Heaven’s On Fire – As the finale of Hysteria! begins, Dylan (Emjay Anthony), Jordy (Chiara Aurelia), and Spud (Kezii Curtis) hang out and talk about their band. Dylan admits he isn’t sure he’d want to do this without them. In the present, Gene (Nolan North) checks on Dylan and says it’s time. Tracy (Anna Camp) calls Abigail (Jennie Page) and tells her to get everyone to meet at the church. She is going to cast evil out of this town for everyone to see. Tracy wants to make sure the Hudsons are there. Gene interrupts to tell Tracy that Linda (Julie Bowen) is ready to go. Tracy promises that Linda is in good hands. Jordy and Spud are with Chief Dandridge (Bruce Campbell) who tells Officer Olsen (Allison Scagliotti) to arrest Tracy. The Chief learns that Abigail went to the church. He wants to get Faith out of that house. He tells Jordy and Spud to stay at the station and try to get in touch with Dylan.
The Reverend (Garret Dillahunt) wants Faith (Nikki Hahn) to tell him where the inhaler is. He asks her to take a little trip away for a few days. If their names make an appearance, their destination will change to the bottom of Lake Erie. The Reverend wants to know if anyone knows where she is right now. Faith says no. When Faith is alone, she wonders where Jordy is. Jordy and Spud talk about Dylan’s mom. She finds a police report involving a reported case of demonic activity. Jordy says there are many of them so Dylan’s mom wasn’t the only one. She believes she knows where Dylan is. Dylan approaches Tracy at the church. She tells him he has the most important job of anyone because this won’t be easy for anyone. His mom is going to need a reminder of what she has left to fight for. Meanwhile, Judith (Jessica Treska) gathers Fred (Seydou Maiga), Mallory (Arden Dalia), and others. They say Judith is doing that a lot.
They begin to wonder if being in a cult sucks. Moments later, Judith and Cliff (Elijah Richardson) arrive with Tonya (Aline O’Neill) who is being held captive. Judith asks the others if they’re ready to have some fun. Outside the church, Jordy and Spud are told Tracy Whitehead is going to shut the door that their group opened. Tracy practices her speech in private. She says she brought everyone there to end the town’s battle against evil. Then, she tells the group that she’s going to perform an exorcism on Linda. Fred tells Judith and Cliff that they should let Tonya go. The others learn that Tonya is the one who squealed on them. When no one volunteers to go first, Judith tells Ingrid that she’s up. The members start backing out. Judith tells Cliff that he wants people to start taking him seriously. She says he has to give them a good reason to do so. Fred and the others try to talk him out of attacking Tonya. When Cliff says he’s out, Judith grabs the knife.
She almost stabs Tonya until Cassie (Jessica Luza) interrupts. Tonya yells for help. Cassie takes her daughter upstairs. The Reverend hears a knock at the door. Chief Dandridge goes inside the house to look for Faith. The Reverend has her held at gunpoint and warns her to stay quiet. Linda is confined to a chair as she waits for the exorcism to begin. Tracy tells everyone about the process. Dylan listens from nearby as Tracy explains what she’s going to do. Then, Tracy begins the process by trying to speak to Linda Campbell. In her dream world, Linda asks for help. In the real world, Linda curses Tracy and spits in her face. Jordy and Spud tell Dylan they need to go because he’s not safe there. Tracy says it’s time for stage two, confession. Spud and Jordy tell Dylan that anyone will believe anything if they’re scared enough. They say Ryan’s death was a cover-up. Linda says she felt evil in her home on the day of Ryan’s disappearance.
Tracy claims it was a punishment from God when the ground shook. Dylan questions why he’s there if Tracy can’t help his mom. Jordy says Tracy is trying to get a false confession from Linda. Linda says it wasn’t Dylan. Tracy keeps pushing to try to get Linda to admit that it was Dylan. Tracy points up to Dylan who is no longer there. Elsewhere, Dylan tells Jordy and Spud that he wouldn’t want to do this without them. Spud approaches Tracy and says this is all bull crap. Dylan accuses Tracy of having to do something with Ryan’s death. Tracy asks everyone who they trust. They side with Tracy. Chief Dandridge finds the chair while looking for Faith. Dylan tells his friend to leave because this is on him. The locals come from him. The church catches on fire. Tracy tries to cast out the devil before holding Linda’s head underwater. She pleads with her to confess. Gene interrupts and tells Tracy to get the heck away from her.
Dylan tries to get his mother to come back. She wakes up and leaves with Dylan and Gene. The Reverend tries to keep Faith quiet. Chief Dandridge sees the inhaler and retrieves it. The Reverend sneaks up behind him when the phone rings. Faith sneaks causing the Chief to shoot the Reverend who he calls Beaumont Hicks. The Chief arrests him for the murder of Ryan Hudson. Faith picks up the phone and tells Tracy that Beaumont and she can’t hurt her anymore. Linda escapes the church with Dylan and Gene. The people believe the exorcism worked. Tracy is still inside the church praying even though it’s still on fire. Jordy pulls her out of the church. Once she’s outside, Tracy tells everyone that she’s sorry. The people believe she saved them and she’s a hero. Officer Olsen tries to arrest her for aiding and abetting a murder. The locals tell Olsen that she has the wrong person. Tracy says he’ll go.
She knows the truth will prevail with their support. The crowd cheers for Tracy as she is taken away by Officer Olsen. Dandridge asks Beaumont why he used a creepy mask if he was trying to bring kids back to God. Beaumont claims the mask looks like a dove. It’s what comes before the light. Then, Dandridge asks Faith why she didn’t come forward before. Faith didn’t want to believe her mom could be capable of something like this. She also didn’t want to go to jail. She says she killed Gilbert only to learn that he’s still alive. Cassie checks on Judith and tells her she lucked out because Tonya’s parents aren’t going to press charges. They want Judith to stay with her dad for the rest of the year. Judith is okay with going to Los Angeles. Dylan looks at the scar on his hand. He asks Spud about the Halifax Slasher. Spud explains there wasn’t a serial slasher.
Everyone was imagined or made up after the bulletin about the incident was put up. Spud thinks the fear changed people’s reality. Dylan tells them they were right. They discuss the future of the band. Linda finds out that the rash is gone. There might be a figure in the mirror.
Hysteria! Review
The finale of Hysteria was pretty weak overall. It really had too many bases to cover and none of them worked out exceptionally well. Instead, the whole thing was a big nothing burger with no real surprises and no terrifying moments. For seven episodes, the show was building up all these big stories only for them to end lamely in the finale.
Some were even predictable, especially the kidnapping involving the Reverend. That was pretty easy to see a few episodes into the series. In the end, this was just a teeny series about friendship and the impact of hysteria on a small community. Tracy decided to perform an exorcism on Linda and try to get her to blame Ryan’s death on Dylan to cover up her own actions.
Chief Dandridge managed to save Faith who was being held by Beaumont. He also found the inhaler and linked Beaumont to Ryan’s death. Judith didn’t kill anyone and their cult just split up. However, she will be going to Los Angeles to stay with her father and she’s happy about that. Dylan and the band probably continued as normal.
The finale had lots of silly moments that made a bad ending even worse. For starters, the entire group at the church was ready to slaughter Dylan. At some point, everyone just stopped trying to kill him for whatever reason. Although we could blame the fire, that wouldn’t make sense because they also didn’t go after him outside. After all, everyone still thought Tracy was a hero so they would’ve believed the story about Dylan.
Tracy trying to stay in the church and Jordy pulling her out were equally corny. The finale really lacks any imagination or sense of surprise. One problem throughout the series is the volume level. It seems like the characters are whispering compared to the music. The season has really been unbalanced not knowing whether it wants to be a comedy or a horror series.
The mixture of both prevented the story from being taken seriously when it would’ve been better as a serious drama instead of a bad horror show. The editing is horrible to the point that it’s impossible to tell what is in the present and what is a flashback. Viewers are often left guessing. It doesn’t help that the cast is massively bloated and none of the performances are compelling.
The finale left many things open-ended. For instance, we’re left to believe that the rashes were psychological. Was anyone brought to justice for the savage beating on Gilbert? What evidence was there against Beaumont and his group? Would he really immediately confess when confronted with the inhaler? Who else went down with him? Would the town just forgive Dylan for starting a cult?
No, this really doesn’t need a second season because the first wasn’t that satisfying. The best thing about the finale is that this should be the end of the whole thing. The finale scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Hysteria can be found here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
