416: Feeling Lucky

Synopsis

When Devon Black walks back into the parlor of the Goddard mansion, the Major ambushes him, pins his arm and holds the switchblade to his throat, then marches him out into the foyer. There he demands that Erastus Goddard free his friends from the spell, unaware that Billy and Simeon are only faking. Billy sees Ezekiel Dawkins reach into his long duster and freezes him with Command of the Wizard. He takes back the lockbox along with Dawkins's single action army and a knife. Simeon then uses Command of the Wizard on Goddard and orders him to reveal his plans. Fighting the spell, Goddard says he means to find out who murdered his son and kill whoever it is, though "the mayor" wants to harness that power for "the fight." He suggests that he and the investigators may be fighting the same never-ending fight, but says the decision to work with them is not his to make, and asks whether any of them are really in charge of their own decisions.

The group gathers its confiscated gear from the box by the door. Before they leave, the Major warns Black that he will put him in the ground if he sees him again. Simeon hands out his card in case anyone needs therapy, and Billy promises Goddard that his son's killer will not go unpunished. They flee in two cars, with the Major once again riding on the back.

At the sanatorium, Tallahassee and Dom have been waiting on the hood of a car playing rock, paper, scissors. Billy explains that Goodman Gray put a compulsion on him and Simeon at the hospital while they were in shock after Raymond Goddard's death. Dom picks the lockbox's lock on a pushed roll, spending luck to do so. Inside are an old, thin, leather-bound book with a Latin title, which Simeon translates as Confessions of the Mad Monk Clifanus; a velvet drawstring bag stitched with a symbol Dom recognizes as that of the Order of the Scorpius; a small round black mirror in a tarnished silver frame inside the bag; and about $20,000 in one-dollar bills, which Dom quietly pockets. The book is full of dense Latin, spell forms and diagrams in a familiar style. Simeon tries to skim it for the sealing spell for the medallion and fails, and the group decides to take only the book in to Corbitt and leave everything else in the car.

Funny Moments

• The Major calls Erastus Goddard "Raymond," the name of his dead son.
• Goddard, under Command of the Wizard, at first lists his plans as a bath, a coffee, and a shave and a haircut.
• The Major and Billy argue over who gets to kill the murderer first.
• On the way out, Simeon hands out his card: "If any of you need therapy after this."
• Dom's lockpicking attempt prompts the cry that "it's Pawn and Prawns all over again".
• The group speculates the box holds Gwyneth Paltrow's head.
• Tallahassee calls Dom's lockpicking "big pick energy."
• Corbitt's book turns out to have a fold-out centerfold of the monk.

Notable Quotes

• "Do everything I say exactly as I say it, or you're not gonna get out of this alive." —The Major
• "Are any of us really in charge of our own decisions major?" —Erastus Goddard
• "Yeah look at me I'm pretty in charge right now." —The Major
• "We take what we can to do what we can for as long as we can." —Erastus Goddard
• "If I see you again Devin I'm putting you in the ground." —The Major