Clarice – How Does It Feel to Be So Beautiful

By: Kelly Kearney

On this week’s episode of “Clarice” Agent Starling finds herself sidelined at the bureau after surviving a deadly encounter with Marilyn Felker. With the hopes of convincing Ruth Martin to reinstate her, Clarice accepts an invitation to dinner to join the Attorney General and her unstable daughter Catherine. Shocking truths, a killer’s face and a side of cottage cheese, is served up in this new episode.

How To Catch A KIller?

After her ordeal at Dr. Felker’s House of Medical Horrors, Clarice’s (Rebecca Breeds) fingernails, hair and clothing are all evidence in ViCAP’s case. They know Marilyn wasn’t working alone, but the only evidence of the faceless man Clarice swears she saw in her drugged-out haze resides under her nails from scratching him. Ardelia (Devyn A. Tyler), who is by her side like any best friend would be, listens as Starling tells her about this mystery man. If this guy has his DNA on file, there is no doubt Ardelia Mapp will find him.

After she is officially poked, prodded and scraped we see Clarice back in therapy, but this time with a woman who specializes in hypnosis. Maybe there are clues hidden in the dark corners of her brain that could help ViCAP solve the case, not that Paul (Michael Cudlitz) has any faith in the practice whatsoever. He makes it clear from the start that he doubts it is going to work and, for once, he is right. Clarice tries, but she is unable to recall any details about the man. For now, it seems like a waste of time and Krendler doesn’t give her another chance to go back under again.

It isn’t long before the labs come back, and the news is not good. There is no match on the DNA collected from Clarice’s fingernails, and that means the team is back to square one. When the news gets to Starling, her anger is compounded by the fact Paul ordered her to go on leave. Apparently, the FBI has a policy about agents taking time off to recover after they’re kidnapped and almost killed, which seems standard but not for a dedicated agent like Clarice. Feeling like she has been punished over something she had no control over, she promises this time off won’t stop her from finding this man. Ardelia, who is used to her roommate’s obsessive dedication to their work, tells Clarice she needs some rest and then gives her the name of a trauma specialist. It is long past time that the most important person in Mapp’s life got her wits about her and maybe this exert can help? Clarice never dealt with what happened in Buffalo Bill’s basement and now she wears that trauma, ironically, like a second skin. She needs help and as dedicated as she is to solving this case, Ardelia is equally dedicated to her peace of mind. Of course, this is Clarice we are talking about and she has a one-track mind. So, she ignores Mapp’s advice and heads straight to Ruth Martin (Jayne Atkinson) to request a reinstatement. Ruth listens to her pleas and offers her a deal: If Clarice joins her and Catherine for dinner she will consider her request. That is the best she can offer and Clarice cautiously accepts.

Buffalo for Dinner

After an emotional conversation between Shaan (Kal Penn) and Tomas (Lucca De Oliveira) about the death of Shaan’s wife, we find Paul having dinner with his lawyer friend Joe (Raoul Bhaneja) who offers his legal help in his upcoming divorce proceedings. Joe thinks Paul has a chance at gaining full custody of the children now that Mandy (Edie Inksetter) has fallen off the wagon and is incapable of caring for them properly. We later see this when Paul’s son calls him in a panic when an intoxicated Mandy won’t wake up. It looks like Paul’s going to be faced with a choice between his career or his kids.

Meanwhile, back at her apartment, Ardelia slices her finger while attempting to cut an orange and the sight of blood inspires her to call the lab. She asks the technician where they stored the fingernail scraping after they were finished with the DNA analysis. It looks like Ardelia is making a trip to the dumpster! Now that is a dedicated agent and friend! After digging through the trash, Agent Mapp finds the sample and she puts in a call to AI and asks them to run some tests. Whatever she is looking for, Ardelia won’t stop until she finds it. In that way she and Clarice are the same.

While Ardelia is diving into dumpsters, Clarice arrives at Ruth’s house and is greeted by their friendly housekeeper with a hug. The woman is grateful to her for saving young Catherine’s life and instantly she gives the impression that she is far more of a maternal figure to Ruth’s daughter than the Attorney General could ever be.

Speaking of Catherine (Marnee Carpenter), she shows up to dinner dressed in her Sunday best and holding a yapping Precious as she offers up an awkward hello. Clarice hasn’t seen Catherine since she rescued her from Bill’s basement skinsuit factory and the meeting seems a little tense with an air of fakeness that the agent really tries to sell. After all, if she makes Catherine happy maybe that will convince Ruth to let her go back to work? It is not long before Ruth makes her grand entrance and then proceeds to take control of the entire dinner scene. She monopolizes the conversation, talks over Catherine and openly insults her as she watches her daughter slurp down the only food she will eat – a vat of yogurt with a plastic spoon. Forget the good china and table etiquette, Catherine is not about that life now, much to her mother’s dismay. It is a cringe-worthy sight that even the good-mannered Clarice cannot help but stare at. Catherine never came out of that Bill’s pit and Clarice calls her out on it. Interrupting Ruth’s complaints, Starling mentions how her bizarre behavior is right up Buffalo Bill’s alley. In fact, Catherine is as stuck in that pit as those moths continue to flit and flutter around Clarice’s mind. The two of them were changed forever, but only one seems to let her define her. Catherine has embraced her trauma and is determined to be the woman Bill wanted her to be.

With the dinner coming to a screeching halt, Ruth gets a call to head back to the office but not before telling Clarice that she isn’t going to reinstate her. The FBI has that policy for a reason and as the new AG, pulling rank at the bureau isn’t at the top of her list of things to do. For now, her hands are tied and Clarice is stuck in government red tape for the foreseeable future. If that truth isn’t upsetting enough, Catherine gives Clarice a handmade scarf and then casually mentions the fact she found Buffalo Bill’s mother! Why? What’s the purpose of tracking down your abductor’s relative? To meet her, of course! Catherine has really lost it. No wonder her mother is so controlling. Her daughter is practically a serial killer fan girl at this point. Nothing good can come of this.

The Mystery Man Has a Face!

Thanks to Ardelia’s bloody finger and her big brain, the test results from AI come back with a match. Clarice was right, there was a man at Marilyn Felker’s clinic and the evidence was under her fingernails. The inconclusive test from earlier was doctored! Someone accessed those results so there must be a cover up at the bureau, but who is behind it and why?

Back at Ruth Martin’s house, Catherine and her mother get into a fight about her bizarre behavior just as the AG is leaving to head back to work. Upset, Catherine takes off towards her room and Clarice follows in an attempt to calm the young woman down. It doesn’t work. Instead, Catherine drops a truth bomb in her lap that blows her whole memory of they met right out of the water. It seems that after James Gum A/K/A Buffalo Bill, took a few FBI issued slugs to the chest Clarice lost track of time and Bill’s captive heard her screaming and crying for quite a long time. Clarice immediately corrects her and says she called for back to the minute she shot Bill, but that is not how Catherine remembers it. Before he died, he said something to Clarice and whatever it was she must have blocked it out.

As the episode draws to a close, we see Clarice back on the therapist’s couch for another round of hypnosis, just as Ardelia fills the ViCAP team in on the tampered DNA sample. Nobody knows who is behind it, but maybe Clarice will have better luck remembering under this new doctor’s care? As she falls deeper into her own mind, Agent Starling doesn’t find herself with Marilyn Felker, but back in that moth ridden basement and realizing everything Catherine said was true! She remembers sitting across from Bill as blood spilled from his lips, but she doesn’t remember pulling the trigger. Weird. Are we retconning a key moment in this celebrated universe? Apparently so because when she sees herself in that basement Bill asks her, “How does it feel to be so beautiful?” Then, her mind ricochets back to the clinic revealing the mystery man’s face! It isn’t a face she recognizes but it is the same one we saw having dinner with Paul. The killer they have been looking for is Paul Kendler’s divorce lawyer and has been under their nose this whole time!

The plot thickens, my little silent lambs. There is no telling where this goes next and who winds up dead at the hands of Joe.