'The River' Season 1, Episode 4 Recap - 'A Better Man'

I'm beginning to see a pattern here, and apparently Clark is the only one who gets it too: when Jahel says something, LISTEN to her for God's sake.

Even her own father pays no mind when Jahel starts talking about "El Colgado," or the Hanging Man. That's even after a swarm of birds run into the ship, so one would think the crew would pay attention. Furthermore, after the weird stuff they've seen so far, one would assume that the crew would be a little quicker to jump to vengeful supernatural forces as a conclusion.

Instead, when the crew finds Emmet's old cameraman Jonas hanging from a vine in the jungle, alone, they assume a tribe strung him up there. Later, though, they find out that Jonas has been hanging there for six months. So what gives?

Slowly, we learn the mystery behind Jonas' strange imprisonment: against Emmet's orders, he filmed a tribal funeral and ended up "stealing" a soul. For that, the spirit of death pursues him, giving him the pain of death but none of the satisfaction. Sounds like a bummer.

Even more of a bummer is the fact that this vengeful spirit will take the whole ship and crew down in order to get to Jonas, if need be. Back in Emmet's voyage, that involved covering the ship in vines, which Emmet solved by letting Jonas hang. Today, it means the birds, a swarm of bugs, and a storm that threatens to sink the ship.

It is only after much bickering from the crew and a bit of revelation over their true natures (Lincoln and Lena are the only ones who DON'T want to sacrifice him to the spirit) that Jonas takes it upon himself to apologize and hang himself. In doing so, he drops and breaks his phone, where apparently the spirit was trapped all along. Go figure.

So far in this show, there are two lessons to take away. One, listen to Jahel. Two, if a vengeful spirit comes after you, apologize. Worked for Clark last week, too.

This was a good episode, it featured some light moments with the undeniably charismatic Jonas, the addition of a new character and a lead for the search for Emmet, and the introduction of a new problem: who, exactly, is the captain of this voyage?

However, there remains a lack of a real edge to make this show truly scary. It can be creepy, yes, or suspenseful, but it lacks the bite that, say, the last scene of "Paranormal Activity" had to truly scare your pants off. Hopefully they manage to find that magic sometime before the end of this show's short first season run.