It’s time for one of the most important days in the Green Grove year – the Fall Festival. But what should be an extravaganza of booths, apple tosses, and live bands has been dampened by Danny’s presence, as the town is divided on whether or not he should be allowed to attend. For her part, Jo thinks she’s grown out of the Festival traditions she’s had with Tess and doesn’t want to go this year; she also has a breakfast confrontation with Kyle over the necklace, which she knows about and chides him about not working to find out who gave Regina the necklace in the first place. He gets upset at Tess not presenting a united front with him and allowing Jo to become more defiant by the day.
Despite all the talk about him being a potential threat to the town, Danny hasn’t ruled out going to the Festival. He tells Karen that his therapist Dr. Reidy has suggested that he connect with meaningful past events in order to ease his transition from juvie. She then mentions the possibility of donating a bunch of Vik’s stuff to Goodwill – clothes, odds and ends, and the chair that he had the necklace in, only she doesn’t mention that she knows about its whereabouts. He gets defensive about the thought of her donating the chair, citing the fact that it’s too soon and its presence in the house makes him feel like his dad is still there.
Lacey has a pretty vivid dream that Regina comes into her room and scarfs down peanut butter; she claims that she doesn’t have to worry about it adding inches to her waistline anymore and that God’s a vegan who only likes people with no more than two sexual partners. She then mentions that Lacey’s holding a secret, possibly that she wants to hook up with Danny. Not that Regina blames her, of course, since she knows about the allure of his long hair, menacing eyes, murderous hands, and handsome smile that he had on while killing her. Lacey gets startled awake and mentions the dreams that day to Phoebe when the topic of conversation turns to Regina’s love for Fall Festival and the A.R. (After Regina) period her clique is dealing with. When Lacey brings up the necklace, Phoebe suggests going to Gloria for information on its origins, since she doesn’t know anything about it, either.
Kyle heads up a meeting about Danny’s possible attendance at the Festival and the safety issues of Green Grove’s citizens, where Tim Calvert gets into an argument with a woman defending Danny’s right to go to the Festival. Tim gets in a few cheap shots toward Kyle before Mayor Rollins has to step in and take control of the situation, irritated that Kyle hasn’t made more progress in the investigation. Meanwhile, Jo and Danny go to the diner to talk about the Fest and how she thinks he should go. Before too long, though, they spot Lacey picking up food; she comes over and urges them not to go to the Festival due to the rising tensions in town. She hurts their feelings by calling their attendance “selfish” and leaves.
Danny ultimately decides to go to the Festival thanks to Jo and receives a terse reception full of knowing stares and loud whispers. While he tries to reach out to Tess by joining her pottery class, Jo volunteers them for the Mathletes booth and the evening formal, to the delight of her mother. Tess runs out to a nearby booth to pull a turquoise dress she had her eye on, only for Jo to say that she’ll be wearing a nice pair of pants and a sweater to the dance. Skipping out on some of the daily Festival events, Lacey goes to Gloria’s house to reminisce about Regina and look at photos. She clumsily inquires about the necklace and where it came from, but Gloria doesn’t know anything about it and is intrigued by the fact that Kyle asked about it, too. Just when she’s leaving, Lacey makes a last ditch effort to covertly look for evidence by asking to help her with condolence letters, which Gloria agrees to.
Back at the police station, Kyle gets jumped on by Mayor Rollins over the calls the former has received about Danny being at the Fest and hanging out with Jo and Tess. The raid was a PR nightmare since it didn’t turn up any type of evidence and at the moment, there’s no murder weapon, the crime scene was basically destroyed due to the party, and there are very few reliable alibis due to the alcohol that was being served that night. The only thing that Kyle has is paint at the crime scene and this necklace that has somehow slipped from the original police that handled Tara’s murder to the estate lawyers to the person who gave it to Regina to Regina herself without leaving a mark. Rollins warns him that should anything happen at the Festival, it’s his responsibility and of course, something happens not long afterward. Tim Calvert gets into an altercation with Danny and ends up shoving him over the Mathletes Pi Pie table; Kyle calms the situation, but Rico gets annoyed at Danny still being around their booth and at Jo for sticking with her childhood friend.
Danny runs into Kyle later when picking up some additional pies for the Mathletes and Chief Masterson urges him to stay home tonight, that his presence had caused enough problems already for Green Grove. Meanwhile, Karen goes to see Dr. Reidy and asks about the signs of being a sociopath. She tells her that she wants to know how to refute the accusations people have been making against her son, but in actuality, she’s worried that he might be guilty of killing Regina since he still has the necklace. Reidy mentions five traits that a sociopath has: glibness, superficial charm, the ability to lie, no aversion to risk, and the ability to imitate human emotion. Karen recognizes her son in that description, though she doesn’t mention anything to the doctor and goes about her business.
While Jo and Danny contemplate staying in for the night and caving to the pressure from Kyle, with Jo waffling due to wanting to attend the Festival, Lacey finds an envelope in Gloria’s stack of contacts that has no return address. Inside the envelope is a wad of 100 dollar bills and a cryptic note that indicates Regina wasn’t as innocent as people may have thought, which she hides in her purse.
Jo and Danny end up going to the Festival together after Tess manages to convince her to put the dress on and Karen ties Danny’s tie and promises to help him no matter what. Lacey runs into Gloria at the Regina memorial booth and the two again talk about their departed loved one, who Gloria is glad people are remembering for being a happy, fun girl and not the way she died. Inside the formal, Mayor Rollins is being interviewed about the Festival and halts the proceedings once Danny and Jo make their entrance. He tries to make them leave and Jo threatens to go if Danny does; Danny then mentions that if they’re kicked out of the festival, it’ll be a bigger news story, but if they’re allowed to stay, the focus could be on the festival itself.
Danny and Jo are ultimately allowed to stay and he even participates in the annual apple toss, which he loses to Tim Calvert. While things seem to be going smoothly, Rollins is upset at Kyle for making the situation one in which he had to handle and Rico is upset at how obsessed Jo’s become with Danny. However, Danny and Jo make good on their promise to Lacey to do the dance they always did during formal and end up sharing a slow dance that features her putting her head on his chest. Both Rico and Kyle don’t like what’s going on, although Danny has to leave when he gets a text. It turns out to be from Lacey, who shows him the envelope only to tell him that she can’t talk to Kyle about it yet. She doesn’t want to screw around with how people perceive Regina and Danny suggests that the unusual manner she insisted on meeting him indicates that she just wanted to get him alone. Lacey takes offense and after Danny says he’s not going to keep this from Jo, the two kiss twice.
At the end of the night, Rico rejects Jo’s offer of a ride home and questions why she’s still trusting Danny so much. Meanwhile, Kyle gets into a fight with Tess about the lack of support she’s been showing him and the fact that Danny signed up for her pottery class.
As for Karen, she goes to a nearby dock and throws the necklace into the water. As Rico watches.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-”Heaven, huh? Well played.”
-”It’s like she has her own room in my subconscious.”
-So, what kind of connection do you think Tim Calvert has to this? His viciousness toward Danny makes me think that there’s some personal tie to Regina’s death, because he was acting all types of inappropriate tonight.
-No Phoebe at the Festival, but her “I look like a whore, don’t I?” was perfection.
-Speaking of the Festival, I thought it was overall pretty fun and felt like something a small town like Green Grove would put on. My favorite part was probably the silly “La Bamba” dance, only because the friendship between Danny, Lacey, and Jo is the best thing the show has going and little details like that only serve to accentuate their former closeness.
-What do you think about the envelope and the money? Was Regina leading a secret life a’la Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks?
-I’m not a shipper, but the kisses between Danny and Lacey? Oh my. The chemistry, you guys. I kind of want them to get together, if only for that and the effect it would have on Danny/Jo.
-Let’s talk about suspects. There was no movement on Sarita, Scott, and Archie tonight, since they all ditched the formal, but newly introduced were Tim and Mayor Rollins, neither of whom I trust whatsoever. The latter seemed particularly shifty and considering the letter Regina got, it might not be a stretch to say that her killer was someone powerful and with a fair amount of influence in Green Grove.
-Although seeing Rico go to the dark side makes me sad, I think having him turn against Jo and Danny could be pretty amazing, since he’d be an adversary that’s at least kind of sympathetic and someone whose motives are more gray in nature. Also, you’d think that Karen would at least drive out of town to dispose of something like the necklace, no?
-Next week on Twisted: Danny takes Jo and Lacey on a road trip to Connecticut, while Kyle is determined to track Jo down and Tess bonds with Karen over pottery.
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