Watch: Mother Mary washes Jesus' hair in a new clip from The Chosen
She also recalls how she used to change his diapers.
Season 4 of The Chosen might not be streaming yet, but that doesn’t mean the fans can’t see some new footage.
In honour of Mother’s Day, the producers released a new clip today in which Mother Mary washes Jesus’ hair, while Jesus tells her about some of his frustrations, and how isolated he feels from the disciples as they keep missing the point of his teachings.
You can watch the six-minute clip, which comes from Episode 5, here:
A couple of lines from this clip hark back to clips that were released online both before and during the season’s theatrical release earlier this year:
Jesus, referring to the hair-washing, tells Mary, “This reminds me of when things were simple.”
This echoes how, in Episode 4, Jesus asks Thaddaeus and Little James if they ever “miss” the early days of their movement, when it was just the three of them hanging out together. Jesus and the disciples do a lot of reminiscing in this season, and I asked Jenkins a few months ago if this might reflect how he and his colleagues feel when they look back on the show’s history.
Jesus, referring to the disciples, says, “They ask for earthly things, positions of prestige on my right hand and left, in glory.”
This refers to a scene from Episode 4 that I analyzed here, in which Big James and John—the sons of Zebedee—ask for special status in the group.
Another line harks back to a theme that has come up repeatedly in this series:
Jesus says he’s “human”, and Mary replies, “Darling, I changed your swaddling clothes when they were soiled. Believe me, I’m aware.”
This is one of the show’s many references to excrement, a visual and thematic motif that goes all the way back to Matthew stepping in animal poop at the beginning of Season 1. I wrote about this aspect of the series when the second Christmas special came out in 2021—Jenkins told one newspaper at the time that the image of Joseph shoveling manure in the stable helped to underline “one of the main themes” of the show, namely the humanity and humility of its characters—and there have been more examples since.
Back in January, I spoke to Jonathan Roumie and Vanessa Benavente, the actors who play Jesus and Mary, about the “humanity” of this scene (and others):
A few other clips from Season 4 have been released online too. Here’s a quick round-up, including the one clip I mentioned above that is still available online:
From Episode 3:
From Episode 4:
A clip from the beginning of Episode 6 starts at the 27:50 mark in this video:
From Episode 7:
The entire fourth season of The Chosen played in theatres earlier this year, primarily in February and March, but it hasn’t started streaming yet, due to unspecified “legal matters”. Three weeks ago, series creator Dallas Jenkins said he expected the season to start streaming “sometime in the next four to seven weeks”, which at this point would be one to four weeks from now. Time will tell if that comes true.
June 13 update: I have added two clips, one from Episode 6 and one from Episode 7, that I neglected to include in the original version of this round-up.
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The Chosen interviews:
Season 1: Dallas Jenkins, co-writer/director (Dec 2019)
Season 2: Dallas Jenkins, co-writer/director (May 2021) | Derral Eves, producer, on Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers (Nov 2021) | Dallas Jenkins on the ‘The Chosen Is Not Good’ marketing campaign (Apr 2022)
Season 3: Jordan Walker Ross, Little James (Oct 2022) | Vanessa Benavente, Mother Mary (Nov 2022) | Kirk B.R. Woller, Gaius (Nov 2022)
Season 4: Dallas Jenkins, Jonathan Roumie, Abe Bueno-Jallad, Vanessa Benavente, Yasmine Al-Bustami, and Brandon Potter at the press junket; Reza Diako, Alaa Safi, and Elijah Alexander on the teal carpet (Feb 2024) | Paras Patel and Noah James at the press junket; producers Chad Gundersen and Chris Juen on the teal carpet (Feb 2024)
The Chosen recaps:
Season 1: review | scripture index
Episode recaps: The Shepherd | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eightSeason 2: The Messengers review | scripture index
Episode recaps: one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | The MessengersSeason 3: Episodes 1 & 2 notes | Episodes 7 & 8 notes | scripture index
Episode recaps: one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eightSeason 4: Episodes 1-3 notes
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The Chosen can be streamed via Angel Studios or the show’s app (Android | Apple).