In the opening moments of this episode, Rose states that Richard may had some kind of past with Amy. She tells him not to bother trying to talk to Amy because she’s gone to sleep. Has Amy made some kind of deal with Richard, the Nine, or others within Qui Reverti to give up her physical body to Rose so easily? She went without a fight and now there are references to Richard knowing her.
But the center of the conversation is about Rose’s relationship with Frank and her evil plan to bring back her former lover, a jazz musician known as Bix. It’s not so much an evil plan as one that’s forbidden by the Qui Reverti. You see, Bix isn’t a member of Team Immortality. Amy recruited Frank’s loyalties to help her bring back her beloved beau quietly so as to avoid the attention of the Reverti lest they all be killed and no longer allowed to return. Richard offers to take up where Frank left off now that he’s offed Frank.
On the outside, Rose seems very harsh and determined, but if she’s willing to risk immortality for a second round with her true love then there’s a heart inside that cold exterior. It’s a tiny, cold, and thorny heart, probably no larger than that of the average chicken, a goose at best, but still a heart.
After Jack catches Amy/Rose in an outright lie over the phone he rummages through all her belongings trying to get more clues as to what’s going on. He finds a bottle of pills that are labeled with the generic name for Lunesta and a small syringe, but we’re unable to read the label on the drug she’s injecting. The most shocking find is actually something he was already aware of, but had put out of his mind. He comes across some baby clothes which brings back memories of the time Amy was pregnant, but lost the baby very late in her term. Now we know the shooting incident isn’t the only tragedy from Jack’s past that troubles him.
Adding to the problems plaguing Jack is another find – divorce papers with Amy’s name as petitioner. Knowing in his heart this isn’t the Amy he knows, it sets Jack on an even more determined scouring of his wife’s things. He comes across a small safe that he manages to open after sliding a bit of metal around the edges of the door then entering the code 1237954. I’ve tried to figure out if this numerical sequence has some significance, but if it does it eludes me. No matter, it’s what’s inside the safe that’s really interesting. Jack finds not one, but two copies of the Book of Nine; one in Russian, the other in Hebrew. Along with the two books he finds a small box with several small, random objects.
As if he hadn’t had enough surprises for one night, the friendly neighbors turn up at his door and turn out to be working for Rose. At gunpoint, they force him to leave his home and life behind, but he overpowers them at the door. No matter, because Rose has decided to tell Jack in person that Amy’s gone and his life with her is over forever.
Just as Rose is trying to make a point and a grand exit, Jack pulls out those random objects he’d found in the safe. Rose lusts after them like a junkie needing a fix. They’re all triggers from her past lives and she tells Jack a bit about them all, and in turn reveals she’s at least a few hundred years old.
Jack’s not buying the story that Amy’s gone forever, but Rose tells him that she’s responsible for the loss of the baby. She said she didn’t want to have a baby and that losing it would make Amy want to go away, making it easier for Rose to surface permanently. And though he thought their baby had been cremated, Rose hints that she buried it with care nearby so that Jack and the family could be together again one day. Then she finally makes the grand exit she’d tried earlier, leaving Amy’s wedding and engagement rings behind telling Jack they could be his triggers for his next life. Cold.
Richard tracks down Rose’s former flame in the form of a young waiter in a Chinese restaurant. He tries to talk her out of meeting the young man since this is what will get them completely murdered by the Qui Reverti. They’ll also be banned from ever returning to the land of the living.
After waiting over 80 years, Rose isn’t going to put off finding Bix again. She and Richard go to the young waiter’s apartment where Richard shows the young man a trumpet mouthpiece; it’s his trigger. Bix looks disoriented, but since he wasn’t properly prepared for a return trip that’s to be expected. I think there’s going to be a fight for identity inside this young man coming soon.
Jack remembers back to when Amy lost the baby and the events that happened afterward. Amy told him she’d already made arrangements for taking care of their baby’s body, but wouldn’t elaborate further. Then he saw her coming in from back in the woods and washing her hands of dirt. He remembered how the two of them had sprinkled what he thought were their baby’s ashes in the woods and planted a tree in memory of their loss.
Running to the spot where they planted the tree, Jack pulls the small plant from the ground. He digs frantically with his bare hands down into the dirt until he finds a small object wrapped in cloth. It’s the remains of their baby. The episode ends with Jack curled up on the ground grieving over this find.
After discovering what Rose did with their baby’s remains and her cold-hearted departure I’ll be surprised if Jack doesn’t go on a rampage. It would be completely understandable if he tried to kill Rose, but his refusal to give up on Amy is probably going to prevent him from trying that.
We didn’t see Madison/Marcus this week, but we saw Madison’s parents get to the house where Marcus claimed to have lived. Once there, they discover the body of the owner. The same police detective who was at the house with all the desiccated bodies in the floor arrives and recognizes Marcus’ handiwork. He must either be Qui Reverti or someone working for the organization, otherwise I don’t see how he could possibly know so much about Marcus Fox.
Hints have been there from the start, but the character of Richard Shepherd is a lot more complex than first glance might reveal. He’s gone from what appeared to be a cold-hearted killer with no remorse to a man caught between his alliance to Qui Reverti, and Frank who saved him from an even worse path, and doing the right thing. Often, Richard’s idea of what’s right might be a little skewed, but he’s shown on multiple occasions that he’s averse to killing Marcus because he’d be killing a 9-year-old girl as well. There’s much more to our favorite Shepherd and his Johnny Cash all-black fashion sense. We see proof of that with each passing episode.
I’ve said before that this show started off slowly, but it’s not lumbering along any more. It’s a freight train that’s building speed and momentum, moving at an ever more frantic pace. Revelations are happening quickly, crap is hitting fans, and people are going batshit crazy in this mixed-up chess match of life, death, and immortality. I can’t wait for the next move.
Intruders episode 7, The Crossing Place, airs Saturday, October 4 at 10/9con BBC America
