Warning: Spoiler Alert
One can try escaping to the opposite side of the Earth, but there are two things a person can never run away from; who they are and the acts they’ve committed. Although NYPD Medical Examiner Dr. Henry Morgan’s restarted his life countless times, during his 200-years on this planet, he still carries the internal scars he got in the early 19th Century. This week’s episode of the ABC series “Forever,” revolved around character’s with deep secrets, including Henry himself. Morgan’s secrets got jeopardized in the present and he flashbacked to a time when his secret became endangered in the distant past.
We’re in one of the busiest spots on the globe as the episode begins, Times Square at night and we watch locals and tourists heading to their destinations. Suddenly our focus shifts to the Jumbotron, telecasting an interview show called Hot Seat, the host’s interviewing Lawrence Creff, CEO of Hallaway Industries and a nominee, for the Assistant Secretary of Defense position. Creff tells the host and their audience that the critics are wrong, as CEO of Hallaway, serving American’s was his job, and he’d do the same in the Government slot. He says in no way would him getting the post be a conflict of interests.
Suddenly the large monitor on the set behind the two men, shows the image of a porcelain mask, then we see writing on the monitor, while an electronically distorted voice reads the text. “SO MANY LIES, MR. CREFF. WHERE TO START? HOW ABOUT THE DINNER CONVERSATION?”
The monitor switches to a recording of Creff addressing a restaurant filled with prosperous-looking businessmen and Creff tells the group to invest in umbrellas, as it will be raining money next year. We suddenly switch to the studio’s control room, as the show’s producer finally says, he thinks they got hacked. We watch a young guy watching the show in a bar and smiling at the results, it’s obvious he’s involved in the events that just took place. He leaves the bar grinning from ear to ear and heads home.
The next morning Henry joins Abe for breakfast, Abe’s quite animated about the hack-job on the talk-show, says it’s the work of “Faceless,” a secret Hacktivist group, looking to out all the corruption in the country. Henry says he finds it quite odd, that people out to save the world, wear masks to do their work, Abe says he and his cohorts never wore masks in the late sixties protesting the Viet Nam war.
Our corpse of the week, of course is the guy we saw in the bar the night before, found dead in his bed. Lucas at first assumes that the victim Eric Shaw, died of cardiac failure, but Morgan corrects him and tells him the cause of death was asphyxiation. Suddenly the apartment becomes alive, all the lights go on, the heater, the stereo, Shaw had all his electronic equipment connected to an app on his cell phone. Henry believes that Shaw died from inhaling gas while sleeping from the heater.
Back at the station Detectives Jo Martinez and Mike Hanson, are about to check some leads, when a young man and women, both in their mid-twenties, tell them their usual tactics won’t work in this case. Meet the Cyber-Cops, partners who normally deal in Internet crimes such as stealing and hacking, are on this case as it’s believed the murderer killed Shaw by remote control, hacking into his phone app to turn on his heater, after they snuffed out the pilot light. The female Cyber-Cop, Irene tells Hanson and Martinez they can just relax, they’ll locate the hacker by the end of the day.
Jo’s feeling kind of outdated and useless, so she visits Henry in the morgue, as he’s in the midst of conducting Shaw’s autopsy. He says something just doesn’t feel quite right, then he asks Martinez if she’d like to go and get gassed, Jo replies, now you’re talking.
The two of them are lying on Eric Shaw’s bed, both wearing gas masks, while Henry holds a device measuring gas content in the room. The two start talking about different ways to perish and then Martinez asks Morgan, why he chose to head into pathology, why’s he so interested in death? Morgan says perhaps because it feels like he’s solving a puzzle each time he comes up with a cause of a victim’s demise. The indicator goes off, but Henry says due to the gap in the window, the gas concentration wasn’t enough to kill Shaw, although it would have knocked him out.
They head back to the morgue and Henry shaves off Shaw’s beard, revealing an abrasion on his mouth. Someone actually held their hand over his mouth to suffocate him. The pair go to find the Cyber-Cops to tell them Henry’s discovery, when Irene tells them they just arrested Lawrence Creff, as the hack got traced to his house where he was all night. Jo says, that would make him innocent as Henry just discovered the murderer was in the room with Shaw when he died.
Creff’s brought back to the station and interrogated and he tells the cops the idea of him killing Shaw’s ludicrous. He was with his wife and attorney all night long. Jo then asks how that tape appeared on Hot Seat and he theorizes it’s security footage, but Martinez says security footage has no sound, perhaps a guest or a member of the wait staff taped it on a cell-phone. Creff says his guests were thoroughly vetted and wouldn’t pay ten grand to eat Pastanero, if they were looking to get him. Henry in the other room winces, as Pastanero was the last meal that Shaw ate.
Henry and Jo head to the restaurant that catered the dinner, but the manager doesn’t recognize Shaw’s picture and says all his employee’s are trustworthy. Henry see’s a female member of the kitchen staff, with a mathematical equation tattooed on her shoulder, that’s our girl he tells Jo. Her name’s Liz Chamberlain and she denies knowing Eric Shaw, but Henry says she not only knew him, they were lovers, her eyebrow piercing left a scratch on Shaw’s forehead. Chamberlain knocks down some dish racks and runs away. She jumps on a cycle, but Jo and Henry are right on her tail, but somehow she gets all the lights her way and escapes.
We have our first flashback of the evening and the graphic informs us we’re in London in the year 1865, Henry’s a doctor in a hospital and a pretty young nurse, points to a newspaper article posted on a column. The headline reads Hero Doctor Saves Child From Towering Inferno, along with an illustration of the savior, our Henry. Morgan fumes about making so much of a fuss and the nurse says the hospital administration considers it great publicity. Then she says she’d like to get rescued by Henry herself and they share a kiss, we realize they’re romantically involved.
The nurse then asks Henry if he’s kept anything from her, any hidden secrets? He responds of course not and she says there’s a woman downstairs claiming she’s Henry’s wife. Morgan enters the room the woman’s in and as she gets up, he quickly sees, she’s quite elderly, possibly in her seventies. She says when she read it in the paper she couldn’t believe it, but now seeing him in the flesh she knows it’s true. He is Henry Morgan her husband, suddenly Henry’s mind starts racing and he realizes it’s Nora, fifty-years after she put him in the asylum. The nurse walks into the room he whispers Nora, and the old woman faints.
Back in the present Cyber-Cop Irene, tells the pair that a hacker known as the Warlock, an infamous cyber-criminal aided Liz’s escape by remotely controlling all the traffic lights. The pair soon sit down and question the Warlock, who is reality’s named Bernard Belcic and looks like a dumpy slacker in his late twenties. He admits to triggering the traffic lights, as he’s got the “city code,” the key to unlocking and utilizing any electrical equipment the city uses. He also says he met with Shaw and Liz Chamberlain the night Shaw died, she was still there when he left. He then tells them if Liz’s hiding, she won’t be found unless she wants to be.
Henry’s in his lab when he sees a message on his computer monitor, “Lose Something Dr. Morgan, Or Whoever You Are?” Henry types back who is this and the Liz Chamberlain flashes on the screen, telling Morgan he’s the slowest typist on earth. She then tells Henry, she didn’t kill Shaw, that she truly loved him but now she needs to disappear and she wants Henry to fill out a death certificate for her. Morgan says she’s insane, but then she tells Henry she did some digging and he’s as phony as a three-dollar-bill. His Social Security Number and his records popped up out of nowhere six years earlier and she knows he’s hiding something. So his choice is he helps her, or she tells the NYPD about his forged records.
Henry talks about things with Abe and the antique dealer reminds him of the fallout, the last time someone tried revealing his secret. Then he says the situation involving Nora, ended in tragedy. Abe says you have to decide how far do you go to protect your secret?
Back in 1865, Nora’s now a patient at Henry’s hospital and he’s her attending physician, but he tries to act like she’s a stranger. When he asks her name she says Mrs. Henry Morgan and you’re my husband, why would you deny me this pleasure at my advanced age. Henry’s temper comes to the surface and he speaks through clenched teeth, because you denied me Nora, you destroyed my life. She says she’s sorry, she now sees she was wrong, but they’re back together to reveal his secret and marvel mankind. Morgan tells her, that she’s never to mention, he’s his secret for fifty years and he’s keeping it secret.
Back in the present. Henry heads from the living quarters into Abe’s shop, when he hears a woman’s voice. It’s Chamberlain who wants her death certificate, Morgan pulls one from his pocket and holds it out to her. He says this won’t give her a new life. She’ll be constantly looking over her shoulder waiting to get discovered. She’ll never know peace or freedom.
Liz says she’ll take that chance and holds her hand out for the certificate, Morgan says so will he and rips it to shreds. She gets up says okay you got warned and walks out of the shop. The Cyber-Cops locate her as soon as she starts walking, she gets a few blocks away, starts crossing the street on a cross walk, just about to text the message to Jo when she’s hit by a car, exactly when Mike and Jo arrive. When Henry arrives at the hospital Martinez says she’s on life support, she has a 50/50 chance of surviving.
Martinez and Hanson bring in Bernard Belcic, certain that he timed the lights to get Chamberlain killed. However the Warlock tells them he couldn’t access the lights even if he wanted to, the “city-code” got changed by a member of the NYPD.
Back in 1865, the pretty young nurse goes up to Henry and asks if he’s heard the news? The old woman claiming to be his wife came back to the hospital, talking about all sorts of crazy things and they’re going to put her in the asylum. Henry says no, she’s just mildly confused from the fall she had, suddenly the door opens and in walks Nora, holding a pistol. She says she’ll prove Morgan’s immortal and fires the gun, but the nurse steps in front of Henry, takes the bullet and dies instantly.
We head to Chamberlain’s room and the only two in the room other than Liz are Henry and Irene the Cyber-Cop, when the light-bulb clicks over Morgan’s head. Irene was the woman Eric Shaw seduced and stole the codes from, she killed him and now she’s trying to kill Liz. Liz starts going into shock, but Irene’s disconnected the room from the rest of the hospital grid, she tells Henry she knows his secret, if he lets Liz die all their secrets die with them.
Henry hits an alarm and starts performing heart massage on Chamberlain, other doctors and nurses enter the room and Morgan saves her life. Irene runs out of the hospital and her partner asks what she’s doing, she says all her secrets are going to come out, then steps into the path of an ambulance, dying instantly.
Later Martinez comes up to Henry saying she got an e-mail to some digging on his background and he’s deceived her. How come he doesn’t have on his resume he graduated Oxford at the top of his class, Morgan says he didn’t want to seem like he was showing off.
Henry gets another video visit from Liz, she tells him that she closed all the gaps in his resume, his secrets safe from now on. As for her, she’ll stick to being Liz Chamberlain, she decided starting life over wasn’t for her.
The Story Continues Tuesday, March 24, at 10:00 pm on ABC.
