Jealousy
When Moore and Mary return to Kreizler’s he tells her she must tell him when she goes out. He is so arrogant. How is she suppose to tell him when he was not even home. Moore tells Kreizler he had come looking for him, but he was out with Sara. The doctor gives Moore his drawing kit and snaps at him about not telling him he had lost it. Moore accuses him of being jealous. I believe Moore is right.
Kreizler asks Moore to button his boots for him. He has to kneel on the floor in front of him to do this. I’m sure the “I’m superior to you” visual this creates was done purposefully by Kreizler. When Moore tries to tell him about the information he received from Joseph, Kreizler ignores him and asks if he was jealous when Julia left him for another man. He says of course he was, then Kreizler asks if that jealousy is part of his sexual ritual with prostitutes. There is nothing this man won’t think is too personal to ask.
Moore finally admits the sense of shame over the break up affects him. Kreizler coldly asks if it brings pleasure AND pain. The doctor explains that the killer is mirroring something that happened to him. Moore is shocked and calls this “clever talk.” Kreizler says they can’t just keep chasing the clues, they need to find out what is behind them. He tells Moore to talk to a Dentist about “silver smiles.”
Silver Smile
We then find ourselves in the office of an 1800s dentist. A young boy pumps the pedal to operate the drill the dentist is using on a patient. Moore asks the dentist if he has ever encountered a “silver smile.” All this time I was picturing some kind of device on the killers teeth, like old fashioned braces, not that his actual teeth were silver. The dentist has no ideas about silver teeth, but his patient mumbles something. The dentist tells Moore he said mercury salts would cause that. “One night with Venus, a lifetime of mercury.”
Moore tells Kreizler that the killer had syphilis and the treatment gave his teeth a silver color. After telling a skeptical Kreizler that he spoke to a dentist about it, Moore adds “silver smile” to list of clues on the chalkboard. Kreizler says they still need to figure out why he kills and more important when he will kill next.
Mysterious Invitations
Giorgio’s mother is seen walking up the street carrying a piece of paper. Her son is begging her not to go to the police. He tells her they don’t care, but she keeps on walking. I wonder what is on that paper she is carrying. I agree with her son, if she brings that to most of the police, especially Captain Connor, they won’t care.
After seeing Kreizler, Moore and Sara all walking separately on the street at night we see the doctor arrive at a club. It is filled with people enjoying an acrobatic show on the stage. He reaches a table that Moore is sitting at. They are both confused when they each think it was the other who invited them there. I’m thinking that it must be Sara that has invited them. The Isaacsons show up and they also falsely believe they were invited by Kreizler. Sara comes rushing in with the letter Giorgio’s mother was carrying. She too thought the doctor had invited her to the meeting.
The Letter
Sara presents the letter to the men. It was written by the killer to cause pain to Giorgio’s mother Kreizler deduces. He thinks the murderer was watching the family so he could see her agony. He assumes the Killer then followed Sara to the club. That it was the killer who had invited them all there. Kreizler is convinced he is in the club watching them. As they all look around wondering who he is Kreizler begins reading the letter.
The letter states that there are lies in the paper about him. He goes on to explain that in poor countries people eat children, especially the “ass of a small child.” He says that he took Giorgio’s eyes and ass and they fed him for a week. He claims he never had him sexually though and is upset the papers say he did. I find it quite disturbing that while being falsely accused of having sex with Giorgio is highly offensive to the killer, killing the poor boy and eating him is not.
We end as a well dressed man is attempting to pick up a boy from a soda counter. When the man smiles his teeth are all silver. Is this the killer? Is it Willem Van Bergen? Would they really show us the killer so easily? Or is this just a “red herring”? I have no idea if this is the killer or not, but I can’t wait to find out where this story is taking us.
My Previous Reviews for The Alienist:
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