Brendan Jesus
Coming off the very bland Episode 4 “Left Handed Justice” I was a bit hesitant about the direction this story was going to take. Something about “Left Handed Justice” just really fell flat in every aspect. The script felt off and there was very little interesting action. Thankfully, that was just a fluke, as Episode 5 “Everybody’s Darling” is back to the good ole Slasher we’ve come to know and love. Let’s take a look at Salome’s side of the story.
Episode 5 “Everybody’s Darling”
It’s Valentine’s Day in gloomy Toronto. A young child walks through the streets. Clutched under their arm is a heart-shaped box. The courier arrives at the Bottecceli’s house and delivers the sweets to Venetia (Sabrina Grdevich). Knowing they are from Garvey (Eric McCormack), Viviana (Paula Brancati) takes them and dives right into the chocolate. As Viviana eats the chocolate Venetia reads the attached letter and yep, you guessed it. Garvey sent a Valentine’s Day gift for Verdi (Sadie Laflamme-Snow), and Viviana exclaims they are selling Verdi immediately.
Fresh out of his torture, Georges (Thom Allison) and Crenshaw (Christopher Jacot) make love at The Queen’s Chamber. All is not quiet on the western front when Salomé (Salvatore Antonio) overhears the two having some alone time. While Georges and Crenshaw tussle in the sheets, Andrew May Jr. (Steve Byers) and Regina Simcoe (Clare McConnell) hand out Valentine’s Day apples to those less fortunate. Yeah, I thought that too. Apples? Regina is just as confused as to why they are giving out apples. One of the less fortunate people they try and give an apple to basically let them know whey they are doing is pointless, and is just putting a bandaid on the real problem. Then a scream echoes through the streets of The Devil’s Elbow.
Andrew and Regina run to where the commotion is, revealing the body of Superintendant Kashtinsky (Daniel Cash) dressed in a toga with a bow and arrow in his hand. Detective Rijkers (Gabriel Darku) and Dr. Israel (Lisa Berry) arrive on the scene to conduct their investigations. The doctor is able to deduce that Kashtinsky was dragged to death and that he has been dead for roughly 12 hours. They then find an origami heart on Kashtinsky’s person. The note reads: One show the arrow, another strung the bow, a third cut the marrow and a fourth told her no. But the one who lured the sparrow, who set the bait, he will die in pieces and suffer all my hate.” You might think this is about Garvey. You’re dead wrong!
Garvey visits Verdi at their house, which has even less furniture than it did the last episode. He asks how she enjoyed the chocolates, and she tells him she never received them. While they converse Viviana stands in the background eavesdropping with a smudge of chocolate on her face. Verdi is insistent that she doesn’t want anything to do with Garvey, even as he offers her a plethora of gifts. Eventually, Garvey relents and leaves at Verdi’s request.
Detective Rijkers and Regina discuss some of the evidence he has. Regina is able to recognize the piece of cloth Rijkers found, it’s an expensive piece of silk called Chirimen Silk; she knows just where to find it. The two go to visit Mr. Chow (Russell Yuen), the proprietor of a local fabrics shop. Like Regina, Mr. Chow is also familiar with this fabric. In fact, he recently placed a special order for a Chirimen kimono for Salomé.
12 years ago. Salomé and Margaret Mehar (Genevieve DeGraves) are working the streets of the Devil’s Elbow. In a piece of unwarranted advice, Salomé tells Margaret she should get more guys if she dressed nicer. Margaret inquires about Salomé’s financial status, asking how they can afford such fineries. Salomé says they do favors for Mr. Chow. During their conversation, the two are approached by Alistair Simcoe (Shaun Benson). Alistair tries his best to deliver one of the worst written lines ever when he says, “One-half dollar for a knee trembler up the alley.” I…I don’t know what that means. We also notice this is Salomé before their face was cut by Alistair. Salomé comes to the rescue and takes one for the team. After their encounter, up the alley, Salomé asks for their money. Alistair responds with “I don’t pay boys” before cutting Salomé’s face up.
It’s nice to see someone trying to help, or at least be kind to Margaret. Everyone has had an ulterior motive for her, and it seems like Salomé will actually be nice to her. Knowing that Salomé is in the photo though, I don’t think things will stay that way. It’s hard not to feel bad for Margaret, she is a very well-written protagonist. These flashback scenes are some of the best scenes in this entire series.
Back in the present day, we find Salomé using the scandalous photos they took of Verdi to try and sell her to a group of businessmen. Crenshaw enters wondering what the hell is going on under his roof. Detective Rijkers is also on scene, questioning Salomé about the Chirimen silks, and an alibi. Before the detective can get a real answer, a carriage crash outside cuts them short. One of Rijkers’ officers is beating the child who brought the candies to the Botteccelli house. This officer seems to think this child, and the other street children, have something to do with the Black Widow deaths. Sometime later, Garvey shows up at the police station to harass Rijkers about what his cops are doing to his kids and businesses. Garvey ensures Rijkers that if the harassment from the police doesn’t stop, he’ll make it stop.
Freshly wounded from her encounter with Alistair, Salomé finds herself at Dr. Israels as she cleans their wounds. The doctor inquires as to who did this to them, and they respond, “They’re a gentleman, they’d get off Scott-free.” Salomé promises if they ever see Alistair again, they will turn him into a eunuch. Crenshaw enters the room and tells Salomé they can stay at The Queen’s Chamber for as long as they need to. Initially, Salomé says they can’t take charity, and it’s implied this is one of the first times someone has done a genuinely kind thing for her. It’s also clear that since Crenshaw isn’t in the photograph he might be one of the “good” guys. What happened to Margaret happened under his roof, but the extent of his knowledge is questionable. We even see Salomé trying to sell Verdi to men earlier, this could show it’s just an ongoing case of Salomé hiding things from Crenshaw in plain sight.
Salomé tells Venetia they are getting low-balled with prices for Verdi. Venetia realizes they need to narrow their search, she says with a smirk on her face. Immediately, Venetia goes to visit Garvey. In a twist I didn’t see coming, due to the fact that she’s hurting both of her sisters here, Venetia tries to get Garvey to buy Verdi. There’s this whole ongoing bit about how Viviana is betrothed to Garvey, which he consistently denies. Hoping to win Garvey over Venetia leaves the scandalous photos of Verdi on his desk and exits.
In Georges and Crenshaw’s love-making room, Crenshaw cleans the feet of the recently injured Georges. It’s a really cute moment, and Crenshaw deserves some love dammit! Georges reveals to Crenshaw that he heard Salomé taking bids for Verdi, which throws Crenshaw into a rage. Crenshaw stomps his way to Salomé’s room to tell them that he absolutely forbids the selling of Verdi. Salomé questions why he cares what happens, as he does this every day. While partially true, Crenshaw says what he does is different, he allows women to make the choice of coming to work for him. This whole argument leads to Crenshaw telling Salomé they are no longer allowed to stay, and then Crenshaw does go a bit too far by calling Salomé a disgusting F-word. Salomé loses it, grabs a knife, and stabs Crenshaw square in the heart. Blood gushes from around the edges of the knife as Crenshaw falls dead to the floor.
At this point, Salomé is informed their show starts momentarily and they must report to the stage. The show starts and Salomé starts to perform. A cloche stands center stage. Salomé lifts it, and under the silver dome is Crenshaw’s head, with a note sticking out of his mouth. The audience screams, as does Salomé. Dr. Israel comes to The Queen’s Chamber to inspect the head, noticing Crenshaw was dead before the head was removed. Also, the head was decapitated by a right-handed individual. The note in his mouth read, “Off with his haed [sic], this bitch is daed [sic]. Watch who you betray or the widow again will slay.” Both Dr. Israel and myself remarked as to how this definitely isn’t the work of the Black Widow, at least the Black Widow can formulate a coherent and interesting poem.
Vivian and Venetia are relaxing at home when Garvey enters. Garvey drops a large bag of money in between the sisters and plainly says, “Get her ready.” From there Garvey takes Verdi to his house and tells her what happened. Understandably Verdi is put off by this whole scenario. Attempting for some form of self-preservation, Verdi uses her wit to get Garvey to let her lay some ground rules down. If he wants her to love him, he needs to relent somewhat and let her A) wait to have sex and B) let her sleep in the guest room for now.
Salomé smokes something out of a hookah and their vision starts getting fuzzy. Who else shows up but our Robin Hood of revenge, the Black Widow.
Taking another trip back in time, the crew from the photo imbibes and parties at Garvey’s house. Margaret is there as the maid. Presumably, this is the same night Georges hypnotized her from Episode 4. Salomé brushes Margaret off and tells her to get them a drink. Fed up with all of their shit, Margaret tells Salomé to get it themself and then calls Salomé a whore. To add insult to injury Margaret says that at least she doesn’t “take it up the wall for a dime,” which is one of my new favorite insults. Salomé slaps Margarett across the face.
Cutting back to a high Salomé, they start to wander around the room. When the moment is right, the Black Widow jumps out and sticks a needle in Salomé’s neck.
One final flashback brings us to the night in question. Salomé enters the bondage room that Margaret and Garvey occupy. Garvey tells Margaret she’ll get the hospitality she deserves. With one final stinger Salomé invites Alistair into the room…
Present day, Salomé is now tied up to a cross on the wall in the bondage room. With one final injection of the mystery drug, the Black Widow is ready to work. They go about taking a bone saw and start sawing off one of Salomé’s arms. What kind of stinks about this is they drug Salomé so that they don’t feel the pain. Salomé should have truly paid for their involvement in this story. Blood and screams grace the screen as Salomé is finally done with their wicked life.
Final Thoughts
That’s the Slasher I knew and loved. We get some great flashbacks that add proper weight to the story, rather than just Kashtinsky hitting on Margaret unsuccessfully. We get Alistair back in his wicked ways. Shaun Benson absolutely kills (heh) as Alistair. Garvey is a nicely written sinister character, but Alistair is truly sinister. I would have been okay if this series followed the misdoings of Alistair because he is truly a terrifying character.
