CULT Recap: Episode 1.02 "In the Blood"
If needed, you can follow this link to read the recap for last week’s episode “You’re Next”.
Fake CULT
Kelly Collins and her partner are investigating a murder where the person was buried… headfirst. We then get a flashback where Kelly (Alona Tal) remembers when she had her initiation into Billy‘s cult. It turns out that they did the same to her as an initiation ceremony, though she obviously was not killed.
Kelly tells her partner that, because she was closest to Billy while in his cult, Billy (Robert Knepper) is using these murders to bring her back into the cult. Billy eventually finds her alone at the scene of the crime, at which point Kelly confronts Billy about the incident. In addition to the initiation ceremony, she recognizes it as a tool they also use to punish people who betray Billy.
Billy denies having murdered anyone, and shifts the discussion to Kelly‘s former involvement with the cult, implying that she did a lot of the “dirty work” back in the day that his current followers do. Billy threatens to tell everyone at her precinct about her involvement with previous incidences, and refuses to tell her why he had the murder victim killed. However, Billy is later shown getting one of his followers to help Kelly solve the case in such a way that it doesn’t connect to his cult, but still helps her out.
“The Real World”
Jeff (Matt Davis) heads back over to the Fandomain Cafe only to find the CULT fandom area closed down because they keep bringing concealed weapons into the cafe. Kirstie, the creepy waitress from last week, is there again – spending some time eavesdropping on Jeff. She is just getting off work, however, so we soon see her with Marc, the Fake CULT’s network executive we saw get kidnapped at the end of last week’s episode. Poor Marc (Andrew Leeds) has been tied up and had his mouth sewn shut – and it seems as though he may have been murdered soon thereafter.
Later, during a table read for an upcoming episode of Fake CULT, Roger Reeves – the actor who plays Billy Grimm on Fake CULT – talks with the new network representative [who has taken over in Marc’s absence]. He tries to get her to allow him to have more say in Billy’s character development. The two share a tense moment, as the executive tells him to just do what he’s told, that Steven Rae will not allow changes to the scripts.
Eventually, the tense mood dissipates, and the “cast” of Fake CULT resume their table read, but that evening Roger is seen leaving his gym, where has an “accidental” run-in with Kirstie (Marie Avgeropoulos). Kirstie professes herself Roger’s biggest fan, and Roger is clearly flattered. We do not learn what happens after that, but it is entirely possible that he will be the next one to disappear….
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Meanwhile, E.J. (Stacey Farber), Jeff’s friend from work who is a genius with technology, meets Jeff up at the Fandomain Cafe. He asks her for help finding out what was on the disk that crashed his computer in last week’s episode. E.J. also promises him that she will try and find out the location Nate was in when he placed the phone call to Jeff.
Skye, who had stayed the night over at Nate’s apartment with Jeff, finally goes back to work while Jeff is off getting E.J.’s help. Peter shows up at her desk to chat with her and tell her about the disappearance of Marc. Peter (Ben Hollingsworth) sees Skye‘s computer screen and asks her about why she’s so into investigating the fans of the Fake CULT, but she brushes him off.
When Jeff learns that Miram’s last name was Livingston, he uses this information to track down her husband. Skye (Jessica Lucas) and Jeff meet up at the Livingstons’ house to question Miriam’s husband together. They approach him and he denies ever even having heard of the show. Jeff continues to ask him questions, until Mr. Livingston goes inside and gets his shotgun to chase Jeff and Skye off his property.
They leave and go to the police station looking for Detective Sakelik (Aisha Hinds) to try and tell her about what happened. However, Detective Sakelik basically tells them to go home and let her do her job. Confused about Sakelik’s lack of caring but unable to explain it, the two leave to go meet back up with E.J.
Once there, E.J. proceeds to tell them both everything she was able to find out about Jeff’s computer and the strange disc – which isn’t much, honestly. The computer is trashed and all the information on the disc is gone – leaving behind nothing but the same symbol repeated over and over again. Skye doesn’t recognize it as a symbol that’s been used on the Fake CULT, so they’re not sure what it means.
With no other leads, Jeff and Skye decide to crash Miriam’s funeral, which is only attended by her husband and the priest [who hilariously continues to do the service even after the husband gets a call and walks away]. Jeff and Skye follow Mr. Livingston and see him meet up with none other than the sketchy Detective Sakelik herself. Mr. Livingston gives her some stuff that is rolled up in paper, at which point she kisses him and drives off.
Once Mr. Livingston also leaves, they go back to Nate’s apartment. They cannot fathom why or how Detective Sakelik is involved, but their investigation is put on hold when Jeff becomes suspicious of Skye. He can’t understand why she’s helping him and providing him with so much “inside information” for no apparent reason – and always coming back to focusing on Steven Rae‘s inaccessibility.
Jeff confronts Skye about her true motives, trying to figure out why she is helping him and also why she is so focused on pointing out that no one can contact Steven Rae. Skye admits that she is helping him because she believes he might be able to help her – as she’s trying to find Steven Rae as well.
Last week, she mentioned that her father disappeared ten years ago, and this week she expanded upon that. It turns out that her father was doing an investigation on Steven Rae when he disappeared. The weird thing is that Skye’s father’s notes kept revolving around something called CULT – and now Fake CULT actually exists, which has her suspicious of Steven Rae‘s possible involvement with her father’s disappearance.
Jeff believes her story, and the two go back to working together. Jeff then gets a phone call from E.J., who tells him that she’s narrowed down the location from where Nate called Jeff – which Skye recognizes as a former Fake CULT filming location. They go to the place – which is actually a children’s play place – and they supposedly bribe the manager into letting them see the security cameras.
On the camera, they see Miriam’s husband yelling at Nate, which naturally sends them running back to the Livingston’s place to question him again. They find the husband tied up under a cabinet in the house. They question him about what happened to Nate, but before they can get any real information out of him – other than the fact that the strange symbol E.J. found is the symbol of “True Believers”, Mr. Livingston says the famous last words “Well, hey, these things just snap right off.”
After trying and failing to get Mr. Livingston to leave with him and smelling a gas leak in the house, the two rush out just in time for one of the “True Believers” to make the house blow up – killing Mr. Livingston. Jeff heads back to Nate’s apartment – which he has decided to keep until they can figure out what happened to him – and Skye heads back to work to try and get some stuff done, since she’s been out of the office all day.
Once there, she tries to listen in on a phone call with Steven Rae but is interrupted when Peter stops by her desk. He notices some soot on her cheek [and that was strange in itself, as who would suspect soot of all things?] and questions her about it, which Skye does an absolutely terrible job of deflecting. She then leaves her desk for a moment and Peter eyes the conference call suspiciously.
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Episode 1.03 “Being Billy” Synopsis: Jeff encounters a surprise visitor in Nate’s apartment. Meanwhile, E.J. uncovers a cryptic e-mail that was sent by Nate; and Kelly confronts Billy.
UPDATE: CULT has been moved to air on Fridays, so “Being Billy” will air next FRIDAY, March 8th at 9/8pm on The CW.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0mlihPQWs0