‘The Outsider’ on HBO: What You Need To Know About Black Annis and El Coco

HBO’s The Outsider Episode 4, “Que Viene el Coco,” finally gives the mysterious evil force that’s been praying on people a name. Nope, they don’t call it “The Outsider.” Instead, Private Investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo) is told that she’s essentially chasing the same devil that her family warned her about when she was a child. It’s the devil that would come and eat children and then return to feed upon the family’s grief. This maniacal force has been called everything from Baba Yaga to Jumbee,  to El Coco (or El Cuco) and Black Annis.

The end of The Outsider Episode 4 sees Holly researching this terrible foe. She scrolls through folkloric images encompassing everything from the mythological god Saturn devouring his children to a hooded phantom (who looks astonishingly like the creepy monster in a hoodie that Ben Mendelsohn’s Ralph Anderson now has a sketch of). However, the two names sure to leave pinpricks on the backs of viewers’ necks are Black Annis and El Coco.

What is a Black Annis? Who is El Coco? And what might Black Annis and El Coco have to do with HBO’s The Outsider? Here’s everything you need to know about the latest monsters to haunt the Stephen King universe.

WHO IS BLACK ANNIS, AND WHERE DOES THE BLACK ANNIS LEGEND COME FROM?

Black Annis is a child-eating “bogeyman” from English folklore. Like the killer in The Outsider, Black Annis preyed upon children, and hid from society (though in a cave in the Dane Hills and not in a cozy hoodie like the meanie in HBO’s show). Black Annis is said to have a blue face and iron claws, perfect for scratching flesh.

Black Annis is also known as Black Agnes or Black Anna, and although most believe that she is a remnant of Celtic or Germanic folklore, there are theories linking her to a real life religious hermit named Agnes Scott.

Within the plot of The Outsider, Black Annis is one of the many bogeyman figures that Holly Gibney researches at the end of Episode 4, “Que Viene el Coco.” Besides harboring a taste for human flesh, Black Annis is also known for her ability to scratch and claw her way through barriers. The mysterious force in The Outsider seems to spread from host to host via a scratch on the skin.

WHAT IS EL COCO (AKA EL CUCO) ON THE OUTSIDER?

El Coco is another mythic bogeyman figure hailing from the Iberian Peninsula and it is sometimes called El Cuco in Latin America. Like Black Annis, El Coco is used to scare children. The idea is that El Coco (and El Cuco) are child-eaters who spirit kids away. There is also said to be an element of shapeshifting when it comes to El Coco.

The Outsider is suggesting that the killer that Ralph Anderson is chasing isn’t human, but a modern interpretation of El Coco or Black Annis. That is, the killer is an ancient evil dead set on devouring children and soaking up the sorrow afterwards.

Looks like our human heroes have some very magical monsters to take on in this relatively grounded HBO show.

The Outsider Episode 5 premieres on HBO this Sunday, February 2, 2020.

Where to stream The Outsider