What Peter Can Live Without

What Peter Can Live Without is the ninth episode of the first season of Hemlock Grove and the ninth episode in the series as a whole.

Summary
As a full moon approaches, Letha's parents discover her relationship with Peter. Despite a crisis of faith, Chasseur prepares to capture the killer.

Plot
Olivia Godfrey traipses around the bed holding her comatose son in a white ruffly babydoll dress looking and acting weirdly childlike and doting. Back at Peter’s trailer, Peter and Letha are continuing their affair/relationship type thing. Their pillow-talk afterwards consists of the likelihood of Roman coming out of his coma, and family stories about fairies that end up being a metaphor for Peter’s fear of being trapped in a cage.

We’re back to Chasseur, who seems to be going through some… issues. The stress of the case is definitely getting to her, along with her resurfacing memories of the first werewolf woman she’d killed. She flashes back to her Order of the Dragon initiation ceremony, and the promise she’d made to rid the world of the “enemies of God.” Chasseur is obviously showing signs of doubt in her faith as well, as she mutters to herself that even though her priest told her the killer werewolf must be Peter Rumancek, she still doesn't believe it. Christina is back in the hospital, once again traumatized. Her best friends Alyssa and Alexa come to visit and, seeing how lonely the hospital must be for Christina, ask their father Sheriff Sworn if they can bring her to stay with them. He tells them he understands, but that it might be best if Christina continue to stay at the hospital for a while longer, at Dr. Norman Godfrey’s recommendation.

Norman over at the Godfrey mansion performing cunnilingus on Olivia. The pair awkwardly get dressed afterwards, and then Norman leaves to go back home to his wife. When Norman gets home, Marie angrily reports to him that she found out about Letha’s relationship with Peter. They discuss what to do about the issue, and Norman promises to talk to Letha about it. Norman tells Letha that she shouldn't be ashamed and that sex isn't a bad thing, but that she shouldn't hide it or lie to her parents about it. Letha tells her dad that she’s in love with Peter, and that people speak badly of him only because they’re insecure and afraid similar to how people treat her cousin, Shelley. Cue short scene skip to Shelley Godfrey, who’s being visited by Actual Angel Jenny, who was worried that Shelley was in need of a friend. At school, Letha is walking down the hallways when Ashley Valentine comes up to her with a Get Well card for Roman. She can’t remember the last time she talked to him, Ashley tells a bemused Letha, and she’s afraid that she was a bitch to him for no good reason. After that run in, Letha meets up with Peter and asks him to come meet her parents at dinner. Peter looks like a deer caught in headlights

Chasseur, meanwhile, is paying Destiny Rumancek a visit and jumps straight into asking about Peter. Destiny isn’t having any of that, though she tells Chasseur that that isn’t what she came here for, and that she’s sensing some internal conflict in the werewolf hunter. Chasseur owns up to it pretty quickly, admitting out loud that she’s afraid she’s lost her way and that she’s losing faith. When Destiny looks at Chasseur’s hands, she sees that Chasseur has been searching. Chasseur needs to know, and asks Destiny to show her. And then they have sex. Afterwards, Destiny tries to tell Chasseur that Peter isn’t who she’s looking for, and it’s unclear whether or not her words got through to the hunter.

Elsewhere, Olivia goes to the auto shop to check up on the condition of her son’s car, and runs into Marie, her sister-in-law and wife to Olivia’s lover Norman. Later on that night, Marie and Norman host a dinner party for Peter, who looks like he’d rather be anywhere other than where he is. A question about how Norman and Marie met turns into an extremely tense situation when Marie alludes to knowing about the affair between Norman and Olivia, and suddenly the meet-the-parents dinner is over. Peter’s mother, Lynda Rumancek, is paying Olivia Godfrey an unannounced visit up at her huge ass mansion so she can deal her her drugs. Lynda watches as Olivia takes a hit, and starts musing on how Peter was born. Olivia and Lynda bond over being women, both of them single mothers raising men.

Back at Hemlock High, Peter’s walking speedily towards the bus as a bunch of assholes bully him, hissing insults about his heritage, being a werewolf, his friendship with Roman, and finally a biting dig about Peter’s mother. It’s the last one that makes Peter snap; he lobs a punch into Bully but it quickly turns into a three-on-one fight that Peter is losing badly. Letha saves the day, then, by throwing her body in between Peter and his attackers. The bullies leave, unwilling to hit a pregnant girl, and Peter and Letha end up getting a ride home from Olivia. When Peter, Letha, and Olivia get back to the Rumancek trailer, Lynda is beside herself with worry, and jumps straight into fussing over Peter’s swollen face before letting Peter and Letha spend some time together alone. In the other room, Lynda and Olivia share a joint as Olivia suggests Peter stay up at the Godfrey mansion for a few days to make sure he stays safe.

Peter spends the rest of the day hanging out with Letha and Shelley at the Godfrey mansion. When he goes to look for some snacks in the kitchen, he runs into Olivia, who explains that she’s helping him because her son needs all the friends he can get, and then cracks a joke about his werewolfism. Peter wakes up in the middle of the night, glances at the near full moon, and runs off to Chasseur’s hotel room, asking if he can talk to her. The woman lets him in, but not without very pointedly showing him her gun. No, that is not a euphemism, get your mind out of the gutter. Peter paces anxiously around the room and tells Chasseur he has a bad feeling about tonight, and that he wants her to make sure that no more girls get killed specifically, to make sure that nothing bad happens to Letha Godfrey. Chasseur makes her promises as she stands up menacingly gripping her gun. I wonder what she’s going to have to do to keep that promise…

Apparently she’s going to get pissed out of her mind drunk, because that’s exactly what’s happening right here. Chasseur has interpreted Peter showing up on her doorstep as a sign from god – that regardless of whether or not Peter is the murderer, god wants her to kill him anyways. She speaks out loud to an empty room, saying that she’s going to do this one last thing for him, and then “you and me – we’re through.” Meanwhile, at the Hemlock Acres Hospital, Norman goes on a walk around the grounds with Christina. More and more of her hair has gone white from the stress of her situation. She starts talking to Norman about Francis Pullman, the man who had died via needle shoved into his brain, and once again accuses Peter of murder. Peter finally comes back to the Godfrey mansion, tears in his eyes as he asks Letha to promise she’s going to stay safe as he goes to hunt the vargulf. Letha is angry – she wants him to understand that this isn't some game where he and Roman are playing at warriors, that this is real life and that someone’s going to get hurt or die, and that she’s afraid it’s going to be him. When she tells him she wants to come with him, Peter snaps – and it looks like their relationship has been irreparably damaged.

Main Cast

 * Famke Janssen as Olivia Godfrey
 * Bill Skarsgård as Roman Godfrey
 * Landon Liboiron as Peter Rumancek
 * Penelope Mitchell as Letha Godfrey
 * Freya Tingley as Christina Wendall
 * Dougray Scott as Norman Godfrey

Supporting Cast

 * Lili Taylor as Lynda Rumancek
 * Kandyse McClure as Dr. Clementine Chasseur
 * Aaron Douglas as Sheriff Tom Sworn
 * Laurie Fortier as Marie Godfrey
 * Kaniehtiio Horn as Destiny Rumancek
 * Ted Dykstra as Francis Pullman
 * Nicole Boivin as Shelley Godfrey
 * Michael Andreae as the body of Shelley Godfrey

Guest Cast

 * Eliana Jones as Alexa Sworn
 * Emilia McCarthy as Alyssa Sworn
 * Emily Piggford as Ashley Valentine
 * Holly Deveaux as Jenny Fredericks
 * Philip Craig as Bishop
 * Don Francks as Nicolae Rumancek
 * Niamh Wilson as Pretty Shelley (credit only)
 * Martin Roach as Guard
 * Rosalba Martinni as Housekeeper
 * Scott Gorman as Mechanic

Songs from the Show

 * "This Love" by Tedi Sarafian (Olivia drives Peter and Letha from school)
 * "Breathe" by LEGS (Shelley, Peter, and Letha play a game)
 * "Bad Ritual" by Timber Timbre (end credits)