SGRoA: Forever Knight S03 E08: Trophy Girl

Snowflakes! Did you miss me? I'll be honest, I am still tired from last week. I am eagerly anticipating my paycheck at the end of the month, however: Holy Week is lucrative. Let's get recapping!

There's a woman in lingerie on a slab, and someone dressed like a doctor starts cutting her clothes off. Side note: She's wearing a garter belt over her underwear, which means it's just for sexytimes. If you wear actual stockings for function, you know the belt goes under the knickers, or you'll never be able to pee.

Anyway, the "doctor" is all sexily undressing her, and I'm pretty sure she's dead, and this is so, so very creepy. Also, she has toenail fungus. He marks lines around her wrist and her neck, takes out a saw, and then he's bagging her up and throwing her off a bridge. So...he just needed her for parts?

Oh, great. This'll be the one where Nick knew Frankenstein. 

After the credits, some guy is running through the city, but Nick catches him. Tracy's after a dude with a gun, and gets in a shootout. She kills him, and she looks really broken up about it. She's still having trouble after backup arrives at the scene, and Nick tells her it won't be a problem with IAB. Clearly she's not cut out to be an American cop.

Nick offers to stay with her at home, if she wants company. She declines. She does seem to want to open up about it, but dispatch calls them to a body in the river, and she tells Nick just to go to the scene.

Oh, the vic lost both hands, and her head. Tracy has to walk away from the body - or maybe it's Nat's truly heinous blouse, which was ugly even in 1994.

Nick takes her home and then goes to the lab. He thinks maybe someone cut stuff off to hide the identity of the vic - like the mob does, or drug cartels. Nat disagrees, and tells him he's looking for someone with surgical skills. No sexual assault. Vic also had a scar on her back, probably from recent surgery, so Nat's going to check records to see if they can ID her.

Tracy comes back to the station dressed like a nun, and tries to convince Reese she doesn't need three days off to process the shooting. Reese is unmoved, for once, and sends her home. Reese then goes on a rant about terrible pervert murderers and how awful they are. Nick mostly ignores him, and then says that he's going to go see a guy in jail - who's there for hoarding body parts.

Nat comes in, and her search of surgery records has been fruitful. Their vic is Deena Ellis, who worked at an escort service. They don't know what killed her, because the dismemberment was post-mortem.

Oh, Tracy's decided to ride a desk for three days instead of taking them off. Nat offers to be a sounding board for her, but Tracy brushes her off, because she's all about proving herself to the guys in the squad. She can "handle" it. Except of course she can't, because she's not one of the many, many, many police officers these days who just shoot and then claim they were "threatened" by things like service dogs and babies and pregnant women. She's having flashbacks and crying in the locker room. Poor Tracy. Get some help, girl.

Nick goes to notify Deena's boss, who had reported her missing. He requests a list of the clients and the employees, and she's resistant. She says she runs a legit business, and Nick's all, "Yo, I don't care about the prostitution. I'm homicide," and she gives up the lists. But she looks like she knows something she's not saying.

Cut to the next day, when the boss lady is interviewing Tracy, who's apparently decided to go undercover all on her own.

Nick goes to the psychiatric prison to interview the body parts guy. It goes about how you'd expect.

Someone's watching Tracy snoop through BossLady's office from across the street. BossLady comes back in, though, and gives Tracy a client. She's supposed to go meet him at the Raven. Because of course.

Also, Tracy's dress is one of those mid-90s, not-really-a-cocktail-dress, but we all pretended they were, because...I don't know why, really. Because at least we couldn't wear them with Doc Martens? This whole episode is really just the worst of 90s fashion. I'm expecting scrunchies any minute.

Hannibal tells Nick that he had an online penpal, but before he talks about him, he wants something in return. He's also impressed that Nick isn't afraid of him, but, dude. Nick is the more dangerous person in that cell. Hannibal surmises that we don't fear that which we recognize - clearly, Nick is a killer, just like he is. Hannibal asks for his computer privileges back. Nick asks why he did it: because he wanted to preserve something precious to him. Hasn't Nick ever wanted that?

Of course he has, and it's Flashback Time, and seriously? It doesn't look like Frankenstein's anywhere near this!

Nick's staring through a window at some girl in a nightgown with a Bump-It in her hair. That's how I go to bed. She's pacing, and then Lacroix comes in, and OMG IS THIS FLEUR AGAIN? I don't remember any of this. Anyway, Nick creepily watches as she kisses Lacroix, and then Lacroix glares at him, and then we're back to Hannibal complaining that he has a copycat.

Vachon and Urs watch Tracy walk in and meet her "date". Vachon thinks it looks totally weird, so he follows them out of the club and interrupts to pull Tracy away about a "private matter". The date tries to hustle Tracy into the car, but Vachon mojos him into driving away. Tracy's understandably pissed and yells at him about being undercover. He says she could have been in trouble, and she's all, "Why does everyone assume I need their help? I'm a COP, for God's sake!"

She stalks off to her car, which of course has a flat. She goes about changing it when a creepy dude in a suit offers to help her. She demurs at first, but then lets him help. He asks her to hold his jacket, and sticks her with a syringe as she takes it from him.

Nick speaks with the warden. If Hannibal's information results in an arrest, he can have his computer back. So Hannibal profiles the guy for Nick.  He'll move around a lot, but he'll need tools and a facility, so that should help. The victimology isn't random - it's probably about proximity.

Back in the past, Nick has on a terrible, terrible wig, and Lacroix is lecturing him about how to enjoy grooming and killing victims. It's not Fleur, thank God. Nick says her death seems like such a tragedy, and Lacroix's all, "LOL, no."

There's a boring interlude with the Nightcrawler babbling about prizing things and being unique, and then in the past, Nick's waking up the girl and telling her to run, but she just hits on him, instead of Lacroix. Hey, I'm not going to begrudge a girl her fun, but perhaps being super slutty for 12th-century "gentlemen" is not the world's best idea? Like, all she gets is eaten, but it could have been a stake and a pile of kindling in her future, you know?

Lacroix's pissed that Nick ate his dinner, but he doesn't do much besides posturing.

At a stoplight, Vachon hops into Nick's car to ask about Tracy. Nick tells him that she's off-duty because of the shooting. Vachon tells Nick that Tracy said she was undercover, and Nick's worried. Vachon flies off - he thinks he should stay out of things. Nick goes to the precinct and calls Tracy's cell, but she's passed out and tied up somewhere, being petted by a dismembered hand wielded by Creepy Suit Guy. (Hannibal 2, Electric BodyPartsALoo?)

Nick tells Reese that Tracy went undercover, with a totally insincere "Sorry, Cap. She doesn't tell me anything." Reese tells Nick that they've found missing girls at a bunch of escort services, and Tracy's probably in trouble. They discuss the case, and how they have no leads. Nat comes in with the tox screen results, and she hasn't seen Tracy either. Then a uniform comes in and says they found Tracy's car, abandoned with a flat.

Nick goes to check Tracy's place. Or, at least, that's what he says, but he drives around the corner and then takes off flying.

Meanwhile, Creepy Suit Guy is going through her purse, commenting on all her stuff. He says he "doesn't have any" homicide detectives, and he has to let that sink in for a minute. He's very reasonable, this guy, and it's one of the few interesting performances from a guest star we've seen. I mean, it's not a new take on serial killers, necessarily - not even in '94 - but CSG does it well. Good job, CSG!

Oh, wait, Nick does go to Tracy's. But he flew there? Because...? Anyway, he checks her answering machine, and BossLady called, so Nick goes to the escort office. He's all mad that BossLady didn't tell him she added a new girl to the roster, despite his asking her to keep him apprised of changes when he got the lists from her in the first place. And then he asks the question he should have asked to begin with: Were any of the girls stalked or threatened?

No. But Nick remembers Hannibal saying it was about proximity, and he uses his vampire vision to find a telescope in the next building and search the apartment of a real estate agent, who has pics of all his listings on the wall. Nick decides one of them is the guy's "facility", and heads off.

This is Forever Knight, so of course he's right. But Tracy's not totally useless, and she gets out of her bonds and gets to her gun, praying for a round in the chamber - and there is one. She leaves her dungeon and finds CSG's shelves full of heads in jars. She's still woozy from the knockout drug, though, and having a tough time getting out. CSG finds her and they tussle, just as Nick comes in. He throws CSG into - I don't even know, some sort of cage wall thing? It's electrified, and they think he's dead, but Nick turns to Tracy and CSG grabs a knife and moves to stab him. Tracy shoots CSG, and it's all over.

In the coda, Nat gives Tracy a sedative for the hospital ride, on top of an unknown dose of a knockout drug, so, you know.

And we learn the identity of Hannibal's email penpal: Lacroix.

Next week: More Tracy in distress! With bonus Nat in distress! And human organ smuggling! About which I have opinions!