Triptych

As Angie drives home, she reflects on how Will has changed since she last saw him. He has been living in the mountains of northern Georgia for the past two years while working mostly meth-related cases. She thinks that the isolation was probably not good for him. Angie reflects that she always runs to Will whenever her romantic relationships fall apart. She always dates problematic men, and she knows that Will loves her like a brother. She stares at her body, reflecting that her trauma is invisible, while Will’s is made obvious through his many scars and gashes. They first met at the Atlanta Children’s Home, which essentially functioned as an orphanage.

Angie always tells people that her parents died when she was young, but the truth is that her mother is in a coma because of a drug overdose. Angie was raped several times by her mother’s various boyfriends, clients, and dealers. Will and Angie bonded over their physical abuse. Angie had always been heartbroken by Will’s determination to be adopted. His hopefulness hurt her heart. Will has always loved books, but his dyslexia makes him feel like a failure. Will has worked hard to overcome his dyslexia, implementing systems that allow him to process information in different ways.

Angie and Will love each other but are not in love with each other, even though they sometimes have casual sex. During these interludes, Will prefers to keep his body covered by clothes or by darkness. Once, she was very frustrated by this and asked to see his body. He was covered in scars that broke her heart.

Angie missed him while he was working in the mountains, and she was pleased to learn that he was transferring back to Atlanta. Just now, when she handed him the note containing John Shelley’s name, she knew that he was interpreting her note to mean that John was her new romantic connection. Angie reflects that although she does not regret many things, she does regret sleeping with Michael Ormewood.

Will asks Caroline, the assistant of his boss, Amanda, to run John Shelley’s name. Amanda is deeply private, efficient, and intimidating. She was initially angry at Will when she found him recording her, not realizing that this is one of his systems for accommodating his dyslexia. Now, Will briefs her on the cases of the girls who were attacked and had their tongues cut out. She asks him what he thinks of Michael Ormewood, and they both wonder whether the wound that got Michael out of the war zone was self-inflicted. She tells Will that Leo was trying to access his personnel file.

John gets rid of his shoes just in case he left footprints at Michael’s house. He is haunted by the memory of cutting out Cythia’s tongue, and he wonders what Michael will think when he finds the tongue itself. John’s sister, Joyce, comes to his place of employment and demands to know what he is involved in. He tells her that the person who stole his identity also killed Mary Alice.

Will and Michael attend Cynthia’s autopsy. The doctor explains that her tongue was cut with a knife, not bitten out like the others. Michael says that Gina told him that Cynthia was not dating anyone. He volunteers to take Cynthia’s rape kit to the lab. Meanwhile, Will wonders what Angie has not told him about Michael. Based on how Michael describes Angie, Will surmises that the two of them have slept together.

At Aleesha’s building, Will and Michael examine the crime scene. Will determines that her murderer did not intend to kill her. They both enter her apartment, which Will thinks is suspiciously clean. Once they are back outside, Will and Michael encounter Cedric and Jasmine, two young siblings, and ask the children if they saw anything on Saturday night. The two are determined not to talk to the police.

Michael admits to Will that he was frustrated in high school when his cousin (John) dated a girl (Mary Alice) that Michael (Woody) deemed too beautiful for him. Michael asks Will to keep him updated on the case.

At his job, John volunteers to work overtime to clean out the main canister of the car wash’s vacuum system. When he returns to his apartment, he finds that his room has been broken into; Martha Lam is waiting to inspect his room. John finds a knife and throws it out the window. He thinks that he does this so subtly that she doesn’t notice, but she does. She tells him that she will give him a pass just this once. She also offers to help him find a new place to live and tells him that a police officer is targeting him. She advises John to move immediately but warns him that she is also watching him.

Will goes for a walk, reflecting that while he misses the mountains, he enjoys the familiarity and comfort of Atlanta. He is flattered by the attention that he receives from a gay jogger. Will reflects that Michael seriously abused his position in Vice by forcing sex workers to have sex with him. Because Michael used the power of his badge to coerce women into having sex, Will considers that to be rape.

He reflects on his past work experience in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he saw a lot of corruption in law enforcement and observed the tight cliques of petty politics. He believed in his efforts there, knowing meth to be a dangerous drug, and he felt that breaking up meth labs was worthwhile work. Many of the people he saw around that small town were involved in the drug’s production or consumption. Will reflects that Michael shares many of the characteristics of the corrupt cops whom Will worked with in the mountains.

Suddenly, Will receives a phone call from the boy he met in Grady Homes, Cedric, who tells him that his sister, Jasmine, is gone. Will drives straight to Grady Homes, where Cedric takes Will to the apartment of his grandmother Eleanor. She is a former history teacher who has debilitating arthritis. She is suspicious of Will, so he explains his connection to Aleesha’s case. Eleanor explains that Jasmine was not at school today. Jasmine also has a boyfriend who is in his thirties, and on two occasions, she ran away to his house.

Will asks Cedric to tell him everything that happened. Cedric tells him that on the night Aleesha was murdered, a white man paid Jasmine to make a phone call to report that Aleesha was hurt. The man gave her a dime for the phone call and seemed nervous when she told him that phone calls cost 50 cents. Will investigates Aleesha’s apartment and mailbox and finds a “return to sender” letter; it contains something metallic that he thinks is a cross.

Will goes to Angie’s house. He is worried about Jasmine, who may have seen Aleesha’s murderer and therefore knew too much. He tries calling Michael, who does not answer. When Will sees Angie, she asks him if he learned that John was a pedophile. She is very annoyed when he figures out that she and Michael have slept together. Together, they find the cross in the envelope, and Angie remembers seeing Aleesha wear it. Aleesha had enclosed the cross in a letter to her mother; in the letter, she claims that her mother made her a pariah. Angie notices that the zip code places Aleesha’s mother about 10 miles away.