Ron Does Stuff

So, I gave this show a shot, and to be fair, I thought the first episode was okay. If it didn’t have such esteemed predecessors, I might have enjoyed it more. But I enjoyed it enough to try out the whole first season, so let’s go!

We saw Clarice just further antagonize Krendler at the end of the last episode by going against his orders, and we indirectly see how it affects their working relationship at the start of the episode. Clarice’s theory that there’s a conspiracy behind the killings of the women is undermined by Krendler telling the press that the evidence was inconclusive, and Clarice is not happy about it. Thankfully, Ardelia is the voice of reason and tells Clarice that she needs to learn how to get along with the rest of her team if she intends to last long in her job.

And right now, her job is taking her to a secessionist militia in Tennessee who shot an FBI agent trying to serve a warrant. Maybe it’s because I’ve been rewatching Criminal Minds, and the fact that Erin Strauss is also here, but I’m reminded of a similar episode from that show.

Here, we get to see the impact of Clarice going off script more concretely. Krendler tells her directly that he’s going to have her removed from ViCAP after this particular mission is over. He also immediately sidelines her for this mission, assigning her to help set up cell towers.

It’s not just Krendler who pissed off at her. The other agent she’s paired with tells her she shouldn’t be there at all, and that whatever it is that’s eating at her is going to get the rest of them killed. Before he goes off on her though, Clarice suggests that the tactics of the BSU (Behavioral Science Unit) could also be used for offense, and once again I am reminded of Criminal Minds.

While helping in setting up the cell towers, Clarice encounters a kid who runs back into the militia’s farmhouse when he notices her. We also get a tiny flashback of what I think is Clarice learning about the death of her father. Let’s see how that factors in the episode, if at all. The boy re-emerges from the farmhouse with a megaphone and tells the FBI that the militia’s leader will only talk to Clarice and nobody else.

Clarice gussies up for the militia leader because she notes from the file that its mostly young women in the farmhouse and she wants to use that to her advantage. Esquivel is the one that sets up the wire on her and they have a conversation of how she needs to trust the team because the team wants to trust her and it’s kinda falling flat for me. And again, I think it’s because it’s set itself up as following the events of the Jonathan Demme movie. Clarice’s situation within the FBI was clearly defined in that movie; she’s a woman in man’s world and the men are openly hostile. Why are we trying to make it look like Clarice has to adjust to these men?

ANYWAYS. Clarice makes her way inside the militia’s farmhouse and I wanna give props to the show because that talk with the militia leader was disconcerting, as well as the flashbacks to the day that Clarice learned her father had died. The addition of siblings for Clarice, though? I don’t know about that.

When Clarice has a breakdown as she is reminded not just of her dead father but also of her encounter with Buffalo Bill, the militia leader takes it as an opportunity to poke at the gathered federal forces in front of his farmhouse. It eventually leads to a shoot out that is resolved when the militia leader asks Clarice to tell the federal forces that he’s willing to negotiate.

It all looks like the situation is somewhat resolved, but Clarice once again goes rogue and starts looking for the boy she saw early in the episode. But what she discovers instead are video cameras that have documented the sexual slavery that the militia leader is doing to the young women in the farmhouse.

Outside the farmhouse, the team have also found out that the local sheriff is in cahoots with the militia, thanks to Ardelia doing the research. However, they team can’t act because Ruth Martin doesn’t want this to become another Waco.

Inside, Clarice finally finds the young boy she met, and it turns out that he was the one who shot the agent because he wanted someone to help them. The local sheriff, as it turns out, has a habit of killing the women in the farmhouse when he gets angry. After making sure the boy gets out of the house, she radios outside and convinces Krendler to let her work inside and get the militia leader to confess. And she does do her magic, although, once again, I’m reminded of Criminal Minds.