Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
The Novel
- The Disappeared Dad subplot is explored more in the book, which gives more poignancy to "Captain Howdy".
The Film
- Karras is badly shaken by his mother's plaintive "Why you do this to me, Dimmy?" after he is forced to send her to a mental hospital to have her edema treated because he can't afford to send her to a proper hospital.
- Chris' husband doesn't even bother calling Regan on her birthday. Chris tries to get him on the phone, but gets into an argument with the telephone operator, all the while Regan sadly listens.
- Chris' emotional breakdown when she turns to Karras after she is unable to look for a way to help her daughter.
- Damien's uncle gives him a vitriolic What the Hell, Hero? after his mother has to be put in Bellevue, because he chose to follow God instead of taking a lucrative job as a psychiatrist. He blames himself, too — if he had, he'd have been able to take care of her, instead of letting her live in a dirty, crowded tenement apartment. (She has no such regrets, she tells him in Greek "I'm not going anywhere, this is my house.") A few months later, she dies alone in her place and nobody notices until the smell gets too bad. To punctuate his guilt and frustration, he's furiously pounding on a punching bag to vent his anger.
- When Regan is finally out of it. It was like she woke up from a bad dream not remembering what it was, but knowing how terrible it is. She is alone crying in her bedroom and calling for her mother.
- When Father Dyer has to give his dying friend Karras the last rites. He can't even speak the Latin without tearing up. Karras is so battered and bloodied by his fall down the steps that he can't even vocally answer Dyer. All he can do is squeeze Dyer's hand in affirmation, and even then, he's barely able to do it.
The 2016 Series
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Season 1
- Angela's situation: One daughter is secretly emotionally unstable due to the loss of a close friend (later on revealed to be a lover), her husband suffers from a brain injury, and her youngest daughter is acting off. And upon seeing her daughter is possessed, does she start to lose it...
- Worse when we learn that Angela is Regan McNeil, where it's revealed she changed her name and abandoned Chris due to her mother wanting to profit off of her suffering. No wonder she's more paranoid when she realized her daughter was possessed.
- Angela's Sanity Slippage after Casey is taken away after Kat called the police on Father Marcus, from the fact she dreams of finding her daughter dead while Pazuzu mocks her to her being in the bathroom rambling.
- And now, Pazuzu got exactly what he wanted by repossessing Angela/Regan (and quite possibly for good) when she offered herself in exchange for setting Casey free. God. Damn.
- "She's still alive.", all while Angela embraces Chris after so many years...
- Father Marcus's Despair Event Horizon throughout the season. Still guilty over the death of a boy he failed to exorcised and being reminded of his guilt of it. It took talking to Mother Bernadette to snap him out of his funk and attempt a new way to exorcise people.
- Seeing him go from violent to gentle when exorcising a man through love and comfort and seeing it actually work can be this and heartwarming.
- Marcus's back story as well: Father killed his mom and then himself, causing him to be sent to an Orphanage of Fear and be recruited by the church to do exorcisms at a young age. It does become a Moment of Awesome and Heartwarming however, when it's revealed these acts are what pushed him to become an exorcist and embrace God. At least until Mexico City happened...
- Father Tomas's Sanity Slippage. Being held on a pedestal by his parish (and revealed the church as well) only to be forced to lie to the Rance family over what was originally believed to be Casey dying from the demon taking control of her and have to commit adultery with a married woman. Poor man.
- Hits harder in Episode 9 when he finally tells Jessica they can't be together because of his faith and work. While Jessica wasn't liked well by fans, her departure was saddening, especially when she understood and hugged him, all while asking him to never contact her again.
- Tomas's Crisis of Faith is heartbreaking, from lying repeatedly to adultery, it just affects more and more to the point where he ends up fighting with a local while at a pharmacy.
- Chris's death, especially when Pazuzu (when using Regan/Angela's body) began to mock the situation, which only lead to Chris being visibly hurt. And then when realizing her daughter was gone again, Pazuzu snaps her neck.
- Kat comforting Casey who reveals Pazuzu made her watch as he harmed people, especially the paramedics from Episode 7. The fact people were willing to harass and want Casey to suffer because of the deaths of the paramedics and how she was a "Satan child" makes things harder on her.
- Episode 10:
- Tomas's battle of the mind: Dealing with the reminder that his religious work caused him to not be there for his grandmother who took care of him (and even inspired him to be a priest) only to die of illness. Aside from the very unnerving Nightmare Fuel of his grandmother decomposing with worms in her eyes and mouth, we see a scene of her slowly dying in her bed as Tomas comforts her in tears, realizing he had been lying to himself and she did indeed die alone..
- Pazuzu's torment of the Rances through the Hammer game, specifically attempting to force Casey to smash Kat's kneecap in by almost ripping Henry's arms off of his body. The scene becomes so intense and heartbreaking as Henry screams to Casey and Kat that he loves them and doesn't blame them for what will happen, resulting in Kat doing the hammer smash herself to save Casey the burden and to save her father.
- The fact that Bennett has an implied tragic back story involving his sister is surprising, especially when the Friars attempted to use it against him to possess him.
- The aftermath of Angela's exorcism. While Pazuzu was finally killed and Angela was freed from him, the aftermath left her paraplegic. Bittersweet much?
Season 2
- In "Help Me", we learn what happened to Andy's wife: She drowned herself near the open waters of the island due to her depression that Andy didn't notice. The event shocked him so badly he constantly blames himself for it and didn't even go to therapy or speak out about how he thinks he could have seen the signs. Makes the fact the demon constantly harasses him with the memories and the mockery of his adoptive children more depressing.
- Episode 8 also reveals more about Mouse: She was Marcus's partner as well and learned about exorcism, but after failing to exorcise a respected Mother who was possessed, resulting in becoming possessed in the process, Marcus entered a Despair Event Horizon and left her to be exorcised by a better exorcist, an event that left her bitter and heartbroken. Her confrontation with him isn't better, as the two still feel hurt over what they did.
- Andy's sacrifice, especially his final request to Tomas in regards to his children.
- Marcus becoming desperate and horrified at the fact Tomas almost allowed himself to be possessed by the demon to save Andy's life, resulting in him (at Andy's last request) shooting Andy to save Tomas.
- Shooting Andy to save Tomas leaves Marcus so shaken, he decides to depart on his own temporary path since he feels unworthy to be an exorcist.
- Before his integration, we learn more about Bennett: He was a poor boy who was taken up by the church, but on the downside, he had to leave his sister Ana behind, and from the sounds of it, she passed before he could reunite with her.
