Rycroft’s Sinful Past
Episode 6 of Carnival Row begins with Rycroft arriving at Morange’s and finding his mutilated corpse. Staving off flashes to the past, Rycroft is told to find a connection with the bodies before it’s too late. Hiding Morange’s truth, Rycroft comes under fire as the other policemen learn that Morange was picked up outside the Pix brothel that night. In the aftermath of Ritter’s death, Jonas spies his mourning daughter Sophie discussing the state of the town, while Absalom busies himself with his work. Feigning her mournful tone, he continues to listen as she changes her complexion when alone and admits to completely feigning grief. Jonas reveals himself at this point, prompting the two to dance around one another in their questions, ending with her telling him that she’s free of her parents, unlike him. Deciding to be truthful to Portia, Rycroft heads home and sits with her on the bed, telling her the truth about his wing-clippings and birthright. He tells her outright that he’s half-fae. Her reaction is one of shock and disgust, pulling away from him and telling him to get out. With nowhere else to go, he visits Darius who tells him he can still smell the fae on him. He admits he told Portia the truth, prompting Darius to immediately curse his friend; if she tells anyone it’ll destroy Rycroft’s career and worse, condemn him to death too. Vignette decides to visit an exhibition strictly prohibiting Faes from entering. Inside, she finds paintings and all manner of artifacts linking back to the many wars of the past. With painful memories clinging to her heart, a group of humans arrive, laughing until Vignette confronts them and rises up before them. Unfortunately, this gets her arrested. As she leaves, Agreus arrives alongside Imogen, where they enter the exhibition together. After becoming involved in a prickly conversation with a rich couple, Agreus outbids the man on a painting and explains to Imogen just why he did it. As the two grow closer together, she lets her guard down and the faint whispers of romance beckon on the air. Out in the open, Rycroft speaks to Runyan about Aisling and the past, where he laments the current immigration laws, seeing his puppets deported thanks to strict enforcement. He also learns of a benefactor here; a fine watchmaker that may have some answers for Rycroft. Unfortunately, from the shadows one of the policemen follow him to find out what he’s up to. Dombey goes right to Portia, where she spills the truth about Rycroft’s lineage. It’s here where the police deduce that Rycroft is the one causing the murders, using the Darkarsher to hide his true intents. Armed and lusting for blood, they head out to the streets while an unaware Rycroft is apprehended by the police and arrested. He turns and confronts the men, allowing them to cuff him as he’s taken away from the house and arrested. With a nicely implemented twist and plenty of progression, the slow paced previous episode is long gone here, replaced with a much more urgent and well written episode. While the characters still fail to really establish themselves and some of the racism is a little heavy-handed, especially the aura surrounding Agreus, for the most part Carnival Row delivers another exciting episode, one that ends on a pretty big twist and leaves things wide open for where this may go next.
