I don’t know what it is with Forever’s scheduling, it’s so random it could be on Fox. If it gets
any worse it could be called Firefly
(I’m not bitter)
Amusingly, a sailor tells his crew to be quiet about the
treasure they’ve just found – conveniently expositioning that they’d found
treasure. The guy gets stabbed, probably for being too gabby while telling
everyone to keep shtum.
Time to catch up with Abe and Henry snaking over Henry’s
many stories and how Abe can quote them back to him. Jo drops in to take him to
the murder because apparently dead bodies aren’t urgent enough to warrant using
the phone.
The dead man is Rick, he has been killed with a harpoon
and everyone is delightfully snarky. The autopsy not only confirms that being
impaled with a harpoon is deadly, but also that Rick has been diving lately and
since his job is to salvage wrecks, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what
he was doing. They also find that he found gold which means Lucas now simply
has to do a pirate impression. I can sympathise, so would I.
To his warehouse - and of course Henry goes with them,
crime dramas never confine pathologists to the morgue or doing their job (it
could be worse, he could be Nikki Alexander). They find the latest artefacts
Rick has salvaged –
it’s from the slave ship that Henry was on when he first died.
Henry goes back to Abe, shaken, in part because the ship
was found far from where it should be. And after previously talking about all
of the stories Henry has told, Abe pokes him about keeping this one, his first
death, so quiet. Henry’s secrecy is because the ship
was owned by his family. Flashback time, in which Henry tried to help the
slaves escape and take over the ship.
He failed, of course, and this causes him considerable guilt
weasels, especially since the ship went down and everyone on board died. He
also considers himself cursed – despite his general disbelief in woo-woo,
except his own immortality.
To Rick’s memorial at the bar where Henry’s genius
identifies 2 guys who were on Rick’s ship and his bothering the bartender
highlights her as suspicious as well. Time for arrest and questioning where
they learn that only Rick knew where the gold was hidden. Henry is part of the
questioning and he is far more focused in the condition of the ship and how it
sunk than he is in learning about Rick’s murder. Lt. Reece quickly calls
shenanigans and sidelines Henry.
Forbidden from the investigation, Henry and Abe break in to
Rick’s warehouse. Of course they do. There they find the shot body of the slave
Henry tried to rescue before someone else breaks in and starts causing a bit of
havoc around the place. Of course Henry intervenes which is foolish because, naturally,
Jo and Hanson are watching the warehouse. Everyone who broke into the warehouse
is arrested
Including Henry and Abe. Or they would have been if Jo
hadn’t covered for them – though she wants an explanation and she isn’t buying
the fact his obsession is linked to the murder. His excuse is pretty flimsy and
Jo gently pokes him to get his head back in the game and on the case.
They question the other guy who broke in, George,he’s an
old friend of Rick’s who was cut out of finding the ship because he objected to
trying after they lost a diver on their first attempt (the ship, the Empress of
Africa, was too deep). They also learn that Rick had a rich investor – because without
one he wouldn’t have been able to reach such a deep sunk ship.
Henry keeps investigating the dead slave when he and
Lucas realise that he had been buried in a coffin – which wasn’t the fate of
dead slaves on a slave ship.
Time to chase down the investor, called Isaac Monroe,
giving a speech to the explorers club which Jo and Henry invite themselves too.
Though Henry is most put out she doesn’t let him dress for the black tie
affair. Isaac’s speech means reveal the millions in gold they salvaged from the
Empress of Africa – and Issac’s plan to donate it to an education charity. He also
winks at Jo which causes her jaw to drop. He flirts with Jo while she rebuffs
him – but Henry gets a call to draw him away. There’s another guest at the
event: Adam
He rather sinisterly recites Henry’s history (and, of course he knows that Henry was on the Empress of Africa) and among the artefacts recovered he shows Henry the captain’s pistol – the same weapon that killed Henry in his first death – and tells him it’s very precious. Jo’s arrival and Adam’s disappearance stops any further revelations.
Isaac continues to flirt with Jo and sends flowers (his
alibi checks out putting him on Jo’s radar). While Adam sends Henry a different
present – the gun. Lucas decides to joke about how terrible a weapon a
flintlock pistol was and how ridiculously useless you were if you got shot by
one. Ouch. Henry has a revelation while poor Lucas is trying to claim Watson to
Henry’s Sherlock. Poor Lucas.
Since Jo is on a date with Isaac (dinner at his house.
Hmmm that’s a… gutsy choice of first date), Henry has to give his revelation
that the dead diver (remember him? He was mentioned once in passing) is related
to the bartender, Margot (remember her?)
Margot is seeking more vengeance and decides to target Isaac
since he financed the dive. Hanson and Henry arrive but hesitate to break down
the door during Jo’s date while Marvin Gaye is playing because there are some
things that you do not interrupt a colleague doing.
Inside Jo and Margot fight (Isaac is unconscious) and the
noise they make need some interpretation before Henry and Hanson are convinced
they’ll be interrupting a fight and not sex. Margot is arrested, Henry snarks
at Jo bringing a gun on a date
At the police station I kind of love how Lt. Reece makes
sure Jo and Isaac have some alone time (hey she even pretends not to be
listening!) Isaac and Jo agree to a second date.
Henry speaks to Isaac about how he knew where the Empress
of Africa was – he had a map, hand written by one of the salves who was a
scholar before being enslaved. He also has his history – after Henry died the
key he stole dropped from his hand and the scholar, Obi, managed to achieve
what Henry wanted; escape, taking over the ship sailing it north where it sank
and escaping to shore. Isaac is one of their descendants.
Henry is elated that they survived, that he didn’t get
the slaves killed.
Adam calls to add a sinister note – he tells Henry his
belief that the weapon that killed them the first time is the only thing that
can actually kill them. Adam lost his dagger so can’t prove it. Adam reveals
all this while happily balanced on girder over traffic
Henry also fixes on a clock ticking which Abe says is
always ticking – I think I missed this. The relevance of the clock?
I’m a little annoyed at Henry’s expertise identifying
suspects and people to speak to in the bar let alone beyond part of the
questioning (even if he was inept there, though his ineptitude was more due to
his own agenda). Yes, he’s a genius and he knows a great deal – but at least
let his man-out-of-time thing make him a little awkward in reading modern
people. Or put this well beyond his experience. Or otherwise reserve one small
element of investigation where Henry doesn’t render Jo and Hanson utterly
superfluous. It really hampers both characters to be in Henry’s shadow at all
times
I do like the bringing of Adam back into the story
because it gives the plot a point, along with Henry’s history, beyond being a
crime drama with a different crime every week. I think Adam is such an
excellent character, so wonderfully sinister with a lot of shady motives (can
we even characterise him as an antagonist?) and wonderful moments like playing
above the traffic to really bring home what an alien creature he is.
I don’t think the show has done a great job of depicting
Henry as cursed, sure he talks about it sometimes and he has some pretty bleak
moments (that were excellently well done) but most of the time he seems to
enjoy life and take a lot of joy from his day to day existence.
I do wonder what killed by the original weapon means –
could Henry bludgeon himself to death with the gun or would he have to be shot?
And if the latter, is it even possible for that gun to fire?
The history of the slave ship – on the one side it’s intriguing,
I’m glad to see a Black face, a modern Black character, attached to that story
and it makes some very nice points (I liked that one of the slaves was a scholar
and a person rather than just a faceless mass of “slaves”). At the same time we
have a story of a slave ship, slaves escaping, taking over the ship and finding
freedom all being written as, basically, the emotional journey and back story
of a white character.
