Summary
“Chapter Four: Both the Needle and the Knife” separates the characters on different missions, which is becoming a theme as the search for the truth burdens the characters’ minds.
This recap of Netflix’s The Irregulars season 1, episode 4, “Chapter Four: Both the Needle and the Knife”, contains spoilers.
After the murder mystery in the previous chapter, Episode 4 brings us back to the big smoke, giving us a gruesome story of a skin imposter. The Netflix series is not doing these mysteries in halves at all.
The Irregulars season 1, episode 4 opens up at a factory; a man named Cambridge kills a worker and then removes his skin from his face. He lifts the face and runs away as a police officer sees him. The police officer runs into a girl who tells her to leave her alone.
The scene then flits away; Bea, Jessie and Leopold visit Alice’s grave; Jessie is upset, wishing she could spend more time with her mother. Leopold has a theory; that Alice was gifted like Jessie — an Ipsissimus. He believes Sherlock and Watson used Alice for her powers, and now they are using her. Jessie is now wondering if John Watson and Sherlock Holmes killed her. Bea thinks it’s time to speak to Sherlock Holmes as he is the key to the Rip.
Bea and Leopold get closer to each other
But romance is afoot; despite Bea telling Jessie that she wants no-one in her life, it looks far from the truth. However, Leopold has his own problems.
Leopold tells Bea that she’s different to anyone that he’s ever met. Bea invites him in for the kiss, and so they do. Leopold tells Bea that she isn’t on her own, and they kiss more. Suddenly, Leopold needs to leave and promises to be back at 10 pm in the same location, but this angers Bea, and she storms off. She thinks he’s a dabbler.
When Leopold returns to the palace, he’s been set up with another woman. He’s suited and booted so that he can look like a good catch. Leopold attends a party at the palace. Eleanor Margot introduces herself to Leopold. She’s impressed by how he looks. Eleanor Margot tells Leopold that he looks on the edge and offers him a drug.
A new investigation
And then, the skin murderer is introduced to the characters, bringing another compelling case.
Jessie meets the man in her dreams again; he’s an Ipsissimus too. He asks her to delve more into these people who have interests in the Rip. This freaks Jessie out, and she wakes up. Bea and Jessie meet John Watson; he tells them about a murder down an alleyway near the Saggar’s Arms in Harrow. Witnesses say the assailant was a man named David Oliver, and he removed the face skin of a victim called Paul Cambridge. But then David Oliver was found murdered ten days ago; John Watson believes it’s confusing and asks them to meet Inspector Lestrade. Bea brings up Sherlock Holmes and tries to enter the man’s room — John Watson chases after her. Sherlock isn’t in his room, and John Watson is infuriated; he tells them that he will crush them both if they go near Sherlock. He’s clearly very protective over his acquaintance.
The crime scene
Billy, Spike and Jessie meet Inspector Lestrade. He’s only interested in Jessie because of her abilities — he tells Jessie that once she’s served her purpose, she can return to the “unholy den she came from”. Jessie looks around the crime scene, and when she accidentally touches someone, she sees the social events from the night of a murder. She believes the man she touched is the killer but tells the others that the man is a woman. As they enter the pub, Inspector Lestrade believes the murderer is still among them. When they talk to the bartender, he talks of a girl similar to their descriptions and that her father owns a taxidermy shop.
Asking Mrs Hudson where Sherlock is
While the others investigate the skin murderer, Bea has her own agenda in The Irregulars season 1, episode 4 — she wants to get past Dr Watson and find Sherlock for herself, but she is up against someone as smart as her.
Bea visits Mrs Hudson and pays for her rent. She asks if she can help her find Sherlock Holmes. Mrs Hudson calls Sherlock Holmes, a drug addict and a bum. Bea shows her a photo of Alice; Mrs Hudson tells Bea that you can usually find him at the Phoenix in Limehouse.
Bea visits the Phoenix in Limehouse to try and find Sherlock. Suddenly, she hears John Watson, who is also looking for him. She screams that John Watson is the police, so he runs away. Suddenly, suspicions are on Bea, so she has to run as well.
Bea learns that John Watson played her and that her path to find Sherlock Holmes was fake. He tells her that it’s over, and he doesn’t want her visiting 221B ever again.
The Taxidermist shop
Jessie and the group visit the Taxidermist, and Mr Dixon tells her he hasn’t seen the girl (Clara). They head into the basement, and they see stuffed animals all made to look like groups of families. Jessie opens a cupboard and finds face skins inside. Mr Dixon claims he had no idea about Clara and her murders.
What’s Clara’s motive?
There’s a sad story behind the murderer in episode 4, just like what the audience experienced in chapter two.
Jessie finds the girl, and she sympathises with her; she tells her she knows what the men did to her – she has been sexually abused repeatedly at the same pub. Clara runs off, so the group chase her, but she’s soon lost. Inspector Lestrade accuses Jessie of letting her go because she’s a monster. Later on, Jessie is upset, but Spike calls her special. Suddenly, Jessie has an epiphany; Clara wants a family; the abusive men gave her syphilis and prevented her from having children of her own. Someone well respected allowed this to happen; they believe it’s the pub landlord. Inspector Lestrade wants to deal with it on his own.
A man called John visits the landlord and talks about Clara and the men giving her syphilis; John reveals himself to be Clara and raises how the Landlord enabled the men to abuse her. Afterwards, she puts on the landlord’s skin. Acting as the landlord, she kisses his wife and then checks out his children. She finally has the family she wanted.
Leopold doesn’t want Eleanor
Leopold is high, and Eleanor is escorting him around the palace. She kisses him, and he accepts; Eleanor asks him to take her somewhere more private. Meanwhile, Bea visits the place Leopold asked her to at 10 pm, but he isn’t there. Leopold tells Eleanor that he isn’t into her and leaves her. As Leopold sneaks out, Daimler tells him that he isn’t normal. However, by jumping from the palace walls, Leopold has hurt himself.
Jessie catches Clara
Inspector Lestrade heads to the pub and asks for the “demon”. The landlord (Clara) asks the wife to look after the children. Jessie and the others arrive, and they see the landlord has been killed. They head out into the woods to find Clara, and Inspector Lestrade is acting suspiciously. Jessie realises that the inspector is being too nice and knows he is Clara. She takes off her skin to reveal the real her; she tells Jessie that she hates the real her and that she’s stuck. Jessie is willing to let her go, believing she will not kill again, but she wants to see how she got her powers before she does. Memories show Clara praying and asking for powers so she can hurt those who hurt her. A hooded figure stands before Clara before this moment happened. When they leave the memory, Jessie asks her to take her gun and run away.
Jessie shows measured sympathy in episode 4; she realises that Clara was a product of a world of abusive men, and rather than punish her, she let her go; she understood that Clara did not ask for the life she got.
The ending
After escaping the palace, Leopold is in a bad place; he tells Spike that Bea is compassionate, and that’s her key quality — that’s why he likes her. Meanwhile, Bea looks at the photo again and concludes that Sherlock and Alice were together.
Meanwhile, Jessie wonders if the nightmares are a link to everything, including the Rip. In her dreams, the other Ipsissimus shows her where he really is. He’s on a ship on the Atlantic on the way to London so he can visit her. He tells her they can figure it out together.
As the episode ends, it shows how John Watson is smart but not smart enough. Bea visits Alice’s grave and sees Sherlock laid beside it in the rain.
The Irregulars season 1, episode 4 separates the characters on different missions, which is becoming a theme as the search for the truth burdens the characters’ minds.
