has finally returned to for Season 4 following a three-year break, and one horrifying episode soars high above the rest. Literally. Directed by Diego Porral, Season 4, Episode 8, as a motley crew aboard a B-17 WWII bomber is savagely attacked in midair by a bloodthirsty, hyperviolent demon resurrected by enemy soldiers in a church below.

With the breathless action of James Cameron's Aliens, the unremitting carnage of a Mario Bava flick, and the overt nod to H.P. Lovecraft's brand of supernatural horror, "How Zeke Got Religion" combines all the proper ingredients to make a hair-raising and jaw-dropping 15 minutes of bloodletting terror. Perhaps most unsettling, the inescapable claustrophobia builds increasing dread until the fiendish finale strikes down.

Scripted by John McNichol and J.T. Petty, Diego Porral directs "How Zeke Got Religion," the extremely bloody eighth episode of Love, Death + Robots Season 4. The action immediately picks up inside a B-17 bomber plane called the Liberty Belle, where a ragtag crew of American soldiers prepares to bomb a target below. One soldier expresses fear about the mission, claiming that the atheistic fellow fighter Zeke (Keston John) always remains cool and rarely scares.

A brief flashback shows Zeke and his crewmates receiving the mission, which entails bombing a church in France overrun by German soldiers during WWII. Despite an ominous warning by Coombs, a mysterious man with bloodshot eyes being in charge, Zeke has no worries about the impending assignment. That is, until the Liberty Belle comes under incessant fire from an unseen assailant, forcing the soldiers of varying religious beliefs to band together and complete the mission.

The breathless action quickly slides into bone-clattering terror when cutting inside the church. A cabal of SS soldiers is holding a sacrificial blood ritual, where several humans are strung up and dangle from the ceiling. As above, so below, with harrowing airstrikes exploding the skyline while a charnel house collects a river of blood beneath. Indeed, there's nowhere to run or hide.

A sinister minister chants in Aramaic with the intent of resurrecting a monstrous demon child to do the German soldiers' evil bidding. .

In a heartfelt homage to Lovecraftian horror, "How Zeke Got Religion" first leans into the scribe's cosmic horror by setting most of the action in the air. Stuck in the cramped hull of a B-17 fighter jet, there is a palpable sense of claustrophobic dread in the episode that ratchets up as the story unfolds. Left with nowhere to go but to face the demonic fallen angel head-on, Porral does an exquisite job of making the characters feel helpless and the viewers queasily squeamish.

Not only does the lack of maneuvering room and escape routes heighten terror, but the episode also crafts a frightening Lovecraftian monster of amorphous proportions, evoking the author's classic Cthulhu Mythos. . The devilish design of the multi-limbed monster is terrifying on its own, a slavering winged demon with an insatiable bloodlust.

The demon's unsettling appearance is outdone by its evil actions. Whether shredding a soldier in half at the waist, ripping another's face apart from the skull, pressing another's face against a window until it gorily pops like a grape, the episode delivers one explosive dose of gore-sodden evisceration after another.

Between the suspenseful claustrophobia, graphic carnage, and the menacing demon, the episode has all the ingredients of Aliens meets Cthulhu meets Hellboy. .

. Most of Season 4's episodes occur in the future and feature a robotic or AI component of some kind. Moreover, most episodes use cutting-edge animation techniques to tell their contemporary story. Yet, in a deliberate throwback episode, "How Zeke Got Religion" employs classic '80s-style animation to tell a story from the past to warn about the horrors of the future.

While undeserving of being named, the WWII enemies featured in the episode represent the concerning rise of fascism around the world in 2025. "How Zeke Got Religion" is less about Zeke's spiritual awakening than the round rebuke of the religious persecution inflicted by said WWII villains. By equating fascism with the devil, the episode buries a subtle message beneath the unsubtle cudgel of gory violence. By contrast, the episode has plenty more to say than acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher's opening recreation of a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert from 2003.

While some have lamented that the episode does not fit within the larger context of Season 4, that tends to be the point and why it remains the most original. There's a reason why "How Zeke Got Religion" is the highest-rated episode of Season 4 to date (7.1 IMDb score). It complements the rest of the season, rather than supplementing the themes about the perils of future AI. If the past is a prologue, then "How Zeke Got Religion" functions as a terrifying reminder of what could happen, albeit taken to fanciful heights, if fascism isn't met with resistance. Of course, for a 15-minute cartoon, such weighty themes may not register with most viewers.

However, the substance beneath the visceral carnage, claustrophobic terror, Lovecraftian cosmicism, and vivid cell animation is the tie that binds the whole episode together. Beyond casual and hardcore horror fans, "How Zeke Got Religion" will make converts out of the unfaithful. As someone who reviewed horror movies for over a decade, I adored how many subgenres Porral combined in a short span to bombard viewers with unremitting carnage while having something to say. Love, Death + Robots is available to stream on Netflix.