‘Clarice’ Recap: ‘Add-a-Bead’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Eight of ‘Clarice’.

​Ask anyone how far they will go to help a family member in need, and you’ll get a supremely quick answer. It might be positive or negative, but since everyone knows where they stand with their family, the answer is on the tip of their tongue. But if you ask folks how far they would be willing to go for a cause or for their job, and you’ll encounter a touch of hesitation. For some folks hate their job and believe in a cause but not wholeheartedly and that leaves them hesitant to say they’ll risk their paycheck or life and limb for the job or the cause in question. Which means that in order to truly commit to either, they have to offer a powerful reason to risk it all and really, this is relevant to our discussion today… simply because this particular conundrum was on full display in the next episode of Clarice.

Because ‘Add-a-Bead’ found the ViCAP team at a crossroads, wherein they could find themselves in grave danger and see their careers end if they pushed too hard and too fast on investigating the conspiracy surrounding the river murders. Which means they had to ask themselves how far they were willing to go and if they were okay with losing their jobs or potentially their safety and well… the arrival of a case involving a dead woman that had ties to Joe Hudlin helped the team answer those all-important questions. And what we learned about fully committing to that level of risk, was simple in nature, in that, if the cause is just and true and will genuinely help people and the world… then we should in fact risk it all and go for broke and while it was nice to see the team reach that particular understanding, the only question that remained in this tale, was whether or not Paul Krendler would follow their lead.

After all, he’s the one that opted to shut the conspiracy investigation down to save face and his career. And he seemed quite content with just sitting back and waiting to see if the bad guys would offer him an opportunity to re-open the investigation. But instead, Hudlin continued to antagonize and push for Krendler to indulge in a vendetta against his wife, in order to appease Joe and knowing that this was only going to get uglier, combined with the fact that his son no longer saw him as a hero… motivated Paul to do something bold, and re-open the case off the books. So, that they could in fact, do some good in the world and while this wasn’t exactly an earth-shattering plot line, it was an important one on many levels. Since it finally committed Krendler to the right side of history and it also united this somewhat broken team at last in a common cause. Something that we’ve been waiting to see for quite some time. 

But while that alone made for a compelling tale, this episode had more juicy moments to offer as well. Since the entire plot line involving Ardelia continued to have modern day echoes, the kind that served to remind us of how far we still need to go in regard to equal rights in the workplace and we were also treated to some quality character growth for Clarice as well. Since this episode took the time to show us that she was finally putting in the work when it comes to dealing with the pain of her past and the pain she carries now, and this was huge to say the least. Since she has been fighting this since the beginning of this series. If anything, seeing her speak to her trauma made for some satisfying and moving moments… since we finally got to see the real Clarice Starling on display and we were able to watch her grow before our eyes in real time into the early stages of the strong and dynamic and settled agent that we meet in Hannibal.

In the end however, all of these elements make this a quality transitional episode. One that finally put some lingering plot lines to bed in a satisfying manner. Because at last, Clarice is facing her demons, Krendler is no longer toeing the line and is committing to something bigger and most important of all… he and Clarice are finally on the same page and working toward a unified cause. Which may not last since we know they’re at odds again in the future. But for now, their combined bravado and brains will hopefully bring an end to this conspiracy and that is likely why these plot threads were resolved now. All so that the team can put an end to this madness before it goes any further and it will be quite interesting to see how ViCAP is going to bring down such powerful villains… without the support of the full force of the FBI. Until next time.

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