The Alienist: Requiem

April 10, 2018 7:57 PM - Season 1, Episode 9

Laszlo mourns the loss of a friend; Sara pushes the team to forge ahead; John warns his friend the killer will strike again; Cyrus seeks revenge.
posted by orange swan (2 comments total)

Laszlo's not able to go on with the investigation and lurks in his house playing the piano one-handed and breaking wine glasses, so Sara takes charge, which feels like the way it should be. The team tracks down the killer's occupation, then his former residence, then his current residence with its monstrous trophies.

John really does have the kindest heart of anyone on the show.

I think I need to read up on Teddy Roosevelt. In previous threads, some of the commenters have criticized his portrayal for not being historically accurate, and I feel curiosity regarding how different he was from how he seems in the show, being that I like the way he appears in the show. He may not not always understand or support what the team is doing (which is perhaps not his fault given that they have largely left him out of the loop), but he is a man who has a good moral compass: he genuinely cares about doing the right thing and doesn't let anyone intimidate him or double talk him out of doing it.

I love how loyal Cyrus and Stevie were to Mary -- and Cyrus is someone whose loyalty you want to win. You definitely do not want to be on Cyrus's bad side.

Connor continues to be as awful as humanly possible, this time by explicitly threatening to rape Sara. And of course Connor is a pig in bed. His mini-me son has promise, though:

"What are you doin' out here?"
"Same as you."
"Go ahead then if you can find the wee thing."
"Fat bastard."

I don't understand why Joseph didn't run right out of the bathhouse rather than hiding. I suppose he panicked.

The kids in this show have done an absolutely stellar job. Every last one of them has turned in a fine performance, and they deserve extra credit for that given the material.
posted by orange swan at 10:53 PM on April 14, 2018

Orange Swan, the best books I have read on Roosevelt are the three volumes by Edmund Morris. The opening lines of the Alienist novel, are about attending Roosevelt's funeral and the sense that this must be wrong because the man was so fierce in life and that the grave seemed not strong enough to hold him. The Roosevelt in this show is played very understatedly but people underestimating him was definitely a true historic detail.
posted by jadepearl at 8:38 PM on July 2, 2018