The InBetween Episode 5
Another Broken Morning marks the halfway spot for The InBetween on NBC. The show got off to a bit of a rocky spot, being bumped for various reasons from its timeslot, so there is some understanding to why some viewers (myself included) have yet to be sold on the supernatural drama.
This week’s episode features the little girl we met in the pilot, Abigail, and actually piqued my interest from the show preview last week. Let’s dive into it.
Things of Nightmares
The episode starts with Cassie waking up to a baby crying in her house, or at least seemingly a vision of a baby crying. She goes about her morning routine while it wails in the background. Finally, she seems to get relief as she heads into her job, but much to her surprise another vision begins. There is an old, twisted tree trunk in the middle of the restaurant. Creepy enough on its own, but then…
A horned beast of some sort comes from inside the tree, growling at her with red eyes. The tree begins to bleed blood onto the floor but just as quickly it’s gone. Okay… what? I’m holding out for some sort of reasoning to why this makes any sense. Ghosts, I get. Even last episode’s mystery supernatural being? I get. Weird horned monsters? I need more, but mainly just so I can make sense of it.
Cassie, now alarmed and confused, calls Detective Hackett. He admits he’s at a crime scene, but for a drive-by shooting. No monsters or babies.
The Shooting
Asante and Hackett discover the shooting involved a woman running for city council named Mia Fuentes. She is on her way to the hospital, but her campaign manager was murdered by the drive-by shooter, someone on a motorcycle. Hackett believes someone tipped off the shooter, as they knew the woman and her manager were coming through the backdoor.
At the hospital, they speak with Mia’s husband. He gives them seemingly vital information, which by my first thought seems too good to be true five or so minutes into an episode. Alas, he says there was an argument between the campaign manager, Edwin and one of the volunteers named Olly. They argued in another language, the word “denila” coming up, and then Olly stormed off. Of course, Olly conveniently drives a motorcycle.
Seems too good to be true, right? Can the case be solved that quickly?
Ready, Let’s Go…
At the bar, Cassie hears the baby crying again and seems at her wit’s end. She takes a few ibuprofen and returns to her job. Yet, the crying continues. Eventually, she has a coworker cover for her and decides to go home and rest. In her car, the engine starts itself and says, “ready let’s go”, but doesn’t move, at least. If I were Cassie, I don’t think I would drive a car that started on its own… the GPS tells her to go somewhere, and she follows it to an older looking red house.
Inside, she finds a crying baby next to a woman who appears to be injured. There is broken furniture in the house and a beer bottle smashed against the wall. Cassie picks up the baby as she presses her fingers to the woman’s wrist. She then calls 911 and says a woman has been injured, and she doesn’t know what happened.
Cue our creepy Abigail making her return. She says that Crystal (the baby)’s father came home, and breakfast wasn’t on the table fast enough for him. Abigail eludes it’s been happening all along and that she shouldn’t get involved because she cannot stop it.
Hasn’t this kid you know, softened at all? She’s hard as a freakin rock. Geez.
Details on the Case
At the precinct, a partial view of the shooting is obtained. While facial recognition is out, they notice a gang tag on the plateless motorcycle. Vicious Bloods, or VB Sixteen, an Asian gang popular in Seattle. Mr. Fuentes says that Edwin and Olly were speaking Filipino, which is part of the gang’s make up.
They believe he is part of the gang and send uniforms to his house, but he is gone. Lt. Swanstrom says that she watches to reach out and see if there is a CI within the gang who would be willing to get them more information in turn for a deal.
Tumble Down the Stairs
Cassie and Abigail argue as they wait for the police and ambulance to come. She tells Cassie she’s a good liar, just like her mother. Hannah (Anne Dudek) groans from the floor, finally waking up. She panics when she finds out there is an ambulance on the way and swears she is fine. She took a bad tumble down the stairs.
This isn’t surprising. Abuse victims are usually terrified of their abusers, but Hannah’s story doesn’t add up whatsoever. If she took a tumble down the stairs, what about all the broken furniture? The baby sitting beside her? None of it makes sense and just like Cassie knows better, so will the first responders.
Worried, she goes and speaks to Hackett who tells her that she can’t force someone to get help. Despite this, she keeps trying and attempts to have Brian go see her since he is a professional like Tom suggests at the precinct. Eventually, Brian agrees to see her for free if Cassie can get Hannah there, but he urges her to stay away from her boyfriend.
Guilt and Anger
After Brian leaves, Abigail says it must be nice to have a father. She asks why Cassie would want to take Crystal’s father away from her; he is always nice to the baby, just mean to her mom. Cassie asks why she led her to her mom and Crystal if she didn’t want her help. Quiet for a moment, she says she didn’t and that she wants her to leave.
Abigail is clearly angry about how this all happened. She doesn’t understand how her mother cries all the time and didn’t want to stay with her when she was cremated. Cassie suggests letting go of the anger, but she doesn’t want to. For such a small child, she is both naïve and very bright. It is a dangerous combination since her anger fuels her and may lead her to rash decisions.
I would think that this is the hurt talking and If something were to happen to Hannah, Abigail would be devastated.
Creepy Tree with No Leaves
At the safe house given to them by the CI, Hackett and Asante believe they have hit a dead end. Olly’s supposed lieutenant is not there nor is he. But, as Hackett looks up, he notices a warehouse with a creepy tree on it just beyond their house. The warehouse shows signs of a struggle, including a bloody weapon and blood stains on the ground. A police K9 barks at blue barrels and they head to investigate.
Inside, they find Olly. He’s dead. Well, that is never a good sign. The medical examiner says that he was killed between one and five am yesterday morning, which was before the shooting. He can’t be the shooter. I smell a setup. Who wanted this kid dead and blamed for a murder?
Olly was tortured and … not that torture isn’t sick all around but tortured in a very sick way. They used electrical shocks to multiple parts of his body so rigorous that it broke his femur. They also held him with a rope tied in nautical fashion. Hackett says this means the killer has sailing experience.
Maybe He’d Still Be Alive
Detectives Hackett and Asante finally bring in the lieutenant, Q, also known as Quentin Hahn. He admits that Olly was not part of the gang, but a childhood friend who he protected as he once saved his life. Olly went through a lot in the Philippines, but he would never tell him what happened there. Hahn admits that Edwin, the campaign manager, was from the same town as Olly. He took him in and got him a job.
From the way Hahn describes the situation, it would seem that perhaps Edwin wasn’t as straight and narrow as one might expect. Since when is a gang member more honest about this sort of thing?
Cassie to the Rescue?
Cassie goes to visit with Hannah, who at first doesn’t believe her when she says she talks to Abigail, but when she gives her details, she does. She says she blames herself for what happened to her daughter and Abigail appears, telling her that it’s all her fault, screaming to Cassie to tell her that. Much to the girl’s shock, Cassie tells her that she forgives her and that she’s here. She loves her and wants her to talk to her. Hannah seems floored when a lamp smashes to the ground but is unaware that Abigail is furious with Cassie.
She storms out of the room and leaves them be. Cassie stares at where she stood. I wonder if she thinks she made a mistake.
That little girl is just a tad ruthless. Makes you wonder if she is capable of more damage than Cassie even realizes?
The Monster
The team discovers that the small town in the Philippines was wiped out by a violent conflict when Olly was just six years old. Everyone was murdered, except for him. The pictures taken by rescue workers show a man covered by a monster with horns… a mask of sorts. Just like the vision Cassie had at the beginning of the episode. It would seem that the motive for this crime has changed. Two people, both who were from a small town wiped out, have been murdered. Definitely weird.
Doomsday
More research helps the team learn there was a total eclipse in the Philippines in 1988 that superstition led to believe was an omen. When a sacred water buffalo washed up on the shore of the local swamp, people began to panic. A man named Nimuel began to tell others the government was going to come to take them over and convinced the village that anyone who spoke against him would be killed. But, the more talk there was about doomsday, the more people panicked. Nimuel and his soldiers murdered everyone in the village, including using brutal torture, except for Olly who somehow escaped.
Olly connecting with Edwin may have opened a can of worms neither of them expected.
When Hannah Met Brian
Hannah agrees to come to meet with Brian and talk about what is going on in her life and what her options are. Upstairs, getting ready to leave them be, Cassie runs into Abigail. She admits her mother said she was sorry and talked to her that day. She spoke about once having a sister, Molly, who died by suicide at 15. Hannah thinks it may be because of her grandfather.
Abigail grows angry, shattering something on Cassie’s dresser. This leads Cassie to tell her to control her anger, to which Abigail questions. Cassie tells her a story about seeing a shaman as a child because her mother knew she saw supernatural beings. He told her about having two wolves inside, one that was kind and generous and the other vicious and angry. One always wins, she explained. Which one? The one you feed.
Cassie goes to leave but is thrust into another vision. This time she is in a mass grave in the Philippines. This is one vision that I have to say is morbid, but also terribly sad. How awful for the people involved.
Denila
The spoken word by Olly and Edwin that Mia Fuentes’s husband overheard turns out to be another name for the man who helped lead the massacre in the Philippines. He was Nimuel’s right-hand man. Denila has been suspected of hiding in plain sight in the US for years, but until now has never been seen. Hackett believes he came across him while canvassing for Mia.
He would never forget the person who killed everyone in his village, of course. Denila, now aware he’s been made, kidnaps and tortures Olly to find out if he’s told anyone. He then uses Olly’s bike to stage another killing, covering what he believes is all of his tracks. Except, there’s always a loose string, isn’t there?
They raid his house, but he’s already gone. He’s booked a one-way train ticket to Vancouver, but Hackett thinks it’s a decoy. He knows how to sail as we learned earlier in the episode. He’s going to escape by sea.
Alls Well…
They stop Denila at the boat just in time. He says he had nothing to do with it, but his fate is already sealed. Even if he were to get away with the murders in Seattle, he will be sent to Interpol and charged with crimes against humanity.
Then, Cassie gets a panicked request for help from Abigail, who says her mom is in trouble. She rushes there and finds Hannah covered in blood, holding a knife. Her boyfriend is dead. When asked, she explains that he came home early and found her packing to leave him. He told her that he was going to kill her, and she said she didn’t care. Then, he threatened to kill the baby and went toward her room.
Hannah said she couldn’t go through that again and killed him.
At the precinct, Tom and Brian both pull some strings so that Hannah isn’t charged and keeps custody of her baby. She is going to go to the woman’s shelter that Brian suggested and try to get her life back on track. Finally, back at home, Cassie is asleep when she’s woken up by Abigail. She thinks Molly is the one who sent Cassie messages and is off to find her. She wants to feed the good wolf.
The episode ends.
Thoughts
I think this episode started out rough. When I saw Cassie’s first vision, I thought it was a bit over the top and weird, and I was wondering how they were going to tie it all together in the end. Sometimes, even at the end of the episode, I think the visions are a little out of place. Cassie’s last vision, being with the bodies on the beach… what did that really signify? Was it meant to show that Denila was going to escape by water?
This we already knew was possible because of his sailing expertise. It just seems like another reason to give Cassie hell. Granted, it was creepy and got my attention, but it was oddly placed.
I’m also glad that they finally rounded up the storyline from episode one and that this time, Cassie was able to help someone and herself in the process. It definitely feels like one of the better episodes, as we get backstory and more involvement from minor characters.
That said, we are five episodes in and we hardly see any more of the team from the precinct. I think that’s unfair considering they are credited in the roles as recurring. Having one or two lines per episode to delve crucial information to me isn’t recurring. It would be nice to see more involvement by all the recurring characters.
And finally… still no Roven? I get that perhaps they couldn’t find a way to use his character in these two episodes, but it seems a bit strange that he just up and disappeared for a few weeks. He was so determined for Cassie’s “help” so now where he is? People like that just don’t give up.
For the Future of the Show
Overall, it was one of the better episodes. But, at the midway point, I’m not sure if it’s enough. The social media presence of this show all around is lacking. Even during live tweeting hours, the hashtag is not all that busy. I understand this is a summer show and things work a little different, but I question why no one seems to want to try and change it.
Do they believe there isn’t hope? Or is it the content of the show? I think this is a show that is fairly easy to live tweet along with. Paul Blackthorne and Harriet Dyer make efforts, but both of them are the only ones I see interacting with fans. The show’s Twitter page is lacking, as well. They tweet out that the show is starting and that it is over.
In today’s world, that just isn’t enough. Ratings on network shows are not as easy to gather as they used to be and if you’re a show struggling, clearly like this one is, you need that social media presence if you want to stand a chance.
I really want to like this show and I wanted to see it do well. I think that the actors are likable enough, but I just don’t see it getting renewed unless some miracle happens. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments below.
And don’t forget, you can watch The InBetween on NBC at 10/9c, Wednesdays.
Stay connected with So Many Shows:
More From So Many Shows:
The InBetween Episode 4: Kiss Them For Me