Twisted - Recap: Charles in Charge

Recap and review of Twisted - Episode 17 - You're A Good Man, Charlie McBride:

Rarely has a series been as aptly titled as Twisted. This isn't just because Twisted has a dark premise centering on a kid convicted of murdering his aunt, who is later forced to murder his father to protect his best friend. Rather, it's because Twisted is so pointedly focused on the skewed, twisted ambiguity of its characters. For much of the first half of this season, the show kept Danny's involvement in his aunt's murder a mystery, encouraging viewers to wonder if maybe he really had committed the crime. Hell, the show even built a pretty strong circumstantial case against him for the murder of Regina, just from evidence accrued over the course of the first eleven episodes. It's rare for a teen drama to go so far out of its way to keep viewers in the dark about its ostensible protagonist, but Twisted seemed determined to keep us from ever really knowing just what darkness and pathos Danny (Avan Jogia) has locked away in his heart. And so it is with Charlie McBride (Jack Falahee), who is every bit as mysterious and unknowable. "You're A Good Man, Charlie McBride" is an absorbing episode, simply for how it presents two possibilities for the title character: is Charlie a well-meaning, damaged kid? Or is he Green Grove's new "Socio" in the making?

Credit: ABC Family

So Jo (Maddie Hasson) is acting outrageously irrational this week, accusing Danny of planning the entire murder of Vikram based solely on the say-so of a guy she's known for, what, a few days? I say this as seemingly one of the few people for whom Jo is a favorite character, but her rage was just confounding, this week. She tries to argue that his plan, before she showed up at the church, was to kill Vikram on the spot. Jo's theory is that her sudden arrival ruined Danny's plans, and that he would have preferred there to be no witnesses, which -- okay, yeah, I guess that's not the worst presumption in the world, but hardly any of Danny's actions during Vikram Desai's serial killer chase through the woods bears out Jo's theory. But she's mad anyway, and so is Lacey (Kylie Bunbury), who is convinced that Danny is paranoid about Charlie. But Danny actually has more than just his suspicions to go on: he learns that Charlie isn't staying with friends; rather, he's living at the stables, having gotten a job and lodging there in order to establish a local residence so he could attend Green Grove High (Charlie is actually 18, so the woman running the stables never asked questions about his parents or his past). But that's not all Danny finds, as he discovers a picture he'd thought lost from his time in juvie, a photo of himself, Lacey, and Jo as children. A flashback shows us that it had been one of Danny's most treasured possessions, and he was deeply troubled to have lost it on his last day in juvie. Of course, he now knows Charlie took it, which means that, at best, Charlie is obsessed with taking over Danny's life. At worse...well, Danny isn't sure just yet. Either way, Charlie is pretty much the one in charge right now, due to one major slip-up...

Charlie overhears Danny and Jo discussing Vikram's murder, meaning he's now in on the secret too (although one of the prevailing theories is that Charlie already knows since he could possibly be the one who moved Vikram's body). Charlie uses this secret to threaten Danny into leaving he and Jo alone, but Danny doesn't take kindly to the threat, especially since Charlie went tattling to Jo earlier about Danny confronting him over the whole "I want to kill my dad" juvie secret. So Danny is more or less back at square one, with no real lead on what Charlie is doing. And worse, he's firmly convinced Jo of his goodness. He admits to her that he came to Green Grove because Danny made it sound great, and that he also made the people sound wonderful. Charlie's tireless honesty contrasts with Danny's evasiveness, which makes him all the more attractive to Jo, as they spend the evening together at a Food Truck festival.

Credit: ABC Family

It's here that Charlie confesses he was sentenced to juvie for stealing a car, admitting that he was an angry youth that fell in with a bad crowd after his mother died and his father bailed on him. Jo isn't judgmental, and it's reflective of her differing attitudes towards Charlie and Danny. She has no reason to see Charlie as shady, because he hasn't given her any reason to. When she kisses him at the end of the episode, telling him she doesn't care about his past, only that he's here now, she can't see the sinister-looking, self-satisfied smirk Charlie gives behind her back. Jo doesn't know the full story, nor does she know just how true Charlie's intentions are. But she wants to believe. And Charlie's earnest, forthright personality makes believing easy. It's an intriguing enough storyline on its own, but is all the more interesting when you consider that maybe Charlie really is as good as he appears to be. That moral ambiguity drives the series and makes everything far more engrossing than it would be otherwise.

The rest of the episode is mostly in service of lighter subplots: Rico (Ashton Moio) and Andi have an adorable misunderstanding when she becomes evasive due to the assumption that he wants sex, leaving Rico to reassure her that he's fine with their relationship exactly as it is. We also have Lacey sneaking out to a club in New York City with Whitney (Brianne Howey), who reveals her romantic interest in Lacey by giving her a surprise kiss on the lips. Meanwhile, Tess (Kimberly Quinn) confesses to Karen (Denise Richards) that she had a secret baby -- a secret Karen apparently already knew, since Vikram told her. In fact, he even went as far as to show her where he kept the adoption records, and it's with Karen's help that Tess is able to track down her long-lost child, looking at her through the window of her quaint little home an hour from Green Grove. Apparently, the girl is no one we've met before, so I find myself wondering how this will factor into the main story, unless the father is someone we actually know, like Jack (Ivan Sergei). On the subject of Jack, evidence pops up that links him to the Vikram Desai case. Karen had accused him of being the one to move the body, which Jack vehemently denies, but he's inevitably arrested by Kyle (Sam Robards) on suspicion of being involved. I sincerely doubt Jack is the guy, so that means the suspect pool is considerably thinner now. My money is on Charlie, although I think I'd flip if they went really far out of left field and made it someone like Rico. But there's no way that happens. In fact, I'd be shocked if it were anyone but Charlie, which means my only question is why he'd help Danny. Could it be that Charlie really is, at heart, a decent guy who just wants to be friends? Could it really be that easy? Hell, at this rate, a simple solution just might be the biggest twist of all. Twisted, indeed.

Credit: ABC Family

"You're A Good Man, Charlie McBride" doesn't actually answer whether Charlie is a good man or not, but it plants the idea of both innocence and guilt. I'll admit he's one of the more interesting characters on Twisted, at the moment, and it's because he has the same kind of ambiguity to his character that Danny had in the early episodes. Seeing them clash should make for some good TV. As it is now, Twisted continues to build on its sturdy, melodramatic foundation, to mostly solid results.