The InBetween Episode 4: Kiss Them for Me
This week (after another break—yikes), the cases split.
While the episode starts with Cassie at her job, things quickly turn … creepy. She is tossed into a wooden box by a tall, faceless man in a robe. Dirt is thrown on top of her as she screams and protests. A vision, of course.
At the precinct, Damien finds out his fiancé is now in what the doctors call a minimally conscious state. They tell him he should be cautiously optimistic.
Nancy Drew?
On the supernatural area of things, Cassie is chasing after the ghost of a recovering addict, while Detective Hackett and Asante on the law enforcement side try to figure out who is slaughtering families with a shotgun. While the two cases do overlap, it is not immediately apparent if they are related.
Cassie sees a woman yelling to others in the street, asking for help. When the woman, Edie, notices Cassie sees her, she calls for her assistance. She believes she’s been murdered and asks that she tell her husband and daughter for her. But when Cassie goes to her house, the daughter admits that Edie is a recovering addict and they believe she might be on a binge.
Well, this is a bit of a problem. Because she’s well, dead. Unsure of how to proceed, she leaves for the time being. This begins to hit close to home for Cassie—her mother succumbed to demons of her own from alcohol. This allows Cassie to bond with the daughter, Kaitlyn.
Interestingly, as she investigates this case (Asante even pens her Nancy Drew), she sees flashes again of the man in a dark robe and hood, and someone being else buried.
Boogieman 2.0
Meanwhile, Asante and Hackett speak to the surviving member of one of the families, a little boy who draws a picture of something eerily similar to Cassie’s vision. They call him Mr. Nightfall, a modern-day version of the boogieman. Its become a scare tactic at the high school and the principal and Dr. Kelly, a staff member at the school, admit that it all started after a student, Bradley committed suicide following a school dance.
He was invited by one of the most popular girls in school, who also happens to be a mean girl (her name is Tiffany). Originally, they believe this might be connected to her, but she admits she’s been getting threatening messages on an app that’s similar to Snapchat in our world. They tie those messages to a boy named Larry Vaughn, who at declares he’s completely innocent, despite his parent’s rifle listed as missing and matching the one used in the crimes. They also trace the messages to his phone.
Something isn’t what it seems, though. The detectives delve deeper. They find out that Vaughn was a good friend of Bradley and hated what the popular kids did to them. But, he still wanted to be a part of that crowd. So, he initially offered to help the kids (the ones murdered, of course) plot a prank against him. He was terrified of Mr. Nightfall, but Vaughn never thought they’d go this far.
Smells like Teen Torture…
They tortured Bradley by luring him out to the woods, dressed as Mr. Nightfall and put him into a coffin. After that, they dropped dirt on him to think he was being buried alive, leaving him there for over an hour. By the time they returned, he had thrown up all over himself and peed, too.
This is why he decided to scare them with the prank messages. He repeats, though, he did not kill them.
So now what?
Cassie continues to try to help Edie find her killer, though it becomes increasingly apparent that she was not clean like she promised her daughter and husband. While Cassie wants to believe her, the visions show otherwise, and when Edie leads her to her car, her story falls apart. She was meeting her former dealer. She tells Cassie she tried hard to remain sober for her family, but it was hard. Cassie and Edie find her body in an alley, where she seems to have died of an apparent overdose.
A Sad Solution
On the law enforcement end of things, Asante and Hackett realize the last message sent to Tiffany was sent after they had Vaughn in custody. They pull an all-nighter to prove this, showing that the message was sent from inside the school. It turns out Dr. Kelly had confiscated Vaughn’s phone earlier that week, a perfect way for him to copy it on his computer and send the messages.
They are able to prove this… but why? Why would a teacher hurt and kill children and their families? Well, there’s a reason for everything. Dr. Kelly had a son, too at one point. In Chicago, his son was bright and gifted, like Bradley. He was teased for this and met a fate very similar to Bradley’s. Dr. Kelly had enough and said he wouldn’t sit around.
He wouldn’t just punish the children, he would punish the adults who raised them, too. He said kids like this grow up to be adults and repeat the cycle. Wow, ruthless. They arrest him and solve the case, as Cassie visits with the Forest family and tries to help Kaitlyn heal from the same scars that she faced as a teenager.
Thoughts
Overall? I think it was a decent episode. Mr. Nightfall seems like a fun way to play between the supernatural world and the dimensions of it, even if it isn’t what it seems. But, we’re also now on episode four and I have to say I’m still not sold on this show. Here are some more general thoughts.
So…
Predictably, Detective Asante’s fiancé is doing better (does it have anything to do with Cassie’s visit? Who knows) and it seems like maybe now he might have a second chance. We do have a nice bonding scene between Damien and Cassie, as of course all their tension has melted and he’s now a true believer. (Which is fine, but I do think he could’ve needed more time.)
The absence of Ed Roven in this episode piques my interest. Does our murderous ghost just disappear? I doubt that… so where did he go on his little ghostly vacation? A case like this seems to be right up his alley.
Furthermore, I still feel as if the character of Cassie is a bit one dimensional. I see her backstory and I understand how she got where she is, but I feel as if there is still something missing. Part of what made shows like Medium and Ghost Whisperer great was the heart behind them and the chilling, creepy part of the supernatural area. I don’t find either of those things top-notch here.
In what may be an exciting episode, next week we see the return of Abigail, the little girl from the pilot. She, too, is still around? Where do these ghosts go? I’m so confused by this and this show feels borderline procedural, and less character-driven then it should be. Yes, in part, it is a procedural, but it should be and can be more than that. Next week marks the halfway point. What are your thoughts?
You can watch The InBetween on NBC, Wednesdays at 10 pm.
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