It’s Valentine’s Day in Toronto.  And while love is in the air for some, more dark secrets are revealed and the threat of the Widow looms over the remaining “Friends of Margaret”.  All this and more on the latest episode of Slasher: Ripper!

Spoilers Ahead – You’ve Been Warned

Jealous Rage
Romance is everywhere, and for a bit it even seems that people forget that there’s a serial killer on the loose.  Granted, we get the discovery of Kashtinsky’s body (complete with gravel embedded in it due to the dragging), but in a lot of ways, this episode feels like an outlier in that it’s not wholly focused on the murder mystery aspect.

Instead, this episode gives us a series of harsh betrayals.  Starting with Georges continuing to see Terrance, much to Salomé’s dismay, and moving toward Viviana’s greatest fear realized as Basil definitely prefers the younger and more “innocent-looking” Verdi.  The Boticelli sisters’ despicable plan backfires when the one person that Viviana wanted to marry ends up being the “buyer” for her nefarious scheme to sell her sister into sexual slavery.

Verdi goes along with this because she really doesn’t have any other choice, and somewhat to his credit, Basil doesn’t force her to do anything right away.  Emphasis on “somewhat” because he still bought a woman against her will and just because he didn’t force himself on her the first night, doesn’t mean he won’t later on.

Meanwhile, Salomé deals with his (we’re using he/him pronouns since that’s what the series uses) own jealousy in a much more vindictive manner.  Things between Salomé and Terrance are tense as ever, with Terrance sleeping with Georges and Salomé making shady deals without Terrance’s knowledge.

All of this blows up in a confrontation where pretty hurtful things are said, things that Salomé has unfortunately heard before, but never from Terrance.  In a series all about murder, one of the most shocking is Salomé acting on impulse and stabbing Terrance to death right then and there, eventually staging the whole thing to look like a Widow killing.

However, the Widow doesn’t seem too pleased and finishes the job with Salomé, thus crossing off another name off the list, and giving an end to what was likely the most tragic character on the series.

Joining What You Can’t Beat
Let’s be clear, by no means does any amount of trauma or oppression justify Salomé’s actions in this season.  That being said, it’s easy to see why he would have turned to that, given the absence of many other options.

While the series is intentionally ambiguous with what specifically Salomé would identify as (since terms like “trans” or “nonbinary” wouldn’t have been widely used at the time), we do know that he is clearly a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.  We see via brutal flashback the way in which a monster like Simcoe treated Salomé, even worse than how he treated everyone else.

And when you’ve been put down and abused like that by the world, it’s easy to start to perpetuate the same type of treatment once in a position of power yourself.  Terrance got him off the streets, and Salomé went on to be involved as a “Friend of Margaret”, as well as take part in the sexual exploitation of Verdi.

Because as long as you’re helping to harm someone else, no harm is currently coming to you.  Again, this is by no means an attempt to justify his actions, and his death by the Widow is just as deserved as anyone else’s on the hit list.  Rather it’s an overall condemnation of a society that pits people into either being victims like Verdi and Margaret, or victimizers like Salomé or Simcoe.

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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