Deeper Feelings
Episode 4 of Mortel begins with the boys arriving in the counselor’s office and knocking Audrey unconscious. They then scramble to find out the truth while Victor reads Rodrigue’s mind. As he does, he sees him bullying Laurine, the girl who tried to kill herself, and another vision showing Reda and Ousmane in possession of a knife, arguing about backing out of a deal. After reading his mind, they leave the office and set Rodrigue’s phone on the desk to prove he was the guilty one. Determined to uncover the truth, Sofiane visits Tatiana, who’s another student now stuck at home. She asks her if she ever went to a party and woke up on a bench with no shoes. She replies that she did and explains that it was Ousmane who invited her. While Victor and Sofiane smoke a joint in his bedroom, Obe arrives and they tell him they’re planning to end it tomorrow by killing Ousmane, who they believe is the killer. Sofiane and Victor arrive at Ousmane’s house only to find Luisa who confronts him about drugging other students. However, things get out of control when Sofiane uses his power and gets very close to killing him, while Victor is on the floor screaming in pain. However, Obe arrives and tries to convince Sofiane to kill him. Just as Sofiane forces Ousmane to point a gun at his face, he admits that Reda was drugging people. Suddenly Victor throws himself on Sofiane and they both have a vision of Reda speaking to Laurine who asked him what happened to the party she was invited to as she’s now unable to leave home. The next day, Victor wakes up in Luisa’s room and speaks to her Grandma about Obe and his powers. She tells him to stop using them and promises to take care of Obe as he’s very dangerous. As he heads back home, Victor shows Luisa his paintings and talks about his powers while Sofiane and Melanie have more relationship problems. After Audrey seeks help from Luisa’s Grandma to understand what happened to Laurine, she puts a talisman under her pillow in the hospital. That night, she has a nightmare where Laurine tells her it’s all her fault the kids are suffering as she’s rotten inside. Victor and Luisa grow closer together and decide to continue their investigation into the hikikos by looking through files in Audrey’s office while Obe slowly brainwashes Sofiane into carrying out his murder. Angry, he finds a USB stick in his brother’s helmet containing a video of his brother and Modibo. As he watches, he sees that Reda took him to a house where Modibo took part in a strange ritual with a mask-wearing man. A possessed Modibo then tells him that only the god Obe will be able to give him what he wants in exchange for a human sacrifice. The episode then ends as Sofiane finishes the video with Obe watching him from behind. The plot thickens with the latest episode of Mortel as we’re finding out a little more detail surrounding the strange blackouts various students had, which has now caused them to become recluse – someone was performing voodoo rituals. While the premise of the show is quite intriguing, I still feel that Mortel doesn’t quite delve enough into its spiritual ideas and could certainly benefit from offering up more regarding the voodoo magic. However, the episode does have a few stand-out moments, in particular with the camera work; while both boys have a conversation at the same time as the two girls, we switch between both conversations as their words finish phrases from the other. Mortel may not be the best teen supernatural drama out there but it still has some enjoyable moments, making it an easy show to watch but unlikely to be one you’ll return to in a hurry.
