Wow, the S.S. Varuna has really hit some rough seas, metaphorically speaking. In one day, our idyllic cruise has gone from one dead body on board to three. Okay, technically, it’s two dead bodies on board and one off floating in the Mediterranean Sea, but the sentiment still stands: Things are getting dicey out there! Rufus and Imogene need to step up their game if we’re going to wrap this whole thing up in episode ten.
We do get at least one question answered: Now we know why Sunil has seemed a little shady — it’s because he is! Once Rufus, Teddy, and Leila get a look at how extensive Viktor Sams’s set-up within the Varuna is — those huge servers line the walls of several decks — it’s clear it would be impossible to have done that without the owner of the ship knowing about it. When Rufus tells Imogene as much, her head looks like it might explode. She’s had sex with two men on this cruise and both turned out to be liars? Is this her sexual power? If so, is it a good one? Discuss!
Like Jules, Sunil’s truth reveals that he isn’t exactly a bad guy. Yes, he’s known about Viktor Sams operating out of his boat the whole time. Yes, he’s being fully funded by Viktor Sams in exchange for the space on his boat, a deal made “five or six years ago.” Yes, he knew exactly who was tailing him and Imogene in Malta (the guy was also the intermediary who made the Varuna deal with Sunil). And yes, initially, he was reporting back as to how the investigation into Danny’s murder was going, but he swears that once he learned that Viktor Sams had something to do with Imogene’s mother Keira’s death, he stopped. And even though Imogene ties him to a chair — not in a sexy way, in an angry way — he doesn’t have much more information to give. He doesn’t know who is running the Viktor Sams show, what that person (or group) wants, or how to find him. It seems Viktor activates his minions by way of a flip phone — just like the one we see Sunil answering (pre-chair tying) and receiving a not-so-veiled threat on Imogene’s life.
Winnie mentions the flip phone, too. Ah, yes, Winnie. We should talk about her. While locked up in her cell, her boat jail neighbor Jules stops her mid-rant about how she is helping Viktor Sams take down the rich, the people who live above the law, how she is helping change the world and balance the scales, to inform her that the man she killed in the name of balancing the scales was not a corrupt one percenter at all, but a detective’s assistant investigating the Colliers. Whatever Viktor Sams told her when he ordered her to the bar cart that evening was a lie. Killing Danny Turner in no way helps this mission she’s put herself on. The news doesn’t exactly break her, but it does surprise her. It also makes her a little more willing to chat with Teddy, Imogene, and Rufus when they come calling for info again. And baby, do they come calling. They may not be able to find concrete evidence linking Winnie to Danny’s death (aside … from her confession), but they know for sure she was responsible for the second death on board the Varuna.
R.I.P. Governor Alexandra Hockenberg! We hardly knew ye! No, seriously, there are too many characters on this show, and no one is getting enough screen time. It turns out all that coughing Alexandra’s been doing was her slowly dying from the inside thanks to some necrotizing fasciitis that she got the very first day on board thanks to a special dose of that B12 injection we saw her getting up on the pool deck in the first episode. And do you remember who was giving her said injection? Imogene sure does: It was Winnie.
When they question Winnie, Teddy can see her sister feels remorse, but Winnie stands firm in her Viktor Sams convictions. She tells them why she joined Viktor Sams’s crusade in the first place: To avenge a friend’s death after the chemicals poisoned her in the rubber plant she had been working in. She also, however, is adamant that Viktor Sams has his reasons for everything he does. There was a reason Danny needed to die, there was a reason Alexandra needed to die, and she is sure it will all tie back to the cause. What’s interesting about the whole thing, however, is that in both instances, it seems, at this moment at least, that those two murders protect the Colliers — the very type of people Winnie wants to make pay. Danny was looking into the Colliers-Mills books right before he was murdered and was getting close to some answers. Alexandra, too, was about to make a decisive blow against Lawrence Collier.
Last week, we saw the governor of Washington check on some sort of court case file she was keeping in her safe on the boat. I can get behind a woman who travels with her possible sources of blackmail — you never know when you’ll need to use it! With the threat of those sex and drugs and Tripp’s photos getting out, Alexandra knows the time is now. She brings that same file to Hilde and tells her she has extensive evidence on Lawrence Collier — something that would put him away for life and would make a certain Interpol agent’s career. Only when Hilde opens the file the pages are now black. And then Alexandra coughs up blood and keels over, dead within seconds.
While Rufus, Imogene, and now Hilde try to piece together what Viktor Sams’s endgame is with these two murders, the info about the revenge on the rubber plant, and the new knowledge that, yes, that bill of lading is from 2005, when the pigment was illegal, something else that adds a new wrench into the investigation happens. After there’s a blackout on the ship — Imogene and Rufus assume this means they are getting dangerously close to figuring this whole thing out — there is chaos out on the deck. It’s Lewellyn. The Collier family’s creepy lawyer is about to jump to his death.
Lewellyn’s been acting strange throughout the entire episode. His night with Hilde ended up with her burning all of his chest hair off and leaving him with some serious injuries. The man does not look right when he joins Fr. Toby for lunch. In regards to the disaster with the Chuns, he remarks that “maybe we deserve it.” After Alexandra dies in front of him and a distraught Tripp, who knows Alexandra, goes to him regarding the blackmail, punches Lewellyn in the face and blames it all on him, ol’ Lew tells Anna that Tripp is right. It’s all leading him to this moment on the edge of the ship.
Imogene tries to talk him down as everyone looks on, and thank goodness she’s there because Lewellyn has some juicy little details to pass on. First of all, he screams at Rufus that he’s a hack — the truth about whatever is going on; the truth about Viktor Sams was right in front of him when he was investigating 18 years ago, and Rufus missed it. The second and, frankly, more interesting revelation is that Lewellyn was IN LOVE WITH KEIRA BEFORE SHE DIED. Now, this is the kind of mystery I want to be involved in. In love?! No wonder he’s been looking for punishment ever since! Alas, Lewellyn all but verbally confirms he’s in on the Viktor Sams thing and then jumps to his watery death. We don’t see a body, so honestly, he could pop up again, but the guy seems pretty dead.
The shock of having just watched a man she’s known her entire life die right in front of her, Imogene has some follow-ups for Rufus. Oh, she is mad at him. And when he confesses, on top of everything, that the rumors are true, he is indeed a phony and he’s been bluffing his entire career (we even get a little flashback to 1992 to prove it), well then she’s livid. She demands to know everything Rufus saw during his investigation of her mother’s death so she can figure out what he missed. While this moment should be fiery and wrenching, I still don’t fully buy into the Imogene/Rufus dynamic. The chemistry just hasn’t been convincing enough for me to believe this is any kind of betrayal or that Imogene’s feelings of abandonment are so strong she’s still motivated by them. Six episodes in, big revelations have been made, and this partnership should be much more compelling. Or, perhaps, I missed something along the way, too.
The Aforementioned Other Details
• What does Celia Chun mean when she tells her granddaughter they still have work to do? They just bought a majority stake in Collier-Mills; what more is there to do?!
• I knew they wouldn’t cast Broadway’s Lauren Patten and not get her to sing! I cackled over the reveal that Anna and Tripp’s go-to cruise karaoke song is “Come Sail Away” by Styx. Of course these two ding-dongs would pick something so on the nose. Now the real question: Will they let Mandy Patinkin sing too?!
• When Imogene confronts Anna with the bill of lading and accusations of knowingly working with a carcinogen, Anna confirms but also explains that she ran the company bankrupt trying to fix the mess her father made — hence the deal with the Chuns. It doesn’t matter: Imogene knows this is all tied to the reason Viktor Sams killed her mother, and the argument devolves into some insults both have surely been holding on to for years. It ends with Anna calling Imogene “an ungrateful cunt” so that’s nice!
• Leila cracks the servers just before the blackout and discovers folders and folders full of blackmail on every single passenger. She, of course, almost immediately goes to the folder on her wife and, yes, watches a video of Anna having sex with Eleanor. Her request for a divorce has been validated once again!
• I still don’t fully get what Death and Other Details is going for as far as tone. There are some playful moments (the cheeky graphics displaying the date, the way characters step into memories), but most of these episodes feel like they’re going for “serious murder mystery dressed up in swanky clothing” — I find the playful stuff much more compelling to watch.
• Imogene definitely slipped Jules something when she handed him back his tennis ball, right? There was a look.
