For those of you who missed last night’s second instalment of Apparitions, here’s a full detailed recap.

Episode two of this highly watchable drama jumped straight in the deep end again with Jacob returning Liam to his estranged wife’s house where the newly exorcised father was reunited with his daughter.

In the meantime however, we saw the homeless Michael – who is himself possessed and who murdered Vimal – stagger to a drinking fountain, naked and covered in blood. As Father Jacob left Liam, after ordering him to get some rest, Michael came up to the Priest and asked for his help. He told Jacob that he’d done something terrible and needed to go to prison. Jacob was confused by Michael’s incoherent rambling until, as the Priest offered to pray for Michael, the vagrant’s demon briefly showed himself to be fully in control of the man and shunned the prayers.

Michael showed Jacob that he was soaked in blood beneath his coat and said that ‘he’ wouldn’t let him confess or go to the police. Michael also said to Jacob, “He was your friend” before running away.

Disturbed by this odd event, Father Jacob began to worry what may have happened and took out his phone which showed he’d missed several calls from Sister Anne. He called her back but she was too upset and couldn’t speak through her sobs.

We then saw Father Jacob in the mortuary with one of the police officers investigating Vimal’s murder. Horrified to see the flayed corpse of his friend, Father Jacob eventually said prayers over Vimal’s body, but he didn’t tell the police officer – a detective called Rachel – about his encounter with Michael.

Michael meanwhile was seen in the abandoned building where he sleeps with Vimal’s skin wrapped in a towel.

Later, Jacob and Monsignor Vincenzo went to see Sarah, Liam’s wife, and explained to her that they intended to find Michael before the police do. At first, she refused to understand why but as Jacob explained that – just as with Liam making threats of a sexual nature towards their daughter Donna – it was the demon doing these terrible things, she reneged. He also told her that he couldn’t involve the police without telling them why he was exorcising Liam and of course, that raised issues that would potentially destroy their family.

Jacob managed to convince Sarah that she, Liam and Donna would only be safe from demons in the grounds of the seminary, so the family temporarily moved into rooms there. Once the family were settled, Jacob talked to Liam about finding Michael, and although he was initially hostile and didn’t want to help, Liam eventually reluctantly agreed.

In the meantime, Rachel was talking to Cardinal Bukovak who tried to make it sound as though Father Jacob was out of control and acting without the church’s consent when he’d carried out exorcisms. He told the shocked officer that Jacob had tried to exorcise Vimal on the day he died but he implied that it was to rid the young man of his homosexuality rather than any demonic attack.

Back with Liam and Jacob, they visited a shelter for the homeless but were told by the project’s manager to leave as some of the people who use the shelter would become upset at the sight of any religious symbolism, such as Father Jacob’s dog collar. Jacob told the man that it was exactly that sort of person they wished to see, though he didn’t tell the man why. As they were talking, Jacob spotted a young girl who had in turn, spotted him and had run out of the room.

Once Jacob and Liam left the shelter, he saw the girl outside and asked her if she knew who they were looking for. The girl told him that the last time a Priest had been there, the man they sought had bitten off the Priest’s tongue and she made thinly veiled accusations against the church as to what ‘they’ could have done to make this man hate them so much. She refused to help and eventually spat in Jacob’s face before storming away.

Following this event, Jacob received a call from Michael, or more exactly, the demon possessing Michael who told him that he had sent a ‘present’. Meanwhile, back at the seminary, Sister Anne and Monsignor Vincenzo went to the church within the seminary and when they walked in, they encountered an overpowering and noxious smell. Vincenzo went to the confessional to investigate the source of the smell.

We then saw Father Jacob discovering that inside the confessional was Donna’s copy of the New Testament – which Michael had had in his possession previously and which Liam, when possessed, had torn up – bound in Vimal’s skin. Passages in the book were also highlighted with Vimal’s blood.

Liam, who was at the back of the church as Vincenzo told Anne and Jacob that the stench was that of ‘corruption’ and not in fact coming from the skin, became afraid that if Michael could enter the church, then he and his family were not safe there.

Meanwhile, Donna, who was playing cards alone in the office, heard Michael’s voice asking her if she wanted to hear the truth about Vimal. Intrigued, the little girl went in search of the person who was speaking. She later asked Jacob if it was true that Vimal’s skin was taken, which made Liam, Anne and Jacob know that Michael’s demon could still affect them, even in a sacred place.

Despite Vincenzo advising Jacob not to read the book – as the demon had told Jacob to do – he protested that it could be his only hope of finding Michael and as he studied the text, he noticed that only anti-Semitic text was highlighted and had to try to understand what that had to do with the murder of Vimal. Later, when he went to the police station, he asked Rachel if Vimal’s foreskin was left behind. She of course was suspicious that Jacob was withholding information about the killer and threatened him with arrest and publicly vilifying him for his belief in demons if she found out he was hiding the killer’s identity.

Jacob then found Michael in a subway and though the man begged him not to – for fear of bringing the demon – Jacob told him that he was there to pray with him and took the lid off a bottle of holy water. At that point, the demon took over Michael’s body again and challenged Jacob to a battle of faith. He said that he wanted to exorcise Jacob and Jacob could exorcise him; they would see, he said, whose God remained at the end of it. If Jacob refused, the demon said he would kill every person the Priest cared about and would possess hundreds more and make them commit suicide, thus condemning them to hell.

Again, Vincenzo begged Jacob not to enter into any pact with the demon but Jacob was adamant that he must protect others from the devil.

Later, back at the seminary, Anne had noticed that the only passage highlighted in the skin-bound book that didn’t relate directly to Jews was one about light being there to comfort and she compared it to something Mother Teresa also said about light. This led Jacob and Liam to visit a lighting shop where they found a lamp with a shade made out of Vimal’s skin.

Jacob pointed out to Liam the obvious connection between the acts carried out by Nazi’s in the concentration camps and told him that the demon saw symbolism in Jews being condemned to death in camps that was somehow comparable with exorcising demons. As Jacob signed the cross over the lamp, all the lights in the showroom blew, leaving them in darkness.

When Jacob returned to the seminary, he found Michael outside the gates. The demon told Jacob that he intended to make the holocaust “very real” for Jacob if he didn’t comply with his demands. He told him that he was going to prove how little Jacob’s God cared for him by taking the souls of those inside the seminary and torturing the victims.

When he went back inside, he told Sister Anne that he wanted her to leave the seminary so that she wasn’t in danger from the demon and he also told Sarah that she needs to stay close to Liam and love him to strengthen his own faith.

In the meantime, Michael had been into a sleeping Donna’s room and whispered things to her which, when she awoke, she asked Jacob about. The demon had told her that Mother Teresa had lost her faith and that God had abandoned her, and although Jacob assured her this wasn’t true, he had to admit that it was true that Mother Teresa had in fact written words to that effect in her diary before she died and had been plagued with doubts about God and her faith.

Later, Liam told Jacob that he couldn’t continue to help him and as Liam left Jacob’s office, Jacob received another call from the demon who told him again that if he didn’t cooperate and allow the demon to exorcise him, more people would die. He then made reference to the chapel being clean so Jacob realised that the demon intended to attack Sister Anne who’d been cleaning the church.

He rushed to find her but Anne was in her room about to take a shower. When she turned the water on, nothing happened so she removed the shower head to investigate. As she did, crystals of Prussian Blue – which causes lethal gases and which was used in the Nazi concentration camp’s gas chambers – fell into the bath. She struggled desperately to get out but the doors and windows were locked, and she died on the bathroom floor.

The detective again implored Jacob to help her – not hinder her – in putting the killer behind bars and despite Jacob explaining that bars couldn’t hold a demon and that he would simply possess someone else, she remained unconvinced that Jacob was anything other than deluded.

The Cardinal then visited Jacob and asked him to return to Rome before anyone else died. Jacob refused but when the Cardinal told him that Vincenzo could be in danger – because he intended to offer himself in place of Jacob to the demon – Jacob rushed to find him.

Vincenzo was walking through the gates of another church when Michael appeared and plunged a syringe into the Monsignor’s arm. The syringe contained carbolic acid, again, a method employed by the Nazi’s in concentration camps. Jacob found his friend as he was being put into an ambulance and asked him what the demon had said to him. Vincenzo told him that the demon had said that Jacob’s soul was already theirs and that he could not be saved. Vincenzo gave Jacob a small silver box which he said contained a “true relic” from the cross upon which Jesus died and said that it would protect Jacob if kept sealed.

Back at the seminary, Donna told Jacob that Michael had spoken to her again and that she had been instructed to tell Jacob where Michael lived and that he should go there when he was “ready to listen to their pain”.

When he arrived at the derelict building, Michael had prepared a room and filled it with candles. He had also strung up what remained of Vimal’s skin and showed Jacob that he’d made gloves out of the skin of Vimal’s hands. The pair debated the principles of the holocaust and faith and Jacob began the rites of exorcism. The demon in Michael laughed at the Priest’s attempts to do this alone but just at that moment, Liam struck Michael from behind, giving the two the chance to tie Michael to posts so he was restrained.

Jacob then continued with the exorcism with Liam reading from the bible alongside him, but the demon kept speaking to Liam, telling him that the Priest only wanted his daughter. To stop him, Jacob tried to gag Michael but in a panic, Liam snatched the gag away saying that the man was choking. This gave the demon chance to escape and he jumped over the edge of a broken floor and appeared to be dead, however he then levitated before sinking back down to the floor.

Jacob continued the exorcism and held up the box Vincenzo had given him but the demon caused it to be snatched out of his hand and kissed it as he writhed on the floor spitting blood. As the demon left Michael’s body, it said, “Ask your Monsignor about the war”.

As Michael recovered from his ordeal, Jacob opened the silver box that Vincenzo had given to him and found it was empty. Back at the seminary, he went through Vincenzo’s belongings and found a picture of him as a child being taken prisoner by the Nazi’s. He also found a burned gas mask at the site where Vincenzo had burned Sister Anne’s clothing.

At the hospital, Jacob confronted Vincenzo and asked him where his tattoo was, referring to the fact that Jews in the camps were tattooed with a number. Vincenzo denied that he was a Jew to which Jacob countered that Satan had given him new skin to hide the marks. Again, Vincenzo denied this but eventually, he told Jacob the truth.

He said that as a child, when the Nazis took him and his family, the Pope watched from a window at the Vatican and did nothing. He said that Satan took his pain away. When Jacob accused him of killing hundreds of innocents, Vincenzo said it was his work and when he asked why Donna had been targeted, Vincenzo said, “If you could go back and kill Adolf Hitler as a child, wouldn’t you do it?”

Jacob told him that God loves him, and Vincenzo replied that he loves him enough to have let him carry out the Devil’s work for sixty years.

We then saw the Monsignor preparing to leave the seminary but the police first searched his suitcase where they found the knife that was used to kill Vimal as well as the gloves made of his skin, both of which had been put there by Jacob. He was arrested and later, Rachel told Jacob that they’d found other items in his possession, such as the carbolic acid.

As Jacob was talking to the officer, a nun called Sister Ruth was gathering up Anne’s belongings in the outer office. When Jacob confronted her, she told him that the Cardinal had sent her to which Jacob replied that if the Cardinal wanted to keep an eye on him, he should do so himself. The Sister replied that Jacob should tell him that when both attend the memorial service in Rome for Anne and Vimal.

Later, at Vimal’s funeral – to which only Jacob, Liam, Sarah and Donna were in attendance – Jacob placed the bible that was bound with Vimal’s skin on his coffin but Donna ran up and snatched it back. She told Jacob that it was wrong to burn the bible so he promised that he would keep it safe for her until she was eighteen when she could have it if she still wanted it.

In the final scenes, Jacob was talking with the Cardinal and it seemed that he was coming to believe that the Cardinal may not be the holy man he seems to be. The Cardinal told Jacob that exorcism is now officially discredited by the church to which Jacob replied, “Do you believe in hell?
The Cardinal replied, “Wholeheartedly”.

Yet again, what should be perhaps totally unbelievable was made believable by the tremendous acting and I was gripped throughout. I’m still having a little trouble grasping that Vincenzo was in Satan’s employ but I guess it’s true that if you want to infiltrate any group successfully, you must first become an accepted member!

Next week, Father Jacob is called to a prison by Lassiter, the prison governor, when a serial rapist, Cory Wardell, begins to exhibit signs of possession. However, the roots of Cory’s possession prove difficult to untangle so Jacob decides to spend a night in Cory’s cell. He’s accompanied by the prison chaplain, Father Daniel, and the two wait to see if the devil or saint will reveal itself. That night, Daniel receives a frightening apparition; a demon in the form of a young woman warns him of a pregnancy that will give rise to a Satanic annunciation.