Slasher
5×04: “Left Handed Justice”
Directed by Adam MacDonald
Written by Ian Carpenter & Aaron Martin

* For a recap & review of 5×03, click here.
* For a recap & review of 5×05, click here.
Basil’s having a meal with Supt. Kashtinsky, Dr. Israel, Salomé, and Viviana while they discuss The Widow’s murders and the danger they’re all in together. Basil wants to find and kill Rondeau, believing him to be guilty. Salomé thinks Rondeau is the killer, too. But Dr. Israel would rather be sure before they do something so rash. They all dig into their individual pies while discussing the best way to lure in Rondeau. The conversation stops when Supt. Kashtinsky finds “a human fucking tooth” in his pie. Apparently The Widow somehow go into the kitchen at Garvey’s place. Each pie has a little present left inside. Basil realises that Eddie’s been baked into each one. When Dr. Israel digs out her pie tin she finds THE UNJUST written on it. They all figure out their messages spell a bigger message: JUSTICE FOR THE UNJUST, BEST SERVED PIPING HOT. What a rough meal! Basil confronts one of his workers, Gladys (Sharron Matthews). She says she gets the pies from a butcher, she doesn’t make them herself as she’s been claiming. Basil and Kashtinsky are sure it was Rondeau making use of disguises and illusions.

Dt. Rijkers and Supt. Kashtinsky track down the butcher at an abattoir. The man’s name is Yorgi (Ryan Boyko). The policemen tell the butcher about a “sprinkling of human teeth” amongst the pies. Yorgi’s shocked, saying someone is always present while the pies are made. He says young boys from the neighbourhood make the pies for him. When Dt. Rijkers goes looking around he finds a piece of human spine, but Yorgi’s reaction alone shows he didn’t realise it was even in there. And the rest of Eddie could be chopped up already, waiting to be put in more pies. At the morgue, Dr. Israel tells Dt. Rijkers about the violent, merciless killing of Eddie, judging by the horrific state of the man’s spine. She makes mention that she’s “right handed,” not left handed like the murderer.
Rondeau’s off by himself doing a ritual, speaking Regina’s name. Is his interest in her normal? While Rondeau’s doing his thing, Dt. Rijkers is trying to speak with Shanika about him. The detective asks about the magician’s preferred hand, discovering that Rondeau is left handed. He urges Shanika to tell him anything she knows. She mentions that Georges is obsessed with Regina.Speaking of Regina, she’s having a nice sex dream of her husband Alistair, then he’s pulled away into the shadows. She wakes up to find that Rondeau is downstairs. He’s brought her a tonic to cleanse her of grief. He says it was the only thing to save him after losing his love in 1886. Regina understands his grief, saying she feels “torn to pieces” and worrying she might not escape “this dark tunnel.” Rondeau urges Regina to drink the tonic, but Dt. Rijkers busts in, arresting the magician on multiple murder charges.
At the Botticelli house, Venetia and Viviana treat Verdi like a princess. It’s sort of like a couple farmers trying to fatten up a pig before they kill it. Not to call Verdi a pig, not at all. But it’s the two sisters figuratively leading their younger sister to the kill. They’re putting in all the work on Verdi to make sure that when they sell her virginity it goes for the highest possible price. Right now, they’re supposedly taking Verdi to a photographer. They’re actually bringing Verdi to Salomé.

Supt. Kashtinsky’s addiction to cocaine is officially and totally out of control. He can’t get it in a vein, so he’s squirting it from the needle orally. He’s real revved up when he sees Dt. Rijkers bring Rondeau into the station. The two cops confront the magician. Rondeau claims he was out “impaling someone else” with his own sword when Eddie was being murdered. He refuses to give over the name of his partner. The superintendent doesn’t care anyway. He’s sure they’ve captured The Widow. Soon, Basil’s down at the jail to gloat. He’s also 100% convinced Georges is the culprit. He goes on relishing the idea of the magician being executed. But Rondeau feels safe in jail. He says the rest of them might not even be alive to watch him be hanged. And the longer he’s in jail, the longer the real Widow is out there hunting. Plus, if there’s a public trial, there’s no real evidence against Rondeau. So, that’s an obstacle. Although not a huge obstacle for people with wealth and power, which, together, Basil and Kashtinsky have.
Flashback to 12 years ago. Basil and his friends were having fun watching Rondeau make Margaret flail around on the floor like a chicken. All the bourgeois idiots were laughing, watching a servant be debased. The only one to try stopping it was Supt. Kashtinsky, threatening that if Rondeau didn’t stop he’d spend a night in jail. So the magician relented and woke Margaret back up. She was confused, and Kashtinsky led Margaret out of there while shaming the others. In present Ripper timeline, Supt. Kashtinsky comes to Rondeau’s jail cell with impure thoughts. Kashtinsky brought along tools and intends to elicit a confession from the magic man. The copper begins with Rondeau’s toenails. Dt. Rijkers eventually stops the superintendent from continuing the torture. He found out that Crenshaw is the magician’s alibi; Georges is bisexual. Kashtinsky wants to charge the magician for “crimes against nature,” but his detective insists he has to go home and sober up.

Salomé’s taking photographs of the Botticelli sisters, then tells Verdi to go find something she’d like to wear for an individual photograph by herself. She heads off and looks at some of the skimpy clothing made available, starting to realise that this is not the kind of photo shoot she imagined it would be; this is, essentially, a sexy photo shoot intended to be used by Venetia and Viviana as a way to entice potential buyers of Verdi’s virginity. It’s all so sickening. Verdi’s left alone with Salomé to be captured “in full bloom.” Just awful.
At home, Regina is feeling emotions of vengeance. She calls the priest to her house and tries to grapple with “dark thoughts.” It isn’t hard to find sympathy from Pastor Way. He knows the lust for vengeance all too well. Regina feels most horrible for taking part in “the dark arts” and how Satan used her. So she and the holy man pray together.Dt. Rijkers tells Rondeau he’ll help with any complaints the magician wants to file. But Rondeau says he doesn’t want to do that, despite being violated. He doesn’t want his sexuality to be made public, even if Crenshaw says there’s “nothing wrong with who we are,” and the detective’s willing to honour that. Dt. Rijkers mentions the knots Rondeau used to tie Eddie up, and the magician explains it away, saying that there are plenty of people who know how to tie unique knots. Georges is ever the performer and is already dreaming up a wonderful explanation for his injured foot to thrill his audiences.

We see the continued exploitation of Verdi, as Salomé tells her lies to convince her to pose for photographs. The young woman knows something isn’t right, though she doesn’t fight back against any of it. Crenshaw shows up after the photo shoot is over and he questions Salomé about it, telling Salomé that nothing happens in his place without his approval. He can tell the situation is messed up without even knowing the details.
And on the streets, Supt. Kashtinsky is descending deeper into the bottle, shambling around the streets screaming at everybody and nobody in particular. He thinks he sees a familiar face: Margaret. Flashback to 12 years ago when Kashtinsky tried to console Margaret, saying he knew what she was feeling because he was often treated different due to him being Jewish. He offered to get Margaret away from all of it. He wanted to marry her, however, Margaret wasn’t looking for a husband, especially one without enough money to make it worth her while. Slight flash forward to Kashtinsky confronting a tied, beaten Margaret, who was ready to take his proposal after so much abuse; he wasn’t interested then, only turning up to witness her further torture. In present Ripper timeline, Kashtinsky follows the vision of Margaret into a carriage, forgiving her and asking for forgiveness. He’s actually in the carriage with The Widow, and the killer ties Kashtinsky with a piece of rope, then he’s dragged through the streets by the carriage’s horse, leaving blood streaked everywhere throughout the city.