Hemlock Grove: “Blood Pressure”

At the end of Season One, Roman’s mother, Olivia, seemingly ends her reign going out in a body bag. At the start of Season Two, we learn that she’s not actually dead. She ended up in a coma for a little while. Fortunately, Dr. Pryce was able to reattach the tongue that her blood-sucking son violently ripped out of her mouth. After the ordeal, Olivia emerges with a new American accent. In spite of everything, she still seems to harbor some concern for her son, wondering aloud how he’s “satiating” himself. Roman is struggling with his urge for blood. He has hired an old man to wear leeches. Roman devours those leeches like a child eating birthday cake.

By the end of the first season, Peter and Roman’s friendship had deteriorated. Right now, though, Roman is Peter’s only hope at helping his incarcerated mother and he must beg his former friend for the $20,000. Roman, though, won’t lift a finger. Peter reminds Roman that he saved his life. Roman reminds him that Peter’s life was saved in turn by his beloved sister Shelley, who has since disappeared.

Norman Godfrey has said goodbye to his daughter, Letha, and her child. He sends an e-mail to Shelley, his niece, believing that she is gone, but needing some kind of closure. He goes to visit Olivia, as their love affair is not over, and tries to talk her into seeing a seizure specialist, thinking this is how she lost her tongue.

With Lynda out of commission, Peter relies on his cousin Destiny for strength. He’s also set on securing the funds for his mom’s defense and comes up with an impressive con. He tells two drug dealer henchmen that he can brew St. Sebastian’s Arrow—“It’s more like a biomorphic portal into another dimension,” he says. Peter makes a batch, drops it into their eyes and then forces himself to turn into a werewolf, giving them the impression that they’re hallucinating. Destiny is concerned. Aside from the fact that he just conned criminals, he transformed under the wrong moon, which could totally screw up his powers. She fears that he might turn into a vargulf, like Christina did last season when she left a string of dead bodies across town.

As the episode concludes, we see how hard it is for Roman to resist his upir urges. It’s a little different from being a vampire, but he still hungers for blood. He wants it really badly, but seems to use sex as some sort of substitute. Roman heads out to a club, picks up a girl and heads home with her. When he can’t handle the temptation of going after her blood, he kicks her out of the car. Once Roman is home, there’s one more big reveal for the audience. Letha’s baby—the one that Roman (her cousin) fathered—is alive and being kept in a secluded room.

There’s a lot squeezed into this season launch, enough plot points to support a couple episodes, but the flow works well and it’s a good introduction into the new, post-novel world of Hemlock Grove.

Liz Ohanesian writes about pop culture from her base in Los Angeles. For updates, follow her on Twitter or Facebook.