The best episode since "Normal" (#4.11), proving once again that simple ideas are usually the best. Instead of ritualistic killings, imitators, perverts, delusional killers and all the Hannibal-wannabes, we get a simple *female* serial killer. Except that since women are not simple, neither is a female serial killer. A small difference changes the whole story.
And what a tangled web it is. The killer is trying to make a very important point, and the potential victims hide from FBI behind their high-priced lawyers. A common human hates corporate lawyers - they are usually as distorted soulless horrors in real life as they are portrayed in fiction. Here we get another chance to hate them – you just have to love a scene where the lawyers remain tight-lipped until they are told that their employers' dirty secrets might become public unless they co-operate.
The killer's acting performance is great and there are a couple of fantastic twists towards the end that make this episode so excellent, but unfortunately there are also some clichés, at least one of which is *totally* unnecessary. "I was in the same elevator with the killer but did not know it" is so worn out and lame it shouldn't be used even in spoofs. In an otherwise excellent episode the scene felt like it had wandered in from a B-movie. And then there is the principle used in the final twist. Sure, there are *only* two ways to play it out, but *both* ways have been used so many times that it's a lose–lose situation. Actually lose–lose more badly, since the writers choose the less ballsy outcome. The ending leaves one with a feeling that something completely new should have happened. As it is, now this is just a very gripping episode, but unlikely to be remembered along such classics as "L.D.S.K." (#1.6), "The Fisher King: Part 1" (#1.22), "Revelations" (#2.15), "3rd Life" (#3.12), and "Lo-Fi" (#3.20). 8/10 it is.
And what a tangled web it is. The killer is trying to make a very important point, and the potential victims hide from FBI behind their high-priced lawyers. A common human hates corporate lawyers - they are usually as distorted soulless horrors in real life as they are portrayed in fiction. Here we get another chance to hate them – you just have to love a scene where the lawyers remain tight-lipped until they are told that their employers' dirty secrets might become public unless they co-operate.
The killer's acting performance is great and there are a couple of fantastic twists towards the end that make this episode so excellent, but unfortunately there are also some clichés, at least one of which is *totally* unnecessary. "I was in the same elevator with the killer but did not know it" is so worn out and lame it shouldn't be used even in spoofs. In an otherwise excellent episode the scene felt like it had wandered in from a B-movie. And then there is the principle used in the final twist. Sure, there are *only* two ways to play it out, but *both* ways have been used so many times that it's a lose–lose situation. Actually lose–lose more badly, since the writers choose the less ballsy outcome. The ending leaves one with a feeling that something completely new should have happened. As it is, now this is just a very gripping episode, but unlikely to be remembered along such classics as "L.D.S.K." (#1.6), "The Fisher King: Part 1" (#1.22), "Revelations" (#2.15), "3rd Life" (#3.12), and "Lo-Fi" (#3.20). 8/10 it is.
