Poor Eugene, still stuck in hell, where every nicety shown to another inmate is punished severely by the butch and bullish Superintendent Mannering, who just threw someone into “the hole” for picking up her dropped pen cap. Eugene tries to look tough for the ever-present surveillance camera.

1946: Cassidy, looking exactly the same (obviously) sings a little ditty about a scarlet-haired whore to his son, Denis, in a hospital nursery, and promises to be a great da. Then drinks from his flask.

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Currently, Cassidy watches as Denis hacks up his lung, painfully spitting out blood.  Denis begs him wordlessly, but Cassidy refuses to turn him into a vampire.  Later, Tulip is up late at night, reading in the kitchen, and asks Cassidy if he wants to go “out.” Cassidy demurs. opting to stay home with his son and go to sleep. He suggests Tulip do the same, and instead she goes out on her own.

Hurt Locker, here we come.

Cassidy awakens to the sound of Denis repeating over and over, “Mords moi!” into the smartphone’s translation app, which dutifully repeats back, “Bite me!”

Lara Featherstone, of the Grail, is in one of the vacated apartments down the hallway watching footage from Denis’s place, courtesy of a tiny camera she installed in the apartment. Her partner, F. J. Hoover, shows off the Boo Berry cereal he brought as she tells him that Herr Starr is on his way there.

Jesse decides to go to the nearby Circuit Works store and see if God’s audition tape can be enlarged (like on the TV shows) to show some detail of the gun used that might identify it. Before he leaves, Cassidy hints that Jesse might be able to help Denis, wink-wink-nudge-nudge, but Jesse puts the kibosh on using Genesis for stuff like that (as opposed to using Genesis to make someone do something important like lay on the floor). Jesse passes Tulip on the way out, and they have an awkward non-conversation before she asks to go with him to Circuit Works.

At CW, Jesse passes the audition tape to the Dork Docs, asking them if they can enlarge it and see the serial number on the gun used. While he waits, Tulip buys a new refrigerator for Denis and then up and leaves Jesse to walk back. He acts a little surprised.

Back in Hell, Mannering says they’ve determined the cause of the cell malfunctions: a drain on the system caused by one extra unexpected prisoner, so she demands to know which one of them does not belong there.  After a decent pause, Eugene brings his hand out of his pocket to raise it, but quickly changes his mind and puts it back in–but not before Hitler catches the movement.

Later, Hitler confronts Eugene about not belonging there. He warns Eugene that Mannering is just itching to punish whoever it is and, to prove his point, Hitler trips someone and Eugene automatically goes to help him stand up.  Mannering drags him to another area: the aforementioned Hole.

A CW employee wrestles Denis’s old refrigerator out of the way and drops off the new one. Tulip looks at the exposed bullet hole thoughtfully.

After helping Denis spit up even more blood, he oh-so-casually asks Tulip if she would ever like to be “like him.” She considers, and thinks it might be cool, but the Case mentions all the bad things: watching people you love die over and over, not going to the beach, the boredom, etc. Tulip then notices that the hole behind the fridge is lined up with another hole in the next apartment, and another in the next one, and another…

The Dork Docs happily and proudly tell Jesse that they can’t see a thing on the tape, that the serial number on the gun was scrubbed. They assumed that he was the one with the gun and wanted to make sure the evidence couldn’t be used against him. He patiently asks them to redo it, now knowing that he actually wants to find the person who did this. They sheepishly go back to work on it.

Tulip spackles up the bullet hole in their kitchen, then goes next door to do that one, too. She starts working her way from apartment to apartment.

Mannering shoves Eugene in the Hole, where a projector gets into his brain and replays the whole scene with Tracy, but with even worse results. When he kisses her, she is not repulsed, but welcomes his affections–but explains that she already promised herself to God. Jesse comes into her bedroom and sits next to her on the bed, where they start kissing passionately and..uh…do other stuff. Eugene panics and screams and turns the rifle on himself.

Denis coughs up more blood. Cassidy is helpless, stuck.

Back in Hell, Hitler warns Eugene that they will do much worse to him if they find out his secret. For secretive reasons, he offers to help Eugene get out of Hell.

Tulip knocks on the last apartment door, and it’s answered by Featherstone in disguise with a wig and normal clothes. While Tulip spackles, “Jennie” says she just moved in. Tulip notices a gun behind the Boo Berry, and “Jennie” says it’s to protect herself against her ex. Tulip thinks they should go together to the Hurt Locker soon.

After a short but heartfelt prayer to the missing God, Jesse is told by the Dork Docs that they can’t find anything on the DVD. Sadly, Jesse walks out. The Dork Docs shred the DVD and, just as it disappears into the shredder, we see “PROPERTY OF GRAIL INDUSTRIES” imprinted on it.

Cassidy talks on the phone with a friend named Seamus about his predicament, and Seamus is very clear: let Denis die, do not bite him. Cassidy hangs up and goes to Denis, singing the same little song from the opening scene. Cassidy gets more emotional and more angry with each line he sings.

What a dilemma! Watch your own son die before your eyes or save his life (like he’s asking you to) and sentence him to an eternal lifetime. Tulip made a new “friend” and Jesse is still no closer to finding God, but Eugene is another step closer to getting out of Hell (and maybe getting revenge on Jesse?). Only five more episodes, kids! Even though this series is diverging from what I remember of the books, the characters are very true to its spirit, and it’s still got my full attention every week. See you next time!

 

 

About the Author

Mike Hansen has worked as a teacher, a writer, an actor, and a haunt monster, and has been a horror fan ever since he was a young child. Sinister Seymour is his personal savior, and he swears by the undulating tentacles of Lord Cthulhu that he will reach the end of his Netflix list. Someday.