Teacup episode 1 recap: Think About the Bubbles
By Mads Lennon
You've seen shows where people are trapped on an island and a more recent hit where they're stuck in an inescapable town. Now Peacock brings us a new series where a group of people are confined to a small farm in Georgia because there's a mysterious threat nearby. Introducing Teacup, a horror series produced by James Wan and based on the sci-fi horror novel Stinger by Robert McCammon.
Why Teacup and not Stinger? Well, showrunner Ian McCulloch (Yellowstone) previously told Bloody Disgusting that his take on the source material would vary drastically from the book. In fact, he says the show is "99.8%" different than McCammon's book, itself a cheesy but fun, action-packed story akin to a B-movie. McCulloch previously described Teacup as a "keyhole epic," a large story told via a small lens. It's more focused on its human elements than the novel's spectacle.
Given the focus on this small farm, the premiere episode quickly establishes our setting after a brief cold open featuring a mysterious woman cutting herself free of zipties in the forest, muttering incoherently the entire time.
Our first introduction to the Chenoweth family sees Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski) trapping a wasp in a teacup for her son, Arlo (Caleb Dolden). It's very on the nose, just like a lot of things in this show. Maggie describes trapping the wasp inside as creating a "tempest in a teacup." The scene itself is a nod to the novel. Apart from Arlo and Maggie, there's also Maggie's husband James (Scott Speedman), their daughter Meryl (Émilie Bierre), and Scott's mother Ellen (Kathy Baker).
It doesn't take long to establish that this farm is morphing into its very own tempest. The animals are acting strange, there's a high-pitched tone emanating from the radio in sporadic bursts, and the lady from the cold open is still lurking in the nearby forest. Arlo notices a goat has gone missing (this is like From, these little kids have to stop chasing goats) and follows it into the woods, right into the path of that woman.
Then, there's a very exposition-heavy scene where Maggie chats with her mother-in-law. I actually had to laugh at just how over-explanatory this scene was. Maggie and Ellen directly rehash previous conversations in a way that feels stilted and unlike a normal, casual conversation. Throughout the first episode, I got the sense that Teacup doesn't trust its viewers. Another example: there's a moment where two characters question if Arlo could be lost, cut to Arlo in the woods saying "I think I'm lost" out loud.
Cut to a new arrival in the form of the Shanley family: Ruben (Chaske Spencer), Valeria (Diany Rodriguez), and their son, Nicholas (Luciano Leroux). The horses and animals at the Shanley farm are just as spooked as the ones at the Chenoweth's place.
As a veterinarian, Maggie is the go-to for any kind of animal injury. When one of their horses freaks out in the barn and hurts itself, Ruben and his family load it up in a trailer and take it straight to Maggie. But during all of this commotion, Maggie realizes Arlo still isn't there, and it's after dark. James offers reassurance and then tasks Meryl with taking Nicholas to search for her brothers.
Meanwhile, James forms a second search party with Valeria. Both duos provide us with more exposition drops. It's implied James and Valeria had an affair. Maggie knows about the affair but not the identity of the other woman.
Back at the farm, Maggie sees that the horse has gotten stabbed in the neck with a sizable piece of wood. She grows concerned it could have knicked the carotid artery. Luckily, she's able to pull it out with minimal damage. He's going to be okay. At least, for now.
Poor Arlo stumbles right into the path of that creepy woman from earlier. She knocks him out and then hovers over his face, transferring something into him through her eyes. An infection? A parasite?
By the time James/Valeria and Nicholas/Meryl meet up in the woods, Arlo is already gone. Instead, they cross paths with an unseen creature in the shadows. Something big and dog-like. James tells everyone to book it back to the farm ASAP. Uh, so just leave Arlo to the wolf thing?!
Not quite, James immediately goes looking for a weapon... a baseball bat and prepares to double back when someone else drives up on the farm. Gun-toting Donald Kelly (Boris McGiver). He's also spotted the dog monster and believes shooting it will probably be more effective than hitting it with a bat. And he's probably right about that.
The first episode of Teacup closes it with a couple of climactic scenes in succession. Just before James and Donald can get into a heated argument, Arlo stumbles out of the woods, emulating that woman from before. Now he's muttered, covering in scratches, and generally acting erratic. He collapses into his mother's arms.
With the thing inside her transferred into Arlo, the woman in the woods seems to return to her normal self—just in time to get attacked, and probably killed, by the menacing animal roaming around.
And finally, the episode ends by introducing a man wearing a gas mask, who takes it upon himself to spray a boundary around the farm, signaling that everyone inside will be trapped for the foreseeable future.
The first two episodes of Teacup are now on Peacock with two episodes dropping weekly until the Halloween finale.
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