#Clarice Season 1 Episode 7 Review: Ugly Truth

Poor Clarice.

She got reinstated to ViCAP just in time for her boss to check out on Clarice Season 1 Episode 7.

On the bright side, Ardelia’s contributions to ViCAP finally paid off for her.

The case was heartbreaking, involving two murdered teen boys from different segments of society.

Ardelia made the connection when she took the DNA Clarice supplied from the new crime scene and insisted that the lab check for similar mitochondrial DNA in earlier cases.

Because Ardelia grew up in the area of the earlier crime, she spoke up and got Krendler to let her continue to investigate the case, her first fieldwork.

With Ardelia, the race has continued to be a storyline, and this episode was no exception.

The Black Coalition, first mentioned in Clarice Season 1 Episode 4, came up again as Ardelia continued to straddle the fence firmly. She told Agent Haynes that she supports what the coalition is attempting to do and that she would strongly root them on … from the sideline.

Then, after she gains acceptance from the cool kids in ViCAP, not at all, she went back to attempting to change things from the inside.

Here’s betting that’s not going to work out for her. She’ll be back in Cold Cases before she knows it.

It was a good thing Ardelia was there when she and Clarice went to interview the mother of Bobby, the first victim, in a black neighborhood.

When Clarice tried to ask a question, Bobby’s uncle unfairly treated her like the West Virginia cracker she is. But Ardelia was able to bond with the mother.

Also, they met the neighbor’s husband, who seemed outright squirrelly before he exited the scene early.

Eventually, the average citizen back in the ’90s didn’t understand the value of DNA. Otherwise, why would they have given it up so freely?

“Elimination” DNA actually turned up a suspect for the murders, narrowing things down to the friendly neighbor lady or her absentee son.

That was when events really got weird. Marybeth’s second husband was really her son Gerry Jr., and she had been sexually abusing him since his father abandoned them.

The two victims were first Gerry’s confidants, then his victims when he panicked about what he had told them.

Gerry was obviously guilty. But Marybeth shouldn’t have been able to skate free after what she had put him through psychologically. No wonder he came out screwed up.

This episode also provided a deeper look into Clarke’s psyche.

Clarke is usually the voice of reason (and indifference) for ViCAP. But this case set him into an obnoxious rage, especially after Krendler put him in charge of it.

Unfortunately for Esquivel, he was the target for Clarke’s racist slurs. He wisely contacted Tripathi, the fount of knowledge for all things ViCAP, who explained why child abduction was a hot-button issue for Clarke.

His younger sister was kidnapped while he was a teenager, the only other person home at the time. He was later told that she had been spotted in a porn film. That’s why he keeps pouring through those skin magazines in his desk. This knowledge helped to personalize the crusty agent and make him appear less skeevy.

So this case proved especially personal to Clarke. It was important to him that his team take it seriously. 

While two-thirds of the squad were involved with the child murders, Krendler and Tripathi were reluctantly checking out attorney Hudlin based on Claire’s say-so.

When Claire finally recalled the man’s face from Woodhaven near the end of Clarice Season 1 Episode 6, the question that immediately came to mind was how long before she determined who he was.

Seeing Hudlin’s face on a magazine on Krendler’s desk on the next episode seemed a little too soon. Claire was amazed that Krendler had already found the man in her memory, which of course, wasn’t the cause.

Perhaps Krendler should have realized that having a divorce lawyer offer his services to him in Krendler’s wife’s hometown was too good to be true.

Unfortunately, Krendler’s concern over Mandy’s rate of progress toward sobriety and worry about his children had overridden his common sense.

Still, give him credit for following through on his meeting with Hudlin and for having Tripathi tail him afterward based solely on Claire’s hypnosis-based identification.

Without Tripathi following Hudlin, the team wouldn’t have discovered his connection to Lockyer Labs, which was a definite warning bell.

That, along with Hudlin’s describing his hardball approach to attacking Mandy’s fitness as a parent, should have been enough for Krendler to cut him loose.

But Hudlin went on the attack with Krendler and, with a combination of threats and cajoling, got his to come around, abandoning ViCAP’s conspiracy investigation.

It was so out of character for Krendler to back off anything that the team is bound to rebel. But who will lead the revolution?

Esquivel is too new, and Claire always steps in it. Clarke is a chain-of-command kind of guy but has gone rogue at times. Tripathi knows where all the bodies are buried. So one of the latter two must lead a covert investigation of Krendler’s decision.

To revisit developments in the River Murders, watch Clarice online.

Should Ardelia be transferred to ViCAP?

Did you enjoy learning more about Clarke?

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