I confess I’m feeling a bit of fatigue with the series. Maybe
it’s the events in the world over the last few weeks, or maybe it just feels
like the season can’t get any darker. This episode reminded me of season two,
when the identity of “Bloody Face” was revealed, well before the season finale.
Largely resolving the case of the Ten Commandments Killer, the season maybe
freed up to explore and resolve it’s more paranormal elements.
The episode opens with John screaming after Wren has killed
herself by running into oncoming traffic. A man comes out of his car horrified by the
body of the pale girl in the street. John
stares at the girl’s lifeless body and remembers seeing her in the coffin room
at the hotel. John flees the scene,
returning to the hotel’s reception desk. Liz is present, with tears in her eyes
trying to read a book. (Reeling from the loss of Tristan.) John demands to know
where the Ten Commandment Killer is hiding. Liz is impassive and John tries to
bully her by grabbing her. Liz threatens John if he doesn’t stop. Sally appears
to smooth things over. Her eyes are
filled with tears and she says, “I’ll take you there.” Liz slides a gun over to
John, “You might want to take this with you in case you find what you’re
looking for.”
John follows Sally down a darkened hallway. She leads him to room sixty-four and declares,
“You’ll find what you’re looking for on the other side of this door. It used to be the office of Patrick James
March who died February twenty fifth at two twenty five in the morning.” John
recalls his strange dreams and visions, which have happened at that precise
hour of the night. Sally tries to flirt
with John, preventing him from entering the room. This angers John and Sally lets him inside and
tells him the answers are behind the room’s armoire. (Which is as big as a
house.) John manages to move the armoire, revealing a human sized safe. The safe opens to a secret room.
The contents of the room are horrifying. Body parts are preserved as trophies from the
Ten Commandment Murders. Sally begins to
explain each one; a hand from a thief (Thou Shall Not Steal), teeth from the
day laborers, (Thou Shall Keep the Sabbath Holy), Part of Gamboa’s brain, (Thou
Shall Not Worship False Idols), the eyes from the adulterous man from the pilot
episode, the hearts of the men who killed their parents, (Honor thy Mother and
Father) tongues from the gossip bloggers, (Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness). John is shocked and orders Sally to tell him
who let the murderer in the hotel. She
cries, “We didn’t have to let him in, he had a key!”
In a dramatic flash of memories, John finally understands,
HE IS THE KILLER! Sally tells him, “It’s
always been you!”
John arrives in a brightly light room where Detective Hahn
is examining of body of Wren. Hahn says
he’s been looking for him, but he disappeared from the scene of the accident. John tells him, he’s here to confess. Hahn is confused; Wren’s death was an
accident. No, John explains, he’s there to
confess to the Ten Commandment murders. Hahn
states the murders started long before John moved into the Hotel Cortez, three
weeks ago. John tells his ex-partner he
has been going to the Hotel Cortez for the last five years. He begins to tell the whole story behind his
conversion into the Ten Commandment Killer.
In 2010, the day after John worked the case of the family
who died from carbon monoxide poisoning, causing the husband to take his own
life when he discovered their bodies.
John was looking to drink himself to oblivion and he entered the Hotel
in search of a bar. There he met Liz and Sally for the first time. Donavon
spies John and offers to buy him a drink and to come up for a “party.” At first John refuses, but with the bar
closing soon, he decides to go up with the young vampire. Upstairs, he meets Mr. March and the Countess.
(Who are having their monthly dinner together.)
John feels as though he’s stepped into a costume party,
given March and the Countess’s eccentric attire. Donavon introduces John as a
member of law enforcement. March wants to hear more. John recounts the murder scene he worked which
was actually an accidental death and a suicide. March is fascinated at John’s reaction to the
deaths and his work in general. “You
speak of these things with such calm indifference, like death has no meaning.”
John counters, “I’m a homicide detective, death is the only thing that has
meaning.” March smiles at John and then
he dismisses the Countess from her monthly obligation to get to know the
detective better.
Once alone, March pours John absinthe and formally
introduces himself. John notes his curious speech and attire is that of a
“1930’s movie star.” March explains
vaguely that he has nostalgia for that period of time. March says he once met a photographer named
Kirlian who claimed to be able to catch one’s aura on film. (Kirlian actually
developed this technique in 1939, years after March’s death, it’s ties to
aura’s and parapsychology was not made popular until the 1960’s-70’s. But maybe
it was ghost March who met the photographer.) He taught March how to see them for himself
and he notes John has a very black aura.
John asks for a further explanation. March continues, “It means you wish to bend
the world to your will, and work hard to keep your rage intact.” March encourages him to let out this rage.
John states they spent the next two days getting to know each other on a deeper
level. John adds, “He helped me forget.”
March speaks to the Countess about John. He is certain John is the one to “continue his
work.” March lists the names of the
other serial killers he tried to mentor in the past, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery
Dahmer, Richard Ramirez but compared to John he considers all them “amateurs.” The Countess points out John won’t let go
while he still has hope. March mentions
John has a very attractive little boy. The
Countess is interested. A loss of one of
his children will give John the needed nudge to surrender to his dark nature.
John returned home to Alex and his family after nearly three
days. He has blacked out his memory due
to his heavy drinking. John sees his son Holden off to school and promises to
take him to the carnival later that day. (Holden is abducted at the carnival.) John recalls the immediate aftermath following
Holden’s kidnapping. How the hope turned into loneliness and despair as the
search for his son yielded nothing. Hahn
offers, “But you got through it.” John
recounts he started living two lives, one with Alex and another at the hotel
with March.
John and March have dinner. Ms. Evers serves, “Try the foie grais, it’s
surprising how good a little cruelty can taste!” March weaves his seductive web to mold John
into the perfect killer. March shows John to his “trophy room.” First they
encounter the head of a bison, next to the head of March’s former accountant!
John is initially repulsed and calls his friend a “monster.” March is undaunted, he asks John to “Climb out
from under the moral weight!” John
thinks of all the disappointments in his work, the killers who get off free. John muses, “The law has nothing to do with
justice.” Like Dexter, John is
considering times when justice should be carried out independent of the law.
In the present time, John meets with March. He tells his friend Holden would have turned
ten-years-old that day. March tells John
of a recent guest, a pedophile who tortured and photographed a ten-year-old boy.
The man was Martin Gamboa, the man who
was murdered by the Oscar statue. John
explains “false idolatry” was not his only sin. John tracked the man down on
Craigslist; Gamboa was selling an Oscar trophy for five thousand dollars. John confronts the man with the photos of the
boy and uses the trophy to bash in his brain.
When John returned to the Cortez after the murder, he tried
to hang himself in the bathroom. Hahn
notes someone must of cut him down. John
recalls his ongoing relationship with Sally. “She was like smoke that gets into your
clothes. She was a bottomless pit of need.” John and Sally had an ongoing sexual affair. After sex, John saw a preacher on television
that became the inspiration for one of his “Commandment” murders. When he was distracted, Sally looked at the
photos in his wallet and John became angry. He didn’t like his two identities mingling.
March was the one who cut down John from his noose. March yells at Sally, “He’s not yours, yet!” It was essential March had John to move about
in the “real world” to finish his crimes. Sally’s world is the ghost world.
Hahn explains Sally died in 1994 by jumping out of the
eleventh story window at the Hotel Cortez. Hahn thinks his friend is confused. Sally bathes John after a bloody night. He
asks he why he can’t remember things when he leaves the hotel. Sally explains
the “Cortez is a jealous mistress. She won’t let you take anything with you!”
John speaks to March, confessing he loved the act of killing. March is pleased with his protégé, “You’re
becoming who you are! You let go!” John
notes that feeling failed to bring Holden back. March assures him, “You made
the world a cleaner place!”
March shows John the trophy room again, explaining the work
he began as the Ten Commandment Killer. He
wants John to “Make it your own!” John
is scared of being caught, March advises him to make himself the lead detective
on the cases to assure his safety.
Hahn is doubtful about John’s bizarre tale. Hahn states he had coffee with Alex to speak
about John’s mental health. John is
upset Hahn and tells Sally about his friend’s “betrayal” as he has intercourse
with Sally! John wants to get revenge,
but Sally advises him if he kills Alex, it will be obvious he’s the killer. Sally finds John a couple, which met on Ashley
Madison, who are having an affair and meet for trysts at the Cortez. March has a rule, no murders are to occur at
the Cortez, and so John sends falsified texts for the couple to meet elsewhere.
Hahn continues to doubt John’s story and dares him to tell
him something only the killer would know about the adultery murders. John tells him how he framed the couple’s
family pictures from their Facebook pages and how he cut the tongue and eyes
out from the man. Hahn thinks John is
merely projecting guilt onto himself because he really wanted to capture the
Ten Commandment Murderer. John angers, stabs
Hahn and cries “Thou Shall Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Wife!” But John says he’ll
show Hahn mercy. Hahn, bleeding spits,
“You don’t deserve Alex!” John stabs his former partner again in the heart.
John returns to the Cortez carrying a dripping brown paper
bag. (Another trophy from Hahn.) Iris is at the reception desk. She asks, “Now do you remember?” John says
yes, Iris exclaims relief; it was so complicated when John kept shifting his
identity from cop to killer. Iris shares
that Wren died because of Sally. Sally was so afraid John would die outside of
the hotel and be lost to her; she had Wren follow John to assure his safety.
John obtains the key for room sixty-four. He places Hahn’s penis (not shown thankfully!)
into the specimen room. March approves,
“The instrument of adultery, his best part it looks like!” March adds, “I stand in awe of your talent!
What will you do?” John is resolved, “Two more.” March beams, “Splendid, then the masterpiece
will be complete!”
It seems the mystery of the Ten Commandment Killer is
solved. Who will learn the truth now
that Hahn is dead? The previews show the
Countess is preparing for her nuptials with Drake and Donavon and Ramona are
setting up their plan to get revenge. What will happen to Alex and the
remaining vampire children? Who will be left to haunt the Hotel when these
creatures depart? I’m hoping for a
return to the more supernatural imaginary world as this season winds down. It’s the un-reality which frees us to be
entertained by the macabre.
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