'Clarice' Episode 2 'Ghosts Of Highway 20' Spoilers: Will Clarice's past haunt her as she heads to Appalachia?
Not everyone is happy with 'Clarice' after its premiere episode last week as it indulged in some stock-in-trade tropes of TV crime dramas. Not that crime dramas can't be fun to watch but after hyping up the series as something different and unique, the showrunners might have failed those expectations. This is especially because the TV series 'Hannibal' that came before it did such a good job and audiences were expecting something similar.
For now, the series has cast Clarice (Rebecca Breeds) as the familiar underdog character. An inexperienced rookie, she has to earn the trust of her team. The advantage is that the dynamics of this particular scenario are so familiar that all the characters on the show seem like we've known them despite being just one episode in. That may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you like your TV fare.
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The series also seems to be following the case-of-the-week format though larger themes and arcs might play out over multiple episodes. For now, all eyes are on the VICAP team that 'celebrity agent' Clarice has joined.
In Episode 2, 'Ghosts of Highway 20', the team is headed to Tennessee. According to the synopsis, "Clarice Starling and the VICAP team are deployed to Tennessee where the FBI is laying siege against a fringe militia group called 'The Statesmen'.
The title of the episode is intriguing since it suggests some "ghosts" from Clarice's past will be unearthed as she heads to the Appalachian region in Tennessee. Will she meet faces from the past as the FBI agents confront the militia?
The familiar theme of monsters continues in this episode too. Clarice is still hallucinating about moths in her coffee. Meanwhile, she is yet to talk to the other 'Buffalo Bill' survivor, Catherine Martin (Marnee Carpenter), who she rescued. Ruth (Jayne Atkinson), Catherine's mother, and the newly-minted attorney general believe that the "monsters among us are reflections of who we are". As she sends the VICAP team to take down the militia group, one of them says "this could get ugly".
In one shot in the trailer, we see Clarice surrounded by bodies clad in the trademark FBI blue. There is certainly going to be an intense gunfight and some people will be killed in action.
This episode will likely draw from the real-life events of the 1993 Waco siege, also known as the "Waco massacre". In that incident, FBI agents, Texas state law enforcement and the US military laid a 51-day siege after a shoot-out at the Mount Carmel Center ranch in the community of Axtell, Texas, where the religious sect Branch Davidians were stockpiling illegal weapons.
'Clarice' Episode 2 airs on Thursday, February 18, at 10 pm ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.