Clarice – Achilles Heel

By: Kelly Kearney

With a merger in the works at Alastor Pharmaceuticals time is almost up for the ViCAP team to sniff out their killer before all the evidence in the case disappears, or at least winds up in a Caymen Islands protected by a shell company. In “Achilles Heel,” Clarice gets a peek into the world of a modern day Greek God and with it a clue that could blow the murder investigation wide open.

Profiling a Killer

Nobody knows killers quite like Agent Clarice Starling (Rebecca Breeds). She knows how they think, how they hunt and has a good idea of what motivates them too. When we open on the eleventh episode, we are once again in the recesses of Agent Starling’s mind as she embarks on a creepy flashback of her father. As the series continues to climb to its ultimate story climax, these glimpses into the man Clarice idolizes have shifted from happy father/daughter moments to ones with sinister undertones. When we next see her she is back at Bureau mapping out the river murders with Tomas (Lucca De Oliveira) and Ardelia (Devyn A. Tyler). In her best profile breakdown Clarice thinks their killer loves an audience and purposefully makes sure he would get one by how he killed his victims and where he left them. Tomas agrees and goes a step further by pointing out that the killings seem to be about shaming the victim and tormenting their families. Narcissists like to show their work and leaving the victims in a river is not exactly the move you would make if you were trying to fly under radar. It’s time to talk to Tyson! But first we catch up with Ardelia, who just left an unproductive meeting with her boss about her EEOC complaint. The condescending man goes overboard trying to sweet talk her into thinking they are a team. Her concerns are once again, pushed to the wayside.

Ardelia is not the only one facing a possible career ending moment for telling the truth. Paul meets with Ruth (Jayne Atkinson) to fill her in on all the Hudlin details and what ViCAP has been up to in the basement of the Hoover building. He comes clean about covering up the forged test results and admits Hudlin was blackmailing him to keep them away from the case. Understandably, The Attorney General is livid. Paul went behind her back and coupled with how Clarice turned Catherine in for her crimes against Lila Gumb, Ruth’s position as A.G. is at risk. She rants, “I wish Clarice would do as she’s told!” Paul, who now sees Clarice’s competence as a positive addition and not liability, reminds Ruth that if she followed orders than she would not have saved Catherine from Bill, not to mention the Lila situation could have been a lot worse if Clarice had not shown up when she did.

Daddy Issues

When Clarice meets with Tyson (Douglas Smith), he immediately accuses her of profiling him to get to Joe. He is not wrong, profiling is in her blood, but since the two have a friendly rapport, Ty gives in and opens up about his father and Hudlin, who he refers to as “a predator.” Tyson tells Clarice that Joe has a hold on his father and influences him in “dark ways.” Since their partnership at Alastor, his father has been making decisions he would not normally make. For example: the merger. Tyson thinks his father will regret it, but with Hudlin’s prodding the old man cannot see it. This opens up the conversation to the similarities between their complicated fathers. While her father kept her close, which we see in flashbacks when he calls her his “little deputy,” Ty found his father as an adult, but they both are equally protective of them. “Everything we do, we do for them.” Tyson then tries to get Clarice to admit she thinks Hudlin is the killer, but no matter how friendly these two are,Agent Starling is not giving up the details of her case.

Heading back to the AG’s office, after weeks of no-contact, Catherine (Marnee Carpenter) calls her mother to thank her for sending her away for help. Her time in the mental health facility has opened her eyes and she is just now beginning to see clearly. So much so, that their touching phone call is missing the usual bite and pain we so often see between mother and daughter. Catherine is healing and it is partly thanks to Clarice’s two rescues. When she thanks Ruth she asks her to extend it to Clarice for another save; first, from Bill and then from herself. Slightly stunned, Ruth appears to be stuck between her outrage and her gratitude for the young agent. It is a mood shared with everyone in Clarice’s life.

Mergers, Greek Myths and the Tragedies of Greed

Back in the offices of the FBI, the ViCAP team gets word from Julia (Jen Richards) about a merger planned for Alastor Pharmaceuticals and they immediately realize their time is running out. Any evidence linking the experimental drug protocols to the victims will either be destroyed, lost or left in merger limbo far away from any federal probing eyes. Hudlin is working overtime now to cover his tracks, sooner or later he will make a mistake and Clarice tells Paul she is counting on that. Murray, who is well-versed on the dangers of desperate men, tries to tell Clarice that “Nancy Drew” needs to chill before she gets caught and risks their entire investigation. Hudlin is smart and it is possible he is on to Julia’s moonlighting with the feds. If in the beginning you had told me Murray was going to be the trans ally this story needed, I would have called you a liar, but he is and Julia is lucky he has her back.

With time running out, Clarice tells Paul she wants to question Hudlin in person but he thinks it is a bad move since she is barely over her kidnapping. Clarice disagrees and thinks her presence will make him feel powerful and that confidence will be his undoing. She feels ready, but Paul is not letting her go it alone. Tomas, fresh back from vacation with the in-laws, and Shaan (Kal Penn) will go with her. There will be no alone time with the suspect “lives depend on you understanding.”

When the three agents arrive to meet Hudlin, Clarice takes one look at him and her vision blurs, triggering her back to the first time they met at Felker’s Hospital of Horrors. Once they are in his office, the three agents start to question Joe about sales representative Naomi’s suicide overdose on Reprisol. Joe shrugs it off since lawyers do not mingle much with other employees, but Clarice pushes him to clarify his position at Alastor knowing he was in contact with Naomi. He explains his official title is “General Council” but he is more of a consultant. Clarice questions if consultants typically oversee the goings-on of pharmacy reps and mergers, and that seems to grab Joe’s attention. The merger is not public knowledge so how does Clarice know about it? She does not give up Julia as her source and thankfully so because Julia is on the fifth floor looking for more evidence to feed the FBI. Joe tries to cut their meeting short claiming he is heading into another meeting, one that Clarice wonders if the “all-encompassing consultant” will be “counting all the tampons in the ladies room?” Her sarcasm is noted, but just as he starts to threaten them with legal action for interfering in their business, he is handed a note with a request for Clarice to meet with Nils Hagen alone.

As expected, Hagen (Peter McRobbie) is a creepy, isolated billionaire. He is curious about the timing of her interest in his son, coming on the heels of this big merger. He is suspicious because in his experience “there are no coincidences.” Clarice explains it is all about the investigation into the death of Naomi, who Hagen does not know and cares even less about her demise. He deflects the conversation to the art hanging in his office, which gives Clarice some insight on him, his parenting styles and his obsession with the name Alastor. Clarice imparts on him her wisdom of the name. Alastor: Horse of Hades and another name for Zeus, the son of Cronos, the titan who devoured all of his children (all except Alastor) in fear they would usurp his power. This leads her to wonder why Hagen, a father and a God of business, would name his beloved company after a jealous and murderous father.

Busted!

Back to “Nancy Drew” on the fifth floor, Julia’s hunt for clues gets cut short when security grabs her just as she is informing Murray (Nick Sandow) of her big find! She uncovered damaging evidence proving Alastor Pharmaceuticals knew about the dangers of Reprisol and now wants to fax the copies to the ViCAP team. She winds up getting escorted out of the office before she can Murray all the documents.

Meanwhile, Clarice gets an earful when Hagen tries to convince her that survival is his interpretation of the Cronos myth, not jealousy fueled infanticide. It has nothing to do with how he feels towards Tyson who he claims he did his best for. He offers up his deeply introspective study of the Cronos painting by comparing art and children to “miraculous interpretations of truth” and now Hagen wants the truth about everything Tyson shared with Clarice. Her manipulations of his son have not gone unnoticed and now Daddy wants her to spill the tea. This kicks off a game of tit for tat as the two engage in a little verbal dance. Clarice compares Cronos’s surviving son to Tyson, which the old man flips back on her when he points out her infatuation with evil men. He offers up an image of Clarice and the killers she catches as teammates in an unholy game of death. She helps complete their crimes and is as much a thread in their murderous tapestry as their victims are. Hagen accuses her of being ego driven and feeling above the men she captures, but Clarice flips this back to Hagen when she realizes he sees the river victims like bugs beneath him. Then he leans over the desk and calls her “the bug that got away!” Clarice capitulates that Hagen created Alastor Pharmaceuticals as his child until Tyson came along and threatened his power, just like Zeus did to Cronos. This enrages Hagen who storms out of the office to meet Joe and a group of men in the hallway; one of which Clarice recognized as the fake cop who brought the poisonous root beer into the police station! After that reveal, she excuses herself and heads downstairs to meet Tomas and Shaan. In the meantime, Julia is being held by a note-taking security guard who hands her off to the root beer cop and another suit that rush her to the basement garage and wait for a car. Julia, sensing this is a bit off, tries to make a run for it but gets caught and held at gun point by Hagen’s men. That is when Clarice, Shaan and Tomas enter the garage and pull their guns demanding the men let Julia go. Joe runs in with his hands up saying it was all a misunderstanding because tensions are high during the merger. They release Julia and she leaves with Clarice and the team before she winds up the next victim of a “suicide.”

Back in DC, Clarice tells her fellow agents they got it wrong. Hudlin is not their guy. It is Hagen. In her experience, these types of killers tend to be outsiders; people living on the fringe. Hagen is powerful and has an army of people protecting him, and that sets him apart from most people. She also concludes that his son could be in danger so Paul should put a security detail on him, even though he broke off their friendship and accused her of using him. She does the same for Julia, who is definitely on Hagen/Hudlin’s radar. On the plus side, she managed to mail the Xeroxed files to her grandma in Boise, so Murray should get those files in a few days.

Later that night Clarice has another disturbing dream where images of her father pushing her towards a group of men have her unsettled and searching for comfort from Ardelia. Quietly, Clarice admits she is worried these dreams could mean she built her life around a lie. Could the man she worshipped be the harbinger of all her fears? If lies are what is keeping Agent Starling awake than Ruth might not ever sleep again after she gets a call from Nils Hagen ordering her to drop the investigation into him or else, he will leak the details of Catherine’s current situation. Her daughter went from victim to predator, and Nils will use that shocking newsbyte to ruin them both if she refuses to call off her dogs. It looks like it is time to add the Attorney General to the list of people who have been compromised! With only two episodes left, Clarice has her work cut out for her.