Still. Again. Always. Forever. Eternally.
Impressions:
I felt like the entire episode was begging the question “Ya’ll gonna be hunting any demons at some point?” Or even just some evil people who are easily mistaken for demons. Or are we just going to continue sitting here, sipping our tea/sake? Oh good, a flashback to another time with another conversation, also sitting at a table, sipping some tea. Ah, but this artist knew the main guy’s second dad. …And? No, that’s it really. You weren’t expecting any revelations, character development, or god forbid, story progress, were you?
Maybe it would’ve helped if the central mystery about the painting was something that… you know, existed in any way. We’re just told that there’s some spooky stuff and rumors about this painting, so the dude goes off to meet the painter and is told, nah. Nothing spooky about it. Could’ve been a jumping off point if anything spooky would happen, but we literally never left that initial meeting where he vomits out his entire backstory, so there’s not even the opportunity for anything of interest. This is likely where I call it because while the bones are sometimes there, everything else is so painfully tedious and seems to be actively running away from everything interesting.
