666 Park Avenue Recap: “A Crowd of Demons”

by Jessica Grafer:

666 Park Avenue Recap: “A Crowd of Demons”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday October 28, 2012
Season 1 Episode 5

This show just keeps getting better and better each week!  We start off this episode on Halloween night, 1929.  A couple of business men are discussing a deal they just made to bring them wealth.  Perhaps “deal” is not the right word.  “Ritual” would be much more appropriate.  One gentleman is more anxious than his friend asking, what was this awful thing we just did?  His buddy answers with, “we invited evil into our homes”.  On that ominous note he walks into his apartment.  Hangs his hat, takes off his coat.  Wifey is happy to see him and what’s this?  Little ghost girl is there!  She’s not a ghost yet however, just a happy little girl glad her dad is home from work.  When his wife comes up to greet him she notices he seems a little off.  When she asks what’s wrong he says, he just wants her to know that, “in heaven, you will be truly happy”.  He then pulls a hatchet from the fireplace and proceeds to attack his wife.  The little girl hears her mother’s screams and she promptly runs and hides under the bed.  This explains why she is always hiding under the bed at Jane and Henry’s place.  Her mother stumbles into the room and falls on the floor facing her daughter.  She has just enough time to take off her necklace and pass it to the girl, telling her to keep it in the family.  Then the mom dies.  The necklace is the one Jane has from her grandmother!  The plot thickens.

Olivia is getting the Drake all decked out for the big Halloween celebration.  She catches Jane on the way out.  Jane is off to see Henry’s television debut.  He’s being interviewed on a morning show for his heroic action at the mayor’s house.  The journalist is calling Henry a hero and really building him up.  Henry is extremely modest saying he just did what anyone would do.  He could’ve pointed out that he never would’ve saw it coming, if his lovely girlfriend didn’t yell his name.  If Henry had said that this next awkward moment could’ve been avoided.  Ending the interview the journalist pointed out that Henry had no wedding ring and was the most eligible bachelor in New York right now.  Go get ’em ladies!  Henry is uncomfortable but silent as they go to break.  He tells her when the cameras are off that he does have a girlfriend.  Yeah, but the story is better if you’re single she says.  Jane is waiting in the wings and hears the whole thing.  She understands how that stuff goes however and is supportive.  Another woman comes up and greets Henry telling him that being too modest is perhaps not the way to go.  Meet, Laurel Harris a media consultant.  She gives Henry a card and tells him that she can help take his fifteen minutes and make it a lifetime.

Brian shows up at home to find Louise with her shirt off and some dude massaging her stomach.  Woah.  He plays it cool and Lou explains that this is Doctor Scott.  He lives in the building and he’s just helping her because her ribs are hurting.  Yeah.  Still messed up. Lou tries to get the doc to prescribe her something for the pain and her motive becomes clear.  Lou is addicted to pain pills.  To what extent we aren’t sure, but she’s going to some extremes to get them already.  Brian is obviously upset to find his wife and Doc Scott like this.  Lou says she wants to fix Scott and Alexis up.  Well, that would help things….right?

Gavin and Olivia are having lunch out and as they head out Olivia gets a call.  Gavin heads across the street to the car where he gets a text from an unknown number.  “You are going to pay for everything you’ve done.”  As Gavin looks a huge, black SUV races around the corner right towards Olivia.  She gets out of the way but it was a scary, close call.  Gavin rushes to make sure she’s ok and several more texts come in, “Just thought I’d introduce myself.”  “Next time I won’t miss.  See you tonight.”  Gavin is furious and concerned.

At the Drake the party is about to get started.  Henry and Jane have costumes but find out that Olivia has provided some for them.  A sheriff’s costume for Henry, slightly resembling Woody from Toy Story.  A Tippi Hedren costume from The Birds for Jane.  Jane seems to take this as a hit on her adventures with the starlings.  Off to the party.

Alexis comes up to Brian and, what, apologizes for being such a creepy stalker.  She completely changes and is actually sweet.  I should’ve known people don’t flip that fast.  Alexis lets it slip that Louise has seen Dr. Scott several times.  This upsets Brian more because he kinda assumed they had just met.  Jane and Henry are heading down in the elevator.  Ghost girls dad gets on with them.  When he sees Jane’s necklace he stares at it in an extremely creepy way until he finally just tells her he likes it.  When Jane and Henry get off on the party floor he continues to the basement.  Ghost dad goes to a vent and pulls out some mementos wrapped in fabric.  One is a picture of his once happy family.  The other is the ax.  He has to finish “this”.  Whatever this may be, I don’t think it’s good for Jane.

Gavin has tried to trace the texts but they came from one of those drop phones.  He tells Tony he wants him to stay by Olivia’s side all night.  Tony has a gun and wants to do his best by Gavin.  Gavin opens a safe and there is an ornate box locked in there.  After he opened that safe I thought his voice sounded like it had a creepy echo.  Did anyone else notice this?

Dr. Scott and Alexis are really hitting it off.  When they’re making out Alexis swipes the doctors phone.  I can see where this is going.  She’s not over breaking up Louise and Brian.  She’s just changed her game plan.  Jane has had to go back upstairs to change after a drink is spilled on her.  The ghost girl tells her that her daddy is the thing she didn’t want to get out of the suitcase.  Jane finds a clipping about the murder in the suitcase.  It says the child survived.  So the little girl didn’t die as a child.  I’m curious to find out the rest of her story.  Especially now that it links to Jane.  The ghost dads name is Peter Kramer.  Mr. Kramer is watching Jane from the other room.

Down at the party Henry is stalked by Laurel the media consultant.  She harps on him about getting married to Jane.  She said they should seal the deal before the concrete jungle tears them apart.  Henry says that won’t happen to him and Jane.  Are they that naive?  Have they never read or seen anything about what happens, especially in politics in a big city.  We’ll have to see how long the innocence can hold out.

Olivia takes a couple of her friends up to apartment 5F the same one that Peter Kramer murdered his wife with an ax in.  She dares one of them to spend 15 minutes in there alone.  The one goes in the apartment.  The other friend chickens out and runs back.  Olivia waits outside the door with a smile on her face, she is clearly having some ghostly halloween fun.  A man comes up behind her in a gas mask and sprays something into her face to make her pass out.  Olivia is down.

Jane hears noises in the apartment.  Kramer is there with the ax to finish things.  He is just about to when the guy in the gas mask cuts the power and Jane escapes.  This was so crazy because I thought they were the same guy at first.  Now I think Kramer wants nothing to do with the Gavins.  He just has to finish what he was supposed to back in 1929.  I believe he was supposed to kill his whole family but since his daughter escaped, now he has to finish the line.  Jane runs into a party goer and borrows his phone to call 911.  Kramer comes up behind poor Sir Galahad and he gets an ax in the back for his good deed.

The power is out at the party and Laurel is sticking by Henry.  Henry goes to look for Jane.  Gavin gets a call on his cell that says he has Olivia and Gavin has to find her in time.  Louise had convinced the doctor to check her out again.  She wants more pills.  Brian sees them leave in the elevator before the power went out.  Unfortunately, Brian confides in Alexis which gives her the chance to plant more seeds of doubt.  Alexis tells Brian Louise is probably just up in the apartment.  When Brian goes up to look, Alexis sends a text from the Doctors phone to Lou’s about wanting to meet her in the apartment now for a romp.  Of course when Brian gets to the apartment he doesn’t find Lou or the doctor but he does see the text on Lou’s phone.  Louise and Scott are still trapped in the elevator.  We find out that Lou had previously been hooked on speed and this accident with the elevator and the prescribed pain meds are taking her down that path again.  The doctor says there is usually something else going on to make you slip.  How are things with you and your husband, he asks.  Lou says great but the doc moves in for a kiss anyway.  Hold it pal!  Louise really loves Brian and there’s going to be none of that going on.  This is so incredibly sad.  Brian and Louise truly love each other but they are slowly being ripped apart by the lies and deceit around them.

The gas mask guy is in the penthouse.  He is opening Gavin’s safe.  Tony spots him while looking for Olivia.  Bad news for Tony.  Gavin rushes up to find Tony hanging from a noose.  He saves him but Tony tells him that something was stolen from his safe.  Gavin tells him to check on the party guests.  The man has left the gas mask in the safe and taken the ornate box of Gavin’s.  On the terrace Gavin finds Olivia.  Safe and sound but unaware of what has happened.  Gavin is so happy that she is ok.  He decides not to tell her what has been going on.

Jane is running through the dark halls of the Drake.  She still has that poor mans phone so she calls Henry.  She tells him what’s going on.  Henry tells Laurel to call the police and races up to the fifth floor to find Jane.  Jane is backed up against the wall with Kramer slowly walking towards her with the ax.  He tells her he has to do this but, in heaven she will be truly happy.  Jane hears the feathery sound of wings behind the wall.  Kramer swings the ax and Jane ducks and runs.  The ax goes into the wall releasing the starlings into the apartment.  They immediately attack Kramer and allow Jane to escape.

The power comes back on but the party has been ruined.  Brian sees Lou and Scott as they come off the elevator.  Brian just walks up to Scott and knocks him out.  Louise is upset.  Alexis is thrilled.  Jane is talking to the cops finding it hard to explain what exactly happened.  She knows the man who tried to kill her looked like Peter Kramer but he’s dead.  It couldn’t have been him, right?  Gavin, with his strange voice (seriously, I’m not making that up right?) gets a call from the mystery man.  He tells him he wants his box back.  Gavin is fuming.  I’m not sure what Gavin is at least point, demon, devil some other kind of powerful dark spirit.  Whoever this Mystery Man is obviously can play ball with him and that’s a scary thought.

Cops walk the Drake trying to find the man with the ax and the poor soul who helped Jane.  The ax melts into the floor of the room.  The good samaritan also melts into the building.  Sadly he’ll be lost forever and I don’t think his family will ever know what became of him.

I’m thinking that because the incident in 1929 took place on Halloween that perhaps we are done with Peter Kramer.  Maybe he come back only on Halloween so he can try and finish what he started.  I’m sure Jane will keep digging.  I mean, he tried to kill her she’s not going to let that go.  Plus he showed interest in her necklace.  I wonder if she’ll remember that.  I can’t help but think that if Nona hadn’t given Jane the necklace back, Kramer wouldn’t have known who he was supposed to take out.  Fantastic episode.  What do you think?

Jessica Grafer has loved the “darker” things since she was old enough to pick her own books. She is a contributor for DarkMedia who will be covering Revenge and 666 Park Avenue. She loves to walk the book store shelves and pick up whatever catches her eye. She is a movie lover with a great range in her tastes, and appreciation for all genres. Jessica is a writer and has several things in the works. You can follow her quirky Twitter posts at @scarletbe and check out her blog.