“The world works on a system of patronage, and like it or not, Vanderbilt sits at the top of the heap.”
“Belly Of The Beast”
Last week’s Alienist Double Digest ended with revealing the antagonist’s identity, Libby Hatch, one of the ward girls at Dr. Markoe’s Lying-In Hospital. It also low-key revealed how she was poisoning the babies, by drinking it and transferring the poison via breastfeeding. This week makes sure to spell this out, in case viewers didn’t catch her teeth were charcoal black. (It was easy to miss, considering all the Matron murdering gore going on.) It also drives it home with the Linares baby biting back rather than feed as if the infant knows the stuff is killing her.
This week’s episode also sets up what will become a running theme, as the police involved keep failing to take the next logical step. In this case, both Byrnes and Doyle instinctively recognize the Matron should be questioned, though Byrnes’ concern is more with keeping the “Research” wing’s actual activities quiet. At the same time, Doyle wants to make sure the Matron wasn’t in cahoots with Libby. But both immediately settle for “she’s not here today,” despite the woman not missing a day of work in decades. It leaves the door wide open for Sarah to catch the scoop, discovering the Matron dead, her eyelids painted with memento mori.
Byrnes and company are happy to take out their Matron failure on Colleen, presenting her with Byrnes’ proto-mugshot album to find Libby, whose photo is in there, as a “known associate’’ of gangsters. While Moore puts her picture in the Times, Sarah heads out to track down more leads, and turns up Libby is GooGoo’s girl, the main moll of the Hudson Dusters. Unfortunately, Libby sees herself in the paper just as she’s stalking Sarah’s detective agency, inspiring her to pay the empty offices an unannounced visit.
When Moore and Sarah return, they discover Libby took the gun belonging to Sarah’s late father, a deliberate reminder of the conversation they had about being the daughter of men who committed suicide. She also left a message on the chalkboard, drawings of eyeballs, and the word “Stupid.”
Speaking of stupid, Moore’s response is to take Sarah to his house and order her to stay there until Libby has been captured. (C’mon now, everyone, say it with me: That’s not how any of this works!) Even more hilariously, Moore then heads out to dinner with Violet and Hearst, because the best way to be a gentleman is to lock the woman you want to be with up in your house while going to dinner with the one you’re engaged to.
Moore’s not the only one out on a date. Kreizler follows up on Karen Stratton’s invite to call on her, and the two are off drinking absinth and talking infanticide. It’s a genuinely delightful scene, especially since it highlights how much he and Karen connect while Moore and Violet are merely pretty when they stand next to each other.
Sarah heads down to Hudson St, she and Joanna not only track Libby and GooGoo but also find them having some pretty kinky sex in an alley. Poor Joanna is dispatched to not one, but two establishments that stop dead at a Black woman walking into the door. Hearst and Violet are appalled not only at Joanna being there but also at Moore dropping everything to go with her.
Moore shows up undetected, but Kreizler gets caught by Fat Jack on arrival, forcing Moore to redirect to saving our hapless alienist while Sarah goes it alone. But Sarah doesn’t need backup, even when she finds herself held at gunpoint by Libby. It does mean in the struggle, Libby gets away. But Sarah gets the baby back, safe and sound.
It’s a happy reunion at the Spanish consulate and joyous relief. Unfortunately, Sarah is still apparently supposed to sleep at Moore’s house instead of going home, and in their jubilation, well, that’s the second time Moore’s been laid two episodes running. Perhaps Byrnes’ idea of running an article suggesting Sarah Howard is a homewrecker isn’t going to be as far off as assumed.
“Memento Mori”
One of the reasons I liked the first season of The Alienist was the mostly unspoken relationship between Moore and Howard. I liked the “will they or won’t they,” and I loved it as landing on the side of “won’t.” It’s a rare show that dares to stay on the “won’t” side of the line, so I was so thoroughly disappointed in how Episode 5 ended.
Luckily, these double episodes mean I was disappointed for all of a commercial break and change. Moore might be wandering around trying to suggest he can throw over Violet, but Sarah knows better. As far as she’s concerned, it’s out of their systems. Moore considers a breakup, but even he realizes Violet doesn’t deserve to be humiliated. It seems like everyone is just going to move on.
Yes, let’s move on because Houdini is down on the docks giving a show.
Moving Cyrus to his own business on Hudson St. is a step up for the character (and quite convenient for this season’s plot). But it also means there’s been less excuse to ground the series at Kreizler’s Institute, especially now that Sarah has an office, making him feel even more third wheel than last season. The only real tie to Kreizler’s work is young Paulie (Lucas Bond), a disturbed teen obsessed with magic. Kreizler takes him to see Houdini hang upside down from one of his famous escape tricks, but the result is Pauly, feeling ignored, attempts to hang himself as a magic trick.
The only magic is Kreizler finds him in time, so the kid doesn’t die. But this does conjure up an excuse to bring back Markoe, who was in danger of being left behind now his Lying-In Hospital is no longer the center of Sarah’s investigations. The school is temporarily closed, Kreizler’s license is suspended, and Sarah is now stuck with the realization she can’t use him to consult until the board reconvenes at the end of the summer to reinstate him.
Sarah needs him now more than ever. Hearst’s article about this “outrageous” woman who rescued the Linares baby had the opposite effect than Byrnes intended. Bitsy arrives to say the offices are swarmed with clients begging for Sarah to help them. But Sarah isn’t done with the Libby case yet. The woman got away, and she’s going to strike again.
The police, irritated at Sarah’s notoriety, refuse to let her back in to see Libby’s room, but Sarah remembers enough to realize there is another space. There were no diapers, no bottles, no baby paraphernalia of any kind there. And by the light of day, it’s blindingly obvious where to look: The place Sarah tracked Libby down to is next door to the burnt-out St Ignatius Boarding House.
So while the cops dither and find nothing next door, Sarah and Moore march into the burnt-out building and find all sorts of goodies. There’s the baby cage, pictures of at least three other baby victims (including the Napp child), and objects stolen from the Linares household from Libby casing the joint ahead of time. There are also new objects from another joint she’s been casing, covered in heralds, which Moore discovers are the Vanderbilt family crest.
Perfect timing, because the Vanderbilt baby was just kidnapped from Central Park, right out in the open.
This is where Hearst and Byrne’s article really backfires because Cornelius Vanderbilt II doesn’t just call them in; he also sends an unmarked carriage for Sarah. All their badmouthing and sneering make them look like fools when she arrives with the stolen items and leads already in progress. Vanderbilt is so impressed that he not only hires her on the spot but also puts her in charge of the entire operation, over Byrnes and Doyle. He even has Kreizler reinstated to advise once again professionally. It must be nice to have a Vanderbilt on your side.
Kreizler’s return is timely because Sarah is still beating herself up over liking Libby when we met her back in Episode 3. He points out that a connection like that is probably proof Libby was telling the truth about some of her life, and Sarah realizes the story of her father’s suicide was possibly real. Moore immediately heads to the Times archives, because someone hanging themselves off a New York bridge would have been serious news, and he finds it. The man’s name was Hunter and hanged himself off the Brooklyn Bridge. He was survived by wife Mallory and his daughter, Elsbeth, who live on the far side of the Bridge.
Sarah realizes with all her Manhattan haunts robbed of her, Libby’s next stop will be Brooklyn. She again shows herself to be a full step ahead of Byrnes, who’s busy boasting Manhattan covered. Do those homeless people sleeping on the roof realize the woman teaching her child about the Brooklyn Bridge is carrying the wealthiest heir in New York City? Too bad they probably don’t.
Stray observations
- Love how Markoe and Byrnes straight up go with “Martha Napp had an abettor” rather than admit they were wrong.
- Byrnes almost showed some spine there, when it starts to dawn on him that the Lying-In Hospital might not be as above board as he tells himself it is. Still, any hope for him seem to have gone out the window, as Hearst continues to tee him up against Sarah.
- That scene of Harry Houdini’s escape is about 20 years ahead of when it happened, but the video of him doing it in 1920 is as amazing as the one in the show.
- Cornelius Vanderbilt is not the original Cornelius who founded the family fortune; he’s the grandson. Cornelius II will pass away two years after this, in 1899. The grandson’s father is never named, but it is most likely the child of older son Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who would die when the RMS Lusitania sunk in 1915.
- Fun Fact: Cornelius Vanderbilt II is Anderson Cooper’s great-grandfather. (CNN and TNT are both owned by Warner Media, so this is all in-house.)
- Brooklyn didn’t become part of the five boroughs of New York City until 1898, a year after the show is set. Before that, it was an independent city, which is why everyone talks about it like it might as well be New Jersey.
- Karen is my new favorite character. Watching her see right through Laszlo at every turn was super gratifying, and I look forward to more of her and their absinthe filled dates.
- Also, I need Karen and Sarah to meet before the end of the season and start matching wits. Kreizler won’t even know where to turn.
- I am here for a spinoff centered around Bitsy and Lucius’ relationship, please and thanks.
17 Comments
Whereas, in the first season Laszlo was the main protagonist, Sarah seems to have taken that role here. I’m not sure if this is how the book plays out but up until these episodes it has felt very Laszlo-lite considering he is the Alienist of the title. His relationship with Karen is pretty great though. I was also kind of disappointed when Sarah and John hooked up. But then we were gifted some Luke Evans nakedness and I instantly felt better about it.
Yeah here’s hoping Laszlo and Karen can have some kind of relationship outside of it just being professional. From what I can tell, Karen is down for it while Laszlo seems to not be picking up on her subtle flirts lol.It was obvious that was going to happen between those two. I too wish it didn’t happen also. And was it just me to be somewhat creeped out that Luke Evans was having sex with Dakota Fanning? Show or IRL, she just seems too young for him. I get that Fanning is all grown now but still…
Luke Evans is an openly gay actor.
Lol thank you for something I didn’t know already. And what does that have to do with his character boning Fanning’s?? Regardless, I think his character of John just seems to be a bit too older for Fanning’s Sarah. I thought it felt weird in the first season when there was some sexual tension between them.
My bad for misinterpreting the reference to Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning, taking your “Show or IRL” to mean the kind of shipping fans sometimes engage in online. Which is OK. Aside from that, I would only add that in the twenty-first century dating between the two actors would hardly be noteworthy, whatever their acknowledged sexual preferences or orientations. By now, the two must be close friends, with only an intimacy coach standing between them.Your point about the age difference between John and Sara may have some historical context, as wealthy older gentlemen among the elite in New York at the turn of the twentieth century would have had their choice among marriage prospects, some of them quite young. Even in the lower classes, the age difference would not have been unusual. Consider the age difference between Libby Hatch and Goo Goo Knox, for example. Sometimes maturity is not just a matter of birthdays. During the first season John seems far less mature than Sara. He spends his nights cavorting in brothels with sex workers, where his fetish is having them wear the engagement ring his fiancée returned when she jilted him. He has a drinking problem to go along with it, and at first, seems to have nothing to do but stagger from crime scene to crime scene, making sketches and trying to keep up. Emotionally, Sara acts older than John throughout the first season. Though as independently wealthy as he is, she chooses a career path as a detective and is determined to wait out the misogyny that she does battle with each day on the job. She recognizes the desperation in John’s first marriage proposal to her, because everyone on their team has had to cope with the fact that John, though lovable and loyal to a fault, is not trustworthy. Lazlo’s therapeutic intervention with Sara explains her trust issues with men because of her father’s horrific death. Maybe John catches up with Sara a little bit in season 2, as he’s managing his drinking, he’s found a real fiancée, and he’s graduated from sketching crime scenes on a free-lance basis to working as a reporter for the New York Times. But he’s got himself engaged to a woman he does not love whose
father hates him. How self-destructive
is that? My theory is
that Sara and John have been friends and lovers for such a long time that their
relationship has a life of its own. They
need it more than they need to be married to each other. That’s interesting in any century.
That’s probably true in that era a man of John’s position could be involved with someone of Sarah’s age. As much as I get into the show cuz of the period it is in in American history, it was hard for me to get past those two having sex! Lol. Maybe it’s cuz I still see Fanning as this child actress even though she’s all grown up now. Weirdly enough though if it was Natalie Portman instead of Fanning, I wouldn’t have had a problem. Never mind me, I’m weird like that. Lol. But I wished their characters didn’t do the deed. I liked the ‘will they, won’t they’ part of their relationship.
You are in very good company indeed if you like the “will they, won’t they” element of the story. It has propelled many paired investigators to stardom. A recent example would be Mulder and Scully on The X-Files.
That’s true but it took them like what? 8-10 seasons before it happened! Lol. Now honestly I don’t think this show will last that long. It’s a good show and I’m sure pretty expensive to produce. Plus the three lead actors are big stars already doing major movies. So maybe that’s why they had Moore and Sarah get it on. Get it out of the way and be done with it. I like how Sarah is all, “ok we did it, let’s go get Libby!” And John is like “can we talk about my feelings?”
I am smiling.
Last week I discussed marriage as a
theme this season. These episodes delve
into the complicated lives of the unwedded. Watching the love scene at the end of
episode 5, one could be forgiven for assuming that John and Sara may have been
lovers in the past, as their nonverbal communication does not require verbal consent
on his part (probably necessary for the first time among members of their
social class during this era), she can imagine him unbuttoning her blouse just
fine, and they are not clinging to each other in the morning. The suggestion is that such an arrangement
might continue without their being married if they so choose. Some of their gestures resemble the ways in
which Lazlo and Mary were intimate: touching
of the face, buttoning and unbuttoning garments (John also buttons Lazlo’s
shoes), and looks that say “I want you” without any fanfare.
As for the other potential unwed lovers,
Lazlo and Karen, after she consults with him at Paulie’s
bedside, there is no effort to conceal the way they clasp hands: it evolves naturally from an expression of professional
admiration into something else, maybe the desperation of love or the
helplessness of shared attraction.
This is also
the point in the plot development at which we learn that Victoria is the
daughter of an unwed father, Randolph Hearst, not just his goddaughter. That is why she counts on her marriage to
John to give her the social standing that has eluded her all her life. She does not deceive herself into thinking that she loves John or vice
versa. Seeing his obvious closeness to
Sara, what she dreads is not betrayal but becoming like all the other society
wives whose husbands step out on them. What may be a failing of the plot is that the reason for destroying Sara’s
reputation in Hearst’s “rag,” as John calls it in front of Sara, would not seem
to address Victoria’s concern, unless Hearst’s goal is to drive Sara out of New
York.
In episodes
5 and 6 unwed lovers and unwed fathers finally get their due, but it is the
status of unwed mothers that dominates this season of The Alienist,
especially as the topic turns this week to lactophilia. Nowadays induced
lactation allows adoptive mothers to breastfeed without becoming pregnant, but
it is unlikely that this would have been an option for Libby and Goo Goo Knox. It is suggested that Libby keeps kidnapping babies
because her lactation will cease if she does not keep nursing. Dr. Markoe has ruined Libby’s chances of
lactating naturally as the result of pregnancy: like many of the unwed mothers
at Lying-In Hospital, after giving birth she has been sterilized, either via
hysterectomy or tubal ligation. At the
turn of the century, Libby would not be able to start lactation a second time,
but she could continue to lactate as long as an infant or substitute continues
to suckle.Libby begins
to contemplate replacing the Linares baby after the infant bites her. What disturbs Libby is that the baby does not
think of her as its mother. This gets
into Libby’s reasons for poisoning herself to sicken the baby (if the point of her doing this has ever
been truly established in the series). It is presumed to have caused Libby to have blackened teeth, a condition
she shares with the serial killer in season 1. Of course, we can only surmise how
lactophilia on Goo Goo’s part might contribute to the need for her to keep
lactating, a surmise helped along by his oddly appropriate nickname “Goo Goo.” It is Karen Stratten who puts Lazlo straight
about the possibility that lactophilia might constitute a folie a deux,
in any case, and not necessarily a perversion.
Libby’s teeth are not blackened by the poison but rather the antidote (charcoal) she takes for herself but withholds from her victims (at least until it’s too late as in the Napp case).
Thank you! I’d revise if I could. Also, I caught my error too late to change: It’s Violet, not Victoria.
Does GooGoo know that Libby is slowly poisoning him? He seems rather casual about it if so. Maybe he’s an opera fan and this is some whole Wagnerian Love/Death kind of thing. I wonder what Laszlo and Karen would make of that!
Let’s look on the bright side, my friend. Maybe she’s curing him big time, as arsenic was the sovereign cure for syphilis during this period.
Nothing was richer than watching Sarah shut down Brynes and co and Vanderbilt doing the shoo fly Dakota is such a fantastic actor and her portrayal of Sarah is fantastic
I was hoping for a review, not a summary of the epiosodes.
John and Sara have amazing chemistry. Kreizler and Karen make a really interesting couple, their dynamic is great.
Sara showing up at Vanderbilt’s and shutting down Hearst and Byrnes was a fantastic scene. I love it when she goes full badass.
The Houdini scene was fun. I’m not that bothered that Laszlo is taking a bit of a back seat this season, I wouldn’t mind each season to give each character the shine to shine.