This week we get more background on the early days of the Pride, the kids pull off a complicated plan, and the parents interact with the mysterious Jonah. Everyone’s personal lives, youth and adult, begins to get in the way of the goals of the group. The kids’ romantic entanglements and personal dilemmas are charming to keep up with, since they are mixed up with the discovery of their powers. The parents aren’t as much fun, but Julian McMahon might just be playing the devil this time around, instead of just a character who’s devilish. He certainly gives Lucifer a run for his money.
We learn over the course of the episode that Jonah had gifted the parents with many of their hearts’ desires over the years, with the understanding that eventually he’d need something in return. Apparently none of them had ever read fairytales or seen movies about the mob, because they all agreed, thus getting themselves involved in an evil bargain that they couldn’t escape.
Fifteen years ago, Catherine and Geoffrey were given the house in Brentwood on three quarters of an acre, with a guesthouse, worth around a million dollars, which happens to have Julian’s old underground home carved out underneath it. They’ll need some distance from the neighbors for their new murder hobby.
The entire Pride is at the first ceremony, also fifteen years ago, including the Hernandez and the Yorkes. The way the others treat the Yorkes made me think they’d joined later. Tina’s staff is brand new, and she’s so excited about it that she’s been sleeping with it, according to Robert. The group complain about the red robes, but Jonah insisted they follow tradition.
Leslie brings in a boy named Brook and guides him into Victor’s black box. She tells him to follow the light where it leads him. The box glows, then becomes static again. The others ask what just happened, and slowly realize that they’ve just been party to a murder. Victor and Leslie explain how the box works:
Victor: It’s not magic. It’s the pure conversion of matter to energy in a form that can be absorbed by the human body. The math has existed for a while, but no one has actually done, until now.
Leslie: It isn’t a death. He lives on in another. Eternal.
Geoffrey discovers the hidden camera that the kids found in episode 5. Tina informs the rest that the recording is uploading into her company’s server, where it will remain. They all realize that they’ve been trapped into watching a murder, and certain people now have blackmail evidence. Leslie, Victor and Tina all knew at least part of what was happening, but Victor didn’t know he was being recorded. Tina worries that Jonah will come after their kids. Only Leslie, the leader, is fine with everything.
In the present day, Jonah is still buzzing from his latest renewal. He’s excited about the Pride gala for the school, where he’ll meet Karolina, his daughter, for the first time. Leslie is uncertain about Jonah’s plan. She thinks it’s better if he stays out of sight like he always has, and waits to meet Karolina. Jonah came too close to death this time before they found a sacrifice. He doesn’t want to waste any more time waiting.
Tina and Nico begin training with the staff. Tina asks Nico to picture what she wants to make happen. Unfortunately, she imagines not being able to hear Tina, so we miss whatever Tina says next. An electrical current travels from Nico’s neural pathways into the staff to make it work. Wizard Labs, Tina’s company, made it using some very special technology. It’s activated by pricking Nico’s finger to check her blood for DNA that matches Tina’s. It’s designed to respond only to Tina’s DNA, so it will only work for Tina, and Nico, since her DNA is close enough to Tina’s.
Tina says Nico could have asked about the staff, and about Amy’s diary. She speaks honestly for a moment about the way that she and Amy fought all the time, but she never suspected Amy would…Then she closes up again.
Karolina flips through a book of her grandfather’s drawings (they look like watercolor paintings) of beings of light. When Frank comes in, she tells him that she thinks that her grandfather really saw them. They wonder what he saw, and share a moment of closeness. They both feel left out of Leslie’s world at times, since they aren’t allowed in Pride and haven’t reached the higher levels of the church. Frank says he’s done chasing the higher levels.
Victor helps Chase repair the fistigons after their trial run the night before. After Chase leaves, Victor listens to his hacked feed from Janet’s phone. She’s with Robert, and they’re discussing their affair. Robert wants Janet to confess the affair to Victor so that she can move in with him. He tells Janet that he knows Victor has physically abused her in the past.
The kids meet at the coffee shop to plan their evening at the gala. Sure, they’ll hack into the Wizard servers and steal the Pride video, but first, 5 limos, or 1? Carpooling in 1. Dress up or dress down? Dress up. Gert declares dating heteronormative. They’re nervous about how things will change after the video comes out, but they’re all in it together.
As Nico prepares to go to Karolina’s house to get ready for the gala, Tina gives her approval of Nico’s relationship with Alex. Nico and Karolina talk about Karolina’s powers and their parents as they get ready. Karolina decides that since she’s a freak, she’s free to be who she really is, and to be honest about who she wants to be with. She’s about to lean in to kiss Nico when Gert and Molly arrive to break up the moment.
Stan Lee cameo as the limo driver!
Jonah approaches Leslie and Frank at the gala and introduces himself to Frank, then steals Leslie away. Frank remembers seeing them make love, with the glowing white light between them, as he watches them walk away. This must be the memory that the serum made him forget.
Gert pulls Karolina aside to ask her if she’s interested in Nico, and express support if Karolina is. Karolina is spooked to know that someone else has noticed her interest, and denies it, then calls out Gert’s interest in Chase, which Gert also denies. Karolina’s brain is a complicated place right now, between the glowing and the wanting to kiss girls and the murderous mother.
Alex gathers up Nico and Gert to go hack the servers and download the video. The first stop is the send Gert to distract the security guy in front of the elevator. Luckily, he’s reading Kafka’s Metamorphosis, which is probably a book Gert’s read more than once. Nico and Alex are confused as to why Gert is talking about cockroaches and proletariats at first, but they go with it.
Alex and Nico find the server with the video stored on it, but there on no external ports. They need to download the video from Tina’s office. They take the elevator up to the top floor while Gert does some quick thinking to distract the security guy.
She plays the Star Wars video game that’s in the lobby purely as decoration, since it was a gift from Robert to Tina. The henchman who dug up dirt on the Yorkes gets in on the action, too.
Alex and Nico are able to download the video because Tina’s desk recognizes Nico’s DNA. Tina must have sore fingers all the time.
While waiting in line at the bar, Chase has a close call with Leslie and Jonah, who are looking for Karolina so that she can meet Jonah. He notices Karolina grabbing a bottle of vodka and slipping up to the roof, so he follows her. She’s guzzling the vodka pretty fast. Karolina tries to talk to Chase about how much she feels like a freak, but he’s always finishing her sentences.
Karolina sits on the building’s ledge. Of course she falls off when she grabs for the vodka bottle, giving her the opportunity to discover she can fly. Chase takes this as an opportunity to kiss her, because he has White Male Syndrome, and thinks everything is about him. Filtered through his eyes, she almost died without him having the opportunity to kiss her, and he tried to save her life, but she saved herself. Meanwhile, Karolina looks like she’s that much more overwhelmed, since she both almost died and discovered she could fly. And she only wants to be friends with the guy who just kissed her.
Molly is worried that she won’t be able to question Catherine about her parents after they give the video to the police, so she sends a text to Catherine asking for information, saying that time is running out.
The parents make their presentation to the crowd. Victor has a migraine episode from his tumor. He takes the mic from Tina, and exposes Janet and Robert’s affair to everyone. Tina had no idea, and walks out, headed to her office. Victor passes out.
Victor is taken to a private room, where Chase reveals that he has a brain tumor to Janet and the rest of the Pride. Victor throws Janet out of the room. Leslie suggests that Jonah could help Victor. Jonah is already waiting for her, with his medical bag in hand, but feeling bitter that the evening hasn’t gone the way he wanted it to.
Gert sees Tina get on the elevator and texts Nico and Alex. They hide behind the desk while Tina cries her eyes out. Nico wants to comfort Tina, but Alex stops her from revealing they’re in her office. Nico wonders if a murderer is capable of crying like that.
Jonah has a serum that will cure Victor. Chase has to leave the room, after meeting Jonah for the first time. Jonah tells Chase that he taught the other doctors in the room (the Yorkes) everything they know. Everyone in the room agrees that they need Victor (Leslie, the Yorkes, Jonah, Geoffrey). Both Chase and Dale question the existence of a cure for brain cancer.
Jonah: It’s an experimental immunotherapy developed from the DNA of someone…with an extraordinary immune system. Works to right a variety of ailments.
Jonah gives Victor a single injection of an opaque, luminescent serum. Dale slips the remainder of the vial into his pocket.
Victor returns to the gala a few minutes later, fully recovered. He hugs Janet and Chase, seeming to have forgotten about Janet’s affair. Dale must have given him a chaser of memory serum. Chase was given several important new clues tonight.
Jonah sees Karolina walking toward the exit and introduces himself, though it’s against Leslie’s wishes. The conversation is brief and awkward. Frank interrupts, and Karolina requests a ride home. Jonah is crushed that he and Karolina didn’t immediately connect. He lures Frank into a flattering conversation, telling Frank that he went Ultra but didn’t know it.
Molly tells Gert that she saw Chase kiss Karolina. Then Molly asks Catherine to tell her about her parents before it’s too late. She slips and reveals that she saw the ceremony at Alex’s house. Stacey whisks Molly away before Catherine can react.
PLEASE SHOW HAVE VICTOR GLOW FROM THIS CURE. JUST DO ME THIS ONE SMALL FAVOR.
Jonah wears a very large watch on his wrist. Is that his inhibitor? Is the glowing groin light from him, Leslie or both? What is he? A vampire of some sort? Is Leslie something similar, or is she a human in his thrall? Why does Karolina glow in rainbow colors when her parents have only shown white lights? Can Jonah and Leslie fly?
None of the kids seem to have seriously considered how putting their parents in jail will affect their own lives. They’re used to living the lifestyles of the young and wealthy, and that won’t last once their parents are arrested.
Despite being interested in Alex, Nico doesn’t seem entirely uninterested in Karolina. Alex shows what a complete nerd he is by admitting that he finds tech talk hot. Presumably the Staff will do it for him, too.
The kids all look amazing in their party clothes. This show always looks fantastic, but they went all out for this episode. The costume, make up and hair departments do fabulous work, and even the guys look terrific every week. The way it’s shot makes the colors, the scenes and the actors pop, but it’s not overly self-conscious like a show that’s trying to be more obviously artistic. It just looks (and sounds) great every week, leaving viewers to have fun and make their own interpretations.
I feel like there’s a memory serum round robin queuing up, between Molly, Chase knowing about the brain cancer cure, Frank remembering seeing Leslie with Jonah, and whoever else will get zapped for the affair. Then there’s the issue of what the parents/Catherine will decide to do when they/she realize that all of the kids know about the ceremony. I doubt they’ll successfully give it to everyone, and Frank’s memory shows that the memories can be retrieved.
I’m excited to see things reach the point where parents have to choose between the Pride and their own child. It’s easy for Catherine to endanger Molly, but I think she and Geoffrey would choose each other and freedom over Alex and doing the right thing. Victor and Tina could go either way. They both see their kids as an extension of themselves, so they might be extra loyal, or they might take a perceived betrayal extra hard. Robert and Janet are each only out for themselves. The Yorkes would try hard to take care of their kids, but they get distracted by greed and blackmail. Frank is the only innocent parent, but sooner or later it will come out that Karolina isn’t his. He might still fight for her, since she’s all he has left. Leslie and Jonah won’t give up on Karolina easily. There’s some kind of inheritance or destiny going on there. Unlike the other parents, they have powers too, so they can more easily deal with her.
Metawitches 
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