Last week on Houdini & Doyle, we discovered that Constable Stratton is secretly using an alias. This week, we dive a little deeper into her past.
A black man, Danny and his white wife, Rosie, are discussing their future in a field. She’s pregnant. They see a light in the sky. It hits the ground with a thunderous boom. Danny investigates and they’re attacked by beings we can’t quite see in the darkness.
The next morning, a farmer finds Danny in a different field in his underwear. Rosie is missing.
Houdini and Doyle travel by train to the site. They talk about Stratton’s alias and wonder if they should trust her.
Rosie’s uncle Jim is convinced that Danny killed her. He doesn’t want help from our trio.
Danny gives his account of monsters to Constable Stratton. He has scratches on his body, but he can’t remember what happened after they attacked.
Houdini believes Danny is lying because he’s an alcoholic, but Houdini says he believes Danny. Is this a role reversal or is Houdini just trying to be difficult?
Houdini hypnotizes Danny for a better recollection. He saw something glowing and they were attacked by creatures, one wearing a medallion. He smelled what he calls Lords and Ladies.
Stratton realizes Lords and Ladies is a country term for a certain plant. They go searching for it. Houdini questions Stratton about her husband’s death and is convinced her answer is a lie. She finds the flowers and they spread out to look for the spaceship. They find a crater in the earth. Houdini determines it to be a meteorite.
Stratton finds the medallion Danny spoke of. It riles Danny up. He wants to look for his wife. Houdini discovers that a woman on the edge of town, Martha, claims to have seen a strange creature after Rosie disappeared. Our trio pay her a visit.
Martha questions Houdini about his origins. She’s compares her history with his. She talks about outliving family and friends because of an uprising 50 years ago. He asks her about the creatures. She’s kept records of their visits. Doyle thinks she’s crazy. Is he right?
Jim confronts Houdini about protecting Danny. Houdini takes a punch, but then returns it multiple times over, knocking Jim out cold. What has him so incensed?
Back in their hotel room, Houdini works out his extra rage through exercise. Doyle understands that Houdini has been the object of prejudicial ire.
Houdini stole pictures of Stratton’s husband and his friends. One of them is George Ives who is the founding member of a secret society pandering to gay men. Houdini thinks Stratton’s husband was having an affair with his friend Nigel.
There’s a knock on Stratton’s door. It’s Doyle. She asks him why Houdini has been acting strange since the train. He claims he doesn’t know. Will Houdini ever be brave enough to just ask Stratton about her past?
Doyle goes outside to smoke his pipe and sees a creature in the shadows. It attacks him.
Houdini wakes alone in their hotel room. He apologizes to Stratton over breakfast for his behavior the night before and tells her the sad tale of his past experiences with prejudice in his own life.
Houdini finds Doyle’s pipe outside and yells for him. He finds him unconscious in his underwear down a narrow path. When he wakes, he says he was drugged, but wonders why he wasn’t moved like Danny was. He thinks the original site is the key – the creatures don’t want their hiding place discovered.
Doyle notices bats in the field, meaning there are caves nearby. He and Houdini find the caves and start to explore. Creatures leap from a shelf to attack them.
Jim and his friends want to help search for Rosie. Stratton agrees, but only if they let Danny help too.
Doyle and Houdini are tied with ropes. Doyle cuts the ropes with a piece of broken glass. They find a store of poisonous plants. They also find 52 marks on the wall, indicating the creatures are humans who have been living in the mines for half a century. They hid there to survive the uprising.
The cave dwellers come upon Houdini and Doyle and apologize. They brought Rosie to the caves to help her heal from a blow to the head. They use the poisons to knock people unconscious in order to continue their way of life. They believe the surface world to be unsafe. Houdini and Doyle offer to help them.
Stratton and the search party arrive and are ready to attack the cave dwellers. Rosie appears and tells them they saved her life and helped deliver her baby.
On the train home, Houdini asks Stratton why she changed her name. He gives her his theory of her husband’s affair. She says Ives was her husband’s cousin. She thinks her husband was murdered. Doyle reads in the paper that Nigel is dead. Stratton thinks her life is now in danger.
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