Five episodes into the second season of Hemlock Grove, Dr. Johann Pryce is turning out to be the character to watch. In the previous season, he seemed destined for the sidelines. He’s the guy who is responsible for so much of what happens to the characters, but his personality was a little flat. Now, he’s taking his work as resident “mad scientist” to all new levels. Pryce is currently my favorite character on the show: he dryly delivers some of the funniest, most truthful lines, and though he may come off as a jerk with few social skills, that may not be the case. Pryce is the keeper of many a Godfrey-related secret. As he has reminded a number of characters, he is not the guy you want to anger. He also simply doesn’t have time for the Godfrey’s BS when there’s so much science to tackle. In “Hemlock Diego’s Policy Player’s Dream Book,” Pryce has a lot of science on his plate, more than just the blonde woman in what looks like an oversized specimen jar. She’s Priscilla, by the way, the “first human being ever to be created in an extra-uterine environment.”
Pryce stops by the rehabilitation center to check out Olivia’s tongue. It’s healing nicely, he says. During the check-up, he notices a cut on her leg. She says it’s just a nick and will get better. Pryce is going to do some blood work. Next is Roman. Pryce has been working on a bloody concoction that will satisfy his cravings so that he doesn’t have to resort to killing people. It’s a huge advancement, something Pryce likens to the development of agriculture. Roman tries a glass of the stuff and takes to it immediately. Despite Pryce’s warning, Roman feasts at the tap of the gore machine until he gets sick. Roman and Pryce’s relationship is tempestuous, but the Godfrey heir knows that he needs the doctor’s help. He sneaks up on Pryce while he sleeps and begs him to help take away the bloodlust. Roman cries, “I don’t want to be like her!” referencing his mom. Pryce has a plan. He tells Roman that he has never tried this treatment before, but he’s willing to help.
After a series of tests, Pryce learns that Olivia has suffered serious complications after Roman attacked her. She’s now aging quickly. Olivia thinks this means she only has “a couple of hundred years left.” Pryce corrects her: Olivia is now aging like a human. She’s not taking the news well. Human lives, Olivia says, are over in a snap: “it’s not even worth the trouble of being born.” There’s hope that she may revert to her upir lifespan. Pryce acknowledges that he fears Roman might interfere with his work. Olivia, once again, shows concern for the son who despises her. She tells Pryce that Roman and his son are “all I have left.” Pryce laments the loss of evil Olivia from the show’s first season. With mortality a very real possibility for Olivia, she decides to try something new: karaoke!
Peter is still locked up when he has another a dream; this one is about a boy underwater and a German shepherd. Sheriff Chasseur doesn’t believe him, but that doesn’t matter since the woman who complained about Peter left town with her son. After returning home, Peter and Destiny meet with Lynda’s lawyer, only to find out that these charges will be near-impossible to beat. With the help of Destiny’s boyfriend, Andreas, the three set out on a mission to free Lynda, who is being transferred to another facility, for good. Destiny brews a potion that leads the prison guards to believe that there are spiders crawling all over them. They abandon the car in fear. Once the guards are gone, Peter, Destiny and Andreas turn up for a prison break. Thanks to Andreas, they have documents and a plane ticket to get Lynda to Bucharest. The family says a tearful goodbye. Peter says that he wants to join his mother in Romania, but she insists that he stay in Hemlock Grove. “People in Hemlock Grove need you,” she says. Lynda was right. That dream Peter mentioned in the beginning of the episode comes to fruition by the end of it. The woman who left town with her son could not escape their fate. The boy appeared to drown in the tub and the woman appeared to jump out of a window. When the woman found her child in the tub, a man with a mask turned up behind her.
Roman is trying to manage his cravings with Miranda in the house, while Miranda is freaking out over her lactation issues. Roman sends her to the family doctor who says that her condition is unusual, but not unique. He believes that being around an infant has caused her body to act as those she has had a child. Roman is pissed that she told the doctor about the baby. He makes up a story about the nameless child’s origins when she questions him more. Eventually, Roman does come clean. He admits that the child is his and that the mother died. When Miranda asks about the “crazy granny” from his previous tale, he says that the woman is his mother. Roman lets Miranda know some of the issues: “My daughter and I, we’re terrified of each other.” He expresses his gratitude for Miranda, and the two consummate their strange relationship.
Norman and his private investigator are close to finding Shelley, after the girl sends her uncle an email asking him not to get involved. Shelley, however, needs help and her uncle is the only person who seems concerned enough to find her. Meanwhile, Norman is still trying to locate Marie’s whereabouts. Will he discover the truth? Certainly. If he does, it will have consequences for another member of Hemlock Grove’s most powerful family.