Out with the In-Crowd… In with the Crimes (Recap + Broken Laws of Season 1, Episode 11 of Twisted)
Finally back! While we’re waiting for new episodes of Twisted during this hiatus, here is my recap of the finale of Season 1 and the laws that were broken in it! I appreciate everyone’s patience.
Note: The second to last episode of Twisted did not have much criminal behavior, but there was one crime that cannot be ignored, so it will be discussed in this entry.
Before delving into the beginning of the Twisted finale, recall that in the episode before this, either Doug or Eloise released the video that Doug creepily took of Danny and Lacey hooking up.
Broken Law in the Previous Episode:
New York Penal – Article 250 – § 250.45 Unlawful Surveillance in the Second Degree (in relevant part):
“A person is guilty of unlawful surveillance in the second degree when:
…3. (a) For no legitimate purpose, he or she intentionally uses or installs, or permits the utilization or installation of an imaging device to surreptitiously view, broadcast or record a person in a bedroom, changing room, fitting room, restroom, toilet, bathroom, …without such person’s knowledge or consent.”
Grading: “Unlawful surveillance in the second degree is a class E felony.”
Nice going, mathletes! Go calculate the amount of time you could spend in prison, now!
Now, for the recap of the finale:
When Lacey arrives at school at the beginning of the episode, everyone is gossiping about her. One would think she was a celebrity on the cover of one of those trashy gossip magazines. Jo is not among the people avidly discussing Lacey; she has decided to stay home from school today and ignore Danny’s apology text messages.
While Lacey is getting teased, Jo makes snarky remarks to her father after he barges into her bedroom attempting to have a father-daughter chat about high school crushes. No thanks, dad.
At the Desai household, Danny cracks jokes about his probation officer, but his jokes don’t amuse Karen; Karen has no idea what will happen to her family now that Danny has been expelled. Danny remains more concerned with how Lacey is holding up at school.
As Lacey watches her group of “best friends” gossip about her, she brings us to a flashback where Regina is still alive and Phoebe is the outcast of the group. In the flashback, Regina claims that Phoebe violently scratched her arm. The group — Lacey included — promises to never speak to Phoebe again. Phoebe has a crestfallen look on her face in the flashback; it resembles the look on Lacey’s face here in real time.
Lacey approaches her locker to find that it has been redecorated. A bunch of her peers have covered it in all sorts of pleasantries such as “Socio Slut.” This behavior brings us to:
“A person is guilty of criminal mischief in the fourth degree when, having no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that he or she has such right, he or she:
1. Intentionally damages property of another person…”
Grading: “Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree is a class A misdemeanor.”
As Lacey watches her group of “best friends” gossip about her, she brings us to a flashback where Regina is still alive and Phoebe is the outcast of the group. In the flashback, Regina claims that Phoebe violently scratched her arm. The group — Lacey included — promises to never speak to Phoebe again. Phoebe has a crestfallen look on her face in the flashback; it resembles the look on Lacey’s face here in real time.
Lacey approaches her locker to find that it has been redecorated. A bunch of her peers have covered it in all sorts of pleasantries such as “Socio Slut.” This behavior brings us to:
Broken Law # 1 Alert!
New York Penal – Article 145 – § 145.00 Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree (in relevant part)“A person is guilty of criminal mischief in the fourth degree when, having no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that he or she has such right, he or she:
1. Intentionally damages property of another person…”
Grading: “Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree is a class A misdemeanor.”
The police in this town come flying at full speed when Danny is the one in trouble, but his peers aren’t so innocent either!
After admiring her newly graffitied locker, Lacey approaches Archie — who most likely contributed to her locker’s makeover — to apologize for the video scandal and for cheating on him. We learn that the soccer team has planned a private party at the diner later that night to celebrate making regionals. The awkward silences obviate that Archie isn’t bringing Lacey as his date to this super-exclusive party.
Next, Rico brings Jo a care package of homework assignments to cheer her up and get her mind of of Danny and Lacey. Rico fills Jo in on what happened to Lacey’s locker, but Jo insists that she doesn’t care; she’s not interested in being friends with people who keep secrets from her. Rico offers his fantastically awkward advice about how people “shouldn’t look back because they might trip over things that are ahead of him.” It makes no sense, but at least it makes Jo laugh!
Danny shows up at school he just got expelled from to check on Lacey, his ex girlfriend who has become a social pariah after hooking up with him. What could possibly go wrong? It’s not like Danny can get expelled again. He finds Lacey in a pissed off mood; she’s angry about how her friends are ignoring her with the exception of shooting dirty looks in her direction. She informs Danny that Jo didn’t come to school today and Lacey doesn’t expect her to forgive either one of them. Danny insists that Lacey accompany him to apologize to Jo. After all, he has that potentially sociopathic charm going for him.
Jo is not the only one in her family having a difficult day. Kyle has spent his work day listening to the new, creepy police officer in town, Marilyn, criticize his entire investigation. She demands to search the lake again to figure out who killed Regina, condescendingly commenting that the search will be more productive than exploring dead people’s old, sketchy business records.
Danny’s charm works on Lacey; she agrees to come with him to Jo’s house. When they show up, Rico answers the door and warns them that Jo doesn’t want to talk to them. Jo screams that she’s tired of Danny’s lies and that Lacey is a hypocrite. When Lacey explains that she did everything in her power to prevent Jo from seeing the video, she lets it slip that Rico knew about the video the entire time. Jo explodes that she wants all 3 of her friends to leave.
Outside, Rico realizes that he left his backpack at Jo’s house. He panics; obviously Jo is already burning all of his textbooks and he should start saving up for a new backpack. Lacey apologizes to Rico for calling him out, and Danny attempts to assure Rico that 90% of Jo’s anger was directed towards him and Lacey. Unfortunately, 10% of Jo’s anger is horrifying to Rico, and he sprints away from them, probably planning to flee the country to avoid Jo yelling at him. Lacey laments about how her friends will be partying without her later. After all of this, she still wants her social status back and she wants an invitation to that party.
Meanwhile, Kyle has learned about the Danny/Lacey video and its effect on Jo. This leads to what Tess suggesting an event that she calls “Masterson Family Fun Night.” “Some Like it Hot” is playing at the movie theater. Jo agrees to go with her parents, but she insists that this is a night at the movies; they’re not calling it “Masterson Family Fun Night,” or she’s not going. At the theater, they run into Tyler, who invites Jo to his house to discuss “Some Like it Hot” with him and his film buddies. Jo ditches her parents; she’s already seen this movie several times and she wants to try out the whole “having a social life” idea.
While Jo’s parents are out having a nice, leisurely night at the movies, Karen is at work begging her sleazy, flirtatious boss for extra hours for overtime pay. Her boss is relieved that Karen’s confrontation has nothing to do with him hitting on her, and he allows her to stay late at work to prepare a presentation that she’s completely unqualified to do. She’ll just figure out how to do it by googling it.
Lacey is sitting in her bed depressed, when Danny decides to creepily sneak into her bedroom through the window — exemplary behavior for a murder suspect who just got expelled from school. He blames himself for Lacey losing all of her friends and he has a plan to fix it.
Meanwhile, Rico is at the REAL party of this episode; he’s hanging out with Jo’s parents eating spaghetti. Kyle and Rico share a distaste for Tyler. Kyle’s contends that Jo’s taste in men leaves a lot to be desired, and Rico, a little too quickly, responds, “Amen to that!”
Next, Lacey crashes the soccer team’s party, and Sarita — the charming girl that she is — immediately intervenes and demands for Lacey to leave. Clearly people don’t want Lacey there, but she refuses to leave. The camera zooms in on Lacey’s phone and we see a text from Danny reminding her to go along with the plan that they rehearsed.
At Tyler’s film club shindig, Jo is not exactly impressed by the group’s intellect, but she attempts to be polite. When Jo calls Tyler’s friends “cool,” even he insists that they’re not. He is however happy to hear Jo’s claim that she doesn’t have a thing for Danny.
Apparently everybody wants to go to this crazy party at the diner tonight; Danny is the next person to crash it. He walks in and immediately instigates Archie — clearly a part of his plan to mend Lacey’s broken social life. Cole begs Danny not to make a scene; Archie is angry enough because of Danny’s presence. Danny mentions the video of him and Lacey in a joking tone; according to him, Lacey doesn’t go for the “beefy meathead” type. Archie sternly warns Danny that he needs to leave the party now. He reminds Danny to “look what happened” the last time Danny pissed him off.
Lacey interrupts Archie and Danny’s altercation — she takes care of kicking Danny out of the party. She announces that hooking up with him was the biggest mistake of her life, that she wishes Danny never came back to town, and even that she wishes she never met Danny. Her speech is incredibly harsh, and Danny acts hurt when she’s finished. Even the peanut gallery in the background is impressed; there was definitely an “ouch!” in the background during Lacey’s performance.
Archie approaches Lacey to find out if she really meant everything that she just said in her outburst. Lacey demands to know what Archie meant by his menacing comment to Danny that bad things happened when Danny pissed him off. Archie admits that he and Scott were the ones who poisoned Cole. He’s sure to justify this stunt by including that they didn’t MEAN to send Cole to the hospital, because obviously that makes everything better. Actually, it doesn’t make anything better at all, which brings us to:
Broken Law # 2 Alert!
New York Penal – Article 120 – § 120.05 Assault in the Second Degree (in relevant part)
“A person is guilty of assault in the second degree when:
… 5. For a purpose other than lawful medical or therapeutic treatment,
he intentionally causes stupor, unconsciousness or other physical
impairment or injury to another person by administering to him, without
his consent, a drug, substance or preparation capable of producing the
same;…”
Excellent teamwork, captain!
While Archie discusses his phenomenal sportsmanship with Lacey, we see Cole receive a text message from Danny; Danny wants Cole to meet up with him. The camera focuses on Cole leaving the party and Lacey noticing.
Back at Tyler’s, Jo and Tyler have moved upstairs to a private area away from the film buddies. They kiss, and it’s cute and passionate for a few seconds until Jo stops him because she’s still obsessed with Danny. Maybe alleged sociopath/murderer is Jo’s type.
Even though Jo isn’t home, Rico is still at her house. He declines a second helping of spaghetti in case Jo is hungry when she gets home. Uh oh… That’s how you know it’s really love! Tess assures Rico that Jo considers him an important person in her life. Kyle gets called into the office once again.
Next, we see Cole and Danny talking on the sidewalk. Cole finally believes Danny that he didn’t poison him and that Archie is the real culprit. After the two of them talk, Danny gets a text message from Jo. She wants to talk to him in person.
Back at the diner, Lacey’s friends have already welcomed her back to their table. Apparently all it takes is a pretend speech to get your friends back. Unfortunately, Cole shows up and interrupts the reunion. He loudly accuses Archie of poisoning him, and when Archie attempts to deny it, Lacey backs Cole up and reveals that Archie admitted to poisoning Cole. Cole willingly leaves the soccer team and Lacey willingly leaves the party.
Meanwhile, during her overtime hours, Karen discovers some suspicious “errors” in her boss’s paperwork. Her boss has been committing tax fraud by not declaring commission for all of his clients. When he admits that the IRS doesn’t know about his behavior, Karen blackmails him. If none of this sounds good to you, you’re on the right track. Karen’s boss’s “creativity” on his tax forms brings us to:
Broken Law # 3 Alert!
N.Y. TAX. LAW § 1801 : NY Code – Section 1801: Tax fraud acts (in relevant part)
“As used in this article, “tax fraud act” means willfully engaging in an act or acts or willfully causing another to engage in an act or acts pursuant to which a person:
(2) knowing that a return, report, statement or other document under this chapter contains any materially false or fraudulent information, or omits any material information, files or submits that return, report, statement or document with the state or any political subdivision of the state, or with any public office or public officer of the state or any political subdivision of the state…”Between defrauding the IRS and flirting with his employee’s, Karen’s boss sounds like a standup guy! Karen’s reaction to learning about the tax fraud doesn’t exactly sit well with the law either.
Broken Law # 4 Alert!
New York Penal – Article 135 – § 135.60 Coercion in the Second Degree (in relevant part)
“A person is guilty of coercion in the second degree when he or she compels or induces a person to engage in conduct which the latter has a
legal right to abstain from engaging in, or to abstain from engaging in
conduct in which he or she has a legal right to engage…
by means
of instilling in him or her a fear that, if the demand is not complied
with, the actor or another will:…
4. Accuse some person of a crime or cause criminal charges to be
instituted against him or her…”
Grading: “Coercion in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.”
It looks like Karen’s boss has set a very bad example and that she’s a quick learner!
While Karen is busy blackmailing her boss, Danny is out breaking hearts. He goes to meet with Jo at the park and Jo insists on telling him to his face that she’s in love with him. She has to tell him in person, otherwise she’ll never get over her feelings. She explains that she can’t move on unless she knows that Danny could never feel the same way about her. When Danny starts rambling about how unique and special their friendship is, Jo clearly has gotten her answer. Danny looks like he feels terrible for hurting Jo, but when she demands the truth, he admits to still having feelings for Lacey. Jo whispers “goodbye Danny” as she leaves the park.
Jo’s father still is not having an easy time either; apparently this is not a good day for the Masterson family. At the police station, Kyle has learned that the murder weapon from Regina Crane’s murder — the weapon that he’s been unsuccessfully seeking for weeks now — was found in the pond that Marilyn insisted on searching again. The weapon is covered with Danny’s fingerprints, and Marilyn already has a patrol car waiting outside of Danny’s house for when he gets home. Marilyn “strongly suggests” (it sounds more like a command) arresting Danny immediately. A bewildered Tess discusses this new information on the phone with Kyle. She looks unusually upset.
After her heartbreaking conversation with Danny, Jo goes on a man rampage. Danny may not have feelings for her, but somebody does. She knocks on Tyler’s door and when he opens it, Jo barges in and starts kissing him immediately. This escalates really quickly, and Jo and Tyler sleep together. Afterwards, Jo admits that this was her first time she’s “done anything.” Tyler is honored by this, but Jo doesn’t look like she feels very honorable right now. She requests that Tyler close his eyes while she puts her clothes back on, and when she’s fully dressed again, she’s also wearing a look of regret and confusion on her face.
Danny gets home, and a frazzled Karen barks at him to pack a bag immediately. Upon Danny’s hesitation, Karen fills him in on the news about the murder weapon with his fingerprints and insists that nothing is keeping them in this town anymore. Danny agrees to pack a bag and leave, but we soon find out that when he goes upstairs, he escapes from the house.
At the beginning of the season, Danny made a comment that fleeing town when he’s a suspect for a crime would not be a good idea. His comment was accurate, but with a little encouragement from his mother, Danny unfortunately did not take his own advice. Now, regardless of whether Danny is guilty of the crime for which he’s a suspect, he and his mother are both guilty of another crime.
Broken Law # 5 & # 6 Alert!
New York Penal – Article 205 – § 205.30 Resisting Arrest
A person is guilty of resisting arrest when he intentionally prevents or attempts to prevent a police officer or peace officer from effecting an authorized arrest of himself or another person.
Grading: Resisting arrest is a class A misdemeanor.
Both Karen AND Danny are guilty, since the crime applies for resisting arrest of oneself OR another person.
When Jo gets home, she is greeted by her best friend, which in my book is a lot better than a mother screaming at you that you have to leave town immediately. There’s your one-up on Danny, Jo! Rico waited all night for her to get home. He apologizes profusely for lying to Jo about the video and she forgives him. She describes him as an “amazing constant in [her] complicated life.” She reminds him that she wants him to always be upfront with her. To her surprise, that leads to Rico blurting out that he’s in love with Jo and that she’s his “dream girl.” He goes to kiss her and Jo looks stunned. When Rico asks if Jo is going to respond, she doesn’t know what to say. Rico bolts out of her house faster than he did earlier in the episode, if achieving such a speed is possible.
This episode is filled with confusing friendship scenarios. At Lacey’s house, she’s looking at photos of herself and her old group of friends. Phoebe knocks on her door, explaining that the party didn’t last much longer after Lacey accused the host of poisoning someone. Phoebe believes Lacey that Archie poisoned Cole. This is likely because of how Phoebe was ostracized in the flashback that we saw earlier in the episode.
Phoebe picks up one of Lacey’s photos and coincidently, Regina is in the picture wearing a bandage on the arm that she claimed Phoebe scratched. Phoebe asks Lacey what happened to Regina’s arm, which surprises Lacey because Regina led her to believe that Phoebe was to blame for that. Lacey reminds Phoebe that “[she] happened” to Regina’s arm. Phoebe admits that during her fight with Regina, she may have pulled out some of Regina’s hair, but Phoebe insists that she doesn’t scratch. It’s not her M.O. She’s very firm about this and it appears that she’s telling the truth. Lacey believes her and wonders who really was behind Regina’s injury.
Lacey’s question triggers Phoebe to have a flashback of herself and Regina. In the flashback, Regina gets out of a car with Connecticut license plates. Phoebe notices an enormous gash on Regina’s arm. Regina never tells Phoebe who scratched her; she only refers to the person as “that bitch.” Unfortunately, judging by the behavior of many of the people in Green Grove, this doesn’t narrow down the suspect list very much.
In the next scene, Marilyn and Kyle show up at the Desai household in a police car. Marilyn informs Karen that they have a warrant to arrest Danny for Regina’s murder, and she demands to know where Danny is. Karen concedes that Danny is upstairs. Kyle is in disbelief that Karen had bags packed and had planned on leaving town. He also has no idea how Karen knew that they were coming… and neither do we.
When Marilyn goes upstairs to find Danny, she’s too late. He has already escaped. Marilyn immediately begins a search for Danny.
Next, we see a clearly distraught Tess dial a phone number that she had hidden in the house. It turns out, Vikram Desai is on the other end of the phone, and unless Tess has discovered some crazy scientific information, this means that Vikram is alive and has been faking his own death, and that Tess knew about it. Vikram asks Tess what’s wrong and Tess responds that “it’s bad,” and that it’s time for Vikram to come home. That should be interesting. I wonder how many people will feel like they have seen a ghost when Vikram returns, and how many people will react more like Tess — not shocked at all. We’ll find out when Twisted comes back with more episodes!
One Last Legal Note
I anticipated questions about the legality of Vikram faking his death, and I questioned the issue myself. In New York, the ACT of faking ones own death is not against the law; the legal problems tend to develop when there are illegal motives for doing such a thing.
That’s one more thing that we will have to wait to find out in the new episodes. With an ending like that, I cannot wait for the new shows to air and, of course I’m excited to write about them when they do.
Thanks for all of your patience and for reading!