The Path’s new season kicks off with a bang—both figuratively and literally—as it confidently heads into its third year with a renewed energy. The show isn’t afraid to reframe its relationships, pull a 180 on the status quo, and have its characters indulge in shocking melodrama. The Path’s second season does end in quite the tumultuous way and it leads to unexplored territory for the series. Unsurprisingly, this injects these first few episodes of the third season with a helpful creative drive in what feels like it could be the show’s strongest year yet. The season’s premiere is called “The Beginning” and that’s what it feels like here—a new start. At the same time, this also marks a good place in the series to jump into for those who fell off last year. It even feels like a soft reboot, so to speak. However, this tendency for The Path to “think big” and continually try to top itself is exactly the sort of compulsion that could make this new season a disaster. That’s why it’s extremely satisfying to see The Path use its time between seasons to get back to its basics and figure out a strong, exciting angle to pursue. Everyone goes through a rather seismic change and crisis of faith this year. Life is definitely different for Eddie than when the series last checked in with him. The season begins with an earthquake and an explosion that feel exactly like the sort of clairvoyant dreams that Eddie has had in the past. This all becomes even more of a surprise when the show never cuts back to “reality” because it turns out that this is real. The Path earns this moment. They’ve played with dreams for so long on this show, but then their most heightened moment yet happens to fall within reality. It’s an insane introduction that’s an incredibly strong way to position Eddie as this rightful Christ figure. The followers of Meyerism can’t believe what they’ve seen and neither can the audience. It’s also helpful that the show chooses to clean its slate a little and jump forward in time six months. This allows for some much-needed breathing room and lets the series advance in a believable fashion rather than just get lost in its aftermath. It’s also kind of remarkable to see that in this short span of time Eddie seems to accomplish more with Meyerism than Cal or anyone else could achieve in its entire existence. Eddie literally gets offers to be on the covers of spiritual magazines now. Meyerism is finally in the big leagues. A lot of this season also seems to be about how Eddie learns lessons and then determines how he should use Meyerism as a response. Should he retaliate or choose pacifism? There are various forms of this idea at play this year and the show makes a strong point every time. It makes for powerful storytelling. Furthermore, in a season where every other character is lost and unsure, Eddie is the one person that is positive about all of his decisions. Now, that’s not necessarily a good thing, but it is significant and highlights both his best and worst impulses as all of this goes to his head. It also often puts his life directly in jeopardy. Eddie also explores new temptations with the introduction of his publicist, Vera (Freida Pinto). She’s supposed to give Meyerism its much-needed facelift and keep Eddie in the right direction. She continually talks about the future rather than getting lost in the past. At the start of the season she feels like a pretty obvious obstacle that exists just to keep Eddie and Sarah apart, but she soon blossoms into one of the darkest, most complex characters on The Path. There’s definitely more to Vera than the show originally lets on. There’s a reason that she studies Eddie just as much as she appears to push his word. Matters are currently much worse for Sarah and it’s comforting to see that The Path still doesn’t back down from darkness and is ready to go to some disturbing places. Early on in the season Sarah comes face-to-face with death and a tremendous amount of guilt that she’s unable to shake. So much goes on in this show that it’s sometimes easy to forget how damn impressive all of the acting is in it. Aaron Paul, Hugh Dancy, and Michelle Monaghan all deliver incredible performances where nobody is a weak link. Sarah also starts to question Meyerism and examines whether she’s actually better or worse with the Light in her life. These feelings are exacerbated when she meets Jackson, a College Professor of Religion (Raul Esparza, making this a mini Hannibal reunion of sorts) who vastly opens her eyes and challenges everything she knows. It’s always nice to see these characters undergo crises of faith and meet individuals who are from the complete opposite set of beliefs. The show has done this a lot, but it’s still fascinating and has even more fuel to play with here. He also makes for a wonderful new foil to bounce off of that’s not toxic in the same ways that Eddie and Cal are. On the topic of Cal, he continues to be one of the most fascinating characters in this show and he only becomes more thrilling when a fire gets lit under him. Cal is in full-on freefall mode in season two and makes an increasing amount of terrible decisions. This season places him in a very different place as he begins the year isolated in Florida with Mary and their son, Forest, in their “new” life. It’s really disgusting to see how Cal re-appropriates Meyerism into his own personal gain and tries to take advantage of the susceptible people around him that are in need of help. What’s worse is that he’s roped Mary into it, too. His lectures are all about how to re-invent yourself, but he’s hopelessly lost in the past as everyone else moves forward, including Meyerism itself. Cal struggles to face the truth and continually seems like he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown. As both The Path and Meyerism continue to grow, it’s also just interesting to see this new generation of Meyerists come on board through Eddie’s teachings. The movement begins to expand on a global scale and the series delights in showing its various sides. At the same time though, The Path is careful to continue to highlight people’s pain in different ways. As strong as Meyerism becomes, there is also always evidence of the opposite perspective and the damage that it causes. The Path is still a gut punch of a series where characters’ displays of intense faith and devotion just make you cringe and feel bad. It’s easy to lose track of this three seasons in, but so many lives get destroyed in this show. Faith can be just as frightening as any monster and this show never lets its audience forget that. In a lot of ways, this season really sets things on fire and lets the manipulation and doubt go wild. There’s also the slow emergence of a “Shadow Meyerist Group” that’s not only thrilling, but broadens the scope of the series in a very fatalistic, enlightening way. The Path’s third season returns to Hulu on January 17th. This review is based on all thirteen episodes of The Path’s third season.
