Episode 3: “Mommy”

Freud would have a field day with this week’s trip to the Hotel Cortez. SPOILERS COMIN’ AT YA!!

Tristan Duffy barges into the room where he met the ghost of James March last week, calling him out and demanding he show himself. Duffy wants to know more about the greatest serial killer on earth because “Killing is awesome.”

Dr. Alex Lowe takes care of her measles patient while we hear her thoughts and feelings about children, and about caring for them as a pediatrician being her “only dream.”  Having her own son meant more to her than anything, even her own husband. When he disappeared she tried to kill herself.

We find out she’s actually in a therapy session with her husband Detective Lowe, and her daughter Scarlett, trying to understand Scarlett’s wild story about her brother in a coffin.

Fashion maven Claudia Bankson gets into her hotel room bed and is almost immediately attacked from within its frame by the junkie we saw Sally with previously. He stabs at her in a strung-out frenzy, blood flying everywhere.

Detective Lowe shows up at a new murder scene at the offices of a gossip rag where the writers have all had their tongues nailed to their desks. “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” Lowe intones.

As he returns home, Lowe collides with the bloody junkie in the lobby of the hotel and calls an ambulance for him. At the hospital, the junkie frantically says sorry for killing the wrong woman: “I thought it was the other one! The junkie whore!”

“She lied to me! She said I’d be free!” Poor little junkie.

Duffy knows that Drake wants to remodel the hotel, and has been told by March that that cannot happen. Duffy seduces him in order to kill him and prevent the changes, but The Countess shows up and stops him, leaving Drake very frustrated indeed.

Lowe confronts Sally about her role in the junkie shenanigans, and she mysteriously proclaims “Killing can be a righteous act,” and then starts to seduce him in the elevator. Lowe clearly is vulnerable to her charms, and after some weird technical glitches, she suddenly disappears. Lowe is confused.

Iris and her immortalish vampirish son Donovan have an argument in which she tries to get back in his good graces and he in turn tells her he hates her and she should kill herself.  “A real mother would let her son die in peace,” he snarls.

Donovan heads out to junkie paradise to get high and sees someone off in the distance with car trouble. Sensing easy prey, he walks closer, sneakily opening a blade. He couldn’t be more wrong, as his intended victims quickly tases him unconscious and locks him into her trunk.

Meet Ramona Royale, 70s blacksploitation actress and former lover/partner of The Countess, until she got kicked to the curb for wanting to make her own little vampire plaything. She is looking for some revenge and wants Donovan’s help, seeing as he’s all up in The Countess’s shizzle.

He tells Ramona that he just got dumped, too, and she lets him go.

Lowe’s wife shows up to serve him with divorce papers and he breaks down in the hotel bar. They go back to his room where it gets real awkward and she leaves, only to see her missing son Holden in the hallway. She walks up to him and he smiles at her.

After trying to seduce Drake, The Countess confides in Duffy that she just wants Drake’s money as things have been tough for her funds-wise since Bernie Madoff cleaned her out.

Sally appears to be a grim reaper of sorts, since Iris has come to her to help commit suicide. Ever since her son turned his back on her, she hasn’t seen much of a reason to continue on. Sally obliges, after warning her not to come back as a ghost: “Don’t haunt my hallways, bitch.”

Liz Taylor gives crappy son Donovan a talking-to in the bar, laying down some truth about mothers and the respect they should be shown. Donovan feels properly chastised and goes to find his mommy.

Even though Sally has shot Iris up with enough heroin to kill a sports team, Iris hangs in there and refuses to die. Sally gets a plastic bag and covers her head.

Donovan walks in and tries to revive his mother, but she is gone. He does the only thing a son can do: he opens up his vein and drips his blood into her mouth.

This was a great episode! I’m very interested in more of the backstory between Iris and Donovan, and I love Bassett’s Ramona Royale. She has got attitude to spare (and a whole 70s look to her flashbacks that is awesome). Gaga didn’t have very much to do in this episode, but she did get to dress up like Madonna at one point.

Looking forward to next week’s episode so much! See you then!