Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Yaga Season 1, Episode 4. Episodes 1-4 are now streaming on AMC+ in the United States and Crave in Canada, with new episodes airing Fridays at midnight PT.
Yaga’s latest episode pulls out all the stops to create the most incredible entry in the series so far. It is aptly named “Dance with the Devil”.
We begin with Rapp having another vision, this time of Pam mixing a medicine or potion in a laboratory while wearing a white coat and the sinister mask from episode 3 on her face. As she opens her coat, we see that she is not wearing a top and has the Triskelion symbol tattooed on her sternum. Rapp blinks and is immediately brought back to the reality of sitting across a police department interrogation room, while Carson pressures Pam about her involvement with Logan the night he died.
As Pam insists she did nothing wrong, she admits to loving Logan and having an intimate relationship with him even after he began obsessing over Henry, whom she considered to be “a fucking narcissist” for enjoying the attention he received from Logan.
Clark Backo completely shines as Carson in this episode – the balance between the gentle and intimidating intensity of his interrogation when questioning Pam is breathtaking. We really see her fully enter her role and it’s phenomenal.
As Carson pressures Pam to give in and give up all the information she is hiding, he tricks her into admitting to having a threesome with Henry and Logan. In shots of the intimate scenes, Pam tells us how Henry is obsessed with himself, saying that it was his idea and that “he didn’t like the idea of someone taking something that belonged to him,” referring to Logan. We see Pam and Logan finally having sex, while Henry watches and pleasures himself in the corner, with Pam saying Henry said it was like “watching a movie of himself” and being completely fascinated by Logan.
A theme that develops more and more in each episode is that the men in this series are constantly becoming scarier and more evil. We have Rapp hitting on practically everyone, Logan with his disturbing recordings in the last episode, and in this episode, Officer Eckert, played by Patrick Gilmore, makes several side comments alluding to his attraction to Pam, who is a woman noticeably younger than him – not to mention a suspect in a murder case, which shows how unbalanced his attraction is.
Looking for more concrete evidence, Rapp and Carson go to the motel to talk to Angel about his tattoo. She confirms that it is a Triskele (a variant of the Triskelion) with multiple potential meanings: death, life and rebirth; fertility; the triple goddess; and past, present and future.
We are introduced to a new character, Laney, an older Ukrainian woman who makes pottery and holds Sabbaths (guided meditations) in the woods. She creates “Villy”, the drug powder that Rapp had taken the other night, which continues to appear in certain locations, including Henry and Logan’s house. Angel states very clearly that Villy is not a medicine, but an “ethical organic dissociative tonic – a cure for every disease” which we discover is made from chicken blood and human bones, and is taken on these sabbats for people to “manifest their dreams” and stumble.
Angel nonchalantly shares that, yes, Henry and Logan were both present at these gatherings, sparking the interest of the buddy-cop duo, who lie to get more information from her by any means necessary in order to find Laney.
As they head towards Laney’s house, the overhead drone shots where we see the car weaving through the trees, and which are such a common motif in film and television these days, take on a sense of haunting beauty that is enhanced by the haunting score.
Carson and Rapp arrive at Laney’s house and, as they look around, they see someone running from the scene. Unfortunately, they can’t identify who it is.
We see them carefully rummage through Laney’s pottery studio and find handmade pots with the Triskele symbol on them – something Angel had said was “a mark of power.” Rapp comes across a worn-looking leather journal of Laney’s that is filled with sketches and recipes in Ukrainian – including what we now know to be Villy’s recipe. One of the sketches depicts Baba Yaga’s house on chicken legs and, shockingly, another depicts Henry wearing a flower crown while holding a chicken.
After searching for Laney’s whereabouts, they discover that she is in the hospital after suffering a fall and are told that she is apparently delirious.
As Rapp and Carson arrive at the hospital, they discover that Laney is, in fact, in a chaotic delirium, although it’s hard to tell how deranged her character is and how much she’s trying to deflect the questions Rapp presses her with, because she clearly knows things that are integral to the search for Henry…
Rapp pushes her to share everything she knows about Henry, and when she sees a photo of him, she calls him a “bad dog” and says “he wants to dance with the devil.”
Carson walks into the hallway to answer a phone call from Eckert and discovers that a video has been uploaded to Henry’s social media account. The crazy video shows Logan’s bedroom, with blood splattered around his window, just like we saw in the last episode. The person recording changes and moves the camera to the windowsill and we see Logan lying naked on the floor in front of his bedroom window after he is allegedly murdered.
The person recording the video suddenly turns the camera to a mirror in the room, seeing themselves in the reflection, wearing the frightening mask that has appeared more than once in Rapp’s visions. They keep the photo on them for a few seconds before ending the video. Rapp and Carson now have massive evidence about Logan’s death that they must decode.
We return to Rapp in Laney’s hospital room, hearing him pace back and forth asking him questions about Henry and “the devil” to get any type of answer. Laney keeps saying “wrong question!” » over and over again as if it were a game. Then the music gets louder, Laney’s heart rate increases, the shots get tighter and faster between them, and we finally hear Rapp shouting “Who is the devil?!”… and everything stops.
Laney’s heart rate slows as she grabs Rapp’s hand and kisses his palm, saying, “Baba Yaga.” She chuckles just before falling back onto her bed as her heart rate flattens. Laney is dead.
Jessie Wade is associate director of editorial programming at IGN. You can find her binge-watching the latest drama and fantasy shows, as well as getting lost in too many books. She’s also obsessed with cheesy romantic comedies. In terms of gaming, you can find her playing the latest Pokémon, cozy indie games, and Elder Scrolls Online.
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