Clarice – Are You Alright?

By: Kelly Kearney

We are three episodes into Clarice and the latest seems to be the first episode dipping its toes into something more than just another procedural drama. The moths have landed, literally everywhere in Clarice’s mind, reminding us that she can fill her days with VICAP cases. But the lambs continue to scream from the leftover trauma of Buffalo Bill.

Trauma Finds Clarice Like a Moth to a Flame

The episode begins with Clarice (Rebecca Breeds) back on the proverbial therapy couch where her therapist (Shawn Doyle) tests his patient with a little verbal sparring over why she was sent to him in the first place. It is said that doctors make for terrible patients and that seems to be the same for FBI agents who specialize in behavioral science. Clarice does not seem to appreciate it when someone picks her psyche apart anymore than the suspects on her cases do. Besides the head shrinking she is not too keen on opening up to a man who might be reporting their sessions back to her superiors at the FBI. If Clarice plans to keep her job she has to open up in therapy, but she is not one to trust so easily and especially with this guy who corners her and makes her feel so small. If she is hesitant to share the inner workings of her mind and why she cannot stop thinking about Buffalo Bill’s moths, it might be because of her history with creepy doctors. With his accusatory questions he throws down from his therapist pedestal, this guy has that familiar creep factor in spades! After the two go a few rounds of “you are not smarter than me,” Clarice falls into her own memories about the case of the river killer. Instead of taking a victory lap after she successfully stopped sex trafficking at the militia compound shoot out, Clarice headed over the trauma center where the river killer’s surviving victim Rebecca (Caitlin Stryker) was recovering from her ordeal.  Trauma is something the two women have in common, so Clarice was able to get Rebecca to briefly talk about her attacker. Apparently, the man we now know as Karl Wellig (Kris Holden-Ried) drugged the reporter and did not seem to care if she saw his face behind the mask he wore since he knew he was going to kill her. Other than those small details, Rebecca is too distraught to talk about anything else, but Clarice is invested in this victim and getting to the truth about Wellig and whether or not he was paid to kill for someone has really occupied her mind. As she thinks about Rebecca and what she survived, the moths flit and flutter around her brain reminding her of her father, but no clear answers come from it. Avoidance and throwing herself into her work is how Clarice deals with her emotional turmoil. So when she comes back to the present, she politely excuses herself from her therapy session and heads to Karl Wellig’s interrogation.

Clarice is a Team Player

After disobeying Krendler (Michael Cudlitz) and telling the press the river murders were not the work of a serial killer, Clarice’s boss had to do some PR damage. She might be right about Wellig, but if Paul wants to keep VICAP going he is going to have to please Attorney General Martin (Jayne Atkinson). That means their newest agent has to keep her mouth shut and stick with her team. Clarice understood why Paul had to do what he did, but just because she agreed to stay away from the press does not mean she cannot find out everything she can about Wellig and this case. For starters, when Wellig was fingerprinted and gave them his teeth impressions to match to the bites on the victims Clarice picked up on the fact he has a code when it came to women. It seems odd for a man who they caught trying to murder Rebecca suddenly display his moral side. Paul and the team decide to exploit his ethical side for a confession. He might not have acted alone but their job is to close the case and a confession would go a long way towards making AG Martin happy. The plan falls apart the minute Wellig catches on to what they are doing and does not offer them anything close to a confession. Always the observant one, Agent Esquivel (Lucca De Oliveira) spots a familiar military tattoo on Wellig’s arm and he recognizes it as the symbol for an elite group of snipers in the Marines. Thomas was also a sharpshooter in the corps and Clarice realizes that could be their in to get Wellig to talk. She sends Agent Esquivel back into the room to try and talk to Wellig soldier to soldier. If the suspect feels understood by his fellow Marine, maybe he will be willing to open up to him. As the two ex-soldiers talk about their time fighting in warzones, we see that more and more Karl does not fit the profile of a serial killer. Not that it matters much. AG Martin was pressured by the House Committee to live up to her promises when she was appointed to office and that means Paul Krendler and VICAP need to hand her a serial killer, even if Wellig is not one. If VICAP wants to remain operational and get government funding to crack cases and take murderers off the streets, she is going to have to prove it is worth the cost to taxpayers. Politics plays a big factor in this, and it is why Krendler feels the need to manufacture a serial killing out of these river murders. Sooner or later, they will catch their next Buffalo Bill, but they need to stay in business long enough to do so and Wellig is the key to their eventual success.

It is easy to see why Ruth is so determined to follow through on her promises when we see her at home with her daughter Catherine (Marnee Carpenter). The child she knew never came out of that hole in Bill’s basement; what did was a woman she does not even recognize. Locked behind her bedroom door and starving herself Catherine cannot function – she is drowning in her trauma. She is a recluse who refuses to leave her room even take Precious the dog for a walk. It is just self-abuse, doggie wee pads, memories of deadly moths and wrestling her inner demons behind that bedroom door and Ruth is at a loss with how to help her. It is no wonder she keeps pressuring Catherine to talk to Clarice and vice versa. The two of them could comfort each other as survivors of a horror she can never relate to. If only Clarice would just pick up the phone. But just like Catherine, her trauma is driving her actions. Clarice can somewhat function and reaching out to her good friend Ardelia (Devyn A. Tyler) is proof. The two are close and you can tell since it is the only time Clarice seems to relax and smile. It also does not hurt that Ardelia is supportive of her friend in both her personal and professional life. She is quickly becoming an unofficial member of the VICAP team and proves it when she mentions the teeth impressions of Wellig not matching the bites on the victims!

Poisoning The Case

The news about the teeth mold gets Paul Krendler’s attention and he agrees to allow Clarice back inside the interrogation room for another shot at getting Wellig to talk. As she pushes him, she gets a sense that he is ready to snitch on who hired him and why, but what about that deal he asked for the night he was captured? He asked that for a reason and we find out what he really wants is protection after he flips. A spot in their Witness Protection program seems to be what would make Wellig talk, so who is he afraid of? Unfortunately, we do not find out thanks to a sip of tainted root beer and a distraction outside the interrogation room door. Wellig’s lawyer, who had been raising a ruckus about getting in to see his client, took off running when he was pushed to show the FBI agents his credentials. If that was not odd enough, then came the bagged lunch dropped off by a friendly cop who went to the trouble to write Wellig’s name on the bag. When Karl cracked open his soda to take a sip, he crumbled in his seat gasping for air and eventually dies in the floor. The root beer was poisoned with a chemical that was traced back to a pharmaceutical company, the same one that linked the three victims in the river murders! Clarice was right all along! Karl Wellig was not a serial killer acting alone, someone paid him to do it and that person sent him a poisoned soda shut him up for good. It looks like the VICAP team is back to square one because on top of losing Wellig and their only lead, now Rebecca has gone missing from the trauma treatment center. It is one step forward for Clarice and two steps back for this case.

With the disappointing loss of both Karl and Rebecca fresh on her mind, Clarice heads back to D.C. for therapy, but the session does not last long. Before they can start arguing about her treatments she tells the creepy counselor that she knows she needs help, but she will need someone much smarter than him to get it. She fires him, but in her own admission that she is struggling we see the first steps of her healing. It takes a lot for her to admit she has a problem, but it also shows her strength when she realizes that fixing herself will have to be on her own terms. She is taking control of her life, and maybe that is the first step to silencing those lambs and evicting the moths from her mind.