The stakes keep getting higher each week of Ragdoll, and this week is no exception. Another name is struck off the list. Rose unravels just a little bit more. And we see the face of the (presumed) killer.
Delving Into The Past
Following the events of the previous episode, Rose is even more determined to track down the Faustian killer. And who could blame him, since his own life is on the line? To do so, however, he must look backward rather than forward. His answers lie in the past.
And so he digs into the information Joel (the inmate who led him onto the Faustian killer to begin with) provided during their time together. Joel has since committed suicide, so Rose is forced to follow a trail of breadcrumbs. Two men had been suspects in Joel’s sister’s murder. One had gone missing – presumably at the Faustian killer’s hands. So Rose tracked down the other to see what information he might be able to provide.
While he does get a tidbit of information (that a woman named Kate might have seen the killer), there will not be an opportunity for more. His short-lived informant is himself a victim of the Faustian/Ragdoll killer’s machinations. He is manipulated to serve the killer’s ends, and another name is crossed off the kill list.
Rose had better move faster. There aren’t too many names to go before his own is up on deck.
Little White Lies
Luckily, the “Kate” breadcrumb isn’t Rose’s only lead. As I speculated last week, only two things could lead someone to take another’s life and then their own. It was love, in this case – the Ragdoll Killer had the lawyer-cum-murderer’s son.
He may be diabolical, but he is true to his (presumed) word, because once the attorney is dead, the son is set free. He is naturally traumatized, however, and unwilling – or unable – to speak at first.
It’s Rose who manages to bring him out of his shell, by reminding him of the depth and enduring nature of a mother’s love. It’s a touching moment, and to me, it’s not really diminished at all by the fact that his recollection wasn’t at all true. Rose pretended he knew his mother and his mother had loved him. He was only presuming the latter because the former is a lie.
But it was what the child needed to hear. It gave him comfort, and he gave the team another tiny lead in their quest for the killer. But learning that the memory was fabricated sends Edmonds off the deep end. She’s indignant that Rose would lie to a child, and she’s even more so that he isn’t penalized for it.
I grant you that my perception may be skewed by my familiarity with the American justice system, but really? This is the lie that she deems a bridge too far? Comforting a bereaved child with the thought of his mother’s love? This was so baffling to me that, while I’ve had some difficulty connecting with Edmonds’s almost naive earnestness in the past, the character totally lost me here. Even if, yes, it was in a sense a manipulation – Rose did need information on the killer, after all – it was hardly in the same league as “this copy machine is a lie detector test.” And it did provide the child comfort. So, I don’t know. Get over yourself, Edmonds.
An Unexpected Revelation?
But the real revelation in the episode came at the end, when (it’s suggested, at least) we see the true face of the Ragdoll Killer. He orchestrates an accident that blows off another man’s hand, and then takes his trophy home to dissect. Quite the macabre introduction, indeed.
Ragdoll airs on AMC on Mondays at 10/9 c.