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| “ | Ralph: You really don't believe Terry killed the Peterson boy? Holly: No more than I think Heath Holmes killed those two girls. I think it was someone else. I think it was an outsider. |
„ |
| ~ Holly Gibney upon figuring out the true culprit. |
| “ | I eat to live, that's all. Your kind does the same thing when you slaughter pigs and cows. That's all you are to me— cattle. | „ |
| ~ The Outsider giving his opinion on humanity. |
The Outsider, also known as El Cuco is the titular main antagonist of Stephen King’s 71st novel The Outsider, as well as its 2020 HBO miniseries adaptation of the same name. He also serves as the overarching antagonist of the 2020 novella, "If It Bleeds", published in the short fiction collection of the same name.
He is a shape-shifting entity that feeds on the suffering of others. In the novel, he rapes and murders 11-year-old Frank Peterson in Flint City, using the form of Frank's baseball coach, Terry Maitland, resulting in Terry's arrest and plunging the town into chaos and grief.
In the miniseries, he was portrayed by William Mark McCullogh. While impersonating Terrence "Terry" Maitland, he was portrayed by Jason Bateman, who also played Darkos in Arthur and the Invisibles, Simon Callum in The Gift, Trevor Olson in Central Intelligence, and Marty Byrde in Ozark. While disguised as Claude Bolton, he was portrayed by Paddy Considine, who also played Vladimir Malevich in Child 44.
Biography[]
The Outsider is a paranormal shape-shifter that feeds on humans and their suffering. Having murdered people for many years, the Outsider eventually shows up in Dayton, Ohio, where he collects the blood of a retirement home orderly named Heath Hodges. The Outsider then transforms himself into Heath and steals a vehicle, using it to lure two young girls away before violently raping and murdering them, before ejaculating on their bodies. He then steals the blood of Terry Maitland as his next target. The Outsider proceeds to hide the girls' bloody underwear in Heath's house and hides out in a nearby cemetery to feed on the grief of the girls' loved ones. After the Outsider flees town in a stolen van, Heath is falsely convicted of the crime and hangs himself in jail.
Months later, the Outsider completes his transformation into Terry and uses his van to travel to Flint City, Oklahoma, and abduct Terry's eleven-year-old baseball student, Frank Peterson. The Outsider then rapes Frank with a tree branch, driving it so far up his anal cavity that it comes out of his stomach, biting off chunks of his throat, chest, and stomach, and finishing by ejaculating on the body. He then leaves Frank's corpse in the local park.
A number of eyewitnesses confirm that they saw Terry with Frank Peterson before the murder and Terry with blood on himself afterwards, leading to the real Terry being arrested in front of the entire town for the crime. The Outsider then collects the blood of ex-convict Claude Bolton and begins a new transformation.
Terry's daughter, Grace, is visited multiple times by the Outsider, who torments her over her father's death. Frank's mother also has a heart attack and dies, further feeding the Outsider.
As Terry is being delivered to the Flint City courthouse for his arraignment hearing, the incomplete Outsider shows up to revel in the crowd's chaos and is briefly seen by lead Detective Ralph Anderson and his partner, Yune Sablo. Frank's older brother, Ollie, pulls a gun on Terry to avenge his brother and mother, fatally shooting the man before being gunned down himself by Ralph. As Terry lays dying, he confirms his innocence to Ralph.
Having lost his entire family, Frank's father, Ted, attempts to hang himself in his backyard. As he suffocates, he sees the Outsider watching him, before going unconscious and being cut down by his neighbor. Ted ends up in a coma.
The Outsider's clothes are found in a barn near Flint City, and Ralph's rival, Detective Jack Hoskins, is sent to investigate. There, the Outsider sneaks up behind him and caresses his neck, leaving behind a poisonous patch.
As the Outsider continues his transformation into Claude, he notices Ralph investigating his existence and travels to Texas, where Claude Bolton is staying with his mother. The Outsider uses his powers to project parts of himself in Flint City, threatening Ralph's wife and people around him to stop pursuing the case. The Outsider also appears to Hoskins, falsely telling him that the poisonous patch on his neck is cancer, knowing that Hoskins watched his mother die from skin cancer. The Outsider offers to remove the "cancer" if Hoskins stops Ralph from interfering.
Ralph, with the help of Holly Gibney, discovers the Outsider's true nature and his next target: Claude. The two, along with Yune, Terry's lawyer, Howie Gold, and his private investigator, Alec Pelley, travel to Texas to protect Claude and hunt down the Outsider before he strikes again. The Outsider sends Hoskins after them.
The four investigators discover the Outsider's hideout in a cave pit. When they go to search it, the Outsider has Hoskins ambush them. Hoskins kills Howie and Alec, and injures Yune before being bitten by a rattlesnake. Hoskins is then shot to death by Ralph to avenge his friends, and he and Holly enter the caves.
In the cave, Ralph and Holly confront the Outsider, now almost fully transformed into Claude. The Outsider points out that if Ralph shoots him, then the cave will collapse and kill Holly. He then explains who he is and insists that he only kills because he has to in order to feed. Holly counters this by pointing out that he raped and ejaculates on his victims, meaning that he derives pleasure from it and is therefore nothing but a hypocritical serial killer and child molester. Enraged, the Outsider launches himself at her, at which point she takes out a heavy sock full of ball rings and beats him to death. The Outsider's body disintegrates and turns into a swarm of worms, who quickly die as well. Ralph and Holly escape.
Months later, Yune is healed and Terry's name is cleared in the public consciousness, and Ralph and Holly work together to move past the lingering trauma of their encounter with the Outsider.
Physiology[]
| “ | Idilys: When you were a child, who were you told would come for you if you misbehaved, if you didn't go to sleep? Holly: Uh... Jumbee. My great grandmother was from... Idilys: The old country. For me, in Cuba, I was told El Cuco would come. My grandmother, when she was a child, was told the same. Her grandmother, before they left Spain, was told the same. Back, and back, and back it goes. Holly: El Cuco? Idilys: Uh... Sleep child, sleep now... El Cuco, Jumbee, met an old Russian woman once who called hers Baba Yaga. Uh... The Boogeyman. If you like. All the old cultures, we had the bad habit of turning truth into fairy tales. When we tell our children about El Cuco, we say, "If you misbehave, it'll take you away and eat you." What we should tell them is, "It doesn't matter either way; It takes what it wants." |
„ |
| ~ Idilys Castro and Holly Gibney |
The Outsider can take on a person's physical appearance by shedding his skin. When he shift, he literally become the person he's mimicking, gaining everything, including fingerprints and DNA. Once the Outsider transforms into a person, he can access the thoughts and memories of this individual. The Outsider also cannot be harmed or killed by conventional means, being highly resistant to physical damage. Normal bullets and weapons cannot scratch him. He can infect others with a scratch, which fills them with visions and pain. Like It, the Outsider can feed on bad emotions of an individual. He uses this ability to exploit grief.
Quotes[]
| “ | Is there a doc-in-the-box around here? | „ |
| ~ The Outsider to Claude Bolton after killing Frank Peterson; one of the first clues to Ralph that Terry is innocent. |
| “ | Tell him if he or any of them tries to find me, I'll kill them and leave their guts in the desert for the buzzards. Do you understand me? | „ |
| ~ The Outsider threatening Ralph and his team. |
| “ | WILL THE REAL CLAUDE BOLTON PLEASE STAND UP?! | „ |
| ~ The Outsider in the miniseries. |
Trivia[]
- It is very possible that The Outsider is either the same species or originated from the same dimension as other Stephen King monsters like It and The Crimson King, evidenced by having similar powers and by the fact that they all feed off of emotions. Although it is not clear if The Outsider is actually connected from The Dark Tower series, since the Mr Mercedes series doesn’t tie in to said series.
External Links[]
- The Outsider on the Pure Evil Wiki
- The Outsider on the Stephen King Wiki
