Last time on ‘Copper’ Corky took over Byrne’s investigation into Mr. Devery, a murdered dentist, after Byrnes also turns up dead, murdered by the same poison that killed the dentist. After talking to numerous suspects, the investigation led back to Mr. Devery who had poisoned the cake intending to kill his wife’s lover, but when the cake was given back to him in a different box he unknowingly ate the cake and poisoned himself. Meanwhile, Maguire begins to suspect Mary is up to something when she receives a visit from an unknown man. Back at Mrs. Haverford’s, Annie acts out again which causes Mrs. Haverford to send her back to her “father” while Jasper nearly wins the fight against Irishman Jake McGinnis causing him to have to leave to town so he doesn’t get lynched.
In ‘The Hudson River School’ Annie manages to escape from Mr. Reilly and goes to Corky’s and tells him that Mrs. Haverford sent her there. Meanwhile Morehouse meets with some out-of-towners and attempts to find out their plans while Mrs. Haverford finds out Mr. Reilly’s true identity but is unable to get Annie away from him and Maguire learns about Mary’s possession of Mme Grindle’s ledger.
Recap
After spending the night together, Mrs. Haverford continues with her lies to Corky about sending Annie to California. The next night, however, Annie wakes Corky from his sleep and tells him that she killed Mr. Reilly and ran straight to Corky’s afterwards, fearful that she will hang for it. Corky calms her down and Annie tells him that Mrs. Haverford sent her to Mr. Reilly and not California as she had told Corky. The following day Corky heads out to Mr. Reilly’s farm and disposes of the body by stripping it down and feeding it to the pigs. When he returns to town he confronts Mrs. Haverford, but before giving her a chance to explain he slices up an expensive portrait in her parlor and then grabs her and threatens to slit her throat if anything happens to Annie. Back at Corky’s house, Corky helps Annie wash up and gets her ready for bed. When Eva comes to pleasure Corky, Annie spies on them and gets upset that Corky is still interested in Eva like that.
Meanwhile Maguire goes to visit Mary and she tells him to leave. When Maguire doesn’t leave, she gets up to leave herself and he notices her black eye. She tells him to just leave her alone and runs out of the building. When a student of hers runs out shortly after her, Maguire stops him and finds out that Mr. McLean was the one to hit her. Later, when he finds McLean, McLean tells him that Mary had her sister’s ledger and was using it to blackmail him as well as the other men listed in the ledger. Maguire then goes to Eva’s Paradise, gets drunk and calls for Molly. Eva sends Corky to get him and Maguire tells him that he misses Molly. He tells Corky that he goes to her grave to talk to her and that something isn’t right about her death. Maguire then tells Corky that Mary is dead to him because ran off with some guy to England rather than the truth about blackmailing men with her sister’s ledger.
As this is happening, Sara and Matthew learn that Sara is pregnant. The next day after finding out, a young boy arrives with pictures in an envelope from a white man who had told the boy to pass them to all the black people he could find. The pictures are of lynching and murders and come with a message to go back. This confuses Sara as she wonders where she’s supposed to go and worries about bringing a child into such a dark world. Matthew soothes her and tells her the baby will be their light in the darkness.
Meanwhile, Robert Morehouse visits with a French man and wines and dines him to get on his good side. After a night of debauchery at Eva’s Paradise, the man finally admits that he is from the south and was held in a union prison. He tells Morehouse that if Lincoln is re-elected, he and his men have a plan to burn down New York with Greek Fire. Morehouse convinces the southerner to let him help him out and lets him demonstrate the Greek Fire on his carriage. The next day Morehouse takes the sample to Freeman and Freeman warns him about how dangerous it is. That night Morehouse receives a visit from Mrs. Haverford who is incredibly shaken by Corky’s visit earlier and his threat on her life. He tells Mrs. Haverford that he’ll protect her against Corky, gives her some opium to calm her nerves and they spend the night together.
Review
I think I’m about to give up on trying to figure out people on this show. I get it wrong a lot. That being said, Mrs. Haverford seemed genuinely surprised to find out Mr. Reilly wasn’t Annie’s father. I assumed she suspected something because why else would she lie to Corky? Well, that lie blew up in her face. Though it was a fitting end to Mr. Reilly, the last thing Annie needs is more to add to her crazy. At least she got what she wanted in a way. She’s with Corky now. Of course that means she’s going to have to figure out a way to get rid of Eva, who does her own fair share of killing to keep Corky to herself.
Then there’s Morehouse. One moment you like him, the next you just don’t know what to think. ‘The Hudson River School’ would be the “just don’t know what to think” moment. Is he cozying up to the southerner to find out his plans to thwart them? Or is he planning on really joining them in their plans to torch the city? And the whole thing with going against Corky in Mrs. Haverford’s name…I don’t know about that either. Yes, Corky didn’t give her a chance to explain and he attacked and threatened her, but she did send Annie back to Mr. Reilly and then lied about it. On top of that, when she realized Mr. Reilly wasn’t who he said he was, she didn’t tell Corky. She tried to get her back herself and when that failed, she went to Robert. She couldn’t have been too surprised when Corky attacked her, but on that note, Robert seemed awful quick to forget about his friendship with Corky because of this. He was also quick to point out that they travel in different circles. Is he being the gentleman to the damsel in distress? Or is he just trying to get some Mrs. Haverford action? Or is he just showing his true colors: someone not to be trusted? I just don’t know what to think about him sometimes.
‘Copper’ airs Sunday nights on BBC America at 10/9C.
