The Watcher – Season 1 Episode 2 “Blood Sacrifice” Recap & Review

Blood Sacrifice

After the second letter, episode 2 of The Watcher sees the Brannocks really shaken. They go to Chamberland once again and plead with him to investigate Jasper. He turns down their suspicions and instead asks them to list their house to see who would bid. Among other things, he also suggests hiring private security. But it is too expensive. A good Private Investigator is the next suggestion and they think it is a good idea. Dean meets with Theodora Birch, a jazz musician turned PI the next day. She has liver cancer and tells her story of how she came to be obsessed with murders while she was in rehab. That is in fact what saved her from her alcoholism. Dean does not say yes but for the price, she offers her services seem tempting.

Although Nora says she wants to sell the house, Dean does not support the idea. The renovation in the kitchen and basement is to start soon and with the dust, Carter’s asthma might start acting up again. Citing that, Nora says they should move into a motel for the time being. Dean agrees with her. The family gets a room in a motel nearby and Dean goes back to the house to sleep to let the workers in the next day. As soon as Dean lies down, the doorbell rings. When he goes out, no one is there, but we can see someone standing in the shadows and watching him. He hears music coming from upstairs as Ellie did in the previous episode.

He inspects the room and it is actually coming from the speaker in the walls. When the camera turns the other way, we see someone behind him, watching on. Nora gets a phone call in the middle of the night. The person on the other end just breathes and does not say anything. She calls Dean with this information and when they ask the receptionist to try that number again, we see it ringing from the Brannock residence. The Watcher is indeed inside their house. The next day, Karen reveals she went through the offers on the house. The other offer was a lowball one, someone trying to flip the house. But because it was from an LLC, there are no names on the documents. She suggests Nora sell the house but with a hefty discount to what they brought it at. Nora does not like the idea as that much amount of money would be detrimental to them. Karen also says she is surprised that Nora isn’t angry about some stranger trying to force her out of her own house.

Dean meets with Theodora, who gives him the number for the previous occupant of the house, Andrew Pierce. He is a talent agent and she asks Dean to set up a meeting. He says that Nora just wants to leave the house behind and go back to the city. Theodora, though, warns him that not knowing who was behind it would leave him unsettled for the rest of his life. It happened with her and her husband’s girlfriend. Dean thinks it over. Nora mentions her newfound encouragement to feel angry about the situation to Dean. She gets support from Dean and they decide not to sell the house for the time being. Duke offers to watch the house for them during the nights. The couple is relieved for him to be taking such responsibility.

Dean meets with Andrew. The guy looks like he has been through a lot and narrates his tragic stay at the house. Before that, he asks Dean not to waste any more time and just leave the house as soon as possible. Dean’s wife, Rosie, was a cellist. Once they had Caleb, they moved out to the suburbs for a change. The move affected Rose and she rediscovered her force in life. Everything changed when they met Mitch and Mo. Rose started to go through the same episodes that Dean has gone through in the house. Andrew was forced into leaving Caleb with the next-door couple.

One day, Caleb said to his father that he saw a bunch of old people in Mo and Mitch’s living room wearing red robes and standing in a circle. They had sacrificed a new-born baby and were drinking its blood. Andrew then learned of a three-month baby who went missing from Stanford, confirming his theory.

And then, the letters started coming. The cops did not believe them. Mo and Mitch stared at them all day. The letters started getting more violent by the day and drove him mad. One day, Rose narrates an incident where Mo comes out through tunnels or something in the house and drinks blood from Caleb’s hand when he cut himself. After that, they left the house. But soon enough, Rose committed suicide. Dean is conflicted about whether to believe him or not. The accounts seem incredulous almost but they are crazy enough to be true in this kind of setting. Duke and Ellie make out when he is watching the house. They speculate it could be Mo and Mitch behind all the trouble.

In the morning, pearl notices workers outside the house and calls Mo, who goes over to confront Dean. The Italian is stout in talking back to her and says he can do whatever he wants in the house. He also jokes about Mo getting Melanoma from getting too much sun, something that gets her emotional. When he goes to work, Dean learns that someone else has been made partner ahead of him. He is furious but his boss tells him his focus has been off work in the last 3-4 years. He has slacked off. Dean hears gunshots that night but thinks they are just dreams. The family returns the next day and when they hear ambulances outside the house, Nora and Dean go out to inspect.

Mitchell and Mo are both dead. The former killed himself first and then murdered his wife. Their son blames Dean for making them feel out of place. He is also mentioned in their note. The family sans Dean goes back to the motel. That night, the alarm blares as Dean investigates. When he looks out the window, he sees a smiling Jasper standing outside and then walking back to his house.

The Episode Review

What is wrong with these people?! I doubt anyone has seen a weirder bunch on screen unless the genre was sci-fi. This is a true crime drama and the true crime in The Watcher is not seeing more of Jennifer Coolidge. The magnificent Jennifer Coolidge is perhaps not shaping up to be her usual chirpy, goofy self. She is straight as an arrow in identifying and then working toward what she wants. Karen will definitely be an important part of things going ahead. We still do not know if she is involved in the bid to remove the Brannocks from the house.

The unreliable narrator syndrome has caught on fervently until now. Everyone is under the scanner and in the traditional whodunit style, we now even have a PI to spice things up. This show is shaping up to be a compelling mystery with moving parts about family dynamics and the idea of drowning oneself with paranoia. The Watcher has the sensation of every house intrusion movie where you have no idea how and when will the intruder strike. Or if they will at all.

Can Dean be called an anti-hero at this point? I am not sure about it but strongly lean in favour. He is lining up to do more damage than good to the family and his fracturing relationships in the sinking boat that is his family is not a great sight. The Watcher has me hooked and who knows where will this crazy ride take us?