The Alienist Episode 6
Last week Dr Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) found a pattern in the murders. Is the killer following the Christian Calendar? Now that they know WHEN he will strike will it be easier to catch him? Is the killer a member of “The 400”? It’s looking unlikely that Willem is the killer, but with all the twists anything is possible.
Going Under Cover
We open with a dead white horse laying in the street. Several boys walk past the poor thing and one stops to admire it’s mane. He then chased off by a man. We then find ourselves at Kreizler’s where Sara (Dakota Fanning) is helping his ward Stevie (Matt Lintz) dress up like a girl. Stevie is very uncomfortable doing this and tells Sara he is not a fairy.
Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) arrives at the meeting. Marcus Isaacson (Douglas Smith) explains to him the theory of the killer following the Christian Calendar. Lucius Isaacson (Matthew Shear) tells the Commissioner that they fear the killer will strike again that night, The Feast of Ascension. Their plan is to take up surveillance around one brothel, The Slide, and use Stevie as a decoy. They need Roosevelt to close all the other brothels in the city for the night. Roosevelt is not happy with this plan, but does not stop them.
Able Bodied Men Only
Kreizler asks the Isaacsons about the logistics of the surveillance. They tell him they need to break into two 2-man teams, each team on a separate rooftop with Stevie on the street below. Marcus and John Moore (Luke Evans) will be one team. Lucius tells Sara this is no task for “the weaker sex”. Seeing Lucius’s face Kreizler adds or for “cripples.” I’ve certainly never thought of Sara as “weaker” or Kreizler as a “cripple”, but neither of them argue the point with him. Cyrus (Robert Ray Wisdom) will join Lucius to make up the second team.
Connor (David Wilmot), who is no longer a Captain with the Police Department, enters O’Rourke’s Bar. When the bartender charges him a nickel for his beer he is shocked. No more free beers for him now that he’s just a civilian. Now that Roosevelt has kicked him off the force I worry about how he will retaliate, because you know he will.
Buenos Aires
We then see Willem Van Bergen (Josef Altin) staring out a window at The Statue of Liberty off in the distance. His mother (Sean Young) tells “Willie” it won’t be forever. She lets him know he can’t stay in the city, he is leaving early next week on a steamer. When Willem is told he is going to Buenos Aires he becomes very upset, pounding the table and yelling he does not want to go. He reminds me of my boys…when they were four. His father (Steven Pacey) tells him he better be on that boat when it sets sail.
The Isaacson brothers are perched on rooftops across from each other. Down below in a carriage Kreizler is describing the man they are looking for to Stevie. That the man will offer to take him somewhere, and Stevie says he knows, “to live in a castle.” Sara reminds him to signal if he feels he is in danger, the signal is polishing his shoe on the back of his leg. Stevie is then sent out to try to lure the killer.
Egg Cream
Moore is walking down the street when he spots Joseph (Jackson Gann) in an Ice Cream Shop. Moore enters the shop and explains to Joseph that egg creams have neither egg nor cream in them. I have heard of egg creams, and always assumed they had eggs and cream in them. Joseph and I learned something new, egg creams are chocolate syrup, seltzer water and milk. Moore warns Joseph to keep his window locked tonight, he seems to have a fondness for the boy. I would love to see him take the boy in and give him a good home.
Moore asks Joseph if he has ever thought of doing something else. He asks Moore what he does for work. He tells Joseph he’s an illustrator, that he draws pictures. The boy is shocked people would pay for that, he tells Moore “that’s stupid.” Moore again warns him to keep his window locked and to tell the other boys. As he leaves the shop he pays for Joseph’s egg cream and leaves him some money.
The Decoy
As night falls Stevie is walking around on the street near The Slide. Cyrus is on the rooftop with Lucius who is watching the boy through binoculars. Moore joins Marcus on the rooftop right above as a man approaches Stevie. The boy is very nervous as the man tries to pick him up. He is not use to this and you can tell it makes him feel very awkward. When the man asks him if he would like to rub up against him like a kitten Stevie tells him to bugger himself. It made me chuckle but he’s not going to find the killer that way.
Kreizler and Sara are waiting in a carriage since they were deemed not useful in the stake out. Kreizler tells her its 10:23 and he thought she might want to return home since it’s late. Is he being gentlemanly or trying to get rid of her? She tells him the Commissioner expects her to be there. When Sara asks him why he calls himself a cripple he explains he has a congenital affect, his arm never formed correctly. I had been wondering if it were an accident or if he were born that way. Now I know.
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