Paris, 1884
Olivia is a prisoner, she’s dressed in Hessian, chained
an her head is sealed in a metal mask.
She is being held by the Chancellor of the Order which has fought the Upir for
5 centuries. Most Upir are savages but he thinks Olivia will listen to a truce
– targeting people the Chancellor considers expendable (the “degenerate”
“imbeciles”, the “shiftless”); she will be monitored. She’s also to organise
the upir so they’re self-policing. Before she agrees she proves that she could
kill the Chancellor to make it clear she’s agreeing to his treaty, not obeying
him
To the present!
Roman and Peter are digging graves for the Masked men
they killed - and Roman tells Peter
about the human treatments he’s taking. They eventually decide not to bury them
because it’s nearly impossible in the frozen soil. They drag the bodies to the
car – and realise Roman can’t be left alone with them because his blood hunger
is giving him issues.
At the police station, Nadine
reports Roman’s attack on her husband/pimp to Michael; Michael is very very
very interested in information about Roman’s violence.
Back to the murder cover up, one of the bodies starts
moving – she’s alive. Peter thinks they need to speak to the authorities (when
did he get so much faith in the system?) while Roman votes no, the publicity
and prominence of the trial would be very very bad for them. Peter is a little
surprised and reluctant when the idea of killing is raised. They resolve to
take her home and question her (personally I think that’s a terrible idea given
trace evidence – someone needs to go to the Orphan
Black Allison school of body disposal - but also it may just be delaying the
inevitable until internal injuries finish her off).
Apparently they have some sense and the question the
woman, Sarah. Who hasn’t said her own name for 10 years and even seems to have
trouble remembering it. She was kidnapped by the other man, a “John Bone” and
taken to a cult camp in the Utah desert – he had this strange idea that killing
families would bring about the apocalypse. And the equally strange idea that
bringing about the apocalypse would be a good thing. The kidnapped cultists
were kept in line with death threats – and actual killing
She asks them to tell her mother she was sorry if she
died – and Roman finds the missing person case of Sarah when she was a child.
Peter is still wary of being conned (he’s hyper aware of scams) but Roman
doubts very much a wounded and possibly dying woman is trying to scam them and
had all the internet details at hand ready to pull it off just in case. Peter
also doesn’t have much sympathy – Sarah chose to murder; Roman calls bullshit –
raised in a cult under those conditions she had no choice.
They get her into the car with Roman rather comically trying
to cheer her up about how wonderful a reunion with her family will be. But
Peter holds her at knife point for an extremely over-reaction reason – looks like
changing on the wrong moon is having repercussions. Maybe… but he sees her
reaching for something and stabs her – Roman is horrified until they see she
reached for a grenade pin. Yup, still a cult member. 10 points to Peter.
Except this is when Michael arrive sin a police car to
find them handling 2 dead bodies. Michael cuffs them both then examines the
bodies – he finds one watch with an odd rune on it that makes him thoughtful
and he uncuffs both of them. And tells them both to keep quiet and not mention
it – or they’ll die.
Ok this may be the first time Hemlock Grove has pulled off the acting because a human just
threatened a werewolf and a vampire and made it believable.
At the Godfrey institute, Johann continues his plan to
upload Shelly’s brain into Prycilla. I’m not sure if I followed it (because Hemlock Grove) but the process seems
more like creating a Shelly copy in Prycilla then killing Shelly. This does not
sound ideal and I think Shelly has doubts – though Johann thinks it’s perfect,
especially since Shelly is wanted for murder.
Olivia also drops in for a meal that doesn’t go well –
human weakness? Her being possibly injured makes Johann insist on an MRI which
finds a mass in her brain – Johann refers her to an oncologist. Olivia goes
into full denial mode, but takes his recommendation. And the guy she is recommended
to tells her she has brain cancer – and only a 20% chance of survival.
At the recuperation home where Olivia is staying, Norman
and private detective Letitia use UV to check for hidden blood. There’s a lot
of it – Norman finally realises that Olivia is responsible for Marie’s death. Norman
is no longer Team!Olivia but Letitia points out actually all this glowy stuff
is bleach which also lights up in Luminol (so does horseradish – random fact)
so it’s proof of a whole lot of cleaning – but not murder. But it is proof of
careful cleaning because Letitia didn’t spray luminol – a professional cleaning
team must have done it to ensure they got every drop of blood.
Still, Norman is on the warpath and is determined to make
Olivia pay – adding that the DNA test proves she isn’t human. Letitia is wiser,
she talks about growing up around Santeria and learning that the Brujos will
always get you.
Peter and Roman go back to Roman’s house and discover
Nadia has been taken by Miranda. Talking about getting her back is interrupted
by another murder dream/vision/thing. This time including the White Tower
They try to talk about that and then Norman visits, eh
wants to talk to Roman about odd DNA and European folklore. Roman seems to be a
little tired of the secrets because he’s quite happy to say “yup, we’re upir”.
This goes for more complexity and angst with Roman saying he’s done with his
mother and Norman finally confessing that he’s Roman’s actual father.
Roman isn’t really impressed by the guy
admitting it after nearly 20 years especially since he already had a father who
he hero worships
Miranda arrives at a diner with a crying Nadia and
struggles inside – and the doctor she visits bustles up to be helpful and
awesome and offer great advice and generally be the best doctor ever. She
leaves very quickly. And she goes to Destiny’s who then calls Peter and Roman.
Miranda, your planning is lacking.
Michael goes to see his priesty contact man and punches
him. That’s one way to say hello. He hands over the symbol he found on the dead
man’s watch – it’s the same symbol that his sister Clementine wore and the same
symbol the priest has in his house. The priest tries to talk about people
impersonating them so Michael hits him again. He finally claims that they have
dissidents and promises to deal with them. The priest, Francis, calls the
chancellor and tells her they have a rogue element; the chancellor doesn’t care
about some serial killers, and dismisses it. Francis threatens her with the
police so she agrees to send an envoy.
That envoy arrives – with a group of other masked men
with guns.
Back to the White Tower and Prishelly meets Shelly for
the first time – it’s a great scene with some good acting. Prishelly wants Shelly
to stay in the White Tower; she desperately tells Shelly that she’s beautiful,
that she can live and deserves to. They lie together but Shelly is determined
to go through with dying
To Destiny’s and Miranda has to absorb the big reveal of
Upir and werewolves and Peter even speaks in defence of Roman. Destiny still
threatens Roman with a knife for going near Nadia what with the whole double
murder and dream following (Peter’s not impressed because he knows she’s not
about to get all stabby). Miranda backs them up with the murder dream
prediction thing. Destiny reluctantly agrees to help.
Which means another prediction in the bathroom, this time
involving drowning Destiny in ice water. All three of them holding her under,
though Miranda is obviously a little perturbed by this. She gets a full vision
of the masked people’s lair, them hunting down kids born with cauls. She also
sees the face of the man who went to Francis – he senses her and when he stands
up she is pushed from the vision.
She tells them they’re looking for a specific child and are willing to kill all of these kids with cauls to get the right one. Which includes Nadia – she was born with a caul.
Back to the Godfrey institute and Dr. Zheleznova-Burdukovskaya gives a
lot of info to Olivia. Firstly, the blood sludge Johann makes isn’t for upir,
it’s just the biproduct of his failed experiments – in other words, it’s
previous Prycilla’s he’s tried to create all ground up in a vat. And if Olivia
wants to beat her cancer the best way is to eat his successful experiment –
Prycilla (or Prshelly).
Michael
drops in on Francis and finds him filled with arrows but alive. Michael’s not
too upset by this nor even focused on hunting down the cult – so Francis drops
the bomb that Olivia killed Clementine. He didn’t go after Olivia because of
the pact – especially since the White Tower (which he is part of through
Johann) will use technology to destroy all Upirs. Michael doesn’t really care
and grants Francis “mercy” via quicker death.
Time for
some riding out – in addition to Michael, Norman also heads out with a gun, going
for Olivia. After a good scene with a sleepy Roman, Peter goes out to scout the
warehouse where they think the cult is. Olivia goes hunting Prishelly
Peter gets
inside and finds all the pictures and costumes form Destiny’s vision – then shifts
– or starts to: people point guns at him with laser sights before he can start –
and shoot him.
Olivia leans
over to bite Prishelly – and she wakes up and calls Olivia mother.
I think
these masked serial killers have had their storyline rushed a little – as has
Michael and Francis. I think, for 10 episodes, Hemlock Grove has just
overflowed the plot lines- there’s too much. Norman and Letitia, the original,
quickly removed storyline of Lynda being arrested – these were easily dropped.
Even without them, fitting in Roman and Olivia both apparently transforming,
Peter the vargulf, Miranda and the baby, Shelly, and the masked serial killers
would be a big ask to fit them all in the show – but
But things
are coming together, storylines are converging and we even had some pretty good
scenes in this episode, real emotion and connection and Miranda brought into
the loop.
