Die Spreeus episode 2: “And he always said that he would haunt me”

Missed our breakdown of episode 1 of Afrikaans supernatural thriller series Die Spreeus, new episodes of which arrive every Tuesday evening on Showmax? Click here and get up to speed before watching episode 2!

“She hears voices. She thinks that her husband is possessed by some demon. Does she sound to you like she’s all there?” says Detective Beatrice Mack (Monique Rockman), asking her colleague Bas Koorts (Chris Vorster) for his input in their case that involves Emmie van Graan (Lea Vivier), her husband Petrus (Ludwig Binge) and the strange events surrounding the pair.

Emmie strongly believes that her husband isn’t who he pretends to be, even though he is standing in front of her alive and seemingly well. “Your eyes – they’re not your own,” she tells him repeatedly. And she isn’t wrong – episode 2 will give viewers a close-up as Petrus’s eyes turn from brown to white. But there is something more worrying about him…

Blood diagnosis

While Bas and Beatrice are investigating Emmie’s case, their boss Brigadier Rosa Scheffers (Sandi Schultz) is wrestling her own demons.

Rosa took a tumble during an important meeting with her police colleagues and was rushed to hospital, where her doctors have given her troubling news: blood clots on her brain caused her to faint and lose consciousness. If they reform or move to a certain spot on her brain, they could result in a cerebral aneurysm (where the blood vessels blow up like a balloon) and possibly kill her.

It’s shocking news for Rosa, who battles in silence in the hopes that her fainting spells are over.

It’s all in the handling

Meanwhile on the case, Bas believes Emmie’s testimony and searches for evidence to prove her claims. The cops visit Emmie at home and while she’s not looking, Bas sneaks a love letter that Petrus had written her before he changed into whatever he is now. Bas can’t help but notice the handwriting discrepancy – the letter’s style is completely different to the handwritten statement that Petrus gave the police after he was arrested for assault. Almost as though two different people wrote them…

“We need to consider all the possibilities,” says Bas as he and Beatrice scour over photos of wounds that Petrus left on Emmie’s arms and neck. While the supernatural doesn’t immediately jump out at Bas, he and Beatrice first consider Petrus having split personalities – like the real-life case of a German woman simply known as BT in 1994 who suffered from dissociative personality disorder with 10 vastly different “identities”. The interesting thing about BT’s identities is that while she, as a 37-year-old woman, was left physically blind by a car accident as a child, her 10-year-old boy identity could see perfectly and her doctors couldn’t find a medical explanation.

While the two detectives want to write off the difference in handwriting to a rational explanation, everything points them in the direction of something inexplicable and Bas decides to keep an eye on Emmie when she wanders to her meeting place with Petrus again at night. When Bas confronts the real Petrus during one of his and Emmie’s night-time meetings at the ruins, Petrus begins to tell him about Frans (Andrico Goosen), the spirit that has taken over his body. Spooky!

I’ve got a ghost

We’re not going to spoil the story by revealing how exactly Emmie and Frans are connected but it’s dark and there is a reason for the abuse that Emmie is suffering. She tells Beatrice and Bas that “he [Frans] always said, he always mocked, that he was going to haunt me!”

But Emmie isn’t exactly innocent either…

This storyline is based on CJ Langenhoven’s 1930 short story Die Bouval Op De Wilgerdal, with the ghost story of The Witch From Hex River intertwined with the episodes. And you won’t believe who Emmie has sent to pick a specific flower on a cliff…

Watch episode 2 of Die Spreeus on Showmax now before episode 3 lands on Tuesday, 23 April – and remember that you can always catch up from the beginning if you’ve missed anything!

Start watching now »