The Lizzie Borden Chronicles - Episode 1.8 - Review

Apologies for the lateness in getting this review up. I hope everyone has had the chance to catch the last episode.

We last left off with Emma Borden at Willowdale Asylum in Maine. The episode begins with her missing from the asylum after a doctor was attacked. In the closing scene of the previous episode, Emma lost her cool and started to find it in her to fight back. Lizzie is on the case to try to find Emma. Keys are missing. Money has disappeared. Lizzie finds a letter in a photo frame belonging to Emma from Officer Trotwood (now deceased). Cut to Emma at the door of Mrs. Trotwood's house in Boston. Emma had always wanted to meet them. Mrs. Trotwood insists that she stays with her and her grown children. They're mooching off of her, so why not one more?

Lizzie, of course, finds Emma in Boston and Emma wants Lizzie out of her life. Mrs. Trotwood sits with Lizzie back at her hotel and Lizzie threatens her when she learns that she's not to come near Emma. Mrs. Trotwood and one of her sons tells Lizzie to stay away from them and stay away from Boston.

Back at the Trotwoods, there's a formal engagement party for one of the sons. It's a bit drawn out so I'll just cut to the priceless moment that Emma sees the meat carver hacking into a slab of ham. We haven't had a flashback in about three episodes, so of course, she has a flashback of her attack on the doctor back at the asylum. Lizzie sneaks in, finds Emma, and tells her that she's running for her life from Charlie's old friends. Emma tells her to keep running. If the men catch up to her, tell them the truth and where they can find her. Lizzie exits, skulking through the crowded party; one of Charlie's friends finds her. Clearly, the person checking names at the door must have left their post. Mrs. Trotwood interrupts the confrontation. Lizzie conveniently pops a balloon with a gigantic dagger, which of course, the "pow" of the balloon is mistaken for a gunshot and a shootout begins. The shooters escape as does Lizzie. Mrs. Trotwood wants them caught, "Nobody sleeps, tonight!" Damn, my eyes barely can stay open.

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Emma finds the shooters who were after her and Lizzie and confesses to them that she killed Charlie. They want to kill her and decide to take her back to Fall River to face trial. She says, "It's time a Borden pays for her crimes."

Lizzie makes a deal with Mrs. Trotwood. She tells Mrs. Trotwood how to find the men and how she can get Emma back. They go to Fall River to get them and the Trotwood brothers head up to the hotel room where Charlie's friends and Emma are supposedly hiding. Another slow motion shootout with big shiny revolvers occurs and lots of walls are spattered in stage blood. It continues after a commercial break. Emma has a gun and Lizzie has a dagger. Lizzie and Emma face off while two remaining men lay bleeding. Emma says she will go with Lizzie if she can show an ounce of human decency. Lizzie says she's been trying to protect Emma this whole time, but Emma insists that she let them live. Lizzie agrees reluctantly and drops the dagger so it stands straight up into the wooden floor while the men, still bleeding, look on in dying boredom.

Emma and Lizzie depart the scene and board a sea vessel with tacky room decor that is bound for Paris. Lizzie decides she has to take a nap as all that stabbing and chasing after Emma for a day and night was so exhausting. A few seconds later, the ship's horn blows and Lizzie wakes up. She is alone in the cabin and wonders where is Big Sis. She walks to the deck to look for her. People are waving to those on the dock and there is Emma looking up at Lizzie with a tiny tear in her eye. Emma turns and disappears from the dock as Lizzie is weeping a single tear, left alone with strangers to hack up on her cruise to Europe.

The END... FINALLY!