Warning: Spoiler Alert
Regular viewers of the ABC freshman series “Forever,” realize that they’re emotions will get a work-out each time they watch the show. Whether you sit there with your mouth agape, as many of us did when the show revealed Adam’s identity a few weeks back, or feeling rather warm and fuzzy at the end of this week’s tale, the crew knows how to push the right buttons. This week’s episode centered around family and finding lost relatives, starting with Abe who’s attempting to find out as much about his lineage as possible, after finding out his last name at the age of seventy.
However there were other relatives who connected in this episode and though everybody’s wishes weren’t fulfilled, some revelations would change people’s lives for the better. All that and Henry and Abigail’s Honeymoon in 1955, traveling on the Orient Express.
The graphic on the screen tells us we’re starting off at the Urkesh Consulate in Manhattan, a very busy office as two clerks stamp a never-ending line of visas, allowing Americans to travel to their country. Most of the people applying state their reason for heading to Urkesh, is to visit family or for business.
However, there’s an elderly man in the line, wearing an ill-fitting toupee and looking like his days are numbered. When he gets to the clerk, he tells her he’s going to Urkesh to die, the woman looks at the man and then his passport and sees his name’s Armen Aronov her eyes get as large as pancakes. She excuses herself and walks into the man who runs the Consulate’s office and tells him he’ll never believe, who’s applying the visa and gives the man the passport, he’s just as shocked.
We next see the man in the park, sitting on the bench with a loaf of bread, feeding the pigeons, when a look of pain registers on his face. He clutches his chest, then falls off the bench, dying instantly. Mr. Aronov’s wish about dying in Urkesh, never came to pass.
Henry and Abe are eating breakfast, Morgan’s reading the paper when he notices that Abe’s reading the phonebook. It turns out that there are scores of people named Weinraub in New York, the name he found out was his birth name from Adam in the previous episode. He wants to start working on his family tree and tells Henry there’s a Weinraub that lives on Park Avenue. But then Abe apologizes and tells Henry he doesn’t need a family tree to tell him who his father is.
Detectives Martinez, Hanson and Henry’s assistant Lucas got called to the park for a possible homicide, however when Morgan arrives, Mike says that it looks like a false alarm. The man likely died of complications of lung cancer, Henry’s amazed until Jo told him that Aronov had a medical bracelet on and they spoke to the oncologist.
They’re about to wheel him into the ambulance when Morgan, notices a scar on Aronov’s abdomen and asks Lucas what he thinks it is. Lucas responds, looks like an old appendectomy scar, but Henry says look at the shape of it, then suddenly sees a scene with him operating and Abigail assisting. Lucas says it looks like he had a lousy doctor, Henry responds, perhaps the doctor didn’t have the proper operating theater, he says they’ll check out the body at the lab.
Our first flashback of the evening and we’ve joined Henry and Abigail on their delayed Honeymoon, on board the Orient Express. As they start to get amorous, Abigail asks if they can try having a baby and Henry says they’ve talked about it and it would cause him great pain to give birth to a baby, then watch his child grow old and die.
There’s a knock on the compartment door and when they open it, they see a large Eastern European soldier standing there, he says to Morgan doctor follow me. The soldier leads them to another car and a boy about ten, wearing a tunic’s groaning in pain and holding his gut. A quick exam and Henry says the boy’s got acute appendicitis and needs to be operated on immediately. They lay the boy out on a table and Morgan gets his tools and some starter fluid from the train staff, it contains ether to knockout the boy.
Henry asks the soldier where the boy’s parents are and the soldier says the boy’s very important and he’d better save him or else. Morgan says now that you threatened me, I deserve to know who he is, the soldier responds he’s the son of the King and heir to the throne of Urkesh. Henry puts the ether on the cloth and looks at the boy, then says courage, you’re the son of a king. The Prince is soon unconscious and Henry starts to slice his abdomen, when the train hits a bump, hence the shape of the scar.
Back in the present, Henry and Lucas are performing the autopsy on Aronov when we hear Jo say, we don’t allow victim’s relatives back there and a woman heads straight for the table, they cover Aronov’s body but leave his face visible. The woman’s Mrs. Aronov and Henry said her husband was from Urkesh and she’s surprised he’s heard of the country. Jo says she’s sorry for her loss and the widow says it’s the people of Urkesh you should feel sorry for, today they lost their King.
Morgan heads back to Abe’s shop and Abe’s got a blackboard with post-its all over it, he tells Henry he spoke to a cousin today in the city and he told him, that they’ve got a cousin who’s the dry-cleaning baron of Buffalo. He says perhaps he’s related to Charlemagne, Napoleon or Washington, Henry reminds him they weren’t Jewish.
The real reason Henry came to the shop was to grab a ring he gave to Abe after their Honeymoon, he tries to sneak it out but Abe catches him. He apologizes but says the ring belongs to the King of Urkesh and the sentimental value to the family’s priceless, he has to return it to its rightful owner.
Mrs. Aronov’s surprised to see Morgan at her door, he hands her the ring saying it belonged to Armen and now she and their children can have it. She says the couple wasn’t blessed to have children, then asks how he acquired it and he said he dabbles in antiques. She invites him into the apartment.
As they’re having tea, Henry says he realizes the question may sound odd, but did her husband had a good life? She smiles and says, one would think that if you were born heir to the throne, that person would resent it all their life. However Armen was just the opposite, he fulfilled all his dreams except for dying in Urkesh. Henry asked how he planned to travel receiving radiation therapy and the widow responds, her husband elected not to receive treatment. He starts to ask about the radiation, but then says he needs to go.
Morgan gets back to the lab to find Aronov’s body’s gone and he yells to Lucas where’s the King? Lucas says those guys took him and points to four men wheeling the body into the elevator. Henry tells Lucas to hold that car, Lucas steps in and make sure Henry gets in as well. After assuring the men he’s not reaching for a weapon, he pulls out a Geiger counter and the radiation in Aronov’s body’s at toxic levels. Morgan says all of them are getting irradiated and the men get out at the next floor, Henry brings the body back to the lab. The King died of poisoning.
Jo and Henry head to the Consulate and speak with the bureaucrat named Dasha, that runs the place. Martinez’s incredulous that they were unaware that their King was seven blocks away all these years and Dasha says he wasn’t my King. She says that he approved the visa and he says that’s because Urkesh runs by rules and regulations now, not a monarchy. He then excuses himself as he says he’s got work to attend to.
The pair head outside and soon see Dasha buying some food from a street-vendor, he nods for them to come over. He says he couldn’t speak freely in his office as they disapprove of talk about the King. He says Aronov asked him to expedite things and gave him a diamond the size of a grape, that seemed like a fair trade. However that’s all he knows. He then heads back to his office.
Back on the train Henry and Abigail, once again start getting into the mood, when there’s another knock on the door and the soldier’s returned. Henry asks if the boy’s okay and the soldier says he’s resting comfortably, then backs out of the doorway and in his place stands the King.
Henry apologizes and they both bow, but the King says you saved my son’s life I should bow to you. He then locks Henry in a very tight bear-hug. He says he doesn’t know how to repay them but at least have dinner with him and they smile and nod shyly. He claps his hands and about eight waiters enter the compartment, carrying trays of food and champagne.
Martinez calls Mike and asks if Lucas has identified the isotope and Lucas says its plutonium 210, Henry asks for the phone and asks what else was in his stomach, thinking he’s speaking to Lucas, but it’s Hanson who responds food. Lucas says it’s a stew with some gamey smelling meat, could be goat, Henry asks could it be yak and Lucas says he’s never had it, but sure. Henry then asks where a homesick man from Urkesh would get a great meal and Mike says A Taste of Urkesh, it’s on his credit card statement.
They head to the restaurant and asks the owner if he recognizes Aronov’s picture and he says no. Jo says he had lunch there two days ago, Henry asks him if he’s from Urkesh and the man asks what gave him away. Jo asks him his thoughts on the monarchy and the guy responds he’s an American he doesn’t think about the monarchy. Suddenly Henry’s Geiger counter starts buzzing as the metal bowl that the owner’s about to bring to the kitchen still has trace amounts of plutonium. Jo says he’s coming downtown.
Hanson and Martinez conduct the interview and Hanson says he knows the guy hated the monarchy, just admit that he poisoned him. The guy says if he knew it was Aronov he wouldn’t have poisoned him, that’s what women do, he would have stabbed him in the heart and told him to rot in Hell. Jo asks then who poisoned him and he responds, want you start with the young girl he had lunch with, maybe his mistress, green-eyes American accent. He says she was happy at first then got mad, started yelling and stormed out saying she was going back to her cage.
Back at the lab, Morgan examines the body with a blacklight and sees a temporary tattoo of a birdcage. Lucas tells him it’s the hottest club in town, called the Gilded Cage and he got turned away the week before. Jo asks Henry if he wants to go clubbing and off they go.
The hostess recognizes Aronov’s picture immediately, says they don’t get a lot of old people in the club, the apologizes to Morgan and Martinez. They ask if she knows a green-eyed girl he kept company with and she points to their cocktail waitress Lydia at the bar.
Turns out Lydia’s Armen’s illegitimate daughter given up for adoption and raised in foster care. He started coming in a few months ago, buying a soda nursing it all night then leaving huge tips. Then he told her and she was elated, he said it was a mistake to give her up and she’s special.
But the other day he started talking crazy, saying he was a King and he wanted to take me to his country and he had all sorts of presents for her there. Then he pulled out a diamond, but she knew it was too big to be real. Henry tells her everything her father said was the truth and she says, well now I’m an orphan again and has to go back to work.
Henry gets back to Abe’s shop and Abe’s on Skype, talking with his cousin from Scotland, Lachlan. Abe can barely understand his cousin, who’s a bearded red-headed giant sheep-herder. He says cheerio and has to get back to his sheep. Henry says he feels bad that he never had Abe interact with the Morgan family relatives and Abe says when your father’s immortal, family reunions are hard to pull off.
We flash back to 1955, and see Abigail’s sound asleep at the foot of the bed as the King says she’ll get upset that he bored her to sleep on her wedding night. Henry says they got married ten-years before, but this was the first chance for a Honeymoon. The King asked if children got in the way and Henry chuckles and says yes, one, our son Abraham. The King takes a ring off his finger and says a present for young Abraham, my father gave me this ring and his father to him, starting with the first of our line.
Henry says no you should give it to your son and the King says he doesn’t want to burden him, that’s why they’re on this trip to get his son out of Urkesh. He says I don’t want my son to be a King, I want him to feel free to do as he pleases. Henry asks the King what about him and the monarch says he’ll go back and face his fate. (He and the whole Royal Family got killed, only Armen survived.) He then wishes Henry and his wife luck and says good night.
Henry, Jo and Mike arrive at Mrs. Aronov’s apartment and Hanson doesn’t exactly handle the questioning all that diplomatically. First he asks if she’s aware his husband stepped out on her. She says it was 25-years ago, when she found out she couldn’t get pregnant she went into a deep depression. As she’s talking the hand holding the teacup shakes badly, which Morgan notices. Hanson then asks about her husband’s illegitimate daughter, which she had no idea about. Then Mike asks her if she killed her husband to stop him from taking his daughter to Urkesh?
Mrs. Aronov rightfully explodes, she says in another life she would have been a queen, does this look like a palace? She says she married Armen only for love, then pulls out a fistful of diamonds and asks if he thinks she’s worried about money. Then she blacks out and falls to the floor. Henry realizes she’s gotten poisoned. and pumps her stomach with a length of tubing. She survives the experience.
Jo and Hanson check the lock on the back door and note it got cut by bolt-cutters, there’s also ink all over the lock as the person who broke in had ink all over their hands and it’s the same shade as the ink at the consulate. Henry says it’s the person that stamps the visas at the consulate.
They head to the consulate but Dasha refuses to cooperate, he says he wishes he could help them just like the American girl who came in that day, claiming to be Aronov’s daughter. Morgan walks out, but Dasha says to Martinez she’s forgetting her paper, she picks it up and it has the employee’s file and picture in it.
They call Lydia and tell her to lock all the doors and windows, but it’s too late, the employee’s already inside. He starts strangling Lydia, but suddenly a baby cries. He says you have a child, she tries to stop him but he knocks her out with a punch to the head. He walks into the infant’s room pulls out a pistol and is ready to shoot him, when Martinez and Morgan burst in.
Henry puts the baby in the bathtub while Jo and the man exchange gunfire, Lydia becomes conscious, sees the guy warns Jo and Lydia’s shot in the abdomen, then Martinez kills the gunman. Henry rides in the ambulance alongside Lydia and she says she doesn’t want her son to grow up an orphan like she did. Henry looks at her and says courage, you’re the daughter of a King.
Lydia, survives the gunshot and Jo takes care of her baby while she recovers, Henry and her babysit at the hospital for about four hours and Henry heads home exhausted.
When he gets home, Abe’s little-kid happy at his newest discovery, he found an ancestor and asks Henry to guess who. Henry says he’s far too tired for guessing games and Abe tells Henry, that Henry’s his ancestor. Henry’s Uncle Dennis fathered a child out-of-wedlock and so they share the same bloodline. Both are ecstatic.
A few days later Lydia wakes up in her hospital room to find Mrs. Aronov holding her son. The older woman says she hopes she doesn’t mind but he looks just like his grandfather. A new family’s born.
Henry’s voiceover as the episode concludes, summed things up well
The truth is each of us is related, it’s just a question of how far back you trace your family tree. Deep down, all of us have shared blood in our veins. And if we’re all related, then all of us have royal blood, which is why each son should be treated like a King and each daughter treated like a Queen. No matter how old our children may be.
The Story Continues Tuesday Night February 24, at 10:00 pm on ABC.
