#Clarice Season 1 Episode 9 Review: Silence is Purgatory

Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.

That was the major lesson that Clarice had to absorb as her difficult education in real-world investigation continued on Clarice Season 1 Episode 9.

Clarice’s big heart continues to get her in trouble as she grows as a member of ViCAP.

Thus far, her big heart has gotten her in trouble when she charges in alone to save or avenge those she perceives as victims.

All around her, teammates continually attempt to impart the concept of being a part of a team and that she should seek backup in any dangerous situation.

That’s so that she doesn’t end up imperiled by a serial killer or a psycho doctor, just to give a couple of examples. 

The empathetic Clarice has now entered another potential minefield: giving the benefit of the doubt to potential assets/suspects.

This was apparent with her delicate handling of Tyson Conway, head of the non-profit Global Health Horizons, who brought over the late Carolina Savage from Yugoslavia.

Clarice views Tyson as a good guy since he’s training young people to improve medical treatment in their implied backward home countries.

Rather than press Tyson about Carolina, Clarice just gave him her card and asked him to call if he thought of anything on Clarice Season 1 Episode 8.

Contrast that with veteran Clarke, who leaned hard on an Alastor drug sales rep whose green-card boyfriend is facing a drug charge. He leveraged Naomi for all she was worth.

Newbies Clarice and Esquivel looked absolutely appalled about using such a harsh tactic.

Only it was discovered that Tyson’s father owns Alastor and financially backed his son’s non-profit. Since bodies were dropping all around Alastor, that couldn’t be out of the goodness of his heart.

So Krendler forced Clarice to question Tyson again, as he was one of the few leads they had.

Clarice proceeded to drop the ball after finding out that Tyson only met his father after his mother died when he was 14. Since that echoed Clarice’s origin story, of course, she bonded with him and believed him when he said he knew nothing about his father’s company.

Maybe Tyson doesn’t, or maybe he does. Either way, Clarice made a start toward turning him when she later offered to help him learn more about who his father is.

Besides, Clarke had already found a different way into Alastor after discovering senior accountant Julia Lawson.

The only problem was that Julia disliked Clarice, who she had never met.

Well, join the club. The FBI is full of people resentful of Clarice.

Only Julia had a fairly good reason. The media described Buffalo Bill as a transexual monster, making life difficult for transexuals such as Julia, who got painted with the same brush.

Julia blamed Clarice for not speaking up and explaining that Bill was an aberration. She was right. But the Buffalo Bill case was early in Clarice’s career, long before she understood her value enough to speak out.

At least Clarice persuaded Julia to take a closer look at Reprisol. Afterward, Julia opted to risk it all, including her health insurance, to bring the Reprisol financials to ViCAP.

Keeping ViCAP’s investigation of Alastor is proving harder than anyone anticipated. The company must have great internal security.

How else can you explain Naomi’s overdose or Hudlin’s private conversation with Gordon, err Julia?

Krendler may have tipped his hand when he suspiciously quizzed Hudlin about Carolina rather than just acting cowed by him. His taking a drink probably wasn’t enough to throw Hudlin off the scent.

Still, it was good to see Krendler willing to risk both his career and his family to get answers about Alastor and Hudlin’s roles in the River Murders.

Clarice also got hit on the home front because of the Black Coalition’s discrimination suit against the FBI.

Ardelia and the mistreated black agents do deserve justice.

However, their lawyer Castillo is making a mistake putting Clarice as the lead example of discrimination with the Bureau.

Clarice got her position at ViCAP because she saved the Attorney-General’s daughter. If that had been Ardelia, she would be on ViCAP instead, and Clarice would be handling cold cases.

At least Clarice was supportive and essentially said, “Bring it on.” She wants justice for Ardelia, too, even at her own expense.

Speaking of the Attorney-General’s daughter, Catherine was back in the spotlight. She has been underused as Bill’s other living victim, but she finally made some strides.

It took Ned, her almost fiance, to get her out of her home. It took Bea, her housekeeper/mother figure, to get her to the coffee shop to see Ned.

It wasn’t worth the trip, as Ned was the same self-involved boy who ghosted Catherine when she needed him most. It was great when Catherine showed some fire as she told him off, even if that emotion was short-lived.

Also, it gave her some impetus to return to her ongoing project, tracking down Buffalo Bill’s mother. Catherine has to understand how Bill came to be the serial killer that he was.

To follow Clarice’s evolution, watch Clarice online.

Will Clarice get more jaded?

Has Ardelia done the right thing by including Clarice in the suit?

Will Catherine follow through on her plan?

Comment below.

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