Shudder’s Slasher
Flesh & Blood, Ep. 7: “Goldfinger”
Directed by Adam MacDonald
Written by Sabrina Sherif

* For a recap & review of Ep. 6, click here.
* For a recap & review of the season finale, click here.
Aphra’s now found her counterpart in The Gentleman as they walk hand in hand through the forest together. Then The Gentleman strings her up between a couple trees before sawing into her, cutting her in half like the literal version of a magic trick. A brutal, nasty end for Ms. Aphra. Meanwhile the corpse pantry is nearly full. Liv and Theo are trying to figure out who the killer could be, after everything that’s happened. They wonder if Vincent might be “a sociopath,” at least Liv does, but Theo’s struggling and he also brings up the fact neither of them have any proof that the other’s not the killer. What a twisted web, this Galloway family. On top of that, Theo still wants Liv physically, no matter their blood ties. They kiss briefly, yet the corpse pantry’s not the most romantic place.

Grace is sick of “Hide and Go Murder” and isn’t happy for being criticised for going to have a smoke. She’s also suspicious of Vincent, who claimed to be going off to hunt for Aphra. Everyone suspects him, at least a little. Simultaneously, Vincent finds Aphra’s remains in the forest. He finds a few things in the guts, just like The Gentleman who found a finger. He finds a ring and puts it on. Then he goes back to the house, alerting the others to Aphra’s sawed apart remains. Grace immediately notices the ring; it belonged to Merle. Everybody wonders why she’d know that, and it’s pretty obvious to them. Lots of judgement from Theo about the affair. Yet Grace says Spencer liked to watch her fuck Merle. Their marriage was more “an arrangement” than an actual romance. A facade, like everything else in the Galloway family.
Flashback to Grace as a younger woman, taking care Spencer’s first wife Annette (Maria del Mar), who was sick with cancer. Annette was scared that the family would fall apart without her. She wanted Grace to be the strong woman who could keep it all together. Theo has no clue about any of that history, either.
The remaining Galloway clan hear the call for the next round of Spencer’s twisted reunion game. Only two challenges left. The first of the remaining two is “an intelligence test.” It’s a puzzle challenge. The last four players are sick of the survival game, they just want to survive now and forgo any more twisted challenges. Grace is the only one who wants to go ahead with the next challenge. The other three don’t see how they can make it through the challenge together, so they decide to keep Grace locked up instead. She goes raging in the locked room, tipping over the IV bag from Spencer’s things. She follows the running liquid until she discovers the secret passage behind the walls. A good way to escape confinement. Theo, Vincent, and Liv are sitting at the table having a drink, all of them suspicious of each other.

Eventually Grace makes her way to the next challenge and walks into her own persona locked chamber. Inside are a couple different puzzles meant to be solved. One of them has a bunch of pictures from around the Galloway property on the island and they have to be shifted into the right place; Grace does that, only for the room to squeeze smaller. She rushes to complete one of the other puzzles, a map with a bunch of markers all over it. The final one has a plaque about it, questioning the identity of the killer, along with a bunch of triangle shapes with family members faces on them. Flashback to showing how far Grace would go to get what she wants. We see Annette was getting better all of a sudden, and Grace decided to put her out of her misery anyway, injecting the woman with drugs and killing her.

Grace is nearly crushed to death when she realises the killer’s not one of the family members. The room stops squeezing, coughing up a key. She gets out and gets back to the others, showing them the key. “I won,” she says. She takes the time to gloat and tells them that they’re all in line to be the loser of the game if they refuse to play. After that she goes looking for the door that’ll match her new key. She finds the right door, unlocking it.
The other three contemplate playing the game. Vincent suggests that if only one person competes, then isn’t that person first and last place, technically? Theo and Liv think that’s dumb. But, could he be right? That means Grace will just simply die. Grace is busy in that unlocked room, where she’s come upon a stack of gold bars waiting for her. She’s made it to the end of the Galloway rainbow. Though there’s someone waiting in there for her: The Gentleman. The killer attacks Grace, who smashes her head off the gold bars in the ensuing fight. The Gentleman’s been heating up some molten golden to pour into Grace’s mouth and all over her face. WHOA, another absolutely excruciating Slasher death.
So, who is the killer? It’s none of the remaining Galloway brood. The other three were together the entire time Grace was being smothered in gold. They find the secret hallways behind the walls, as well as the fact there’s a whole other power hookup on the island, connecting the house with the boathouse and the bunker. Vincent goes one way with his gun outside while Theo and Liv go through the secret passage together.
Theo and Liv get to the bunker, where they find a bloody mess and also the surveillance system the killer’s been using to track everybody. They see Vincent on one camera outside the bunker, about to get attacked by The Gentleman. The two of them fight and Theo rushes out to try helping, as well as Liv. The trio manage to run The Gentleman off, then they all go after him to stop this once and for all.

But The Gentleman gets the jump on Theo and Liv, just about stabbing Theo before Liv stops him. Vincent rushes in before The Gentleman can kill either of them and tackles the killer. They unmask their personal slasher: it’s Dr. Trinh. How? She was supposedly tossed into the wood chipper. Hmm. Very interesting! The plague doctor-style mask makes more sense now, too.