room 104

The episode opens with Marianne Wallace (Cobie Smulders), a botanist coming back from an expedition, sitting at the table by the window with notebooks strewn about, leaves pressed onto the pages.

The episode ends with the two of them watching old footage of “Night Shift,” laughing together as old friends. Two vampires, together for eternity.

This episode is deeply concerned with the uncomfortable and haunting line between adolescence and adulthood.

Episode 8, entitled “No Hospital,” opens with an ailing old man named Mr. Bracamonte (Tony Plana) revising his last will and testament.

In the past two episodes of “Room 104,” a lot of ground has been covered. The show, one that is known for pushing the boundaries of what a series can do, has used this season to explore a more existential type of thriller.

The tone from the beginning of this episode is glazed with humorous intonations and soft breaks where a laugh track could easily go.

Zohara lies on the floor, singing a haunting children’s rhyme to herself as if it is a form of comfort. But as she turns the light off to go to sleep, she hears screaming and banging from outside the room.

The emotional stress beautifully exhibited by Castro is furthered when, after thinking he solved his illness by discovering he had been “abducted by aliens,” Craig wakes up to realize his skin lesions have worsened and spread.

This week’s episode, directed by Patrick Brice, is a light-hearted bizarrity that emphasizes the personal connections forged within the room rather than the horrors that often unfold there.

In its season three premiere, the chillingly supernatural realm of HBO’s “Room 104” comes as close as it ever has to delivering an origin story.