Hand of God (Installment #4)

Episode Six: Hand of God

Installment #4: Darkness, Reign O’er Me



It’s time to call in the Crime Scene Investigators!

As you may have guessed, Danielle Franklin never made it over to the downtown station. It would have been perfect timing to meet Paul after being all dolled up at Mile High Style. But, fate was not on her side. (Darn! So close!)

A police officer working the scene carries the murder weapon over to the detective in charge. It is determined that she was shot at point-blank range and no witnesses have stepped forward. Luckily, the audience is spared that gory mess. Yet, the detective works up the courage…just doing his job…and looks at the corpse in disbelief.

Meanwhile, back at the station, Paul, still being held for questioning, is informed about the murder. (Hey, notice that box of donuts behind him.) With those amazing hands folded in front of his mouth, his eyes tell us the pain he is feeling. He bows his head down as if admitting defeat for not being able to help Danielle.

For a brief moment, Detective Bander seems to empathize with Paul over the murder since neither one of them was able to prevent it from occurring. Then, Paul’s anger erupts! Briskly, he gets up from his seat, slams the table, and shouts, “If you hadn’t stopped me, I could have---Maybe I could have saved her!”

Enter Alva to the rescue with a writ of habeas corpus.

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Sounds of Marilyn Manson bring us to the local diner where our young murderer sits at a table. Donning headphones, he’s probably listening to music as a way of blocking out what he just did. (I heard music tames the savage beast.) As he gets up to leave, he comes face to face with a police officer.

Suddenly, the scene switches back. Paul hurries to get out of the police station with Alva in tow. While the boys exchange words about their frustrations over this dilemma, Detective Bander appears and informs them that they “caught the guy” who committed the murder.

Or did they?

Desperately, Alva attempts to win back Paul’s trust. He becomes particularly worried when Paul tells him that he’s unsure if he’s coming back to Boston. Alva asks, “Are you having second thoughts (hmm…where have I heard that before?) about your new job?” He listens as Paul concludes that they are on two different paths.

In what seems to be his trump card, Alva yields the last piece of information that Paul needs…. the name and address of the sixth person mentioned in the hemography file…Hector Salgado, aka, Kenneth Webster. Evidently, Alva is set on helping Paul and making things right between them.

Alva, still in tow, tries to slow down Paul in his tracks. Since Paul brought up the founding of SQ earlier, Alva felt compelled to give the background. He explains that when he was a linguistics minor at Cambridge, he decoded the language of the English Field Raven. He proceeds to tell him how he wandered around the moors, recording their sounds. (“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…” “Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.” EAP)

Alva continues with his story stating that on the fifth day of listening to the cacophony of birdcalls, he began to hear other sounds…. voices…! One of those voices was that of his mother’s voice calling him by his childhood nickname, “Mango.”

Now I’m wondering, how many “takes” were done for that scene? Did he really say Mango? "Oh, Mango, let’s have a spot of tea.” (You'll have to forgive me, I’m a touch delirious at this point!)

My Thoughts…

Among other issues, this installment represents the more humane side of Alva. He is dealing with the consequences of certain decisions he made. The effects of those decisions, as Alva admits, “…change the course of one’s life.” Alva became a prisoner of his own decision to withhold information from Paul …setting off a big time internal conflict. He realizes that he made a mistake ” (Go ahead, have a co’cola on me) by keeping the files from Paul. Now, he must make up for it.

Your Thoughts…

During this part of the episode, Alva says, twice, that the road he was on led him to Paul.
Did Alva choose this road or was he, too, chosen for it?

On a lighter note…
What about that nickname? Do you think it was a foreshadowing that Mango was a “blood-hound?”