The Exorcist gets its first exorcism in two weeks

Fox TV's The Exorcist gets its first exorcism in just two weeks, executive producer Jeremy Slater told an audience at New York Comic Con today.

“October 21, there’ll be an exorcism,” Slater said. “Episode 5 will be a big, big episode, 43 minutes of real-time exorcism.”

Slater also hinted at where the exorcism might take place:

“What is the worst place in Chicago where you could be trapped with a demon?”

If you haven’t been watching the show, it takes place in Chicago and follows the Rance family: Angela Rance (Geena Davis), Henry Rance (Alan Ruck) and daughters Kat (Brianne Howey) and Casey (Hannah Ksulka). The parents fear Casey is possessed and call in a priest, who in turn calls in a second priest.

The opening two episodes of the show do as much to establish the family dynamic and underpinnings of a possible possession as they do to set up the grand, dark backdrop of The Exorcist and its bigger story.

Initially, most tantalizing is the struggle of two priests, one gentle, one unorthodox, as they set about first trying to prove that Casey is possessed, then identify the demon and finally work out how and when to exorcise it. But that turns out to be almost a diversion, an amuse-bouche to the bigger story the show wants to tell.

There's the underpinnings of the church and how it deals with both the news of a potential possession and the priests involved; there's the upcoming visit by the Pope to Chicago; and finally there is the city, both a character and storyline of its own, seething with crime, a place that offers up real evil from which the show runners have plenty to pluck.

Slater pointed out, in a short chat with the audience at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, that Chicago has the "highest murder rate in the entire world. It is a city consumed by chaos and violence.

"The show is looking at it and saying, 'What if there was a reason behind some of the chaos?'"

The third episode, which Slater, Davis and Howey stuck around to watch with the audience, expands on that notion quickly. The show opens with a raving homeless man preaching about doom and ends after a particularly violent, jaw-dropping encounter on a subway. In between those bookends of violence, the revelations, the demonic encounters and the homicides don't stop.

The episode will air this Friday at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.

Slater said that with this episode the show will be “accelerating in a big way” as it hurtles toward episode five and a “mid-season hiatus.”

“In the first two episodes, the demon in Casey is playing possum,” Slater said. “Episode 3 is when you’re starting to see the demon manifest for the first time. You’re going to see some real big progression for Casey. People are going to get caught in the crossfire.”