Demon’s Path is not a bad show. It’s not a good show, but this episode is a far cry from the ridiculous first episode. It’s absurd but entertaining. The show does have some depth to it and is capable of engaging its viewers with its dialogue, if not so much with its characters.
Episode three introduces us to two new characters: Madame Kok, or MIIDSS (Major Incident Investigation and Disaster Support System), a policewoman with a photographic memory and a behavioural tic that I distinctly recall from some anime. Affectionately called the police supercomputer, Madame is capable of identifying people by face and then proceeding to list out their badge number, title, and full name. Madame is placed on the case of Killer #2 (or perhaps its the same killer?), who has committed a crime that is a copy of the Flower Trough Double Murder, leading our intrepid group of detectives to their man, Peter. The second introduction gives us more detail on what I can assume is Killer #3 for now, the man we saw bookend the previous episode.
This episode works to provide more detail to the killer and his victim, who turned out to be the woman he was having an affair with. The scenes involving him and her body was equal parts funny and compelling. It was funny because it would alternate between him sawing at one chunk of meat with a cleaver (yes, you read that right) and hammering at a bone for… some reason. This would be shown with the girl’s body in the background, in the tub, and I want to say that that’s just imagery, but with this show you never know. It was compelling because it showed him methodically working through his lies and excuses and coming up with satisfying answers to each one; of course, it was a good thing that he had some help from the mysterious stranger he met on the elevator in the last episode.
A mysterious stranger who, for those of you who didn’t figure it out, killed Lam Lam. It appears that the two killers are now working together. As to how they met each other; it’s a mystery. Maybe it’ll be solved later on, but it seems unlikely; the show has already provided an ‘explanation’ with a weird, disturbing little speech. For some reason, our group is assigned to this case as well, and it seems that this show is content on bringing this small group of people in the vast city of Hong Kong together whenever they please with the flimsiest of reasons.
This episode is a far cry from the ridiculousness of the first and manages to be engaging, even if the cuts and camera angles are soap-y and unintentionally humorous. Furthermore, , there are some absurd audio syncing issues (the key sounds don’t sync with the tapping and the TV anchor’s mouth doesn’t move in tandem with the words) that could’ve been easily avoided. The show is still not something I would call good, but it is less of a trainwreck than the first episode promised it to be.
That being said, introducing the second killer throws a unique wrench into the mix and I look forward to seeing how that plays out.
The Average Viewer 