The Alienist: Episode 8: “Psychopathia Sexualis”
Starring: Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans, Dakota Fanning, Q’orianka Kilcher, Robert Wisdom, Matthew Shear, Douglas Smith, Brian Geraghty, David Wilmot, Ted Levine, and Michael Ironside.
Written by: John Sayles
Directed by: David Petrarca
”Think we will see any buffalo in North Dakota?”
”If they haven’t all been killed…
”What about Indians?”
”…if they haven’t all been killed…”
The Alienist takes some major strides forward, along with one major step back in the splintered, but propulsive “Psychopathia Sexualis.” With Team Alienist scattered across the wilds of the 19th Century United States, this episode sells the newly found expanded scope of the investigation. Each finger of the hand, broken up into the John/Lazlo pairing, the Brothers Isaacson, and Sara Howard going full tilt Frontier Veronica Mars. They start to close around their new disturbed suspect in surprisingly tense vignettes that keep the show racing toward its endgame.
Writer John Sayles and new director David Petrarca (Jessica Jones! Game of Thrones!) make great use of the new narrative real estate this episode offers. They leave the grime and perpetual wetness of New York City for the clean sunshine of Washington, D.C. The lush low heat of upstate New Paltz, New York. The dust of the west as our investigators snoop their way through the new areas, leaning into the show’s procedural and pulpy backbone. Though the episode’s big twist, which we will certainly get into below, gives the show a particularly gut-wrenching fridging. “Psychopathia Sexualis” keeps The Alienist dreadfully rolling along as it chases down its killer, no matter the cost.
Though I am not exactly crazy about the continued fracturing of Team Alienist (I am a sucker for cohesive team dynamics), Sayles and Petrarca really find a deep well of momentum in splitting the team into the three separate branches of the same investigation. Our A-Story follows John and Lazlo. They sass their way across D.C. and debating the ins and outs of love as Lazlo is glowing from his newfound connection to Mary. Who is back in New York, keeping house with Cyrus and Stevie. All three of the plots essentially give the audience one story. Centered around the new suspect, a disturbed soldier with connections to both the Battle of Little Bighorn and the violent Heymarket Riot, but each plot allows for our cast to shine and shine again they do.
Daniel Bruhl and Luke Evans get a chance to display some more of that great Holmes/Watson like dynamic that supported the early episodes. The pair also make great use of the more active roles John and Lazlo are taking in the investigation. They question their way through D.C. federal buildings to the farm of Adam Dury (Justified’s Cousin Johnny!), in pursuit of a sadist who was forged by the violent world around him.
Dakota Fanning again is luminous. She cuts her way through upstate New York, smoking like a private eye and scoffing at the old society women that roll their eyes at her liberated confidence. She forms up the majority of the B-Story as she takes a trip of her own to suss out clues from a seemingly unrelated massacre upstate. That, of course, proves connected to the overall case. Shear and Smith’s Isaacsons kind of get the short shrift. The pair mainly act as shook white folk that are confronted with the harsh realities of America’s treatment of the Native Americans, providing the episode the heart-wrenching quote from above. I am glad the show is finally explicitly dealing with this in context of the story and time period. I wish it would have actually committed to it fully instead of just using it as set dressing.
This also brings me to the episode’s biggest flaw; the murder of Mary. I, like you more than likely, am never happy to see a woman get fridged, especially one as talented as Q’orianka Kilcher. Though the sequence is cleverly and hauntingly staged by Petrarca, centered around a creaking swinging chandelier. My heart wouldn’t and couldn’t stop dropping as soon as the scene started. I keep trying to parse it in my head as the creators try to really ratchet up the tension heading into the show’s final two episodes as well as bring the agents of New York’s corruption (Connor, Byrnes, and the silent button-man “The Swede”) and Team Alienist more into direct conflict. Just wish it didn’t have to come at the cost of Mary and the wonderfully talented actor that played her. I knew, I just FUCKIN’ knew, as soon as she and Lazlo kissed that it means the gallows for Q’orianka Kilcher. I hoped, like a big dumb dummy, that the show would avoid it. But we don’t always get what we want.
Verdict: Watch It (With Reservations)
Despite the giant, Mary sized hole this episode left in my heart. There is still plenty of good stuff to be found in “Psychopathia Sexualis.” Neatly trisected by John Sayles and given a pulse-pounding momentum by director David Petrarca, this eighth episode delivers everything good (and bad) about prestige TV with more of the added period flair that we have come to know and hopefully love from The Alienist. Plus, John makes a cow friend this episode, and that alone is worth a watch.
Until next time, pour one out for Mary, and I’ll be seeing you.
