In last night’s third episode of this intense drama, Father Jacob was called to a prison by Lassiter, the prison governor, because a serial rapist, Cory Wardell, had been exhibiting signs of possession. Initially, Lassiter believed it was all just religious hysteria but when he joined Jacob and the prison Chaplain, Father Daniel, in Wardell’s cell, he witnessed for himself that the prisoner spoke with the voice of a young girl and spontaneously bled from his forehead.

Wardell became furious when Jacob asked him who the girl ‘inside’ him is and lashed out screaming ‘get her out!’. He had to be dragged away but Jacob already had a theory as to who the girl was.

Back at the seminary, he explained to Daniel that he believed Cory was being visited not by demons but by the patron Saint of rape victims.

Meanwhile, Michael was making himself at home in the seminary and enjoying the new clothes and regular meals but Sister Ruth – excellently played by the very versatile Siobhan Finneran of Benidorm fame – wasn’t happy that Michael was being allowed to stay.

In the prison, Cory was challenged by a group of inmates and in the ensuing fight, he stabbed one of them viciously with a home-made blade while the others beat him. However, as he was being beaten, Cory – now influenced by the Saint – reached out and touched the man he’d stabbed which resulted in the spontaneous healing of the prisoner.

Jacob found out about the attack when he went to see Cory’s mother who made it clear she wanted nothing to do with her son and that she hoped the attack resulted in his death. At the prison, Jacob asked one of the gang members why he’d tried to rape Cory and if it was because he in fact wanted to rape the girl within him.

At the seminary, Sister Ruth informed Cardinal Bukovak about Jacob’s involvement with Cory and despite her apparent hostility toward Jacob, she defended him when Bukovak implied that Jacob was again acting irresponsibly. He also told her to gather evidence for him that would, he hoped, result in the ex-communication of Father Jacob.

In the meantime, Jacob was discussing the case with Father Daniel and Lassiter and between them, they concluded that the Saint who was possessing Cory could be Maria Gerreti; a rape victim who was murdered by her attacker, and like Cory’s victim’s, she’d been a virgin.

Jacob decided to go and visit with one of Cory’s victims, Sandra Teller, who had tried to visit Cory in prison but he’d refused to see her. She told him that during the attack, Cory had called her Maria, as he did with all his victims. She also mentioned that his breath was foul and smelled of ‘chemicals’.

Back at the seminary, Michael was trying to understand what he’d done and why he’d ended up there. Sister Ruth told him that Vincenzo had murdered two people and Michael feared he’d had something to do with it, which is also something that Ruth has suspicions about. Later, while he looked up the murders on the internet, Michael talked about it with Jacob and realised, much to his horror, that in fact he had been the murderer. Jacob explained that it wasn’t him; he’d been possessed and had no control over what the demon did but also that Michael must remember and repent in order to ensure that he stayed ‘clean’.

Later, at the prison, Jacob decided to spend a night in Cory’s cell, accompanied by Father Daniel, to see if the devil or saint will reveal itself. His theory is that Cory had been demonically possessed for many years and that Saint Maria had – or was trying to – force the demons out.

That night, Daniel received a frightening apparition in the form of an erotic dream and when he awoke, Jacob was awake and informed him that a widespread disturbance was going on in the prison. When the two were led out of their cell by Lassiter, the man who’d tried to rape Cory spoke to him in a demon’s voice, threatening the priest.

During the prison riot, Cory had escaped the prison but his bed was soaked in blood, indicating that he couldn’t possibly have escaped alone and unaided.

Cory then turned up the seminary where he attempted to rape Sister Ruth, but Michael fought him off, giving Ruth the chance to escape. Cory ran away and by the time the police and Jacob arrived, he was long gone. Ruth and Jacob however disagreed as to what was wrong with Cory; Ruth believed he was mentally disturbed and couldn’t agree with Jacob that saints and demons were both battling within the man and the hostility between the pair became more pronounced.

Michael returned to his room to find the homeless girl who’d been his companion on the streets naked in his bed. She tried to seduce him but he managed to resist because he feared being possessed again if he allowed human weakness to overcome him.

At the prison, Jacob had a theory which he told Lassiter about. He believed that Cory had killed one of his victims – as per the choice he gave them; die a virgin or be raped – and wanted to know if the mother of anyone who’d been reported missing had tried to contact Cory. It turned out that in fact, Jacob was right and that one woman had been in touch with him many times.

Then, when Lassiter presented Jacob and Daniel with files on missing women, Daniel recognised one of them as the young woman from his dream; Mary Portman was a missing person who’d been connected to Cory’s case so Jacob went to see her mother.

She told him that she’d been begging Cory to tell her what had happened to her daughter and that Cory had insisted she send him ‘presents’ of pornographic pictures. He’d also written to her in Aramaic which she’d had translated and discovered that he knew things only she and her daughter could have known. As Jacob prepared to leave, he noticed that the woman had blood on her foot and realised that there was someone else in the house with her.

She had Cory prisoner in a bedroom and she grabbed him and put a knife to his throat. She wanted to know where her daughter was buried but Cory said ‘they’ wouldn’t let him tell her. A tense stand-off ensued and when she heard police sirens outside, she cut Cory’s throat and threw him to the ground.

Jacob desperately carried out the exorcism while the demons inside Cory refused at first to retreat, but in a moment of excellent special effects and make-up, the demon was expelled leaving Cory free of them. Mary then spoke through him and told Jacob where she was buried as well as speaking words of comfort to her mother.

Jacob and Daniel went with the police to find Mary’s body inside a wooden crate, perfectly preserved and with no odour other than that of flowers and hence, sanctity.

Meanwhile, Michael was visited by the spirit of the man who murdered Saint Maria. He carried lilies which, after telling Michael that he was in hell, he left as a trail to where the skin-bound bible was placed. While holding the book, Michael saw a vision of himself, covered in blood and holding the weapon used to skin Vimal.

Once again, an excellent episode with incredible special effects and many stings in the tale!