Photo Courtesy Of ABC
Warning: Spoiler Alert
Although Henry Morgan’s lived for over 200-years, he’s still subject to the same emotions we go through, although he’s immortal, he’s still human after all. After being off last week due to the election-coverage, the ABC series “Forever,” returned with an episode that hit all the right notes, there was humor, poignancy, new and old romantic relationships and a murderer that led to his own demise. All that and we got to get a glimpse of Dr. Morgan’s first marriage and what surviving death did to that relationship. A great way to return to the airwaves and celebrate that ABC has confirmed the show will be on all season, despite mixed ratings.
The episode begins with a very well-dressed but mousy-looking man starts telling this very attractive blonde, about some new employee in his advertising firm, trying to take credit for his ideas. The woman tells him to shut-up, he sells chips for a third-rate advertising firm and to stop whining. She then says shut-up and take off your jacket, and she slips off her blouse and skirt, revealing a corset-type garment. She then puts, handcuffs on the man and a mask and ball-gag and starts whipping the man.
The next morning Detectives Martinez and Hanson and NYPD Medical Examiner Henry Morgan, examine the man’s dead body in the street. His name’s Richard Gaines and when they transport him to Morgan’s office and take off his shirt, they see the man’s chest and torso covered in whip-marks. Henry’s assistant Lucas, brings over a black-light and they detect older healed scars, showing a prolonged history of the practice. Henry and Lucas realize that Gaines got into sadomasochism. He pronounces the cause of death as asphyxiation, due to the collar marks on his neck. The two detectives and Morgan go to interview Gaines’ widow.
When they meet with Gwyneth Gaines, they awkwardly bring up the whip-marks and the widow says they’re from therapy and weren’t from her hand. She said Richard was a powerful man and afraid to show weakness and it nearly destroyed their marriage. But he went to domination therapy and he went back to being the man she married. She gives the domination-therapist’s name as Iona Payne.
Morgan and Martinez go to interview Payne and she says that Gaines is her client and she saw him the night before. Martinez starts asking about the session and the woman says she doesn’t reveal information about her clients, but Jo tells her Gaines died last night. Henry starts examining some of her equipment, focusing on a device that would choke her clients and likely left the marks on Gaines neck. Martinez says they’d like to bring her in for questioning.
At the station, Jo and Iona sit in the interview room, while Henry and Hanson sit on the other side of the one way window. Martinez says that Morgan called cause of death asphyxiation, but Payne says he’s incorrect, ruffling Henry’s feathers. She says he stopped breathing, because his body suddenly got too heavy to function properly, including his lungs. Henry slaps his forehead and says to Hanson that Gaines got electrocuted, seconds before Payne says the same thing to Martinez. When Jo asks why no burn-marks, Henry and Iona both say that an extended dose of a low-voltage electric device would, kill him without burn-marks.
That evening, Henry’s alone in the house bored out of his gourd, he’s to the point of playing with test-tubes when Abe walks in, in a wonderful mood. Henry asks what Abe did and he’s purposely vague, but Morgan notices he’s dehydrated and fixes him a tonic to replenish his electrolytes. When Henry gives Abe the drink, he smells a familiar perfume; it’s the scent Abe’s ex-wife Maureen Delacroix wears. Henry gets concerned as the couple got married and divorced twice and he’s afraid she’ll break Abe’s heart again. Abe says he knows what he’s doing and if his heart gets broken, he’ll know it still works.
The next day at the shop Abe’s surprised as Maureen shows up, as they had plans for dinner that night. The two are like teenagers and can’t keep their hands off each other and Abe closes the shop very early. Henry walks into the living quarters and sees Abe and Maureen dancing, smiles and leaves. He heads to Iona Payne’s office and she’s surprised to see him. He wants her opinion on how Gaines got electrocuted and she says she can demonstrate. Morgan says he’s afraid of giving up control, but she responds that he’s afraid of many things, but that’s not among them, and takes his suit jacket off, then puts him in some handcuffs over his head. She looks him in the eyes and she says that he’d gotten betrayed by someone he loved and trusted, which leads us to a flashback.
It’s 1815 and in front of the Morgan house Henry’s first wife Nora, weeps at his gravestone in her front-yard, but suddenly Henry walks through the gate saying he got back as soon as he could. She can’t believe its him at first, then embraces him and kisses him while she says she heard he’d been thrown over the ship. He says that now’s not the time to talk about that and they go into their home.
He returns to the present and tells her she’s correct, but she’s busy looking for something. It turns out to be the cattle prod that Hanson and Martinez found in the sewer near where Gaines body got discovered and her prints are all over it. They tell her she’s under arrest and then Jo takes a look around finds Henry in manacles. He says he can explain, but she says she’d rather not hear it.
Abe wakes up on the couch in a bathrobe, extremely disoriented when Maureen comes in and joins him. She tells him she searched her entire life for the best the world could offer and she had it all the time, him. She asks him to leave New York and travel with her and live out their Golden Years together. She then asks him why these old things are holding him back, not realizing it’s the oldest thing in his life, Henry that’s the reason.
Morgan asks Jo how the questioning with Iona’s going and Martinez responds, like everyone else she says she’s innocent, but Henry says he’s inclined to believe her. Martinez tells Henry that Payne likes him and Morgan’s a bit shocked, Jo then says how can the man who knows everything have missed that. Martinez tells Henry that she was a therapist before she went into domination-therapy, but got kicked out of the Medical Association, for having an affair with a patient. When she broke it off, he killed himself.
Martinez gets a warrant to search Payne’s office and she’s making some pretty catty remarks as she looks around. Her cellphone rings and it’s Hanson, but she loses the connection. He calls again and the call’s breaking up, but Jo asks Hanson to keep the line open and then explores the room with her phone, discovering a surveillance device under a statue. It’s police issue and last got checked out in 2002, by a retired detective, now a private investigator.
Henry and Abe talk and Abe tells Henry he’s going to take Maureen up on her offer and travel with her, she makes him feel alive. He wants Henry to meet her and Morgan’s shocked as Abe always insisted that Henry never meet anyone he got involved in. Abe says that’s because Henry never ages, but at his age, he’s worry-free. Henry will join them for dinner the next night. As Abe talks about having someone to count on, Henry flashes back to 1815, where he lies in bed with Nora. She once again asks why he won’t tell her what happened while at sea. He tells her she’ll never believe him, she looks him in the eyes and says he’s got her heart. She wants him to give her his and trust her.
Hanson, Martinez and Morgan talk to the retired detective about the device and he’s giving them nothing. He says illegal surveillance comes with a stiff sentence, but if they grant him immunity from prosecution, he’ll sing like a canary, they say yes and he tells him his client’s Gwyneth Gaines. She wanted to make sure there was no sex, but all she did was beat him. He then insults her a couple of times, and Morgan socks him in the mouth.
Jo heads back to see Mrs. Gaines and she admits she didn’t trust her husband and wanted to find out what Iona did to keep him satisfied. She felt terrible that another woman turned him around instead of her. Martinez then asks where Gaines was at 11:00 pm the night Richard got killed and she admits she was Payne’s appointment, making Iona innocent. She agrees to write sworn testimony so Payne can get released.
Henry walks Iona out to the parking lot and she says that she’s interested in him and he says isn’t that crossing the line again as a patient, she says she doesn’t want him as a patient. She then kisses him and infers she’ll be in touch. Henry smiles, then again flashes back to Nora. Now things aren’t happy, Henry’s ready to slit his wrist to prove he’s immortal, not insane. Nora stops him telling him she believes him and apologizes for doubting him.
Henry walks to his bicycle but a van pulls up, a guy gets out and zaps Henry in the chest with a cattle prod, until he blacks out then throws him in the back of the van. We switch to Abe and Maureen and Abe’s worried sick that Henry’s yet to arrive, he knows Henry’s in trouble, otherwise he’d be sitting with them. Maureen then tells Abe she realizes Henry’s Abe’s son and Abe says she’s correct. He calls Martinez who says she’ll check around, then goes outside to see Henry’s bike’s still locked up.
She and Hanson start going through surveillance footage and see Morgan get abducted, the van’s plate less, but Jo recognizes the tattoo as from one of Payne’s patients. She heads there with the picture of the tats and Iona says its Cliff Wadlow, a patient that’s been down to restricted sessions. She gives Martinez the address and says he’s likely to get violent given the issues with his stepfather.
Wadlow’s a full-blown psychotic and putting Morgan through horrific torture, telling the Medical Examiner that Iona’s all his and he saw him kiss her. Henry says he knows what it feels like to get betrayed by someone you love and trust, then we see the end of Henry and Nora’s marriage as she has him taken to the Insane Asylum in a straight-jacket and he pleads her to stop. She says he’s sick, he hasn’t been the same man since he returned. He says because he’s not the same man.
Henry regains consciousness and Cliff says he’s going to make him more pain then Henry’s ever received and Morgan says he doubts it, but Wadlow zaps him with a car battery. Just then Hanson and Martinez arrive and Henry turns the electricity on his abuser, killing him. Abe gets a call from Martinez that Henry’s fine and Maureen realizes Abe won’t join her on the trip.
The final scene, Henry finally joins his workmates at their favorite watering hole. It’s a first step in living in the era he’s in.
The Story Continues Next Tuesday at 10:00 pm on ABC.
