The Essex Serpent opened with the intriguing scene of Gracie supposedly getting attacked by a mysterious serpent. But the pacing after that has been too slow for my liking. While we know the serpent is (mostly) not real, we still need that element of gothic horror to jolt us through the story.
That’s why I quite liked how Episode 2 ended, leaving us with several questions: Is Naomi actually possessed? Why did the school kids faint?
At the end of The Essex Serpent Ep 2, Naomi is mostly likely suffering from an anxiety-induced epileptic attack. The kids, on the other hand, may have either played a prank by pretending to faint, or are caught up in mass hysteria.
The way the scene played out, it’s not easy to use logic to explain it. I was just as shocked as Cora when she looked around to see the kids all passed out. But I have a few theories about what could’ve happened.
Here’s Why Naomi Is Not Possessed
During the episode, we see that Naomi is increasingly unconvinced that the serpent is fake. She even considers a seagull randomly appearing in her house as a sign that she is the beast’s next target.
In the show’s first scene, we know that Naomi was on the marshes along with Gracie. Being petrified of what her sister was doing (or admitting to, that is sleeping with Samuel Dowsett), Naomi runs away when she notices something approaching them in the water.
So, there are quite a few things that are stressing her out: Naomi knows Gracie’s secret, the real reason she was on the marsh. She knows that the “act” was sinful. Then to top it off, she lied about the whole thing and didn’t admit to knowing where Gracie actually was.
It’s only natural that all of this guilt has led her to believe that a horrible devil-serpent is on its way to punish her.
We see this anxiety manifest into a real seizure when even the school kids point their fingers at her and say she’s connected to the devil. I don’t think Naomi is actually possessed in any way, but she is definitely mentally unwell.
Why do the school kids faint?
Kids can be brutal when they’re trying to make fun of someone. From the early disruption in the class itself, it was evident that they didn’t want to patiently wait for an explanation.
Naomi becomes an easy target for them, given her nervous but explosive responses and the fact that it was her sister that gets allegedly attacked by the serpent.
So it’s possible that the whole act, right from “She did it” to the kids hissing like snakes and then fainting was just a sick prank that they all joined in after one kid started it.
On the other hand, the rest of the kids could also be suffering from the effects of mass hysteria. This happens when one person’s odd behavior (sometimes triggered by fear) can result in many others mimicking it.
Mass hysteria is quite common even today, so it is a fair assumption that a Victoria-era town fueled with rumors of a devil-serpent may also experience these effects.
Here’s to hoping that The Essex Serpent Ep 3 will give us some more clues.
About The Essex Serpent
The Essex Serpent is an Apple TV+ original series that follows recently-windowed Cora Seaborne who moves from London to Essex upon hearing rumors of a mythical sea creature.
Determined to investigate the truth, she befriends the local pastor but ends up getting up blamed for attracting the creature.
The cast is made up of Claire Danes, Tom Hiddleston, Frank Dillane, and Hayley Squires among others.
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