We don’t know what happened inside of Malcoum, other than hearsay about some anguished confusion over his mental state, or even what he was reported to have said when the shooting began, which was “Whatcha doing? Whatcha doing?” Instead, we see the nightmares that need to be solved. We see the possessions that have subsumed the sweet girl or the bookish boy, who are understood to be long gone. In the stories of who they were before the illness, or the evil, or the possession—including that of Beth’s family member—there is an expectation of not only normalcy but goodness.
