Written and directed by Micheal Hurst, this episode centers around the search for a serial killer of prostitutes, and it’s a bit confusing.

Warning: I’ll be spoiling some of the story this time, to explain what’s confusing.

First I’ll note an interesting fact about this episode, it features the return of Stephan Macht as Mr. Ryan, the local crime figure who had a supporting role in the episode The White Flower. And even though he is not listed, although he’s on the IMDB page for this episode, we also see Geoff Mead, who played O’Brien in that previous episode. He’s not named and has no lines, but he’s working for Mr. Ryan, so it’s safe to assume it’s the same character, although O’Brien was killed in that episode, so the events of this episode (well, most of them) must take place before that episode.

The story is that a serial killer whom the press has dubbed The Grim Reaper is on the loose, killing prostitutes. Iseluleko Ma’at at El O (aka Kiko Ellsworth) and Ellie Cornell play police detectives Carter and Janet.  Janet has just recently returned to duty after having to undergo a psych evaluation when she witnessed the death of a prostitute named Greta (the actress is not named in the credits). Greta had already been stabbed when Janet found her, but it was too late to help her, and Janet held Greta in her arms as Greta died, which made Janet feel helpless.

Neil Hopkins plays Charles Solomon. The episode opens with him having sex with a woman (uncredited, although she looks familiar) in a hotel while a news report about The Grim Reaper’s latest victim plays on the TV. As they’re doing it, the woman tells him “not so rough”, but he puts a hand over her mouth and says “I’m not paying you to talk” and keeps going. But then the phone rings and he abruptly gets up to answer it. As he’s on the phone, he gets up and goes over to where he left his pants and goes through his pocket. His wallet is empty, but she finds a switchblade, and at that moment, the news shows the picture of an identical switchblade which the cops believe is used by The Grim Reaper. She picks up her clothes and quickly runs out the door.

Later, at a strip club owned by Mr. Ryan, Charles sees Angelica (Makinna Ridgeway) come in and strikes up a conversation with her. She’s just moved to town from Kansas a week prior and is turning tricks “temporarily” to raise money for an apartment. He convinces her to go with him to his hotel room. Once again, the series host Tanit Phoenix plays a small double role. In addition to her role as Lillith, the series host, she plays an unnamed waitress at the club. She saw Charles, and something about him freaked her out enough to suspect that he’s the Grim Reaper, so she calls the police. Carter and Janet show up and talk to her (and Mr. Ryan) and she says she overheard him inviting Angelica to the Excelsior hotel. Despite seeming like a really small lead to me, the detectives take it seriously and rush to the hotel.

At the hotel, in his room, Charles sits and has Angelica perform a striptease dance for him. But in the middle of it, he pulls out his switchblade and starts ranting about his ex-girlfriend Virginia who broke his art. Angelica gets nervous and wants to leave, but he stops her and forces her to listen to him finish his story. In flashbacks we see that years ago Charles was with Virginia (Danica Dillon, who appeared in the episode Girls Gone Dead as a different character) until he caught her cheating with his roommate Bryan (actor uncredited). Before he can finish to tell her what he did to her, they get into a brief scuffle and she pulls a gun out of her purse and shoots him in the dick, and then in the chest.

Carter and Janet are at the hotel when they hear the gunshot. They split up, Carter gets to the room and finds Charles just as he died. Angelica takes the elevator, holding the gun and with blood all over her shirt, and takes a bellboy (actor uncredited) hostage at gunpoint when Janet confronts her. She guesses that Angelica is the Grim Reaper, Angelica says she recognizes Janet from the news and reveals that Greta was her sister. The next scene is Janetr going up to Charles’ room and telling Carter that The Grim Reaper got away.

Okay, I get what they’re going for here, but my first thought was how did Janet convince the bellboy to keep that secret? If that were me, I’d be telling everyone how this woman held me at gunpoint but the cop just let her get away. At first, I thought the implication was that Charles was the Grim Reaper, and Angelica tracked him down to get revenge for Greta, although how she found him seemed too random. Then we get another plot twist when, later, Janet is checking Greta’s records and finds out that she didn’t actually have a sister.

Wait…so Angelica really was The Grim Reaper all along? It doesn’t make sense.

The final scene, which must be jumping ahead sometime past the events of The White Flower, shows Mr. Ryan in a room while Angelica is dancing topless for him. Then she pulls out a gun, says, “I hear you like to hurt girls,” and shoots him. THE END.

The story could have been tightened up a bit to be a little more coherent. But this had a good cast, I liked the dynamic between Ellsworth and Cornell, and Hopkins seemed like a credible sociopath. I also thought Ridgeway did a great job of switching her personality from innocent to deadly. But it’s not one of this series’ best episodes. Chacebook rating: FOUR STARS

Jason Majercik is selling this UNRATED 3-disc DVD set of Femme Fatale season 1 for $19.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list.