The Alienist Finale *Spoiler Warning*
This is the final episode in the Series. Will we find out the answer to all our questions? Is Joseph dead? Will they stop Beecham before he kills again? Does Kreizler join the investigation again? Does Connor ever pay for killing Mary? There seems to be too much that needs to be wrapped up to fit in just one episode.
Another Boy Murdered
We open with Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) sitting at the dining table, staring off into space. He is still hurting from the death of Mary, will he ever recover from this? We switch to John Moore (Luke Evans) working his way through a crowd towards the bathhouse. A dead boy is being pulled from the bath. I’m thinking the same thing Moore is, please don’t let it be Joseph (Jackson Gann). As Moore approaches the body my heart is racing. I’m so nervous it’s going to be Joseph. The boy’s body is rolled over and there is a huge slice across his abdomen. Moore is so nervous that he is going to see that it’s Joseph, he truly cares about that boy. We finally see the boy’s face…it’s Maxie (Dominic Boyle). I’m as relieved as Moore is that it is not Joseph, we both can breath again.
Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning) rushes into Police Headquarters looking for Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty). She finds him upstairs in a room full of guns on display. She informs him that the boy’s body is being transported to Bellevue. The Mayor wanted it sent there as he thought Roosevelt’s presence may inflame the situation. Roosevelt tells Sara that he dreamed that he would rid New York of corruption and stop murderers. Instead he is a bureaucrat shackled to a desk. Sara tells him an honest politician can never expect gratitude. It’s sadly a true statement. She reassures Roosevelt that they are close to catching the killer, but he tells her not close enough.
Where is Joseph?
Back in the old bar they converted to their new headquarters, Moore is staring forlornly out the window as Sara enters. He tells her that Joseph is still missing. I had hoped it wasn’t Beecham (Bill Heck) that had found him, but obviously it was. Moore tells Sara he gave Joseph money but never even considered taking him in. If he had only been listening to me, I’ve been saying that for weeks now. Sara tells him he’s not to blame, but he feels he is.
Moore tells Sara had felt sympathy for Beecham, until now. I assume when someone you care about becomes a victim, you stop feeling sorry for a person’s lousy childhood. Moore asks Sara if she really loves Kreizler. He’s still feeling jealous it seems. She says she was teasing him. I think that should make him happy. Moore tells Sara he’s in love with her. Sara seems flustered by this and Moore tells her he knows it’s embarrassing and he should keep it to himself. According to society that’s the proper thing to do, but then how did people in the 1800s get together if it’s “rude” to tell someone you love them?
Moore tells Sara she can turn him down, but not to pretend he doesn’t love her. He gives her a very sweet kiss, but I’m not sure by her expression if she liked it or not. He won’t find out either as they are interrupted by Roosevelt entering the old bar. Roosevelt asks if there is any news and Sara tells him Joseph is missing. He then asks about Kreizler.
Kreizler’s Injured Arm
Kreizler is talking about how it has been his life’s study to examine the human mind, but now his is deceiving him. Is he talking to himself? To another person? Another Alienist (therapist) perhaps? He believes he has a right to be mad at God, but instead he feels humbled by Him. My heart is still feeling so sad for him and he is on the verge of tears. He then says “forgive me” and we see he is talking to Sara. This honestly surprises me, I did not expect it to be her.
Sara asks Kreizler to forgive her also for prying into things that were not her business. She tells him she only did it out of regard for him. I’m not convinced she was “just teasing” when she told Moore she loved Kreizler. I think she does have feelings for him. Kreizler then tells her how his arm was injured as a child. After waiting weeks to hear the story I find myself a bit disappointed. I don’t know what I expected, but I certainly expected it to be more than “Father snapped while playing a fun game of tug-a-war and twisted my arm behind my back.” Sadly, the fracture never healed right.
Sara’s Shocking Secret
While Kreizler’s admission was not as shocking as I imagined it would be, Sara shocks me with a confession of her own. She tells Kreizler that as a child she did not realize that her father was depressed. It became so overwhelming that he tried to take his own life. Tried? Poor Sara was the one who found him. I remember Moore said she was only 12 at the time. Poor thing. At the last moment her father tried to pull the gun from his mouth. She says he was in terrible pain. Oh no, is this going where I think it is? Yes it is. At 12 she helped her father kill himself. I’m stunned by this confession. Poor sweet Sara has had to carry that around since she was 12. She tells Kreizler she has learned from him to either carry the pain forever, or use it to help others. Kreizler says he doesn’t believe a person gets to make the choice. Sara disagrees saying if it weren’t a choice we would all be murderers.
Sara had asked Kreizler to come back to the investigation. We now find him in the bathhouse questioning the Caretaker (Simon Harvey), it appears he has accepted Sara’s request for his return. He examines the location where Maxie was killed. Kreizler then asks the caretaker to describe the wounds. The caretaker tells him he was cut across the abdomen and legs. Kreizler asks if the eyes were missing and the man tells him no, that the pale eyes were staring up at him from the water. Why didn’t Beecham take the eyes? Was it because he was interrupted by Joseph? As Kreizler retraces the killer’s steps he somehow knows to stop at the stall Joseph was hiding in. Is Kreizler psychic now? In the stall he finds what looks like a bit of blood on the wall. I cringe in disgust as he tastes it.
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