Clarice – Father Time

By: Kelly Kearney

As the whistleblower case eats away at Clarice, memories of her father flood the agent’s dreams leaving her confused and off kilter at work. With emotions running high, she makes a life changing decision about her career just as ViCAP closes in on their main suspect.

A Legacy Seeped in Blood

The penultimate episode begins with Clarice (Rebecca Breeds) back on the therapist’s couch and avoiding her past, even as she angrily rants about finding the underlying cause of her own mystery. Her very astute therapist, Dr. Li (Grace Lynn Kung), questions if the agent truly wants to uncover her the secrets that haunt her or if she is determined to shove them back into the recesses of her mind. There is no time to delve into the avoidance issues of Clarice Starling because ViCAP gets word a raid at Alastor Pharmaceuticals is on! As the FBI descends on Nils Hagen’s (Peter McRobbie) big pharm baby, the billionaire does his best ailing octogenarian act for the press. His performance is award worthy and Paul (Michael Cudlitz) and the rest of the team watch on with eye rolling wonder right before they slap the cuffs on him. Inside ViCAP gathers up the usual files and paper trails but takes exceptional care of Hagen’s infamous “Cronos” painting in the hopes it holds a clue to their case.

Back at the Bureau the team goes over their findings from the raid. Clarice and Shaan (Kal Penn) find themselves taken with the Cronos painting as the two fill the rest of the team in on its inspiring Greek myth and the history behind the artist and their techniques. Shaan, who fashions himself an art history buff, notices right away that the artist attached to the piece has her own unique style that seemingly “Cronos” lacks. The agent questions if the artist is even the person who painted the homage, but Krendler confirms it was commissioned by Hagen. That is not all! After sending out a sample of the art piece, the results of the type of paint used blows everyone’s minds. Luminal and a black light confirm that the deep red brush strokes of the modern art piece light up like the night sky and show the true image of the Titan child gobbling God! It is a cannibalistic orgy of human blood meets impressionist art and its courtesy of Nil’s Hagen’s veins! That’s right, the ancient CEO commissioned the artist to paint in his own blood!

Speaking of the modern-day Cronos, the U.S. Attorney twists the FBI’s arm into releasing Hagen because in America there is always a separate set of laws and consequences for the rich and powerful. Painting with your own blood is not a crime, but nevertheless, Krendler orders Clarice and Shaan to question the artist, Eva Gallows (Rebecca Liddiard), and try to find some way to tie Hagen to the murders before he disappears to his own secluded island. Later, when Clarice meets with Eva, she tells the agent she had no artistic control over the work she was hired to do. Nils micromanaged everything, even down to the “supplies” she was to use in its creation. Gallows was held captive by Hagen, who wanted her to have his child. Eva could not have children, so he kept her captive until he bartered her freedom for a name on the painting. For a struggling artist who could not break onto the scene any more than she could break away from the toxic relationship with Hagen, the pay was good and so was the freedom. She did not question him or where the supplies for the painting came from; she did as she was told. Little did she know that not only was she painting in blood, but she was also duped into including the DNA of his victims! After Clarice takes a scraping of the painting within the painting, the lab results are grotesque. The images beneath the impressionist painting that include a group of stars placed in the background was comprised of fetal tissue! The samples show the tissue came from abnormal fetuses that were likely miscarried and they all share the same genetic links to one man: Nils Hagen! The samples also showed signs of fetal abnormalities similar to the ones Reprisol caused in the children of the dead whistleblowers! This plot is getting thicker than the blood in that painting! The discovery blows the case wide open with the realization that Nils has been trying to create a legacy by forced impregnation, but how and with whom? With the help of his doe-eyed non-profit running son, of course! Tyson Conway (Douglas Smith) is in the business of helping women escape war-torn countries to come to America, but nobody realized those trips came with one-way tickets to their final destination: the grave! Talk about doing Daddy’s dirty work. Tyson is basically running his own human puppy mill to feed and breed his father’s sick ego. Of course, this news comes just as Clarice finds herself distracted by the secrets of her past, missing out on the big reveal about her new friend, Ty.

Hudlin Pays the Ultimate Price

Elsewhere, Joe Hudlin (Raoul Bhaneja) makes it home after the fiasco in Alastor’s garage with Julia last week. Knowing his boss’ lethal tactics when tying up loose ends means it is not surprising when Joe hears a legion of cars pulling up in his driveway. He quickly calls Paul Krendler in a panic, all but begging him to relay his apologies to his daughters. He makes Paul promise to tell his girls the truth, that he was not the sick monster that impregnated those dead women. He even gave Karolina, the Hungarian who died of suicide, money and a safe place to stay. He never laid a hand on any of those women (none but Clarice). He was only protecting his family, from presumably the man who sent an assassin squad to his house! Before Paul can determine what is going on with Joe the door is kicked in at Hudlin’s and a group of men dressed in black storm the lawyer’s home office. With a jab from a needle right into his carotid artery, Joe falls unconscious. The kill squad gathers all the incriminating evidence tying Nils to the victims, and then places a gun in Joe’s mouth and pulls the trigger. One of the men places the gun in Hudlin’s hand to make his death look like a suicide.

Paul, knowing Joe was in the line of Hagen’s fire, arrives at Hudlin’s home with the rest of the ViCAP team. The FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force is already on the scene and an argument ensues between the two teams of investigators over if Hudlin’s death was murder or suicide. VCTF waves the suicide note at Paul, as if that is going to change his mind on what he knows went down in the disgraced lawyer’s home. Tensions are high, so when one of the agents, Eddy (Travis Nelson), insults Clarice, Paul jumps in to defend her by ordering everyone out of the house before he files a complaint against VCTF. Unfortunately, his threat is ignored because the insults do not end until Clarice and her left hook shut them up for good. Typically, Federal agents do not engage in workplace brutality, but everyone at ViCAP agrees Clarice was in the right and mouthy Eddy had it coming.

Agent Starling Quits!

With rage clouding her already hazy mind, Clarice heads into Paul Krendler’s office and resigns. She cannot continue ignoring her trauma, punching her co-workers and dealing with her past, while trying to get the job done. She needs time to figure herself out and Paul, who is not about to lose his best profiler, gives her the time she needs, but disagrees with her quitting. The FBI is in Clarice’s blood; ignoring her nature is not the answer to her problems, which might prove to be more difficult than she thought after she has a run in with the missing whistleblower journalist, Rebecca (Caitlin Stryker). The woman could not stay away once she heard about the arrest of Nils Hagen and now she wants Clarice’s help. The agent pushes past her while holding the contents of her desk in a box, seemingly not interested in helping the woman catch the man who ordered her murder. Agent Starling is off the case and, for now at least, out of the FBI for good!

Cut to later that day and the former Agent Starling deals with her pain the best way she knows how; to go for a run and clear her head. As her feet slam the woodsy ground, memories of her father are woven in with the current case. Her past, like a beacon in the night, keeps calling her home to settle her truth. Dr. Li’s words ringing in her ears about a past Clarice always runs from. It is in this moment where all of Starling’s fears and pain compound into one breathtaking memory that knocks her off her feet. Rolling on the ground with only the streetlights illuminating her way, Clarice Starling takes a mental jog back to her childhood during a time when her father referred to her as his “little deputy” right before gifting her with a necklace that still finds a place around her neck today. A gift with a weighted meaning that breaks through like a searing hot dagger piercing her heart. A vision takes hold of her younger self (Maya McNair) holding an envelope full of given to her by her father (Derek Moran). Her assignment: to hand it off to a group of leering men in an ally, one of whom tells her that her father is a coward and a thief. Apparently, the wad of cash was really just a bunch of one-dollar bills. This angers the man enough that he grabs Clarice and puts a gun to her head! He threatens her life as a way to get to her father, who just stands back at a safe distance and watches the entire scene unfold. Mr. Starling is not winning any father of the year awards anytime soon, which is why when Clarice gets home, she rips off the gifted necklace and throws it across the living room. It seems her biggest fear has always been true. She built her life and career on the foundations of honoring a man who, at least from her memories, does not appear to be honorable. That truth shakes Starling to her core, so when the doorbell rings and Tyson Conway arrives to talk, Clarice makes the fateful decision to let him inside her home. It is a decision that might be her very last, since Tyson’s father is in the business of squashing bugs, and Starling is the one bug who got away!