Original Release Date (Netflix): Friday April 19, 2013
And now we are on the second to last episode gang! The journey sure has been a wild ride. We got some big reveals this episode, so hold on to your hats!
We start things off back at the Godfrey mill with Clementine waking up in the cage, and we see her start to realize what is happening and where she is. She’s a bit disoriented at first, and pulls herself out of a sack. Her hands are bound, and she’s locked in. She notices the blood on the ceiling and walls and realizes she’s not in a good situation. She rattles the bars in frustration, cuts her bonds with a broken beer bottle and begins to work on trying to pick the lock on the cage.
Credits roll!
The scene that follows is of Norman meeting up with Sheriff Sworn, as they talk about the bits of the next victim they found killed. Sworn tells him that they found some torn clothing and ID related to Jennifer Fredricks at the site, the girl who’s been super kind to Shelley throughout the series. Norman recognizes the name, knowing Shelley’s connection to her. He also knows this news will devastate her. As he puts it, “She’s the only real friend she ever had.” Knowing who the body is now, Norman tries to console Sworn by telling him Christina is still out there. Norman tries to give some comfort to Sworn, telling him to go home and rest, but he refuses. He tells him, “I will go home when Christina is safe and Peter Rumancek is dead and in the ground.”
We then are brought back to Clementine’s plight, as we see her picking the locks on her cage. Olivia shows up, scaring her as she tells a strange tale to her caged companion, “As a young girl there was a game I used to play with my cousins—wicked little beasts of the first rank. Game was called wolves in the wood. “Play with” perhaps misstates it, implying my consent as part of the proceedings. At any rate, after the moon had risen, they would spirit me out to the forest, an enchanted place in the fuller sense of the word. Filled with mysteries and nameless dangers prowling in the dark…”
As she tells the tale, she sits next to Clementine’s cage, lighting a cigarette, as she watches her prey try to pick the lock. Olivia seems, relaxed. Totally in control of the situation. She continues her tale with her eyes closed, remembering, “They would lay me on a bed of moss. I can feel it on the back of my neck to this day. I was to lay perfectly still as they circled through the trees on tiptoes, growling deep in their throats and warning me there were wolves on the hunt with a taste for little girls…”
She shares the rest of the tale with Clementine, and the whole while doesn’t even seem fazed at Clementine’s attempt at escape. The moment the story is done however, is the same moment Clementine gets the lock undone, and we hear her scream just as the scene cuts away.
The scene that follows is of Letha trying to make tea. She looks out the window and doesn’t see anything, so she ends up calling someone on her phone as the kettle whistles. Just as that happens, she gets startled, and looks out the window again to spot white haired Christina out there staring back. She puts the phone down, takes the kettle off the burner and goes to Christina. She lets the girl in after telling her Norman isn’t home. Christina asks her to not tell him where she is and offers her some tea. When she offers the tea though, Christina’s response is interesting. At first she says I have tea all the time, then says yes, then under her breath with a dark look in her eyes says, “Stupid fucking bitch.” Letha doesn’t seem to hear it, and asks her why she left the hospital. Christina says it wasn’t safe, and when Letha asks why she says it’s just a feeling. Letha asks her what she’s afraid of and they talk about it, and why she came to warn Letha. As she says, “I think it’s after you too.”
The next scene is Roman meeting up with Peter in the chapel. He gives him the grease and shows him the axe his mother gave him. He says, “We have her blessing for what it’s worth. You have your spells, she has hers.” Peter laughs and they discuss how it’s going to find them. Peter says he’s closer to it now and it will find him. He won’t have to go far. Roman’s phone goes off and it’s Letha, telling him he needs to come by because it’s REALLY important, hinting at Christina without saying her name. Peter demands to go with him, and they argue about it, but eventually Roman gives in to him.
The following scene is of Sheriff Sworn “guarding” the Fredrick place. The poor couple is trying to grieve for their daughter, but have a slightly broken cop on their grounds refusing to leave. A couple of his cop bodies try to convince him to back off but he doesn’t have it. He stands there on the corner near their house with a loaded shotgun, and a crazed look in his eyes. As he says, “It can come back. It always comes back.”
The scene changes and we are back with Olivia at the mill, and Clementine is no longer in the cage. We see a pair of legs though sticking out behind it, and Dr. Pryce is there, surveying the damage.
Also, the front of Olivia’s dress is drenched in blood.
Pryce does not look happy, and seems not surprised by finding her like that. He walks towards her, and behind the cage where he finds Clementine on the floor. We can’t see yet what Olivia has done, but by his reaction, it’s not good. Olivia seems almost amused by his reaction, and puts a new cigarette in her mouth. As Pryce tries to not look at Clementine, he tells Olivia over his shoulder, “Lod isn’t going to like this.”
Olivia says simply, “If they want Norman’s share, they’ll learn to. They knew where they were sending the little gollywog.”
Pryce tries to lecture her, telling her it was reckless what she did. He starts to blame the other murders on her, but she corrects him, “Not my handiwork.” He continues, talking about Clementine now, “Regardless, it’s sloppy. This was not some junkie or transient like the others. She will be missed.” Olivia starts fishing, trying to find out what is really going on with Pryce. She realizes that Pryce liked the girl, and then teases him, saying he could send her something almost resembling a flower. But Pryce gets angry. “For years I have been your janitor, making your messes go away. The blood on my hands is because of you. You couldn’t leave this one alone?”
Olivia quips back, “ I could. I chose not to. You don’t do it for me, you do it for yourself and your little project. Being my janitor protects you from Norman. The only people who are going to miss her are Lod, and now they know the consequences of crossing me when you need protection from them. Of course you could always just tender your resignation.” As she says that, she has a look of a woman who has all the cards she needs right in her hands. She is certain Pryce won’t leave her. Pryce on the other hand is angry and responds back with, “Why is it you’re the only one who hasn’t asked me what I am really doing?”
Olivia just looks at him point blank, “Because I don’t give a flying fuck.”
He tries to tell her back what he is doing is going to shape the world including her own, but she shrugs it off. She seems pretty sure that nothing can change her world. That the only thing she needs worry about is producing money. She doesn’t care what he does, as long as he continues to do what she requires. As she puts it, “I think you’ll find the world doesn’t change so easily.”
The weight of those words really hits you later on when you see more of who Olivia is.
Pryce of course isn’t convinced by her words. He thinks what he is doing WILL impact things. Pryce tries to change the subject and asks her if she knows who’s killing the girls, but Olivia dodges, telling him to “Stop being a pussy. Clean it up.” Before walking away, clearly bored of the conversation. She might as well leave a trail of ice in her wake. Pyrce is left with the mess and his anger, years of resentment for his situation stricken on his face. He wanders over to the dying Clementine, and we get a real good look at what Olivia has done.
And it is brutal. I won’t give it away, but I will say after Pryce shares a touching moment with the dying girl, he puts her out of her misery, finishing her off by suffocating her. A mercy once you see what was done, I assure you.
He does reveal to the poor dying Clementine that Olivia is right, and he can’t quit now that he’s so close. The mad Doctor must proceed with his project. After he kills Clementine, he takes out his tape recorder and speaks these words into it, “The lighthouse guiding a lone vessel through evil water is ever there was one. Full stop. He reminded himself, comma, again, comma, that whatever the sacrifice of personal conscience was required of him, comma, even his humanity, comma, was of scant consequence to his penance. Full stop.”
The scene that follows is of Norman going in to talk to Sworn again, this time Sworn is waiting for him in Norman’s office. They greet each other and Norman tries small talk, but Sworn reminds him he doesn’t wait to be Norman’s patient. Norman says simply, “It’s not the usual luggage people come in with.” Norman tells him he’s glad Sworn is there, knowing the man isn’t happy to be there at all. But somewhere inside Sworn knows he’s cracking. He asks Norman why didn’t it come for him, and Norman tells him, “Tom, I know you think that in some way you’re responsible…” But he’s cut off as Sworn says, “I’m not here for me. I’m just here to tell you that another girl’s gonna die, so if you have anything to say to any of the girls in your life, now would be the time.”
The scene changes and we see Peter and Roman driving up to Letha’s house. Letha meets them at the door, as Roman asks her what is going on. She explains Christina is over and asks them to stay in the doorway. Christina being curious, tries to peak at things from her seat in the living room. Letha comes to her and explains she won’t let anyone hurt her, just as Peter and Christina lock eyes on one another. Roman doesn’t think it’s a good idea, and Letha explains how scared she is, as Peter and her just keep staring. Peter tries to smooth things out first, saying it’s fine, as Christina says hi to him. Peter responds back, as if they were long lost friends just stumbling on one another.
It’s not a comfortable exchange, but it’s a surprising one.
Next we see everyone piled into a car, in awkward silence for quite some time. Peter keeps staring at Christina as they sit in the back together. After taking a smoke away from Roman, Letha tells Christina again that no one will hurt her. Christina tells her she knows and then blurts out at Peter, “I’m sorry I told everyone you’re a werewolf.” Peter is surprised by this, but accepts her apology. He tells her that he’s scared too, and asks her why she thinks it’s coming after her. She can’t explain it and he tells her, “Yeah, I know the feeling.”
The pull up in a convenience store after Peter teases he has to go to the washroom, and they find some lengthy and strong extension cord to purchase. Roman would normally have no issue buying it, except the owner of the store is a guy he razzed earlier in the show at the local bar. He gets some hassle and Peter tries to come to the rescue. They eventually get to pay for the cord and leave after Roman apologizes, acting like nothing happened when Letha questions them if anything was wrong. It was pretty big of him to apologize.
The Godfrey’s are almost as hated as the Rumanceks.
The next scene is of Norman in Shelley’s room, telling her they are still looking for the monster, that things are complicated between her mother and him and breaks the bad news about her friend. She takes it as well as can be expected, and we see her run away from the manor.
He does say something to her I found really painful but sweet. He tells her she shines on people. “You either show them what’s best in them or what’s most crummy. You’re always going to be surrounded by people who don’t deserve you.”
Poor glow worm.
Next we see Peter, Roman, Letha and Christina drive up to the abandoned chapel. Peter tells Christina she is safe as he starts to remove his jewelry. As he’s doing that, Christina mentions the odd moment where she kissed him once. He’s a little unnerved by it, but gets more so as she starts rambling on about other, more sinister things. It seems harmless at first, her confessions. She goes on about the twins losing their virginity, so she wanted to at least have a first kiss. “I wanted the experience. You know, it’s what writers do…That’s why I researched how to turn.”
This is the moment that things start to turn as well for all the people in the chapel. Christina explains reading on werewolves, drinking from Peter’s paw print as a wolf. “You’re either born one, bitten by one, or in the rare cases, a person chooses it.” She seems so innocent explaining her rational for choosing to drink from the paw print. That it was her writer’s curiosity, and her longing to be as free as Peter. But she didn’t bargain for what woke up inside her after the change. We see as things progress, that Christina isn’t just Christina any longer. She also is The Wolf, and the wolf is crazed, hungry, and all the ugly parts of her.
Peter takes her off to the side away from Roman and Letha and lies her up to a column. Christina allows it, and isn’t fully She-Wolf at that point. Her face starts slipping as he asks her questions, until we see the two parts of her melt into just the wolf. And it’s an amazing transformation. The actress really pulls off the split well, letting it slowly creep over her as she confesses things. He asks her if she can control her and if she can hear her other name. She just says she wanted to and decided to change. She asks him if he will kill her, and he says yes. She asks him if he hates her, but he says no.
“I wanted more than anything to feel her fear on my tongue and her bones crunch beneath my teeth. And her blood run down the fur on my neck. It’s okay, you can kill me as long as you don’t hate me.”
As he questions her, Peter sees her struggle with the wolf, and watches her succumb to it. It’s beautifully done, and we see the jealousy of others that drove her to pick her victims, and that she enjoys the kills. She thrives on it, and her eyes light up thinking about it. She blames Peter for what she is, and tells him he helped make her.
When the change finally takes over completely, she tells Peter in a distorted voice that she’s never heard her other name. That’s when we see fully the other creature that lurks inside her. One of my favorite things she says at this point as the creature explains its motives is this, “That’s the thing about whispers. You put a thousand of them together and you get a howl.”
Next we see Letha and Roman holding each other as Christina transforms into the wolf, and Peter watches her old face fall off and the wolf eat it. She’s a white wolf, and Peter stares her down as she snaps her jaws at him. He takes out the grease and smears it all over his face. Roman holds Letha back the whole time Peter confronts Wolf-Christina, and she breaks her bonds and eats his face off.
I love how this show is fearless in its brutality. We see it all, even the jaw hang uselessly as he falls the ground.
Roman tells Letha to run as he grabs his axe to fight the Vargulf.
And that is the cliffhanger we are left with this time! Stay tuned for the conclusion of season one of Hemlock Grove!
Comments are closed.