THE CHOSEN: Episode 3.5: “Clean, Part 2”

THE CHOSEN, Season 3, Episode 5, is a powerful Part 2 where Jesus brings to major crises, introduced in the previous episode, to truly triumphant conclusions.

Finding that his daughter is beyond the help of any merely human physician, Jairus seeks Jesus through a rabbinical friend who knows the disciples. Two of the disciples, also looking for Jesus, stumble upon the desolate camp of Veronica, a woman who seeks to secure an audience with Jesus. The disciples take her with them and run into the press of people who are going to watch “the teacher” perform a miracle. Jairus is somewhat oddly calm when his trek with Jesus is interrupted by Veronica, who touches two of the tassels on Jesus’ tunic. As one miracle succeeds another, this tear-jerking episode concludes with joyous scenes of Jesus and the disciples having fun and games in the cleansing sea.

THE CHOSEN Season 3, Episode 5 succeeds brilliantly in nearly every way. It’s a powerful, joyful finale to the storytelling seeds planted in Episode 4. As a Part 2, Episode 5 brings needed closure to the crises of certain characters while leaving some other major threads open for ongoing development. It does so with excellent filmmaking, beautiful performances and emotional, inspiring power. The worldview in Episode 5 remains solidly Christocentric and biblical. It stresses both the deity and humanity of Christ. In doing so, it moves from a focus on rejoicing to a focus on astonishment and back to rejoicing again. In the face of so many reasons to lament what’s happening in the episode, Jesus brings many more reasons for biblical rejoicing. When He does, it’s astonishing to see how many of the characters react to what He does.

In the previous episode, Jesus began to show His followers that they ought not rejoice over good circumstances but rather that their names are written in Heaven (Luke 10:20). In Episode 5, Jesus brings rejoicing where only lamentation could be found, and everyone is astonished by what happens, including Jesus. For example, Jesus Himself is astonished by the great faith of Jairus and Veronica. His disciples are also astonished, not only by the miracles Jesus performs but also by His teachings about the Kingdom of God inside Simon Peter and his wife, Eden’s, home. Meanwhile, a priest is also astonished by what happened, but not in a good way. He threatens to report Jesus and the disciples to the Sanhedrin for touching a supposedly dead person.

Episode 5, Season 3 of THE CHOSEN is a truly epic and epoch-making episode. The only caution is for some images of blood when Jairus’ daughter is sick and on the verge of death and some peril when Jesus is surrounded by the crowd lusting to watch a miracle occur.