TV Recap & Review: ‘Clarice’ Episode 4 – “You Can’t Rule Me”

clarice tv show
CBS

For the first time in the series, “You Can’t Rule Me” introduces some much-needed humor, as well as a wonderfully creepy autopsy scene, which helps offset the convenient coincidences that happen during the investigation and throughout this episode. Clarice still stinks of FBI procedural television but the humor and darkness combo does offer hope.

The fallout from last week, where we saw a suspect die during an interrogation, has the VICAP unit under investigation. Heading up the investigation is Anthony Herman (David Hewlett), an FBI rival of Krendler (Michael Cudlitz). He is both your best friend and your worst enemy, offering the members outs in terms of better positions or threats in terms of their career. Hewlett plays it well, and while he’s the kind of sleazy FBI bureaucrat we’ve seen numerous times before, you can’t help but loathe the man.

RELATED: TV Recap & Review: ‘Clarice’ Episode 3 – “Are You Alright?”

When the VICAP unit gets confined to desk duty while the investigation is ongoing, the humor rolls out and it’s quite well done. Everything from porn mag collections, talking with someone who knows where Hoffa’s body is, and a bunch of great lines or one-liners that help interject some much-needed levity, especially in this episode where it could get really dry and boring fast. It was great to see and not overdone or over-the-top, which would have ruined it altogether.

Of course, this group will not just sit idly by at their desks. Led by Clarice Starling (Rebecca Breeds), who is great at thinking about her needs first before anyone else, they keep digging. However, the real story here is about the relationship between Ardelia Mapp (Devyn A. Tyler) and Starling, and how the whole investigation shone a bright light on just how self-centered Starling can be. Mapp calls her out, and rightfully so, and with the help of Herman, a wedge is driven between the two. If you look carefully, however, the resentment was already building and it will be curious to see if Starling changes her tactics going forward. If I was a betting man, I’d say no.

RELATED: TV Recap & Review: ‘Clarice’ Episode 2 – “Ghosts of Highway 20”

As much as I enjoyed the humor and confrontations (and that autopsy scene…wonderful) that went on in this episode, the investigations the VICAP team and others were doing were just chock-full of way too many coincidences. There are things that were easy to spot, things that were too easy as explanations, and for an FBI show, the dots seem far too easy to connect. They seemed more like background noise to the dialogue and confrontations popping up between VICAP unit members and others during the investigation.

The episode ended with a cliffhanger of sorts, something that might be familiar to fans of Clarice and her back story. While interesting in itself, it was yet another example of how Clarice has a long way to go in terms of learning how to play well with others. It might spur her on to think twice, but I don’t think her brain is hardwired that way. However it plays out, “You Can’t Rule Me” did the best it could to escape the procedural nightmare it has set up for itself but as with the episodes that came before, was only partly successful.


Check out all of our coverage for ‘Clarice’ here!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.