'The Terror' Episode 6, 'A Mercy,' Combines 'The Thing' and 'The Masque of the Red Death'

The situation aboard Terror and Erebus is growing more dire. The Royal Navy expedition is down to 750 pounds of salt beef and only 200 gallons of lemon juice, meant to ward off scurvy. Commander James Fitzjames (Tobias Menzies), in charge while Captain Crozier (Jared Harris) is sick from alcohol withdrawal, can see the writing on the wall: they won't have enough supplies to survive another winter trapped in the ice. But there are bigger threats to the expedition than starvation, bigger even than the monster prowling about the boats, which hasn't been seen since it took a round from a six-pounder gun in the previous episode and fled, leaving a trail of blood behind it. "A Mercy," the sixth episode of The Terror, teeters on this inflection point, where the expedition finally gives up its mission and instead plans to abandon their ships to the crushing ice.

"A Mercy" takes The Terror in an unexpected direction, transforming in the process from a survival story to psychological horror with a dizzying and surreal change-up, as Fitzjames decides to throw a Eyes Wide Shut- flavored kegger out on the ice.

There are hints of human darkness in earlier episodes of The Terror, but up until now fighting off the monster and surviving the most hostile place on Earth—as Crozier says, "This place wants us dead"—kept most of the characters too busy to notice the creeping despair, anger and even psychosis infecting the Terror and Erebus crew.

After Fitzjames assesses the food supplies and decides their only realistic course of action is abandoning the ships and hiking south, across the ice, Thomas Blanky (Ian Hart)—the veteran sailor who lost a leg to the Tuunbaq in the previous episode—pulls him aside to explain what happened during his previous expedition, the Antarctic Ross expedition, conducted with the same two boats, Terror and Erebus. As men begin to starve, Blanky says, they embrace darkness and their heads become full of violent "notions." As if to prove the danger inherent in his warning, a sailor calls on Dr. Stanley (Alistair Petrie), complaining of an overwhelming blackness rising within him. Taking over as The Terror's top arrogant officer from Fitzjames, humbled by duty and Crozier's correct assessment of their predicament, Dr. Stanley turns the sailor away.

One of The Terror's strengths, which it shares with another other powerful seaman saga, Moby-Dick, is the way in which day-to-day labors and the shipboard world distort to reflect the interior lives of the men aboard. The mounting psychological horror in "A Mercy" isn't vague or amorphous, but shockingly concrete, even physiological. By feeding the shipboard monkey dodgy canned food, Goodsir (Paul Ready), the ship's surgeon confirms what he had already suspected: they are being poisoned with lead, which will soon degrade their minds. Fitzjames finds he's bleeding along his hairline, as if the blood is welling up from inside his skull. Hickey (Adam Nagaitis), literally touches a brain, curiously poking at the exposed pink wrinkles of Private Heather (Roderick Hill), who had his skull clawed off but still breathes. Conspiratorial and cagey since his flogging in earlier episode "Punished, as a Boy," Hickey wanders about "A Mercy" like he's in a trance, baffled by how he got here, not sure yet what he will become.

The first half of "A Mercy" focuses on these small moments of psychic degradation, juxtaposing them with jauntier images, like Fitzjames trying out dresses and theatrical masks for his carnivale masque, set to celebrate the first sunrise in weeks and (Fitzjames hopes) boost the crew's morale before rationing and the realities of abandoning ship set in. It's a weird tonal space for the show, as a sickly, forced optimism spreads through the ships, a dim ray of light with comic undertones, like a sight so horrific you involuntarily laugh.

Then the party begins. The men, having constructed a sprawling, tented complex out on the ice, indulge in the bacchanal to a desperate and wild degree. Dressed as Caesar, Fitzjames leads marches and cheers. Even Heather, a living vegetable, is rolled out on an upright stretcher and fed rum through a straw. The party takes on a feverish, nightmarish cant, especially when Crozier, weak but standing, makes his first appearance since quitting alcohol. We witness the party from his dazed perspective: naked men in gigantic cauldrons over open flames, spinning zoetrope animations, masked men in dresses and jester wear.

the-terror-episode-6-a-mercy-party
The Terror and Erebus crew, dressed for a masquerade party. Aidan Monaghan/AMC

Before anything has gone wrong, The Terror has told a horror story it was hard to imagine the series capable of telling, like an Arctic adaptation of Roger Corman's Masque of the Red Death. The last episode, "First Shot a Winner, Lads," proved the power of The Terror's creature-feature premise with a teeth-shattering attack. "A Mercy" cements The Terror as the best show currently airing, capable of folding into its otherwise narrow premise—bound by loose historical accuracy and all that suffocating cold—something unsettling and fantastically inventive.

That would be enough. But then The Terror takes on, head-to-head, The Thing, or more accurately, The Thing From Another World, challenging two pinnacles of 50s and 80s horror with a scene just as fiery, just as alien and violent, as the most terrifying moment in the Christian Nyby-directed original, when the alien invader busts through the door, is set on fire by the staff of a remote, Alaskan research facility and continues its howling attack.

As Crozier wraps up his speech to the men, finally revealing the plan to abandon ship, events both supernatural and all-too-human coincide to tear the party apart. Lady Silence, missing since the Tuunbaq attack, stumbles into the tent, covered in blood—she's cut out her own tongue in an attempt to put a shamanic leash back on the Tuunbaq (who looks, in one close-up, like if Build-A-Bear did a crossover with Pennywise the Clown). Far more deadly, though, are Dr. Stanley's actions. Though he gave no previous indication of distress, he soon makes his mindset clear enough: he seals in the party, spreads oil around the perimeter, then lights the tent and himself on fire, in a chilling evocation of The Thing From Another World.

the-terror-amc-episode-6-doctor
Something has gone wrong inside Dr. Stanley (Alistair Petrie). Aidan Monaghan/AMC

The firestorm that follows is calamity and chaos. And though the monstrous Tuunbaq doesn't make an appearance, it's an ending just as heart-thumping as the last episode. The sun finally rises on dead, burnt men, the survivors more dispirited than ever. "A Mercy" is not only as fantastically written and acted as previous episodes—in a standout scene, an officer quietly explains Xenophon's The March of the Ten Thousand to his protege, his words weighed down by what's ahead—but substantially expands the show's creative palette with a sequence that takes us from survival into a more insidious form of horror.

There are only four more episodes of The Terror, which airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. on AMC.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer



To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.

Newsweek cover
  • Newsweek magazine delivered to your door
  • Newsweek Voices: Diverse audio opinions
  • Enjoy ad-free browsing on Newsweek.com
  • Comment on articles
  • Newsweek app updates on-the-go
Newsweek cover
  • Newsweek Voices: Diverse audio opinions
  • Enjoy ad-free browsing on Newsweek.com
  • Comment on articles
  • Newsweek app updates on-the-go