Taking a sharp left turn, from the previous installment that was presented as an awkward cocktail party, Read our review of Chapter one here, the narrative is hijacked. Or should we say hacked?  Meeting in the stairwell of a building on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, our small group of four people was caught up to speed. There has been a rash of disappearances and only a pair of computer hackers are asking questions. The mystery swarms around our previous host, the icy Victoria Polidori (Stepy Kamei) and her associate Danny Harris (Erik Blair). Women around town have gone missing and it is up to us to pore over a video that was found online. The video in question depicts the funeral for the late Grant Polidori  (Austin Schumacher), Victoria’s deceased husband.

This is where the show got very high-concept and, actually, it worked nicely. Standing in the stairwell, a video was projected onto an adjacent stairway leading to the performance space. We were invited to literally step into the video in question and become active participants in the investigation. Weird, yes, but it actually worked as a fascinating vehicle for a flashback.

So we get there and that is when things get weird and not always in the most believable ways. Victoria is there, reeling from the loss of her brilliant surgeon husband. Also in attendance are a hospital lawyer friend, A funeral director overseeing the event, and Grant’s secretary, Leah Davidson (Katherine Flannery).  As the audience we were encouraged to participate, to talk and to engage in order to uncover details that we could collectively piece together. Then, a lumbering gentleman in an ill-fitting suit showed up by the name of Charles Nixon (Zachary Johnson-Dunlop). Kindly and unassuming, it is revealed that he has a connection to the deceased in the most heartbreaking of ways.

Each of us was reminded that, when we wanted to, we could step into a small room and sign the remembrance book. It was in that space that each of us was pulled off for one-on-one scenes with various characters. Then another mystery guest arrives and throws things completely for a loop sending the funeral into a panic like a mound of agitated ants, and the story really begins to gel. That being said, and without divulging any spoilers, my personal one-off scene delivered a twist that pushed credulity, taking a story that was grounded into an absurd realm. It was a moment where you bought into it or they left you behind and well…

To give the production the credit that it clearly deserves, the writing is creative as all hell. The high-concept of this flashback that informs the present worked so well, yet could have gone so very wrong. We are given a narrative that informs what we saw in Chapter One, delivering disturbing layers to what we know. The performances are solid across the board with props landing on Kamei, Blair, Flannery, and Johnson-Dunlop. There is some nice work here.

If you experienced Chapter One: Captivated, you pretty much owe it to yourself to see this installment. It will change everything you understood of the benevolent Psychiatrist and her cool demeanor.