AMC’s The Terror plumbs the depths of madness in “Horrible from Supper”

The first seven episodes of AMC’s new horror series The Terror have covered the space of two years, and the exploration ships Erebus and Terror have been locked in ice for the vast majority of that time. In many ways the latest episode, “Horrible from Supper,” is all about time, and how it’s running out. With only enough supplies to last through one more winter, the captains of the expedition decide to make an 800-mile run for it on foot.

BEWARE MATEYS! SPOILERS FOR “HORRIBLE FROM SUPPER” LIE BELOW.

Caulker’s mate Cornelius Hickey (Adam Nagaitis) has a big part to play in “Horrible from Supper.” The opening scene is a flashback showing him and the other sailors first arriving aboard the Terror as the ship crews up for the long voyage. The only problem is that the Hickey signing in with Lt. George Hodgson (Christos Lawton) is a completely different man. We don’t get any explanation for it…yet.

The story returns to the iceboundTerror on April 22, 1848, as the crewmen load up their lifeboats with supplies. They’ll have to pull the lifeboats on sledges to carry everything they need for the long trek to the closest Hudson’s Bay Company outpost. Their most fervent hope is that the advance party sent out the previous year has made it to civilization and is on its way back with help, so they’ll meet up somewhere halfway.

As captains Francis Crozier (Jared Harris) and James Fitzjames (Tobias Menzies) oversee the preparations, Hickey and his fellows William Gibson (Edward Ashley) and Marine Sergeant Tozier (David Walmsley) grumble about their chances, then begin to hatch a plot to save themselves. Sailor John Morfin (Anthony Flanagan) falls ill, and acting surgeon Harry Goodsir (Paul Ready) tries to tend to him. Not everybody is abandoning the ships; Crozier is leaving a skeleton crew behind, men who want to try and wait for the ships to break free of the ice. Crozier reviews their potential sailing route before he makes his final entry in the ship’s log of the Terror.

The expedition encamps for its first night on the ice after sledging all day. Goodsir has the troubled sailor Henry Collins (Trystan Gravelle) confide in him about his mental problems, and realizes that the effects of the lead-tainted food tins are starting to manifest. He pleads with Crozier to send out hunting parties so the men can eat something else, but Crozier knows there is little game out on the pack ice that the Europeans have the skill to catch. They’ll have to wait until they reach land (King William Island). So far, Crozier and Goodsir are the only ones aware of the lead issue, but the ever-sharp-eyed Hickey notices Goodsir preventing Lady Silence (Nive Nielsen) from eating the crewmen’s stew.

Scouting ahead, seaman Morfin and Marine Sergeant Tozier discover the remains of the advance sledging party, with the lifeboat they took with them upturned and the men decapitated, their heads lined up neatly on ice blocks. The advance party had made it only 18 miles from the ships before they were obliterated, most likely by the Inuit monster tuunbaq. Morfin and Tozier show the grisly scene to Crozier and Fitzjames, who order them to keep what they’ve seen to themselves under pain of courts martial.

After surmounting a high ice pile, the men find themselves on the barren, rocky shore of King William Island. Crozier has the men set up a semi-permanent camp and plans to send out hunting parties looking for caribou.

As Crozier discusses the situation with his midshipman aide, Thomas Jopson (Liam Garrigan), they are approached by Sergeant Tozier, who recommends arming more men in the camp (normally only the Marines and officers can be issued weapons). Crozier is skeptical, especially when Tozier lists ne-er do wells like Hickey as the sailors he wants to give weapons to. Crozier declines, saying they will revisit the idea later. After Tozier is gone, Crozier tells Jopson that “The idea is sound, but some of those names are not.”

That night, the men are awakened by the screams of the ailing John Morfin, who has apparently lost his mind. Crozier tries to gently reason with Morfin, who says: “My head. Cut it off. Put it with the others,” before grabbing a rifle from a Marine and aiming it at Crozier. Crozier orders the other marines to lower their guns while he, Goodsir and Fitzjames continue to try to reason with Morfin. Morfin seems to be lowering his rifle, but it discharges into the ground. Tozier shoots Morfin, killing him. Badly shaken, Goodsir returns to his tent, having a panic attack as he lies in his bed. The mysterious and now-mute Lady Silence appears and curls up against Goodsir, calming him down.

While shaving the next morning, Crozier recruits seaman Tom Hartnell (Jack Colgrave Hirst) to help keep an eye on the men he suspects of fomenting mutiny: Sergeant Tozier, Thomas Armitage (Charlie Kelly) and Hickey. As Morfin is being buried, Crozier informs his officers of the lead poisoning due to the food tins and the immediate need to form hunting parties to collect other sources of food. In a lighter moment, Crozier announces a field promotion, elevating the loyal Jopson to 3rd Lieutenant.

Meanwhile, Hickey attempts to recruit Lt. Hodgson into his conspiracy with Tozier and the others, but Hodgson is very reluctant. Hickey has killed the ship’s mascot dog and wants Hodgson to cook the meat, but only for their small group. Hickey offers Hodgson command in the “new arrangement” after Crozier and the other officers are eliminated.

Lt. John Irving (Ronin Raferty) leads a six-man hunting team into the barrens, then decides to have the group split up to cover more territory. Irving takes Hickey and seaman Thomas Farr (Mate Haumann) with him, and they soon run across a group of traveling Inuit. Irving approaches the Inuit band alone, leaving Hickey and Farr together. The Inuit give Irving some fresh meat, and he hurries back to find Hickey almost naked and sawing his knife at the dead body of Farr. Hickey attacks Irving and stabs him to death.

The show returns to the original flashback scene where Lt. Hodgson is signing in new sailors aboard the Terror. We see the Cornelius Hickey we know arrive (where did the first Hickey go?) with smudged paperwork, and Hickey soon proves to Lt. Irving that he doesn’t know anything about a ship at all. The final scene returns to the half-clothed Hickey on King William Island, pacing back and forth between the dead bodies of Irving and Farr.

“Horrible from Supper” is another slam-bang excellent installment of The Terror, venturing into new territory both beyond the ships and deep inside the heads of the men. The men are more exposed to the elements now, though it isn’t as dire a problem in the sunlit days of the Arctic summer. The real ticking clock is the lead poisoning and how it affects the men in different ways, making some confused, some violent, and many of them paranoid and delusional.

Once again, the tuunbaq does not make an actual appearance onscreen, although its presence is felt with the reveal of the brutal fate of the advance party. And once again, the monster isn’t necessary. More and more, the monsters in The Terror are the men themselves. Whether it’s the jabbering Henry Collins barely in control of his mind, the demented John Morfin wielding a rifle with firelight ablaze in his eyes or the stripped-down Cornelius Hickey murdering his shipmates and apparently sawing off pieces, we realize that the expedition members are being hunted from the inside—not only from inside their own ranks but from inside their very minds—and from that, there is no escape.

“Horrible from Supper” excels by delivering the most disquieting horrors of The Terror thus far.

EPISODE GRADE — A

Here is AMC’s Sneak Peek of next week’s episode, “Terror Camp Clear”:

If you’re a super-duper fan of the show, AMC has created a podcast called The Minds Behind the Terror. So far, the hosts have interviewed novelist Dan Simmons and showrunners and actor Adam Nagaitis (Cornelius Hickey). Enjoy.

AMC’s The Terror  is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by author Simmons, who based his historical fiction on the true story of the Franklin Expedition. It currently airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. CST.

Next: The Terror puts the match to the powder keg in “Terror Camp Clear”

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