Shining Girls Episode 4 is the fourth instalment of an American thriller streaming television series based on the 2013 novel The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. Though ostensibly about a serial killer, there are supernatural horror elements in this series that recalls the Stephen King HBO adaptation The Outsider from 2018.
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Entitled “Attribution”, Shining Girls Episode 4 upends everything we thought we understood – which wasn’t much to begin with – about this mind-bending series thus far. At first, this was a straightforward narrative about a serial killer and the victim that got away and that victim (Kirby, played by Elizabeth Moss) now suffered PTSD which resulted in altered reality perception. All of which is interesting in itself.
READ OUR ANALYSIS OF SHINING GIRLS.
But then, there were certain aspects about Harper Curtis (Jamie Bell) the serial killer that don’t add up whatsoever. As the episode depicts murder scenes from a twenty year duration, Curtis looks exactly the same – how is that possible? So instantly the speculation goes, is Curtis a demon? A time traveler? What? How was it possible for Curtis to insert items into his victim’s bodies which were ostensibly from the future? Curiouser and curiouser?
And … remember the memory lapses and altered reality perception that Kirby suffered from due to PTSD? Well, Shining Girls Episode 4 now has Curtis questioning the changes in his reality as well – he remembers killing Kirby, for example and the apartment Kirby was living in, is now different – 3B instead of 2B. In fact, Curtis travels back in time, after he attacked Kirby and queries her in the hospital while she is unconscious – “How did you get here, Sharon?” What a mind fuck!
But Shining Girls Episode 4 saves the best for last as Curtis confronts Kirby and the pair grapple and break through a dimensional wall of sorts to end up in an alternate universe?!?!?!? The tension is palpable as the rug is pulled from below the viewer – what is happening here? Can’t wait for the next episode to find out! Highly recommended!
Now streaming on AppleTV+.
… still there’s more …