Hemlock Grove - S3E8 - Dire Night on the Worm Moon

Previously on Hemlock Grove, ‘Todos Santos’

Roman Godfrey does the one thing I did not see coming at the beginning of this season. He buries Destiny Rumancek in a freshly laid grave underneath the gaze of a full moon. Unable to stop himself, he takes her ring off, reminiscent of a hunter claiming a piece of the defeated as a prize. Meanwhile, Annie remains locked up in Nadia’s safe room until Roman returns and attempts an escape. I’m really starting to dislike this side plot between the both of them, especially when both are on screen - the use of violins as their own personal theme leaves a lot to be desired.

Roman shifts from remorseful to petulant within minutes during his scenes with Annie. From expressing regret at Dee’s death to warning her to stay away from telling Peter as the truth would only lead to their deaths. I wonder if their friendship counts for something? But if there ever was a line to be drawn in a friendship this would be it. And is this what this entire season has been leading up to? A showdown between Upir and Vargulf?

When Peter arrives, he asks for Roman’s assistance in finding Dee, and in order to cover up his own tracks, Roman leads Peter towards Milan. Between Roman transforming in front of him and being used as both a chew toy and punching bag, things are not looking well for Milan. But when Milan seems to be talking sense to Peter, Roman pulls out his ace in the hole: Dee’s ring. He plants it amongst Milan’s watches and this leads to Peter killing him. The lengths Roman is willing to go in this episode to avoid the truth from coming out was just sad. With every blow he forces Peter to take it’s a chip away at this tenuously held together friendship that we’ve seen grow over the past two seasons.

But Roman does have a bright spot in his day in the form of a phone call he receives from the detective we last saw calling Isaac for information before his death. Hopefully, we’ll find out who he is, but for now he gives Roman a nudge in the right direction regarding where Spivak is hiding out. He tells Blinksy to search in Eerie for Nadia and luckily for Blinksy he is successful in getting a hit. I really hope Blinksy has a good vacation package that should automatically come with having to deal with the insanity that is Godfrey Industries.

Meanwhile, over at the weird science department, Olivia brings her choice of an Upir transfer donor to Pryce in the form of Norville Knox. Knox is basically Bruce Wayne in Upir form and Pryce is his biggest fan. They even go as far as pointing out that with his money and Pryce’s research, they could eradicate Spivak’s disease completely, but their time schedule is anti-Olivia’s schedule. This shows just how horrible a human being she is, because everything could burn as long as she’s okay.

As weird as this whole situation seems, I must say Scott McCord did a good job emulating Olivia Godfrey 2.0. But original Olivia doesn’t feel completely at ease with everything going so well and spooks, but Pryce again reminds her to “have the good sense to know when she’s won”.

But as she accepts her death the transfer of her consciousness starts to malfunction. This scene reminded me of all the failed premature experiments in Pryce’s lab from the clones to the recent delivery guy. If only he actually had time to successfully test out his experiments outside of the demands of the Godfrey family. But with Knox’s body writhing on the floor, Olivia directs her rage back at Pryce who calmly reminds her that he’s her only hope, and suggests she finds a closer DNA match for the transfer. Immediately I think of Annie, but Pryce (who is unaware of that whole situation) thinks of Shelley. Even I think Olivia would rather die than inhabit Shelley’s body. And when Pryce visits Shelley later to warn her to stay away from Olivia, we are reminded of how calm Pryce can be when he is in her presence. For someone who the world at large considers a monster, Shelley continues to evoke a sense of tranquility to those around her, except for her own mother.

Shelley and Aitor’s relationship takes a dramatic set of steps backwards this episode due to Olivia’s threats. He starts out asking her to run away with him and later on as she sings his praises to Pryce, he emerges on the stage and gives a soliloquy on his life and crimes and how they’ve brought him to this point, and why he must now depart. It sucks that he felt he had to do this, but then again, he realizes he wouldn’t be able to give Shelley the life she needed. But maybe a private conversation would have been just as fine.

I believe it moments:

When Knox, as Olivia, wants to have sex with her self one more time.

The fact that Shelley knew all along that Pryce was gay.

The episode was meh at times, but it did close on a visually appealing and emotional high note. Peter finally remembers he’s a wolf and goes on the hunt for Dee, which ends when he finds her grave site. While watching him transform and dig Dee out and cradle her body to his, all I kept thinking was whether or not he knew Roman is responsible for this, Can he smell him and what in the world is going to happen now?