Blood Moon

John calls Mitch and tells him that they think Dr. Wallace has Molly. John asks Mitch to use his Stingray, a device that will let them collect data on Wallace’s phone. After Mitch confirms that he’s ready, Beth calls Wallace. Beth tells Wallace that the police have a suspect in custody who might be interested in human sacrifices to Luna. She asks him about the handles that she sent to him, and he admits that one of the handles is his. He tells her that he will return to the list immediately since she’s told him it is urgent. Wallace asks her what lead she sent the police in Jackson, and Beth hedges. She shares that Larissa Whitmore and the suspect in custody have the crescent tattoo. After she hangs up, Mitch gives John Wallace’s location, and they start driving.

Barker gets out of the shower gingerly. He’s injured from his run-in with John. Officer Clarkson calls Barker and tells him that the people in the department who are supportive of John seem to be rallying around him and working on something, and he heard the name “Molly.” The officer also shares that he heard some of the same officers saying that John was right about the Crissy Mellin case.

Wallace considers why Beth had to get off the phone with him so quickly. He looks over the social-media handles, finding several that were his. Wallace is impressed that John figured out that there was an “elite” group on the dark web who sacrificed women to Luna. He wonders what the man in Jackson did to get caught. Wallace was more careful with Crissy, although that didn’t quite count. She had not been purified, so “he had been denied entrance through that sacred portal into the inner sanctum” (369). Wallace found the dark website about Luna and was intrigued. He was invited to join a private group and then invited to join an even more elite group. He had failed with Crissy, but he is determined not to fail with Molly. He followed her from her house and took her when she left the restaurant. Wallace decides to speed up his timetable and sacrifice Molly sooner to celebrate during the blood moon instead of cleaning up.

Mitch tells John that Dr. Wallace is on the move. John tells him to follow but avoid being spotted. John gets a call from an officer telling him that the car outside the restaurant belonged to Wallace. The officer then tells him that Barker just stormed in, and he ends the call.

Barker asks everyone in the office what is going on. Barker makes Officer Clarkson tell him what he knows, and he tells him that John thinks his daughter was kidnapped. He does not know where John is.

Mitch sees Wallace’s car and continues following it. Wallace is going to an isolated area. John turns, and a tin roof reflects the sun, which tips him off to its existence. He tells Beth to get Mitch, and John tells Mitch that he thinks he’s found where Wallace is headed. He gets out of the car and tells Beth to back the car up and get it to the highway. Then, he tells her to call the sheriff and an ambulance. Beth follows his directions, and John goes to the shed. He calls out, and Molly is there. She tells him that she is tied and unharmed besides a concussion. Wallace’s car arrives, and John knocks him down as he enters the shed. Mitch arrives and takes over dealing with Wallace so that John can take care of Molly.

An ambulance arrives, and the EMTs take care of Molly. Beth returns and hugs John. Mitch and Detective Derby approach, and Derby explains that when deputies went to John’s house, they found Gray dead in his shed. They found John’s service pistol, used in the murder, thrown into the bushes nearby.

John responds with skepticism. Gray was killed in his shed after the padlock was shot off. He knew the code to the padlock, and he’d given his service pistol to Barker along with his badge. John tells Detective Derby that he’s going to the hospital with his daughter, and Derby tells him not to make himself hard to find. John gets into the ambulance, and Beth promises to follow in the car.

Beth calls Winston Brady’s assistant, who tells her that Brady is in a meeting. Finally, Beth gets to speak to Brady, but Brady responds with skepticism and derision about Wallace’s arrest. He is not convinced that Wallace is related to the Crissy Mellin case, and he’s unwilling to postpone the episode. Brady hangs up on her. John comes out and tells her that Molly is fine but needs to rest. They go to a nearby hotel.

John shares that Derby told him that they are looking closely at Barker as a suspect in Gray’s murder. John believes that Barker killed Gray out of anger and an urge to tie up any loose ends. Gray told John, before they left him, that he’d begun recording his conversations with Barker. John has both Gray’s and Barker’s phones in his possession. At the hotel, Beth and John have sex again. Then, they shower and lie in bed.

John and Beth return to the hospital that evening, and John tells Beth that Molly wants to meet her. Beth meets Molly, and Molly asks about New York because she hopes to go to college there. Molly gets a text from Roslyn saying that she will be there soon, so Beth excuses herself and leaves John and Molly alone. Molly is nervous about talking to Detective Derby, but John reassures her. John returns to Beth, and he calls Derby in the parking lot. Derby tells him that he’s working on nailing Barker, but he’s being careful about it. Derby mentions that Wallace keeps bringing up Crissy Mellin and speculating about where she may be buried. John suggests that Carla Mellin might rattle Wallace if she met him in person.

Carla is reluctant to help, even after they tell her that John’s daughter was abducted. John tells her if she does not do it before the episode airs, then Billy Oliver’s reputation will be ruined. He’ll be seen as Crissy’s killer forever. Carla says that she cannot help, but then a young woman behind Carla pulls the door open and says she can help.

Barker looks at Wallace through the one-way window. Detective Derby is annoyed that Barker is there, but he cannot send him away since their departments work together. Derby assigned two talented interrogators to speak to Wallace, but they did not get him to give up any pertinent information. Barker asks why Wallace is being interrogated when he was caught with Molly, and Derby tells him it is because of Crissy Mellin. Barker presents John as unwell because he will not accept that Billy Oliver killed Crissy. Derby suggests that Barker stop speaking without an attorney, angering Barker. Derby tells Barker that he knows about the trap he set for John. Barker states that the trap was Gray’s idea and that after he was knocked unconscious, he left. He thought that Mitch and John had Gray. John approaches and tells Derby that he needs to speak with him, ignoring Barker completely.

Beth leaves a message for Richard, telling him that Crissy is alive and sitting next to her. They must stop the episode. After John hustled Carla and Crissy into the car, he asked Crissy if she was even kidnapped. She stated that she was. Carla interjected that it was not illegal to pretend to be dead. Carla explained that they pretended she was dead so that her kidnapper would not attempt to kill her again.

Beth encourages Crissy to tell her story, and she tells Derby that she was kidnapped after she left the convenience store. A car stopped, a man told her that she’d forgotten something, and then she woke up tied in a building with corrugated tin walls. She was kept for five days, and then Wallace came with two large bags. She knew that he planned to kill her. He did not close the door completely when he came in, and he untied her legs so that she could use the bathroom. Crissy hit him with a bucket and ran into the woods. She stayed hidden during the day and walked at night, and it took her four days to get home. Crissy is confident that she can identify him. She shows Derby the crescent-moon tattoo on her arm.

Barker is bewildered when he sees Crissy and Carla. Beth shares that the Crissy episode won’t air because Richard went above Brady, getting the episode pulled. Crissy identifies Wallace as her kidnapper. She wants to confront him to take back her power. When she enters the interrogation room, Wallace is disbelieving and then furious. He accuses her of ruining everything and being the reason why he was not let into the inner sanctum.

Wallace’s outburst amounts to an admission of guilt. Crissy agrees to make a statement in the morning and is then released to go. Barker protests John being allowed to leave, and Detective Derby brings Barker in for questioning. John and Beth drive Carla and Crissy home. Crissy thanks John and goes inside. Carla, clearly conflicted, asks him what he would have done to protect his own daughter.

Back at the fishing cabin, Beth and John watch the blood moon. They go to the bedroom and have sex. When John wakes up, he enjoys being close to Beth. He feels unshackled from his bitterness over Crissy’s case. Then, John gets up because he promised Molly that he would go to the hospital early. Beth goes to get ready and comes back out to tell him that the network wants her back as an executive producer. Winston Brady was fired. John forces himself to be cheerful and offer her a ride to the airport, even though he feels heartbroken.

John meets Beth at the same seedy bar where they first met. The bartender gets him a beer, and he sits across from her. Beth tells him that Mitch invited her to the christening the next day. Beth congratulates John on becoming head of the Crimes Against Persons unit. Beth shares that she also knows that Isabel Sanchez and Mitch Haskell started working for him. John asks how she knows so much, and she tells him that the production crew filming the new Crissy Mellin episode told her most of it. Beth asks him why he has to make this so hard, and John is offended.

John asks if she was trying to get an interview, and she denies it. Beth shares that she knows that Barker was indicted for murder and that his wife filed for divorce. Wallace is incarcerated and awaiting sentencing for two counts of kidnapping. His wife—who was oblivious to his activities—sold their home and moved to Dallas, Texas, with their son. John moved closer to town, and Molly loves his new house. She spends half her weeks with him. John asks Beth if she’s gotten an Emmy for Max, and she tells him that she is proud of the episode she created on Crissy’s story. It will come out in the fall. She tells him once the episode was finished, she resigned. John is shocked that she resigned, and he asks her what she’s going to do. She plans to be a freelance editor and thinks that she can support herself because there is a lower cost of living in Louisiana. She tells him that there are many draws to Louisiana, but the main one is being nearer to him. She says that she loves him and that she had to leave to finish what she started; otherwise, John would have felt guilty and shut down. She points out that he’s shut down anyway, and John denies it. Beth asks him why he didn’t call her.

John tells her that he doesn’t know how they can make it work when their lives are so different. He points out that they’re too different. She asks for the real reason, and he tells her, “It would kill me to have you, and not be able to keep you” (436). He kisses her, and they leave the bar. She asks him what he meant months ago when he told her to watch herself. He tells her that he meant that she should watch herself or he might love her body and soul.