SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
I was surprised to see Baxter show up in this episode. I thought that, with his arrest, Will would be safe in the mean time and that that would be the end of that. But there he was, at the beginning of the episode, being tortured by Topcliffe. Seeing Baxter again made me think that he and/or this little narrative thread was more important than I had initially assumed.
The whole thing set the foundation for the tension between Will and Marlowe and in some ways served as characterisation for Will. I still didn’t understand why he even considered turning himself in to save Baxter.  It just didn’t make sense and it didn’t feel like something he would do. His character is still under developed and I’ve yet to care about him in any profound way, so it just didn’t feel organic. It felt like he reacted that way because the plot demanded it.
That being said,I Â understood why he was upset with Marlowe – he sacrificed an innocent man for Will, something that Will never asked him to do – and I wouldn’t trust the man even as far as I could throw him. There’s something really shady about Marlowe. I still don’t know what he wants. He did say that he framed Baxter because he saw greatness in Will, but I don’t buy it. I certainly didn’t believe him when he said that Topcliffe would soon release Baxter soon.
One, because Topcliffe doesn’t seem like the type to just release a prisoner; he’d torture someone until they told him what he wanted to hear and anything but would be nothing more than a lie to him. And lo and behold, Baxter died. Two, because it was so clearly a means to get Will to shut up about it and make him feel better about what had happened. Even so, Will would have known that Baxter was being tortured so he still should have felt as strongly about it even after Marlowe tried to assuage him. The man was being tortured! “He’ll be released soon” shouldn’t have made Will let it go.
Marlowe wants Will for something. Of course, I could just be overanalysing the situation and looking far too deeply into Marlowe’s actions and it really is simply that he sees greatness in Will. Still, I don’t trust him.
I figured that Will would try to provide for Baxter’s family (the man was tortured and killed in his place after all). Now that particular action of his didn’t feel forced at all. It was weird, though, that Baxter’s son singled out Will of all of the strangers in the room. I loved that Will gave the family the money that Marlowe received for turning Baxter in. Marlowe didn’t seem particularly bothered by it. If anything, he looked to be somewhat amused. In any case, I love the brewing antagonism between the him and Will.
I also love that Topcliffe’s superiors don’t like him, find him to be incompetent and don’t take him seriously. The man is vile and he’s doing far more harm to his cause then good. Ewen Bremner – the actor who plays Topcliffe – overacted quite a bit with his facial expressions in this episode. Particularly the first time Topcliffe met with his superiors.
I still don’t like Presto. He doesn’t even know Will except for running into him on the street in the last episode and that he’s a Catholic, but said that it should have been him who died with such vitriol and passionate hatred that you’d swear that Will wronged him in some deep and personal way. It could just be that he hates Will because he’s Catholic. That’s bigotry for you.
Perhaps there’s another tragic detail about him that concerns Catholics. A traumatic even from his past that made him hate them that would make his hatred of Will plausible. Right now he hates him for no discernible reason.
There has to be more about him to redeem his character besides having an elder sister who has no choice but to prostitute herself because they’re poor. That is not enough for me. Especially when his entire plan to escape poverty  is to essentially sentence a man to death in the hopes of a reward. And really, given what happened the last time he went to Topcliffe, you’d think he’d have caught on to the fact that there is no reward for him in this.
He’s a naive child who’s just trying his hardest to make a better life for himself and his sister, though, so I understand where he’s coming from. I still don’t like him.
Random thoughts:
- He’s writing Romeo and Juliet!
- Richard still can’t act.
- Of course a wordsmith like Will could sweet talk a woman!
Will airs Mondays at 9 PM on TNT.
