On this episode of Frequency, “Deviation,” Frank is determined to save the Nightingale’s next victim and has a run-in with the killer himself, Raimy and Daniel continue to cross paths and Raimy seeks help from a prison inmate whose crazy predictions seem to come true.
In 1996, a couple of kids discover a burnt out truck and the remains of a body. Satch and Frank are called to the scene, and Frank is convinced that the body, which has been tucked away for three months, is that of Carmen Salinas. Satch wonders how Frank can be so sure since they haven’t had a chance to positively ID the body, but Frank believes the Nightngale is toying with him, laughing because Frank can’t catch him. It was Carmen’s case that led him to the truck and within 50 feet of the killer.
The Nightingale’s Next Victim
Satch thinks the killer is rattled. He points out to Frank that hospitals have security cameras in the parking lot. They know the Nightingale stalks his victims, but who’s to say he stays inside his car when casing a nurse? If they can get him to start acting out — like by leaving his car (stolen plates) in the exact spot where he buried a victim, he’s going to slip up. And that is how they will catch him. As Frank watches the remains zipped up into a body bag, he comments to Satch that he’s not sure he can wait.
Frank shares these recent developments with Raimy who’s upset to learn the Nightingale is definitely stalking Julie. The good news is that they know when the killer is going to strike next. In two days time, he kidnaps a woman named Amanda Baldwin. Raimy wants Sullivan to use Baldwin as bait. Frank wants to warn Amanda, but Raimy warns his dad that he better not lose his nerve. If he tells Amanda, everything changes. The Nightingale will disappear, and they’ll be left scrambling to save his next victim who happens to be Julie.
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Call it Kismet
Raimy’s personal life has taken an interesting turn. She’s having sleepovers with Kyle, but she’s still insistent on keeping him at arm’s length. No matter what she does, Raimy can’t forget Daniel, and it doesn’t help that the two run into each other on the subway. It would seem Raimy and Daniel were destined to meet each other no matter what. Once again, Raimy has to reassure Daniel that she isn’t stalking him, but then asks him if he believes in kismet. She can’t help but notice they have some kind of connection; like they knew each other in another life. Daniel definitely thinks it’s weird, but not in a good way.
The Nutty Professor
Frank’s been combing security footage, and he spotted the blue truck outside of both of the medical clinics Amanda has worked eight out of her last ten shifts. Satch doesn’t think that’s enough evidence to warrant putting an entire team on Amanda. Frank is persistent, and Satch gives in, agreeing to give Frank two cars and 24 hours. He’s also going to put another car on Julie until they know she’s safe.
In 2016, Satch wants Raimy to follow up on a tip. They’ve been pouring in ever since Eva Salinas’ fake kidnapping. The guy, Karl Pierce, is already in jail serving life for murder. The man claims he can talk to himself….in the future. He tells Raimy that time is infinite. Past, present and future all exist at once. Quantum physicists who espouse this belief are a dime a dozen, but Pierce wanted to prove it. It took him 20 years, but he built a communication device. He says his future self is the one that landed him in jail.
Pierce used to be a college professor. Once he figured out how to communicate across time, the first thing his future self told him was that Steve Fishman, the man he murdered, was no good. Steve Fishman was Pierce’s neighbor. He was a man who didn’t care about his lawn, a man who had too much to drink after work, and then gets behind the wheel and mows down a group of kids playing in their front yards. Six innocent children were going to die which is why Pierce offed Fishman with a pair of gardening shears in broad daylight.
Pierce insists to Raimy that he didn’t ask for the burden of knowing a future that nobody else knows. He tried to get Fishman to go sober. Pierce put A.A. flyers underneath the guy’s door, stole his beer stash but nothing worked. He may have delayed the inevitable, but he tells Raimy that you cut a branch, and another one grows. And in every eventuality, his future self reported that Fishman drove drunk and innocent children died.
He’s certain Raimy gets it, and that’s why they need to work together. Raimy’s patience has run out, and she just wants the Nightingale tip. Pierce swears he can help Raimy save lives if she would just get him his communicator.
A False Alarm
Julie is upset to see more protective detail. Frank assures her it’s just protocol. Frank doesn’t see the problem, but Julie thinks he’s oblivious. Julie goes out of her way to protect Raimy. She doesn’t want their daughter to know she’s scared, and that there’s a creep out there preying on nurses. Raimy is only eight years old and shouldn’t have to worry about stuff like this, anymore than she already does.
Frank offers to fix things. He wants to take nights. That way it’s just Raimy’s dad, making it less of a big deal. Julie isn’t a fan of that idea, and Frank swears he isn’t trying to move back in, but Julie breaks the news she’s got a date that night. Frank is surprised that Julie is dating since they’ve only been separated for two weeks, but Julie argues they’ve been estranged for much longer than that. Julie gets agitated and says she’ll cancel. Frank can come by or not come by, she doesn’t care.
Satch, Frank and the rest of their team are on the move. Frank says they have information that confirms their target will be taken within 24 hours. On his way out, Frank is approached by Stan Moreno. Moreno tells Frank that Little Jay’s product is back on the street and wants to know if Frank has any information. Frank claims it’s not his circus anymore, and Moreno brings up Frank’s ties to a man named Ricky when he was under. Frank insists he was playing a role, but Moreno says he’s just giving him a heads up in case Frank wants to do the same for his “pretend” friends. It’s a dangerous time to be dealing somebody else’s drugs.
Satch and Frank stake out Baldwin and catch sight of a suspicious male in a black hoodie following her. The other members of the team lose sight of Baldwin, forcing Satch and Frank to take after her on foot. The whole team descends upon Baldwin and the mystery man, but it turns out it was just a kid selling bootleg CDs.
Satch tells Baldwin they received a tip that the Nightingale was in the neighborhood, and the man who walked up on her fit the description. Frank questions if she’s noticed anyone suspicious around her lately, and Amanda Baldwin says she works in a women’s clinic, so she gets her fair share of crazies, hecklers or protesters. Baldwin wants to know if she’s in danger, and Satch says every nurse in the city is at risk but promises to put a tail on her for the time being to make her feel better.
Crusader or Crazy Pants?
Raimy returns to see Pierce. Steve Fishman had a restraining order against him, and Pierce had a history of harassing his neighbors. His little crusade sounds more like a reign or terror. Pierce even blinded another inmate.
Pierce claims that guy had it coming. It took him forever to get machine shop privileges to rebuild his machine. At long last, he made contact and was excited to know that even while in prison, he could continue his crusade for justice. That is until the other inmate decided to touch Pierce’s toy and got a screwdriver in the eye as punishment.
Raimy continues to try and get something she can use out of a man who just seems like your run-of-the-mill nut job. She demands to know how the machine works. Pierce wants Raimy to take him to it, but she wants a verbal explanation. Even though he doesn’t think Raimy will understand, he uses her pad and pen to draw a tree. Life is like the tree, always growing upward with lots of branches.
He tells Raimy to pretend that the tree belongs to the Nightingale. If a branch represents his next victim, you can cut the branch, but another will just grow back in its place. And that victim, is a branch further up the tree. In order to change the future, you have to cut off the trunk. Pierce wants Raimy to get his machine. He’ll help her track the Nightingale, catch him and make all of this go away. Pierce says that’s what Raimy really wants. This whole crusade she’s on is to avenge her mother. Little does he know it’s actually to save her.
Raimy thinks Pierce is conning her, preying on her weakness to get what he wants. As the guards take him away, Pierce warns Raimy it will happen again, but this time, it will be Raimy’s fault.
Frank Encounters the Nightingale
Raimy tells Frank that when Pierce said it would happen again, maybe he meant Amanda’s abduction. According to her computer, Amanda is still taken sometime after midnight. Frank questions if Raimy really believes this guy can predict something that happens in 1996, and Raimy points out they’re talking so whose to say they’re the only ones? Maybe Pierce is crazy and a master manipulator, but he does seem to get it.
Frank has decided to tell Amanda. Raimy still objects, but Frank can’t handle it. He swears this whole thing is messing with his head, and it’s making him a bad cop. Any good cop wouldn’t sit around talking about the ramifications, they work to make sure it doesn’t happen at all. If something were to happen to Amanda, he couldn’t live with himself. Frank swears that if he screws this up, he’ll take Julie and Raimy away. This offers little comfort to Raimy who has no doubt this is a huge mistake.
Frank goes by Amanda’s apartment to tip her off. He notices movement in another room. Amanda swears there’s nobody else there, so Frank gives her his keys and orders her to go downstairs and lock herself in his car, get on the radio and call 911. Amanda takes off running, and Frank makes his way through her place. He gets slammed in the face with a door, drops his gun and gets the crap kicked out of him by the Nightingale. The man takes a look in Frank’s wallet, so now he knows exactly who Frank is.
In the present, Raimy sees that an abduction attempt on Amanda Baldwin was thwarted by Frank. Unfortunately, Julie’s future hasn’t changed.
Frank and Satch can’t figure out why the Nightingale didn’t kill him, and Frank figures the guy finds it more fun to mess with him. Frank is glad Amanda’s okay, but that doesn’t change anything for him. He’s trying so hard to protect Julie, but Frank doesn’t know if he can. He feels like he’s going to crack.
Satch who has been attributing Frank’s erratic behavior to lingering effects from his time undercover, now he knows it’s Frank’s concern for Julie. But Frank admits that when he was undercover, there was someone, and it’s not going away like he thought it would.
Satch tells his friend that he knows Frank is worried about losing Julie, but it won’t be the Nightingale, it will be whatever stupid thing or whoever he did, Frank needs to make it right.
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Cut Off the Trunk
Raimy continues to try to pick Pierce’s brain. She claims his life’s work was a complete failure, so he had to concoct a story to convince himself he was some crusader of justice. Because if not, what is he? Just some washed up physics professor who kills people for no reason at all.
Pierce comments that in spite of all this, Raimy still came back. She tells Pierce he was wrong — they stopped it. But he insists it still will, again and again and again. If she’d just get him his communicator, he could stop her pain. Raimy agrees to give him one hour.
Raimy gets a call. She arrives at Amanda’s apartment and discovers the woman is dead. The killer also left an interview the press did with Raimy regarding Eva and the Nightingale on a loop in the woman’s bedroom. Not only is the killer messing with Frank in 1996, he’s messing with Raimy in 2016.
Satch can’t make any sense as to why the Nightingale went after Amanda Baldwin 20 years later, and Raimy explains the woman had been living in India. Satch remembers Amanda from 1996 and is thankful Frank isn’t around to see this. He also mentions to Raimy how Frank believed the Nightingale was sending him messages.
As Raimy leaves the crime scene she runs into Daniel again. Daniel says that when she asked him on the subway if he believed in fate, he never had any reason to before. Raimy tells Daniel her name, just in case he decided he wants to run into her on purpose.
Raimy receives more bad news. Pierce killed a fellow inmate, Sanders, during his time in the machine shop. Raimy goes to see him and says he used her to get to Sanders who he had a beef with. Pierce swears he was going to find out about the Nightingale after asking about Sanders who was about to shoot up a liquor store, killing a family of five. Raimy points out Sanders was in for life with no possibility of parole. Pierce swears Sanders was going to tunnel himself out, and he could help Raimy find it if he could get to his machine. Raimy informs Pierce his little communicator has been dismantled.
Raimy breaks the news about Amanda to Frank. Every time he thinks he helps someone, they wind up dead. Raimy says Amanda was a branch on the Nightingale’s tree. He was going to get her no matter what they did. Frank worries that now the Nightingale won’t stop until he kills Julie, but Raimy says all they have to do is cut off the trunk. She tells Frank he has to kill the Nightingale.
Frank reminds his daughter that he’s a cop, not a murderer. They bring him in and put him in jail. Raimy says in 10 years the guy gets out on a technicality — branches grow back.
Frank goes by the house to watch over Julie and Raimy. There’s a package waiting for him left by Moreno. Inside are pics of Frank getting really cozy with a brunette.
He also gets his wallet back from Satch and realizes a photo is missing — a photo that is discovered at Amanda’s crime scene in 2016.
Will Frank have to come clean to Julie to get out from under Moreno’s thumb? Will Frank cave and kill the Nightingale or do things by the book? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Frequency airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW. Want more news? Follow our Frequency page on Facebook.
(Image Courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Jennifer has worked as a freelance writer in the entertainment field since 2012. In addition to currently writing feature articles for Screen Rant, Jennifer has contributed content ranging from recaps to listicles to reviews for BuddyTV, PopMatters, TVRage, TVOvermind, and Tell-Tale TV. Links to some of Jennifer’s reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.
