Last week in Finally the series upped its game and things got exciting for Linus, Les Turner stopped by to see his stitcher and by the end of the show, Kirsten found a key left by Ed, in The Root of All Evil, everything comes together in what may be the most perfect blend of mystery and comedy in Stitchers thus far.
At the start of this episode Kirsten is contemplating the found key when Camille enters the room waxing lyrical about a pair of boots. After complaining that they are not paid enough she goes into a detailed description of the footwear finishing with a plaintive “and a kitten spool heel.” Kirsten tells her roommate and work colleague to “stop whining” and to ask for a raise, “like normal people do.” Camille questions Kirsten’s awareness of normal in response.
After a short discussion about the hot water heater and Camille’s overly long showers, Kirsten timed her last one which make Camille say her behavior is “mega” creepy, there is a knock on the door. Camille opens the door to find a good looking Englishman on the other side of it. Kirsten looks up and says, “Hello Liam.” It turns out that this new chap is Ms. Clark’s boyfriend.
The two women are called into work and seconds into the latest case meeting, Camille mentions Liam. Maggie has a private meeting with Kirsten’s roommate and tells her to research the new boyfriend. Camille says she is not comfortable with that and Maggie reminds her that it is for Clark’s safety. She then starts to ask her boss about a raise and gets cut off, as Maggie leaves the room Camille mutters that she is “not comfortable with that either.”
The latest victim that Kirsten will stitch into is a Jane Doe. As the team prepare to set up the stitch, Cameron’s last minute instruction is for Clark to find a name for their unidentified girl and she replies “let’s hit the road already.” Dr. Goodkin then responds with Dr. Emmett Brown’s line from Back to the Future “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” Cameron is quite the pop culture aficionado at these moments.
When Kirsten goes into Jane Doe’s memory, she is in a party and it looks like the deceased is very well off, has a tiny dog that is barking at a chap on the floor of a mansion and toward the end of the stitch she ends up in a bathroom that is clearly in a different residence. In the stitch Jane holds up a magazine cover that has a picture of the mansion on it and they ID the house. Maggie tells Cameron and Kirsten that they will go to the mansion, which belongs to Joe and Suzanne Parks.
Outside the building, Kirsten calls Detective Fisher and tell him that he was wrong about Ed Clark killing himself and Cameron shows that he is more than a little jealous about the existence, and sudden appearance, of Liam. Camille, however, is bowled over by the “perfect” chap with a six pack.
Maggie tells the couple about the death of the girl and they have no idea who it could be. Kirsten almost reveals too much information and outside the mansion boss Baptiste says that Clark is not foolproof and Cameron sticks up for his colleague saying that until foolproof shows up, Kirsten is the next best thing. She looks surprised at his pronouncement.
Back at the lab Linus has identified the young woman via her dog. Linus also puts his name up to adopt the orphaned pet. Cameron and Kirsten go to her home and find a lot of jewelry hidden in the toilet cistern, as seen in the stitch. While putting together all the pieces of information about the dead girl, Maggie reveals that houses near where Miller’s body was found were broken into. Camille suggests that Kirsten be released early for a meal with Liam.
Linus and Cameron go to the spa where Bentley Miller’s friend, spotted in the stitch, works. Kirsten goes home to find Liam has fixed the hot water heater and he is confused at her behavior, not aware that she picks up bits of the deceased’s personality from the stitch; which he also knows nothing about. Camille and Maggie talk Liam Granger and she reveals to her boss that he checks out, she also starts to ask for a raise again only to be cut off by Baptiste. After Camille leaves the office, Maggie looks through pictures of Liam and discovers one that concerns her.
The two men enter the spa and inform the receptionist that they need to speak to Miller’s friend Sadie Morton and Linus pulls a “police” badge that he picked up at Comic Con, which actually has “Imperial Police” stamped on it. They talk to Sadie and it is revealed that the two women held parties in the homes of rich spa clients who were on holiday. She also explains that Bentley stole from the houses and that at the last party held, in the Parks’ home, he came back early.
Liam and Kirsten have some quality together time and Cameron calls her repeatedly to relay the new information gleaned from Sadie. He shows up to see why she is not answering her phone and meets the boyfriend. End result is that Cameron is now more jealous than before. Cameron says that Kirsten acts differently around Granger, “more of a Betty, less of a Veronica.” She asks him who he is (in the Archie verse) Archie or Reggie, he replies “Possibly Jughead.”
As they discuss Liam, the Bentley part of Kirsten comes to the fore and she asks why she cannot have it all. The “sort of” boyfriend then comes out of the kitchen with desert, perfectly stored in swan tinfoil origami, seems this chap really is practically perfect.
A second stitch is taking place and as the team prep Cameron does the sound check, “Talk to me Betty.” “Yes I hear you Jughead,” Kirsten replies. After Maggie questions the conversation, Linus says, “I thought I was Jughead.” Clark goes into the stitch and learns what really happened the night that Bentley was trapped in the house. She filmed someone having sex and blackmailed Parks, this resulted in her murder.
After the stitch the group are discussing Linus’ adoption of Giorgio when Maggie comes out announcing that Mr. Parks is in custody, he apparently sent a text to Bentley a week before she was murdered. Cameron invites the team to his place for a victory dinner and both Camille and Kirsten beg off as Liam is cooking them something. Linus and Cameron opt for a “Bro” night as his adoption of the dog is turned down, the animal does not like men. Goodkin tells the girls to have fun with “Lance.”
Cameron and Linus talk about Liam, and his Greek-God-like abs, and Linus googles Granger and reveals that the man is indeed perfect. They decide to have a real bro night versus the faux bro night. Kirsten buys the boots, with the kitten spool heel, for Camille and Clark has a flashback to the stitch and realizes that whoever killed Bentley was a woman and not Mr. Parks as Giorgio did not bark at the attacker.
The two women go to the Parks’ residence and the guys recruit Tim, from engineering, for a real bro night of beer, video games and dodgy snacks. Tim proves that not only is he “the man” on video games but he can crush a beer can on his forehead. Meanwhile Kirsten has hacked the security system on the Parks’ house and they enter to look for the gloves seen in the stitch. Back at bro night, Linus tries to crush a beer can on his forehead and knocks himself off the couch.
As they search for evidence, Mrs. Parks comes in and confronts them. Kirsten spells out just what happened and pulls the phone, containing the video that Bentley made, and Parks pulls a gun. Kirsten instantly hurls the jewelry box at the woman disarming her.
Linus and Cameron swear off women and sex in order to harness their kundalini. Tim, while playing the video game, snarls that neither of the other two are “getting any, anyway.” Cameron throws the engineer out and before he leaves Tim grabs the biggest chunk of cheese. Camille asks for her raise and gets it. Kirsten is contemplating the key when Liam comes in and after a very short preamble asks her to marry him, and being perfect, he is on bended knee while doing so.
The Root of All Evil has some brilliant comic moments and allows one of the periphery characters to share the limelight (delightfully so). Newcomer Jack Turner, who plays “sort of” boyfriend Liam Granger (who may just be the male version of Mary Poppins – practically perfect in every way), is a good match for Emma Ishta who is channeling her inner stitcher brilliantly. Allison Scagliotti, Kyle Harris, Ritesh Rajan and Salli Richardson-Whitfield all vied for the comedic award in this episode, but the winner, by a crushed beer can had to be Cameron Britton at bro night.
The writing, as usual, was clever and full of pop culture references and the scripting of the show is perhaps the main reason it works so well overall. Entertaining, yet full of mystery; with puzzles to solve along the way, and topically relevant (i.e.Comic Con badge) and…Oded Fehr back for another quick cameo as the scary/creepy boss who may make Liam disappear. The only tiny bone of contention was the twist of Mrs. Parks being the murderer as Sadie said that Mr. Parks returned early not her. Regardless of this little glitch, Stitchers is great television that airs Tuesdays on ABC Family, miss this and miss the best TV you will see this year.
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