Will El Cuco live on through Holly?

It sure seems that way.

The Outsider Season 1 Episode 10 brought The Outsider Season 1, and possibly the series, to a close. And as expected, it left us with enough to chew on should HBO pull the trigger on another season. 

Given the way The Outsider Season 1 Episode 9 ended, it was clear we were going to be losing a lot of key players before venturing into the cave to meet El Cuco. 

El Cuco was a perfect villain. The creature's arrogance was on full display when it was talking in the cave, but one of the most fascinating aspects was the revelation that it could be the first of many. 

Based on the response to Holly's questions about more of them, it was truly in the dark, and probably lonely at the prospect of living a life feeding on grief and children.

Would it have been able to change its ways had it been in a world with more people like it? That's a question worth thinking about.

The creature is a villain through and through. The things it did throughout the 10-part series were horrible, and I refuse to believe it got killed off that easily. 

I respect the way Holly, Ralph, and Claude acted in the cave. There's no hard and fast rule for how to act when a shapeshifter who has been slaying people across the U.S. -- and possibly beyond -- is right front in of you. 

Understandably, Claude was consumed by the loss of his brother. The only thing he understood was vengeance and didn't take into consideration that he was responsible for making the cave fall apart. 

Conversely, Holly's actions could be attributed to putting herself out there for the first time, only to lose the man she grew to love. 

For Ralph, it was about confronting the fact that the unexplained is not as uncommon as he would like everyone to believe. 

Tweaking the story to make it believable was the only way to ensure that Terry's family got the closure they deserved. Glory spent much of the series defending her husband's name, even when there was evidence to suggest he was a killer. 

The truth had to come out eventually, and even though the world is being kept in the dark about the supernatural aspects, that was enough to allow Glory to move on. 

She's been heavily critical of the way the case has been handled from the jump, and part of that harkens back to the conflicting evidence. We can't forget Terry was out of time when Frankie's murder occurred. 

In her eyes, she didn't think the officers were doing their job and bit her tongue as long as she could before deciding that suing was the best course of action.

The financial and emotional implications could have destroyed her life, but she tried to make the best of a bad situation. She was happy enough to forget about Holly's supernatural claims because it would give her some semblance of closure. 

Instead of rushing out of town, she will probably try to get her life back, and part of that will include rebuilding the friendships she lost during such a harrowing occurrence. 

I wasn't impressed with the open-ended nature of El Cuco's fate. After rewatching the death scene multiple times, there was definitely a chance for the villain to scratch Holly. 

Perhaps her adrenaline muted her pain. Coming face-to-face with something she believed existed despite the many who refused to believe it had to be a rush.

Holly's had no trouble concluding that the supernatural was involved. Her thought process is completely different from everyone else on the show. 

Not once did she rule out the possibility that the killer was merely human. She took an approach to things that allowed her not to be shocked when the evidence started to suggest the killer was a literal monster. 

However, Holly being the next host for El Cuco is a big development, and one that could make a potential The Outsider Season 2 worth watching. 

Then again, it would have been nice to get a definite answer. We know that Ralph and Holly's relationship has changed forever now that they survived the dire situation. 

Slowly, but surely, Ralph started to understand that he was too closed-minded to successfully take down the correct perpetrator, and his realization that there was more going on than meets the eye was the big turning point. 

As a whole, "Must/Can't" allowed Ralph to confront his fears about letting go of his son for good, and speaking about it to Jeannie was a step in the right direction. 

There was a lot of story left to tell, and the finale rushed things in an unforgivable way. The series came out of the gate running with a different take on the murder-mystery genre, but the latter episodes struggled to maintain the excitement. 

That's something to consider when thinking about bringing the series back. The characters all came full circle by the final scene, and a sophomore season would not have the same emotional impact. 

What did you think of the conclusion? Do you think El Cuco is inside of Holly now? Was the takedown too easy?

Do you want a second season?

Hit the comments below. 

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Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.