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Hemlock Grove – S3E2 – Souls on Ice

Previously on Hemlock Grove, A Place to Fall’

Hemlock Grove continues the brisk pace in episode two of its final season.

The poor bloke of the week is some guy who is out of a job as a mortician-in-training and dealing with a very angry, pregnant girlfriend. Sucks for him when in a bid to get his job back he finds the body of his boss, lying on the floor, stomach gutted.

After closing many of the threads from last season in the first episode, we visit an unresolved one in the form of Dr. Spivak. Roman is still on the search for his daughter Nadia, who is currently being held captive by the good doctor, who was just sunshine and apples last season. Which is why I am immediately suspicious of overly friendly people, because I assume they are all secretly sociopathic aliens from the unknown. The scenes with Dr. Spivak range from quiet terror to a mental fright fest.

Layla (one of his captives) takes a stab at him with a fork to the throat with nary an effect to his demeanor, other than mild annoyance - but then he’s spitting acid that ends up eating away her skull, and that might have been a tad excessive.

Poor Miranda, now the last nurse standing, tries her hand at killing Spivak, this time with repeated blows to his head with a hammer and escaping into the mountains on foot. Spivak quickly catches up to her, but not before she sends off a text to Roman. Fortunately, her actions don’t lead to her death, but they do lead to the death of a couple and their small son who came to her aide with the phone.

Meanwhile, Roman is not having the best of times between hitting a dead-end in his search for Nadia, and being attacked by a vampire in his home. The only time Roman is winning is in meeting Annie and finding out he’s not the only vampire in the area. Annie definitely seems like someone he can learn from, unlike his actual mother, Olivia, who would rather maintain an unnatural control over her children’s lives than share simple information regarding their history. We saw Roman struggling with this in the premiere.

Olivia’s other child is not having a good time either, as we find out that Shelley has been throwing up the pills Olivia’s assumes are keeping her in check. For the past two seasons Shelly has been the only true innocent. She’s just a kid who happens to look like a monster and can’t get anyone to play with her without being freaked out. Shelley attempts to take her own life, but fails. I really hope we can find some sort of happy for Shelley this season.

With all of the supernatural events occurring around our characters it’s sort of funny whenever we break to Andreas’ machinations. Because between episode one and two his true colors have come out. And we see him for what he is: A greedy thief who thinks he’s smarter than he actually is. He’s cheated his crew, threatened Peter, and went into business with the local Croatian crime family who definitely have no respect for Gypsies. Which we see when the middle man for the Croatians states “I learned a long time ago to never take anything from a gypsy.” Ouch, this all seems to be leading to an unhappy ending for Dee.

Most unbelievable moment

Really? No one bothered to clean up the crime scene/ morgue?

Things I’m wondering

What exactly did Spivak did do to stop Nadia’s telekinetic powers from killing him?

Roman, Annie, and Dee are the Scooby Gang this episode as they try and figure out who is responsible for the recent killings in the area. Roman is knocked out in an attack and falls face first onto the floor, convulsing. What’s that about?

And just what is the mother of monsters doing while her children are suffering? Outside of undermining Roman’s search for Nadia, she’s picked up a nasty bug that’s made her intolerant to human blood; her main source of nutrition. This bit of news pleases Pryce.

Olivia almost kills

A tie between the PI who doesn’t know Olivia is a sociopath and the patient of Dr. Godfrey who invites Olivia into his home.

Hemlock Grove S3E2
  • 8.5/10
    Plot - 8.5/10
  • 8/10
    Dialogue - 8/10
  • 8.5/10
    Action - 8.5/10
  • 8/10
    Performances - 8/10
8.3/10

Summary

It’s one thing to see Dr. Spivak as a flying vampiric monster, but seeing him as a J. Crew-wearing man who can’t be killed is 10x creepier.

Poor Nadia. I really hope Roman finds her soon. While I don’t want the Andreas storyline to stretch all season, it is nice to get a story with humans making dumb human decisions.

Annie is a refreshing addition to the story, as Dee has primarily been the only woman since season one to wield any type of independence between Roman and Peter.

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About Moji Fagbemi (98 Articles)
Moji is geek who is not afraid to let her geek flag fly. She's an avid reader of comics and every genre of fiction - yes, this includes romance novels. When her nose is not buried in books you can find her watching TV, hanging out with friends, checking out new restaurants, or whipping up new recipes as a self-proclaimed foodie.

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