WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Clarice Season 1, Episode 2, "Ghosts of Highway 20."
CBS' Clarice finds Agent Starling (Rebecca Breeds) after the events of The Silence of the Lambs, struggling to cope with her trauma now that she's been thrust back into the public limelight. Her VICAP unit in the FBI, as well as Attorney General Ruth Martin, want her to insist to the media that a new serial killer's roaming Appalachia, but refutes this on national TV and draws their ire.
However, as Clarice tries to make amends and prove to the team she does belong there, her world is rocked when she experiences her own Waco incident.
The Waco siege took place in 1993 when the U.S. federal government, Texas state law enforcement and the U.S. military raided a camp led by David Koresh. They were accused of stockpiling weapons, and when ATF intervened, agents were killed along with members of Koresh's cult of Branch Davidians. The calvary came in and the event lasted 51 days, culminating in a huge fire that killed many women and children. Admittedly, details of the battle are contentious, but it still remains one of America's darkest and most controversial moments.
This is addressed when Clarice's team heads to Tennessee where a Koresh-like figure, Novak, has a commune similar to Waco. Unfortunately, someone there shot an ATF agent investigating rumors of weapons stored illegally, and when the task force comes down, a firefight ensues Novak calls a ceasefire, though, when a boy, Peter, tells him Clarice is there. Seen as a celebrity after Buffalo Bill, he invites her over, and she plays the game well.
Novak shows her the commune, and while he paints it as peaceful, she can tell women and kids are being abused. All of this causes her to break down in the bathroom, but after another gunfight occurs, Novak agrees to speak to Sheriff Rowan to deescalate things. However, as the men convene, rather than return to her tent, Clarice sneaks back in to find Peter. She stumbles across tapes and one-way mirrors, revealing it's a prostitution and sex trafficking ring and that Rowan's actually working with Novak.
They're using girls, peddling them to corrupt cops, judges and public officials, so Clarice steals some tapes for herself. She sends Peter off to safety, discovering he shot the agent as a cry for help, knowing law enforcement would come. This leads to a riveting finale where Clarice, bugged up, seduces Novak and gets his guard down. She then uses his ego to rile him up, making him confess he's the boss, not Rowan. He figures out she's got him on tape, but as he tries to kill her, Esquivel snipes him. Sadly, even after taking Novak out, Clarice is still dealing with her trauma.
Starring Rebecca Breeds, Michael Cudlitz, Kal Penn, Nick Sandow, Lucca De Oliveira, Devyn A. Tyler and Marnee Carpenter, Clarice airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
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