With another “friend of Margaret” being disposed of last episode, the remaining would-be victims make a desperate plan to enact their own justice, while Rijkers works out another lead.  All this and more on the latest episode of Slasher: Ripper!

Spoilers Ahead – You’ve Been Warned

Friends of Margaret
After Eddie was brutally bludgeoned by a sledgehammer in the last episode, this one begins with the remaining “Friends of Margaret” sitting at Basil Garvey’s table discussing their options and their concerns.  They include Basil himself, Vivianna, Superintendent Kashtinsky, Dr. Israel, and Salomé.  The only one of them who’s missing (and still alive) is their prime suspect, Georges Rondeau.

Rijkers had previously made the connection that it was his return to town that prompted all these Widow murders, so it’s natural they think he’s the one who did it.  A debate rages about whether they should kill Georges themselves, but Kashtinsky manages to convince Basil and the rest of the importance of doing this via the legal channels, so that their culprit can be tried and publicly executed in order to send a message.

Dinner is quickly spoiled as they discover Eddie’s teeth in their meat pies, a disturbing reminder of what the Widow has in store for all of them.  From there, Rijkers tracks down Georges and makes the arrest.

But since we’re only four episodes in, we all know he can’t really be the killer.  This is proven when it turns out Georges has a pretty airtight alibi, despite being tortured by a drugged up Kashtinsky in order to get a confession.

Rijkers clearly feels terrible about what happened, especially since it was his theory that led to them bringing Georges in for questioning.  As one character remarks, he’s one of the only “good guys” left in the police force, which makes him the prime candidate to catch the Widow, but he may soon find himself on the same side as the killer, even if only symbolically.

Harsh World
Two of this episode’s subplots serve as sobering reminders of just how harsh the world of past truly was, despite our nostalgia for it.  We tend to look at decades (and centuries) past with rose tinted glasses, overlooking the brutal realities of everyday living that came if you were different, or not in a position of power.

Whether it’s Verdi Botticelli being pressured into taking revealing photographs as her sisters are pimping her out without her knowledge or Georges being unable to seek justice for the grotesque brutality he faced because doing so would expose his alibi and the fact that he consorts with men in addition to women.

Someone like Georges would be able to live much more openly today, while Verdi’s story is tragically just as likely to happen nowadays as human trafficking still remains.

We can even look back at the fate that befell Margaret all those years ago.  She was a working class maid, single woman with very little recourse.  Her options were play ball with a society that would use and exploit her, or stand up for herself and the latter clearly got her killed.

False Piety
On the subject of Margaret’s potential exploitation, we learn more about Kashtinsky as he’s our “lucky” Widow victim in this episode.  Via flashback, we see that Kashtinsky sees himself as different than the others.  As Georges was doing his hypnosis trick on Margaret, Kashtinsky was the only one that thought it wrong and exploitative.

But his response reveals that it wasn’t his own moral compass behind his objection, rather he didn’t like seeing Margaret used by others because he wanted her for himself.  He went so far as to offer to marry her to “save” her from having to work for people like Basil, and when she rejected him, he was so angry that he did nothing to save her when the time came she was being murdered.

What’s both chilling and very realistic about Kashtinsky is that there a lot of people actually like that.  He even has himself convinced that he loved Margaret, but that “love” is conditional upon her reciprocating it to him.  And when she doesn’t, it’s grounds for him doing nothing as she’s murdered.  It’s the age old problematic way of thinking that she owed him her love and that refusal dismissed her value as a person.

The more and more we see the Widow murder, the more and more we can’t help but be on the killer’s side…

What did you think of the latest episode of Slasher: Ripper?  What did you think will happen next week?  Let us know in the comments!

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