Hemlock Grove - Catabasis

 

So Roman is high on coke, while driving hits a log in the middle of the road, hurls his phone to the ground, and heads for Dr. Johann Pryce’s lab. He wants to know what Ouroboros is and Pryce has to inject him with a sedative (or that is what he tells Olivia when she sees her son in a coma) while lifting him off the ground with one hand. Pryce has to protect his secret, the project’s major experiment, encased in a small room with only a narrow window to see it. Roman, while in the coma roams about in Dreamland looking to find the dragon and kill it. Shelley is a pretty girl supposedly guiding him and mentoring him along the way. He sees a vision of Clementine in war paint who dips her hand in blood (in like this birdbath on the Godfrey estate) and mocks him. After that he is given a therapy session with Dr. Godfrey, his “uncle”, wearing glasses that make him look similar to Jerry Lewis. And Norman even has a fellow associate give a bit of his expertise regarding what Roman is after and if he has a chance of finding and killing the dragon. There is even a wolf that nearly attacks Shelley as Roman grabs a battleaxe ready to strike it, going through dust. And then he’s back in some cellar following Shelley, lighted in blue hue and a giant moon as the backdrop. All of this takes up a good bit of the episode, and I couldn’t have cared less. I guess because I could care less about Roman at this point, his journey in the coma dream state just took up time I could have devoted to Stranger Things or Lost, quite frankly.

I have been debating what it is exactly about Hemlock Grove that is missing. I think I figured it out tonight: personality. Not one single character on this show has one. They all operate so stoically, in such postured model poses, that I have reached the point of apathy. When you get a revelation like Roman’s birthfather actually being Norman and it fails to lift a give-a-fuck out of me I realize that I’m probably at the point of no return. I reached the final ten minutes wondering if my fidget spinner could endure much more spinning. While Norman is in his coma, his mother can’t help getting all kissy-kissy with Norman, the two even making out right by the kid while he’s remains unconscious! Olivia does take a gift from Peter for her son without cringing…she seems actually appreciative of it!

Letha is very pregnant at this point and seemingly romantically involved with Peter but they have loads of oo-lah-lah. Okay maybe they hold arms, sit together, and get cozy, but I would love if they showed one iota or ounce of passion. Instead they are a blank canvas, couldn’t fart an inspired expression, and talk to each other sparingly about next to nothing. They did talk about where they fucked the day before. I guess that’s something.

Shelley is upset with her brother for leaving her alone, blaming him for his reckless behavior resulting in his coma. Her dream version of Shelley tries to get Roman to the dragon but it is to no avail. He even returns to the mill with Peter to discuss the situation. I just wanted Roman to get this over with. But by episode’s end, he’s still quite lost in that coma.

Clementine gets instructions from the sheriff to chill out investigating the Godfreys if it doesn’t involve fish and wildlife. She decides to look around in the Romancek home (breaking and entering nothing for her) and is startled by her mentor, a priest responsible for her mission to find the beast that killed two women. He’s not just passing by, though, telling her to focus away from Olivia, that she is not the aim of the investigation. And she returns to talk with Olivia about the mill, regarding the body parts and footprints found there. Olivia is offended she would appear as her son lies in a bed upstairs in a coma.

When asked by his mom about Letha after finding a glass with her lipstick, Peter half-heartedly (which is pretty much how he is all the time) speaks about her as someone of interest to him, although you'd think he could truly care less. If he doesn't why should I?