Madeleine Martin in a scene from Netflix’s “Hemlock Grove” Season 2. Credit: Brooke Palmer for Netflix.
Shelley and Christina are back and I’ve heard of a cat fight but what do you call a fight between a Frankenstein-ish monster and a werewolf-ish monster everyone believed to be dead?
After hearing Christina cry from the bottom of her grave at the end of last season, we knew it would just be a matter of time before she finally arose from the ground. The episode opens with her hand popping out of the ground only to turn into the vargulf before we even get to see her face.
But that’s not the only shocker in the intro. We also catch a quick glimpse of Shelley (Madeleine Martin replacing Nicole Boivin in the role), clad in a black hood, running away in the woods. Will Shelley finish the job of killing Christina before the episode is over? FInd out in the recap below.
The bromance begins again
Peter (Landon Liboiron) explores the Gone Sis trailer park where he’s stopped by a woman, accompanied by a little girl, coming out of her house with a gun. She warns Peter that the people who live around there will shoot him before they so much as look at him and to look out for himself. Peter tells her to do the same and to lock her door.
Upon walking away, Peter runs into his former bff, Roman (Bill Skarsgård). Since the last two episodes have had an extreme lack of this bromance, it was refreshing to see that this episode actually had plenty of scenes between the two.
Roman has also been having strange dreams about something mysterious happening near mobile homes and railroad tracks and decided to check out the area. However, the upir is not too happy to see the friend who abandoned him when he needed him most. Ironically, Peter says he doesn’t feel right abandoning the people at the Gone Sis while Roman drives away.
Later, when Peter is driving, he sees an ambulance and the police driving toward the trailer park and, after following them, sees that a potential murder/suicide occurred with one of the victims being the woman who pulled a gun on him. We don’t know how she died but hey, this is Hemlock Grove and Peter did tell her to lock her door.
Afterward, Peter goes back to the home he shares with Destiny (Kaniehtiio Horn) and promises her that he will never turn into a werewolf again during the bad moon like he did to trick drug dealers into thinking they were going on a trip. She reminds him about his grandfather Nicolae’s behavior after turning on the bad moon. This included an incident where Nicolae broke his grandson’s nose for drawing on his grimoires.
Speaking of the drug dealers, they figured out that the drug Peter sold them for $20,000 is fake and their boss is not happy. Looks like the dealers will try to get their money back in a future episode.
But the biggest thing Peter should be worrying about right now is his bromance with Roman. After calling Miranda (Madeline Brewer) to tell her that he found cheaper car parts, Miranda travels with him so she can get away from boredom while alone at Roman’s with the creepy butler.
While driving together, Peter opens up about his mother to Miranda and that makes her realize that she likes a nice, little mama’s boy. She also learns about Peter and Roman’s past and asks the one question that was likely a nod to all of the slash fan fiction out there: “Did you two date the same girl or… each other?”
Peter and Miranda sleep together, which causes Miranda to cry because she “gets emotional sometimes.” What kind of baggage does she have? I don’t know but Miranda’s issue with her ex’s futon feeling like it had dead cats in it feels like the ultimate first world problem in comparison to what happened with Peter’s ex. After realizing how damaged Peter is, she thinks it was a mistake to sleep with him and tries to leave. Peter urges her to stay.
Is this the beginning of a love triangle between Peter, Miranda and Roman (not necessarily in that order)? Either way, it looks like Peter and Roman are starting to make peace after Peter apologizes for abandoning his friend.
Norman doesn’t say he forgives him but instead gives out some info from his own dream. The kid on the tricycle was looking at an old-fashioned bi-plane pulling a green banner before he was supposedly killed by the masked man. Will Peter make it in time to save the boy?
Shelley
Psycho Christina did not have a match against Shelley’s strength, since she immediately bashes the vargulf’s brain in and rips its head off (and if that’s not disturbing enough — rips the head in half). This goes against traditional horror movie stereotypes by having the villain be the stupid one in a chase scene. Shouldn’t Christina have known better than to go after the person who killed her the first time?
Shelley also makes a new friend in this episode when she hides in the basement of an abandoned house. A young, unnamed boy comes to her and brings her food and drinks periodically. While these two did not feel the need to exchange names, the young boy tells Shelley that he did name his big, deformed second toe. So, he also thinks it’s a good idea to give names to Shelley’s demonic-looking fingers and names them stumpy, bloody, gooey and the remaining two, squishy.
Kids do crazy things these days.
What else?
We see the real face of one of the white-masked men!
A police officer warns a mother and child to be careful since there is a prowler in the area. But when the officer goes into his truck, we catch a brief glimpse of a white mask on his passenger seat. What is on the agenda of these guys?
Everyone wants Roman dead!
Pryce (Joel de la Fuente) is not happy about Roman interfering with his projects and for being nosy around his lab. So, he enlists the help of a doctor to make an enzyme inhibitor which is a fancy way of saying “a drug that would induce acute hemophilia and thereby create an atom bomb within one’s bloodstream” which is a fancy way of saying “some thingy that will kill Roman.”
Also, Dr. Chasseur’s brother, Michael (Demore Barnes), is back and still believes Roman killed his sister due to the ideas of the minister from the Order of the Dragon (does the minister even have a name?). His revenge will likely be made easier since he has now taken Sworn’s job as sheriff.
Olivia is back at it again!
Glenn Close has nothing on Olivia’s (Famke Janssen)fatal attraction to Norman. After seeing him with his ex-wife, Marie, Olivia is immediately overtaken with jealousy. Even though Marie goes to Olivia’s place to finally release the grudge she has against the woman her husband left her for, Olivia still responds with her snarky attitude.
In response, Marie gives Olivia a taste of her own medicine by pointing out that she had a daughter who she treated like crap, a son who hates her, and that she is a terrible person. Did Marie finally get through to Olivia and relieve the woman of her wicked ways? Nope, at the end of the episode, Olivia sleeps with Norman and is clearly distracted by something. Turns out she killed Marie and her body is lying in Olivia’s bathtub. Olivia, will you ever change? Hopefully not because then we wouldn’t have one of the most entertaining villains on television.
Grade: A-
Check out the recap of the last episode here.
Follow Jeremy Rodriguez on Twitter: @RodriguezJeremy
