Blood Pressure

Blood Pressure is the first episode of the second season and the fourteenth episode overall.

Summary
Peter returns to Hemlock Grove in search of money to afford a lawyer for Lynda while Roman tries to satiate his newly found appetite.

Plot
We begin in Easthampton, Massachusetts, with a shadowy figure entering a house and creeping around while its occupants sleep blissfully unaware. The shadowy figure ghosts its way to the kitchen and lights a candle, which illuminates its mildly terrifying silver mask – man, before turning up the gas, setting the candle on the floor, and leaving as the house presumably blows up behind him. Next we see of The Silver Creep, he’s kneeling in the woods self-flagellating. Now in Ohio, we’re thrown into the middle of a large and festive wake for a recently departed Romani man named “Papa Joe”. Destiny Rumancek rolls up in her car and heads in to pay her respects, as well as accost a brooding Peter Rumancek, who has regrown his hair since we last saw him. The reunited cousins catch up, with Peter mentioning plans to go to Seattle in a few weeks with his mother and inviting Destiny along for the ride.

Destiny extricates herself from the conversation because she “hasn’t peed in 200 miles” – eloquent was ever. Shortly afterwards she’s approached by a man who apparently knew her when they were little. His name is Andreas Vasilescu. They flirt, and then bang. Cut to Lynda, who is comforting a still-grieving Peter and gently encouraging him to let Letha go. The funeral is broken up when the police roll up and start tackling everyone in reach including doddering old grandmas. Peter manages to avoid being tackled and runs around looking for his mom. He finds her inside the house, being arrested by an FBI Agent and carted away.

Peter and Destiny go to a lawyer in an attempt to bail Lynda out. After hilariously listing out a list of ridiculous crimes, including animal-napping a baby elephant, the lawyer informs the Rumanceks that the FBI is making a case that the Romani is an organized criminal enterprise. Lynda is being made an example of, so she’s going to be sent back to Hemlock County to face charges. Peter’s look of absolute horror is both amusing and sad. Destiny kindly offers to let him crash at her place so Lynda has family nearby for support, but it might end up being for naught because the lawyer’s upfront fee is $20,000. On the drive back to Destiny’s house, Destiny mentions Peter has friends in Hemlock Grove implying that they may front him the money, and perhaps take the opportunity to “mend fences.” As they cross into Hemlock Grove, Peter has a vision, one of the same kind he and Roman shared in season one. Zoom on into shiny Godfrey Institute, where a sleekly dressed Roman Godfrey is attending a board meeting. He swiftly interrupts the presentation with pictures from his recent vacay in Maui. Dr. Johann Pryce is also at the meeting.

Roman brings up some good points, the company’s current target demographic with organ printing is going to die out soon, and they should focus on making repeat customers out of the youthful. Johann doesn’t like that. He really doesn’t like it when Roman points out some discrepancies in the Institute’s earnings. Roman tells Johann that he’s the head of the company now, and he’s not going to stand for shit like this. In the next scene, there’s a slow fade into Olivia’s dead body and she is alive. Pryce is helping Olivia recuperate from her death, and her huge change in accent is explained by “dead body relearning how to speak takes time.” Pryce updates her on Roman’s comings and goings, musing on how he must be dealing with the “hunger” – which is the perfect segue into Roman eating blood filled leeches off an elderly man who also performs an unsettling striptease beforehand. Some time later, Peter rolls up to Roman’s fancy new modern abode. Their reunion is… less than ideal, as Roman refuses to help Peter get Lynda out of jail and calls Peter out for abandoning him, Shelley, and Letha’s memory.

Down by the lake, Letha’s parents are spreading her ashes as Norman voice-overs an email he’s sending to a missing Shelley. Norman then drives over to Hemlock Grove’s rehabilitation center, where he greets Olivia with flowers and asks her out on a drive. Oddly enough, death seems to suit Olivia; she’s less cold, more open to displaying her insecurities and emotions… or maybe that’s just Norman’s effect on her. That night, Peter drives down to meet with two suspicious looking characters, he’s signed on to a job in order to get the $20,000 he needs. The job turns out to be selling a cache of drugs to the men to give to their boss to distribute a drug called Sebzilla. Naturally, the drugs Peter gives them are not the real deal. He has to strip down and turn into a werewolf to help the dudes believe they’re really high. The gangsters buy it, along with the stash of drugs. They leave, and Peter vomits blood and collapses, dreaming of horrible things to come. In the morning, a freaked out Destiny tells Peter that he turned on the wrong moon, which is apparently terrible for werewolves. There’s a possibility he can turn into a vargulf.

Back at Godfrey Institute, Pryce and a Russian scientist of his inspects one of his projects, Project Ouroboros which ends up being a blonde girl floating in a glass box. Elsewhere, Peter takes a job as a tow truck operator from a man who likes to stuff animals in his spare time, and while there sees a news story on a television that reminds him of one of his visions. Roman finishes off the last of his leeches, and decides to go out looking for fresher prey. He heads to an underground club. Roman takes a girl home from the club – after punching out her anger management issues date – but freaks out and kicks her out of the car before they arrive, not wanting to go through with killing her. He drives the rest of the way home, where he dismisses the nanny and stops in to see his child.

Main Cast

 * Famke Janssen as Olivia Godfrey
 * Bill Skarsgård as Roman Godfrey
 * Landon Liboiron as Peter Rumancek
 * Madeleine Martin as Shelley Godfrey
 * Kaniehtiio Horn as Destiny Rumancek
 * Dougray Scott as Norman Godfrey
 * Madeleine Martin as Miranda Cates
 * Joel de la Fuente as Dr. Johann Pryce
 * Vivienne and Jacqueline Gimenes as Nadia Godfrey

Recurring Cast

 * Lili Taylor as Lynda Rumancek
 * Laurie Fortier as Marie Godfrey
 * Luke Camilleri as Andreas Vasilescu
 * Shauna MacDonald as Dr. Galina Zhelezhnova-Burdukovskaya