#Clarice Season 1 Episode 11 Review: Achilles Heal

There’s a pattern forming here.

Once again, Clarice charged into the monster’s den, with backup this time, on Clarice Season 1 Episode 11.

That’s only because Krendler forced her to take Tripathi and Esquivel along with her when she went into Alastor Pharmaceuticals to confront Hudlin.

Unfortunately, with Clarice, backup has been the exception rather than the rule.

And ultimately, she did end up tackling the monster on her own. Some things never change.

Poor Clarice needs a sedative so she can get some sleep. Otherwise, she has her father, Buffalo Bill, and the River Murders all swirling around in her nightmares.

I’m surprised that Dr. Li hasn’t gone that way yet since Clarice can’t seem to shut down her big brain.

So instead, Clarice and Ardelia, with Esquivel gamely attempting to follow along, examined the River Murders clues once again, determining that the person behind them considered himself an artist.

Shouldn’t that have been enough to knock Hudlin out of consideration?

Sure, Hudlin is a fixer. As a lawyer, he’s used to strutting around and being the focus of attention.

But he hasn’t shown subtlety, such as the mastermind behind the River Murders has. As he’s proven in his relationship with his “client” Krendler, he’s a blunt-force type of guy.

He can hurl a veiled threat. But subtlety, not so much.

It’s a pity that ViCAP couldn’t have just continued investigating Alastor in secret. But the speed at which Alastor’s merger was going through prevented that.

Hasn’t Julia come on board in a big way?

At the end of Clarice Season 1 Episode 10, when Esquivel and Clarke were pushing for more from her, she seemed ready to jump off the investigation and go back to her life as it was before Clarice darkened her doorway.

But when merger talks accelerated, she was on the phone to Clarice, trying to bring in the cavalry before all the documentation disappeared.

It appeared that the strong personalities of ViCAP couldn’t agree on anything. That was disproven by the resounding “no” over the conference call when Julia suggested that she snoop around.

The reason became obvious when Hudlin snuck up behind Julia, still on the phone with ViCAP, to draft her into the merger meeting.

It was great to have Tripathi back. His sarcasm has been greatly missed.

It must be part of Kal Penn’s contract that he can be written out of episodes if he has other projects on which he wants to work. Although how much of that could there have been with Covid affecting TV and film production?

Julia’s news forced the investigation into Alastor’s connections to the River Murders out into the open. 

First, Clarice wanted to have one more chat with Tyson Conway about his father, Alastor CEO Nils Hagen.

Clarice and Tyson seemed to fit together well, a couple of brainy introverts. But despite their shared daddy issues, Tyson didn’t have a lot of insight to offer about his late-arriving dad.

It’s a shame but not unexpected that Hagen took a stick to their budding relationship later on.

ViCAP going public with the investigation also meant that Krendler had to let the Attorney General know what they had been up to without her knowledge.

Not surprisingly, she wasn’t pleased, especially after Clarice turned Catherine into the local police after she had stalked Buffalo Bill’s mother.

Ruth complaining about Clarice going rogue and not following orders was rich. As Krendler pointed out, Ruth knew exactly who Clarice was when she forced her onto Krendler and ViCAP. So why was she acting put out now?

All the two of them could really do was vent because Clarice has been right all along. Her theories, not wandering off alone into danger.

It was amazing how well things went at Alastor, considering the potential for disaster.

When the merger was mentioned, Hudlin puffed up, denied it, and threatened to sue. But the wind went out of his sails when Hagen insisted on talking to Clarice alone.

Hagen was right to be suspicious of Clarice when she threatened two of the three most important things in his life, his son and his business (maybe not in that order).

The third thing would be that muddy, gloomy painting with which he was so enamored. That should have told Clarice all she needed to know about his mind.

Fortunately, they were able to save Julia from herself and get all the documents they needed to go after Alastor.

Now two big questions remain.

One is how ViCAP can keep Julia, their star witness, safe until trial. Second, who will Ruth support in the end: Catherine, her biological daughter, or Clarice, her work daughter?

The other shoe started to drop for Ardelia and the Black Coalition. Herman was nice to Ardelia, killing her with kindness. But Garrett got an undesirable promotion to the sticks. 

So it’s either the suing blacks are shipped away to new assignments, or they refused to take opportunities for promotion. Hopefully, their lawyer can come up with an effective way to counter Herman’s play.

To revisit what’s going on in Clarice’s head, watch Clarice online.

With Ruth and Krendler compromised, how can ViCAP make charges stick against Alastor?

Can they get one of Hagen’s people to flip (maybe the fake cop)?

Can the Black Coalition win?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.