Jack is on the warpath and understandably so. His wife is no longer his wife and he’s still trying to come to grips with the idea of another soul – another person – taking over Amy’s life. Trying to get answers from Amy’s boss, Todd Crane, only results in Jack being thrown in jail; not because he wanted answers, but because of the violent and bloody way in which he “asked.” Let’s just say I won’t be in the market for a juicer any time soon.
While Jack’s sitting in the cell, a man who’s seemingly unhinged is speaking to someone who isn’t there. He tells Jack he’s speaking to his son who died before he was born. Then he says to Jack that his son will wait for him and Amy, but not Rose. Obviously, there’s more going on with this man than simple delusions or he wouldn’t know about Amy and Rose.
Before he can find out more from this man, Jack is removed from the cell and brought to an interrogation room to speak with Detective Blanchard. Blanchard is the investigator who’s been tracking killings that have similar patterns to a cold case of his involving Marcus Fox. At first he dismisses Jack’s talk of Qui Reverti as nothing more than crazy talk until Jack reveals details about Frank Shepherd’s murder and mentions Marcus Fox. This really gets Blanchard’s attention since it’s been made clear in previous episodes that the detective is still haunted by the case.
Amy is having trouble getting Bix accustomed to returning to the living and gets Richard over for help. During their conversation we learn a lot about Richard. He was in love with Amy and because of that he failed to trigger Rose back nine years earlier. He also admits he was the one who helped Marcus return, but that his plan was to bring him back as a child then kill him before he could cause trouble. The problem is our black-wearing shepherd’s heart isn’t nearly as dark as his couture and he just couldn’t bring himself to kill a child.
Rose isn’t happy about the whole mess and tells Richard he should’ve picked a child no one cares about. She angrily tells him to kill Marcus and not chicken out this time. Richard jabs back that Jack Whelan cared about his unborn child; the same child Rose purposefully terminated. Burn score: Richard – 1, Rose – 0. Sorry, Rose, hypocrites always end up having their asses handed to them eventually.
Things continue to go south for Rose once Bix regains consciousness. He’s hurting and disoriented from the return and is not happy at all. Even though Rose admits that through all her lives Bix was the only one she came back for, he angrily tells her that just because you can live again doesn’t mean you should, then he storms out. Somebody buy that woman an aloe vera plant because it’s Major Burn Day for Rose.
Poor Todd Crane can’t catch a break. Still hurting from Jack’s beat-and-squeeze he gets a visit from Richard who comes very close to ventilating his skull with a pair of scissors. Crane reveals that he’s figured out it was Richard who brought Marcus back and offers to help him because he’s tired of doing Qui Reverti’s dirty work. That satisfies Richard and he tells Crane to drop the charges against Jack to avoid any attention being brought to the Reverti.
Back at the police station, Blanchard shares information on Marcus Fox with Jack. He shows him some interrogation video from 2005 in which Marcus details serial killings going back centuries. The Mozart story he told the Nice Lady in the car comes up again, but in greater and more grisly detail. Fox tells these stories with a twisted mix of glee and pride. Madison must be one strong-willed little girl to be able to fight such a twisted bastard.
Marcus follow’s Todd Crane’s daughter, Meadow, to her school. Once there, she convinces her new friend to skip school and go to the mall. They don’t go to the mall; nobody is surprised. A bit later, Todd Crane, gets a call from Marcus demanding to see Rose. Marcus has his daughter and will do unspeakable things to the poor child if he doesn’t comply. Honestly, Crane should change his name to Alexander because he’s having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Gary Fisher had called Jack earlier with the cryptic message that everything would all be over soon. He’s at the end of his rope and now he’s taping a plastic bag to his body with what looks like a couple of thumb drives, some paperwork showing the transferral of trusteeship of “the building”, and a picture of his infant daughter. You remember the baby, right? Gary was able to see the second soul inside of her after being exposed to Anderson’s infrasound ghost machine. He recognized it as Donna, he and Jack’s friend who killed herself in the ‘90s.
We get more insight into the human side of Richard when he visits his brother, Jim, who’s in a persistent vegetative state. He takes care of his infirm sibling and talks of when they were kids. Richard reveals that when they played he always chose to be the good guy, but would inevitably do something bad while his brother who was always good ended up in the terrible state he’s in now. He tells his brother to let go; that there’s no reason to live on any more because Richard may not be around to take care of him. There’s genuine love there and he tells his brother that when they meet again he hopes he’ll be a better person, one that Jim can be proud of.
Jack pays a bellman to let him into Gary’s room since he’s been unable to get him on the phone after the message about everything being over soon. Inside he finds a note from Gary with his name on it. Jack’s friend explains that he’s figured out how Donna could have killed herself, that he’s aware of the returned souls, and that he’s going to fight them in death. He ends the note saying he’s already jumped off their building, the crossing place, and is dead. I guess all the papers and evidence he taped to his body were part of Gary’s plan to expose the hidden conspiracy. If you ask me, jumping off a building is a pretty crappy plan, but Gary’s in a bad place so I guess crappy is the best level of planning he’s got left.
Jack rushes to the building, but sees Crane waiting outside for the meet-up between Marcus and Rose. Once Marcus shows up with Meadow, the three go inside and that’s when Jack spots Gary standing on the edge of the building’s roof. Here we begin a tense back-and-forth cut between Jack trying to talk Gary out of jumping and Crane trying to talk Marcus out of doing Marcus-y crap.
Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Crane is only partly successful. He buys Meadow time to run away, but he gets cut in the leg by Marcus. Toldja it wasn’t a good day to be Todd Crane. Of course, it’s a worse day to be Gary Fisher because he decides the best way to continue the fight is to kiss the concrete after falling several stories. I have no first-hand experience, but that looked painful.
Today’s episode showed almost everyone having a terrible time. Rose isn’t getting anything she wants, Bix isn’t happy about having a second chance at life, Gary fought gravity and lost, Jack is still in “frantic shouting mode” trying to get Amy back, Marcus still hasn’t gotten his showdown with Rose, and Crane … well, Crane is the poster boy for sucky days. About the only person who seemed to find any peace in this episode was Richard. Seeing more depth to this shepherd was very welcome, but naturally it came with yet another puzzle. This time, the question is just when, where, and how did Richard fall in love with Amy?
Obviously that’s not the only question, but it’s one I hope Intruders explores more in the eighth and final episode of this season. And let me just take a moment to again ask why this show didn’t get nine episodes for the season? Wouldn’t that have been the most appropriate number of them all? Bonus: It would’ve driven Tim Truth crazy (crazier?).
Don’t miss the Intruders season 1 finale, There Is No End, airing Saturday, October 11 at 10/9c on BBC America
