NBC’s Aquarius
Season 2, Episode 5: “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me & My Monkey”
Directed by James L. Conway
Written by David Reed

* For a review of the previous episode, “Revolution 1” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Revolution 9” – click here

August 9th, 1969 – the LaBianca murders. Tex Watson (Cameron Deane Stewart) murders someone as Emma Karn (Emma Dumont) watches on. In the present day, Charles Manson (Gethin Anthony) is still trying to impress Dennis Wilson (Andy Favreau), though Mr. Wilson is more interested in other things.
Back to new detective Brian Shafe (Grey Damon). He’s kicking the heroin and doing his best to hold onto the relationship he has with his wife Kristin (Milauna Jackson); she’s not at all happy with him, with their marriage. At the station, everyone is pleased with his promotion. Boss man Ed Cutler (Chance Kelly) isn’t completely sold yet.
Good ole Dt. Sam Hodiak (David Duchovny) and his ex Opal (Jodi Harris) are trying to do what they can for their son Walt (Chris Sheffield), now accused of starting a riot, which he claims was a sit-in. Sam, for his part, seems resigned to letting his son take his punishment. Opal? Not so much.

A freshly shaved Dt. Shafe, along with his new haircut, hits the job title head on. He and Hodiak go out on a murder. Problem is Brian’s experiencing the side effects of withdrawal from heroin. In other news, Wilson takes Emma out to a nice restaurant where they end up running into her mother, Grace (Michaela McManus). Awkward, though it helps us see the degree to which she’s changed into someone else by the time August 8th and 9th of ’69 eventually roll around. Grim.
There are other things happening, once again, for Hodiak. He’s still got the whole Internal Affairs business going on. Except he’s still got plenty of aces up his sleeve, involving a slight bit of extortion. All the same, the Commissioner himself wants everything looked at. Meanwhile, Officer Charmain Tully (Claire Holt) receives a visit from Captain Perry. He’s interested in her professionally, as well as the fact Lieutenant Cutler called him up. At least a bit of character development on his part. Well, Perry lays out the concept of her upcoming undercover operation to infiltrate the SDS – Students for a Democratic Society. Apparently dangerous stuff.

 

Charmain: “I think, I don‘t wanna be a female cop. I just wanna be a cop, sir.”

 

Into the fray goes Charmain. She plays the sister of a dead soldier that fought in Vietnam. Great little introduction to make herself susceptible to the SDS. In other California places, Emma and Charlie are beginning to grow apart. She moves closer to Wilson, as Manson simply gets jealous. He talks about the “family‘s ends” and parades Emma in front of everyone, berating her, cutting the dress right off her back, or starting to before she hauls off the clothes and walks away. Uh oh. This does not bode well for the mental state of Charles. Wilson senses things are not fine, so he invites Manson along to play guitar while Emma sings for some friends of his. That should play out proper, sure.
While Charmain and her new SDS friend end up at a Boeing convention with a suitcase full of weapons and spray enamel to beat the place to pieces (little does she know soon there’ll be sticks of dynamite involved), Charlie, Emma and Dennis head to the home of music producer Terry Melcher (Chase Coleman). Things get tense when Charlie realises himself to be the odd man out. When he has to play for Emma they stare at one another, the look in his eyes devilish, and then she runs out, too nervous. Manson goes on to play a song called “Garbage Dump” that can be found, for real, right here.
All the while Hodiak dodges bullets from Ron Kellaher (Tim Griffin) and his Internal Affairs bulldozer. Luckily, Sam has a bulletproof exterior. In many ways. Then he gets a call about Opal. She’s committed suicide. This rocks him, obviously, despite their being estranged. When Shafe finds out it rocks Lieutenant Cutler, too. As if Sam wasn’t dealing with enough, now this deep loss.

 

Cutler and Hodiak drink together, they chat about Opal, whether one thing or another was the cause. Then Sam opens up, the rare moment. His veil of masculinity is lowered. “I am ashamed to say how long it took me to realise I was the thing making her unhappy,” Sam says about his deceased wife. Now, he only worries for his son. And poor Shafe, he’s still shaking off the heroin, sweating it out hard. Although he gets the job done in his new detective position. Not sure home life is going that well, unfortunately. Furthermore, Brian does himself wrong by getting himself more heroin, kit included.
In jail, Sam goes to Walt and sees his son is bruised, beaten. He wonders if there are some guys like him behind the prison walls looking after the inmates. Things are escalating, not to mention now Walt’s mother is dead. Worse, Sam doesn’t have an immediate plan to get him out.

 

The end of the episode sees Emma discover Dennis with another woman, as Charlie and Patty (Madisen Beaty) are alone together. Now Emma feels totally alone.
Flash to August 9th again. Pregnant Emma barges into a home with knife in hand. She brandishes it with deadly, hideous intent. The massacre continues.

Another excellent chapter in this second season. The emotion went up like crazy and all the characters developed so much within the space of a single episode. Can’t wait for the next one titled “Revolution 9” in which I’m sure we’ll see a lot more madness from Manson, as well as the further struggles of Detectives Shafe and Hodiak. Stay with me, folks!