The Ghosts of 221B
Episode 2 of The Irregulars begins with a young boy leaving his tooth under a pillow for the tooth fairy. An innocent enough opening paves way for a far more sinister revelation. Whoever – or whatever – arrives that evening takes all of his teeth straight out of his mouth. Meanwhile, Bea finds herself arrested for stealing. Dr Watson of all people saves her, and confirms he’s done so because he has another case for her to solve. Given her lack of employment options, if Bea says no then she’ll be forced to return to the workhouse. In secret, Bea heads back to see Spike, asking him to break into 221B for them and search around for some clues. While he leaves, Leo arrives and decides to help out as well. Given Bea is the de-facto leader here, she gives him the task of teaming up with Billy and doing interviews. Billy clearly doesn’t like Leo, partly thanks to the way he’s romantically linked with Bea. Anyway, the pair make it to the Hippodrome Theatre where they begin asking about for Laura Machin and Carla Machin. This eventually brings them to Mr John Cooper. Billy and Leo receive a pretty frosty reception from the man, who eventually sends them away. As they walk, Leo admits that he’s far from perfect and according to the doctors they’ve never seen anyone that broken before. Jessie meanwhile, heads to the orphanage and finds that same boy from the opening scene of the episode. Only, he sports a full mouth of pearly white teeth. Silently, Jessie follows him where she’s invited inside by this boy’s Mother. The place is completely dilapidated. Suddenly, this strange woman turns and breathes something over her, knocking Jessie to the ground. Just then, Bea shows up and manages to save Jessie, holding a knife up to this woman’s neck. She’s apparently the Tooth Fairy and Jessie makes a bold decision to find out more. She holds the woman’s hand, diving deep into her memories. There, she sees her playing with a Ouija board which seems to be the source of her power. She refuses to give up the reason she’s taking children’s teeth though. Instead, their foe turns the tide and looks at Jessie’s memories – specifically painful, repressed moments from the workhouse. Meanwhile, Spike breaks into Baker Street and finds a strange letter regarding the Golden Dawn. Before he can pry further, footsteps at the door see him scramble upstairs and under the bed. When he does, someone lies on the bed and starts playing the violin off-key. Dropping the String instrument to the ground, he suddenly vomits. Spike bides his time, slipping out the room when this man (or woman) is passed out. Back with Jessie, the Tooth Fairy takes the opportunity to speak to Bea. She mentions her suffering and admits that monsters create monsters. Outside, Billy and Leo show up and notice a strange skull in the ground with orange tendrils protruding from it. In the distance, a young girl rises out of the ground. As she rushes off, Billy confirms that this is Carla Machin and the boy with her is William Cooper. Now it becomes clear that the Tooth Fairy is raising an army of clones. Their target happens to be the Hippodrome Theatre and, more specifically, the Duke. Using the clone of Carla, the Tooth Fairy speaks through the girl and holds a gun up to the Duke. She speaks of the damning story about her parents being taken away and her being left with a debt she was unable to pay up. Just before firing the final bullet, Billy races out and stops the Duke from being killed. Everything crescendos when Billy is attacked, eventually leading Bea to stab the Tooth Fairy and thwart the threat. With Bea in a bad way, Leo makes a bold decision and decides not to head back to the palace. While he sits with Bea, Jessie experiences another nightmare, this one again involving that strange plague doctor. As the nightmare takes hold, she jets off to Louisiana again. It seems like someone has ripped open a barrier between this world and the next. If this continues on, the worlds could well collapse unto itself. The only way to stop this is to find the Rip and the Linen Man wants her to investigate. Feeding this back to the others, Spike returns and shows off the letter regarding the Golden Dawn. He suggests they start there and work to find out exactly what this means. As fate would have it, Bea’s search brings her face to face with none other than Mycroft Holmes.
The Episode Review
While nowhere near as scary as Channel Zero’s attempt at the Tooth Fairy, The Irregulars delivers a pretty chilling episode unto itself, and one that certainly doesn’t hold back with its blood and violence. The supernatural elements have actually been worked quite well into the story and there’s lots to like with this too. On top of that, more of the overarching story starts to come into focus, namely the segments involving Holmes and Watson. The world-ending Rip and the idea of the Golden Dawn letter allows snippets of intrigue to bleed through, although it still remains to be seen exactly how all of this slots together. Right now though, this world-ending plot feels quite cliched. We’ll have to wait and see if this one can step away from that and deliver something wholly original. The Irregulars continues to deliver pretty good drama though, with lots of unanswered questions leading into the rest of the season.
