard from for a year. The officers, including Sir John Ross (Thrones veteran Clive Russell) rebuff her, explaining that the mission is planned to last three years, and Sir John Franklin (Ciaran Hinds) has plenty of provisions. Lady Franklin admits that her husband “is as wonderful as he is fallible.” She is certain that Sir John is in trouble and she wants someone to “enact a plan.” The Admiralty chooses to wait.

Meanwhile, aboard the icebound Terror, the men and marines sing and carouse, assistant surgeon Harry Goodsir (Paul Ready) studies photographs of the wounds of murdered crewmen and Captain Crozier (Jared Harris) drinks heavily as he listens to the ice pack squeeze and shift the ship. With Franklin now dead, murdered by a mysterious creature the episode prior, Crozier is now the acting expedition commander.

Outside, it’s nighttime almost around the clock. A marine named William Heather (Roderick Hill) is attacked, having the top of his skull ripped off while guarding the Terror. Another crewman, William Strong (Freddie Greaves) goes missing out on the ice. No one saw the monster. Crozier orders armed parties assembled to search in pairs for the missing Strong.

With the northern lights shimmering green and haunting in the sky overhead, the men search the dark ice ridges. Crozier joins the search and partners with a ship’s boy Thomas Evans (Joe Hurst). Crozier thinks he sees Strong’s body and advances, telling Evans to remain back with the lantern. Crozier finds only a bloodstained fur coat. Evans cries out, but by the time Crozier returns he finds the lantern lying in a pool of blood and Evans missing.

The search parties return to the ship as the sun peeks over the horizon for just a moment, and then disappears. Crozier blames himself for Evans’ death and continues drinking. Crozier is managing to coexist civilly with Captain James Fitzjames (Tobias Menzies), who now commands the Erebus. Fitzjames tries to console Crozier, who is defeated and depressed.

Fitzjames reminds Crozier that they are all “volunteers.” Crozier says he was “in fact, ordered” to join the expedition, to “keep Sir John safe, and ensure his judgement. Those were her orders. That is what she asked me to do.” The “her” was Sophia Cracroft, Franklin’s niece, the woman who we learned last week rejected Crozier’s marriage proposal.

Goodsir and the surgeons work to cauterize the skull of Heather, the royal marine injured by the monster: the top of his skull is missing, ripped away to expose his brain.

That night, seaman Cornelius Hickey (Adam Nagatis) performs sentry duty on the slanted deck of the Terror. He sees a ghostly figure standing on the deck. It is the body of William Strong. Hickey pulls at the body and it falls in two pieces—it had been neatly stacked there despite being bitten in half. Hickey glimpses the monster, white and somewhat bearlike, in the dense fog.

The surgeon discovers that the two body parts are from different men: the top half is Strong, but the bottom half belongs to the ship’s boy, Thomas Evans. Both bodies were halved not by a knife but by a single claw, working with technical precision.

At an officer’s meeting it is suggested that perhaps the indigenous people know what the monster is. Crozier orders a team to retrieve the Silent Woman (Nive Nielsen) in the morning (she has remained camped near the ships for 5 months). Fitzjames states that the Inuit woman and the monster appeared together, so they might be connected.

Chaos and screaming break out on board the Terror. Crozier rushes to the main deck where the Silent Woman has been captured and brought aboard by Hickey and two sailors, creating a stir among the men who blame her for the appearance of the monster. Crozier orders his officers to take the Silent Woman to the Erebus while Hickey and the two sailors are taken below to be questioned. Hickey explains that he saw the monster near the Silent Woman’s igloo, and the Silent Woman was interacting with it. Hickey: “I do not believe it is an animal we battle.”

Citing desertion and a laundry list of other offenses, Crozier orders 12 lashes for Hickey and the two sailors, plus extra punishments. Hickey argues with Crozier, who ups his lashes to 30 and sentences him to be “punished as a boy,” which means being whipped on the buttocks. (Hickey’s flogging is done mostly in a brutal close-up of his face). Crozier then announces that the Terror is in a predicament on a pressure ridge of ice, and if any of the crew wish to, they may begin transferring to the Erebus.

All but 10 of the Terror’s crew elect to move. While treating a crewman aboard the Erebus, Goodsir sees that the man’s gums are going black. Goodsir takes a meal to the Silent Woman and tries to talk to her, but she does not respond to his attentions.

Although it tosses in a few well-placed scares here and there, “Punished, as a Boy” prefers to dowse us with its eerie environment and numerous character-driven storylines, warming up on all cylinders. The episode ends on a very soft note. I for one really dug the lingering atmospherics of the aurora borealis and the barely-glimpsed sun: the viewer feels the magical elements of the world closing in, just as the characters do. It’s like the show is setting a tantalizing, sumptuous meal on a table and we, the famished viewers, can see the feast but are not yet allowed to eat. Don’t worry. It’s coming.

Another interesting element is the prominence of the female characters, not a given on a show about a bunch of guys stranded on a ship in Victorian times. The Silent Woman is an important presence, of course, but The Terror also integrates Lady Franklin into the action, using her to show the callousness of the Royal Admiralty and to keep Sir John Franklin front and center despite his death. We see how men like Franklin and James Crozier are motivated and affected by the women in their lives, who are ready to move mountains to save them.

GRADE: A-

I’m hooked. Are you? Here’s AMC’s teaser trailer for Episode 5, “First Shot a Winner, Lads.”

AMC’s The Terror series is based on the novel of the same name by Dan Simmons, who applied a horror element to the true story of the Franklin Expedition. It airs on Monday nights at 8:00 p.m.

Next: The Terror unleashes its monsters in “First Shot a Winner, Lads”

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