Clarice – Family is Freedom

By: Kelly Kearney

After uncovering the macabre truth about Alastor Pharmaceuticals, Clarice makes the fatal mistake of trusting his soft-spoken son, Tyson, resulting in another imprisonment at the hands of his father. ViCAP is determined to rescue the young agent from the animal testing lab she is being held in before her name is added to the ever-increasing list of Nils Hagen’s victims.

Recapturing the Bug That Got Away

When Nils Hagen referred to Clarice Starling as “the bug that got away” the bite on his tone played like regret for a missed opportunity. One that presents itself again the minute Clarice (Rebecca Breeds) opens her front door to find Tyson (Douglas Smith) on her doorstep. Ignoring all her cop instincts, Clarice trusts Tyson and allows him in. The two start discussing their fathers, with Clarice having just remembered the dark truth about the man she idolized. Admitting to Tyson that she isn’t sure if she still wants to be an FBI agent since she followed that path to hon0r the man she now knows was anything but honorable. Her life and her purpose are intertwined in her love for a man whose truth was a fantasy she made up in her head.

At ViCAP the team is going over Tyson Conway’s record trying to find any links that could tie him to his father’s crimes. With his non-profit working to help women in war-torn countries escape to the United States, Tyson is up to his doe eyes in this baby factory/killing scheme. Unfortunately, outside of a few misdemeanors, Tyson’s record is clean. Nothing at all indicates he is pimping out immigrants to fluff his father’s nefarious lineage. He isn’t even named in his father’s will, so financial influence doesn’t seem to be a factor. This all sums up the question: What does Tyson gain from helping his father? When the team leaves a message for Clarice to call them immediately she ignores it and asks Tyson what is behind his visit. He feels connected to her because she sees him for who he really is and, likewise, he sees her. He can tell she is still holding on to the baggage of her father, and she admits that finding out he was a criminal and a coward, has been a hard fact to swallow. Tyson, who spots her broken necklace tossed on the floor, picks it up and tells her the chain appears to be broken not unlike her commitment to the man who gifted it to her. As Tyson rambles on about his own wavering loyalty to Nils, Clarice gets an even more urgent message from ViCAP that reads: “Tyson + Suspect.” It comes too late because when Tyson preemptively apologizes for what comes next Clarice puts it all together and realizes she is in danger. She takes off to the front door in an attempt escape, but two armed men of Hagen’s are waiting on the other side. As Clarice kicks and fights for her life, the men place duct tape over her mouth and wheel her out of the building strapped to a gurney. In the ensuing struggle she manages to drop her broken necklace like a clue that something went down in that apartment.

With no response from the messages they sent, Shaan (Kal Penn) and Ardelia (Devyn Tyler) head over to the apartment to warn Clarice away from Tyson. They arrive too late, but Ardelia (who knows her roommate never leaves without her beaded necklace) spots the broken bauble on the floor and immediately knows her bestie is in danger.

Daddy Issues

Cut to an animal testing lab where Clarice is tossed into a cell alongside other screaming and caged women. In between the cracks in the walls Clarice gets the woman next to her, Raisa (Veronika Slowikowska), to talk. She and the rest of the immigrant women are medical students being held prisoner until they can be impregnated by Hagen. In the biggest reveal yet she tells the agent that the killings weren’t about covering up the side effects of Reprisol, but to hide the truth about Nils’ own genetic deficiencies. The testing lab is a Nils Hagen baby factory and every unviable fetus that is miscarried is ground up like hamburger meat, with some making its way onto the Cronos painting! Hagen’s toxic ego cannot allow him to see the truth; that his bloodline stopped at Tyson’s conception. Now, no matter how many babies go through the meat grinder, he will continue to try for another miracle child regardless of the inevitable outcomes. Their conversation is interrupted by Tyson, who escorts Clarice out of her cell and places her face to face with Nils (Peter McRobbie) and his plans for her. He calls the death of the three whistleblowers “just business,” but Clarice’s death will be personal. He loves his son, or so he claims, and never had to worry about Tyson straying from the family “business” until Clarice came into their lives. He then slides a gun over to Tyson urging him to kill her to prove his loyalty. There are no winners in this game of life, death and maniacal egos, but for Nils family and keeping them under his thumb is worth Clarice’s life. Hagen demands Tyson choose their family, but he stalls, and Clarice uses his confusion to her own advantage. Outside, armed with the OK from Attorney General Martin (Jayne Atkinson), the ViCAP team assembles ready to raid the testing lab and save their agent. Sure, they do not have a search warrant, but when has that stopped law enforcement from cutting ethical corners to save one of their own? Never, and luckily for Clarice they aren’t about to start following the law now. As she fills Tyson’s head with persuasive stories about Conway’s mother, who was also a captive and killed by Nils after she attempted to escape, he aims the gun at his father and pulls the trigger. Nils Hagen’s body crashes into the shelves of jarred fetuses adorning the walls of the lab. Tyson turns to Clarice with two bullets ready in the chambers and asks her if she still sees him for who he really is. She risks telling him the truth; he was in her blind spot but now she and the rest of the world will see him for who he is and what he helped his father do. With that, Tyson turns the gun on himself and takes his own life. Outside the room where both father and son lie dead, the ViCAP team comes face to face with Nils’ armed guards. Paul Krendler (Michael Cudlitz) takes a bullet as he tries to free some of the women, but sharpshooting Esquivel (Lucca De Oliveira), whose military training in torture and interrogation led them to the lab, gets a piece of the action when he shoots Hagen’s head guard and opens up a path for Murray (Nick Sandow) and Shaan to rescue the surviving female captives. Later, when Murray congratulates Esquivel for helping to save Clarice, he doesn’t accept the praise. Instead, he tells Agent Clarke he wrote himself up for his own misconduct and turned it into his superiors at the Bureau. Tomas isn’t the only one who is going to have to pay the consequences for his actions when AG Martin holds a press conference to announce the details of Nils Hagen’s crimes. She ends her speech by saying her office will further investigate any congressional person, including herself, who took campaign donations from Hagen and his company. She is holding herself accountable and it is the first time we see Ruth put her career on the line in the search for justice.

Later, after everyone gathers around Paul’s hospital bed where the agent is recovering, Clarice informs him she would like to return to work. She will report to duty in two weeks, which is plenty of time for her to recuperate before she heads back into the field. Unfortunately, her roommate isn’t as lucky. Ardelia is placed on administrative leave and, whether it is about her breaking protocol to save her friend or because she is a black woman complaining about racism in the workplace, Ardelia continues to be treated differently than her peers. Her hard work is noted but the accolades she deserves are nowhere to be found. She does; however, stand by her friend Clarice and even had her broken necklace fixed and a bead “our bead” added to it. It’s a symbol of Starling’s past, but also of her future and you cannot have one without the other. With everything settled at work, Clarice makes a quick stop at the hospital to check on Catherine (Marnee Carpenter) where she breaks down in the redhead’s arms revisiting the traumatic realization that not only was her father a terrible man, but that she heaped misplaced blame onto her mother for sending her away when all she was trying to do was keep Clarice safe. The bond between Catherine and Clarice is unmissable as the latter rocks the devastated agent in her embrace. As the curtains close on the season finale, we find Clarice Starling in her newly purchased used car driving down those country roads that will take her to her mother, a place where she always belonged. Welcome home, Starling.