As the episode opens, DSS Robert Calhoun (David De Lautour) pounds his fist into Joe Middleton’s (Cohen Holloway) face. He draws his gun. Joe dislodges it from his hand sending it across the room. The beating continues as Sally Galletly (Dea Doglione) ponders whether she should walk away or knock on the door. Calhoun is near to strangling Joe to death. Sally receives a call about Graham Gallety (Cameron Rhodes) being in the hospital. Joe is able to get his hand on a glass and cracks= it against Calhoun’s head, knocking him out cold. Sally races to the hospital as Joe is left to deal with Calhoun.

Calhoun wakes to find himself restrained to a chair. Joe asks him if he had a good nap. Calhoun apologizes for kneeing him in the ballocks. Joe says shut up and hands him his parking pass. With Calhoun’s prints on the parking pass, Joe places it in a plastic bag and grabs the duct tape. A short time later, Joe arrives home to learn Karma has returned. Unable to consciously kill the cat, Joe treats it to a TV show.

From a public payphone, Joe calls the Crashage Carver tip line and demands to speak to DI Carl Schroder (Robbie Magasiva). He later arrives at the police station as Schroder and DSS Rebecca Kent (Hannah Marshall) are discussing the Christchurch Carver case while walking to their car. Joe breaks into Calhoun’s locker and places the parking pass in his bag. Elsewhere, Schroder and Ken find the knife that Joe previously put into the trashcan. Back at the police station, Joe secretly watches as the detectives learn it is Calhoun’s prints on the murder weapon. Taylor (Chris Symon) removes the lock from Calhoun’s locker. A police car locates the car in the parking garage.

Joe returns to the Walker house to find Calhoun has flipped his chair over and urinated himself. He calls Melissa Flowers (Chelsie Preston Crayford). At the parking garage, Schroder and Kent find a body in the boot and cat litter to absorb the odor. A short time later, the police raid Calhoun’s apartment.

At the Walker house, Melissa jerks the tape from Calhoun’s mouth and asks why he pinned Daniela’s murder on Joe. He says because the Christchurch Carver killed and it dawns on him that it is Joe. When he refuses to answer, she slaps him and Joe retrieves the snips. Melissa grabs the snips and starts to lop off a finger until Calhoun starts explaining how he met Daniela. He claims she wanted him to help her leave her abusive husband but later changed her mind. When he kissed her, she threatened to report him for taking advantage of her situation. He swears it was an accident. Melissa asks if he knows Melissa Flowers. Realizing she is Melissa’s sister, Calhoun recalls she was allegedly raped and killed by a cop. A case was dropped when the cop disappeared at Melissa’s hand. Refusing to kill Calhoun, Joe hands the knife to Melissa. She pulls his head to the side, places the knife against his neck, looks at Joe, and drives the knife upward. Joe is mesmerized. After tasting Calhoun’s blood, an exhilarated Melissa asks who will be their next victim.

Joe places Calhoun’s body wrapped in plastic in the boot of a classic Pontiac car. He torches the house before leaving. Sally is taken to the police station for questioning. Joe digs a deep hole to bury Calhoun’s body. At the police station, Schroder shows Sally the parking ticket that Joe planted in Calhoun’s bag. She claims it has been months since she utilized a parking pass. He says it has her prints on it and it belongs to a car with a body in the boot. Kent assures Sally that they believe her and suggests she picked it up somewhere. They ask her if she has been in Calhoun’s car. Sally says Calhoun may be hurting him before recalling the parking pass from Joe’s flat.

Cleaned up, Joe tells Karma and his goldfish goodbye before meeting Melissa outside. She asks if he is going to have sex with her. He asks what is her first name. She asks why it matters. He claims to be interested in her sister’s murder. He gives her a VHS tape of her killing Calhoun. She threatens to shoot him. After calling them even, he suggests they start over from scratch. While they repeatedly ravage each other, they look for their next victim and buy goldfish together.

Joe questions how he could love Melissa who terrifies him. He says killing her would make him sad. She wakes up as he leaves to visit Evelyn Middleton (Elizabeth Hawthorne). Evelyn gifts Joe a new cellphone for bringing Walt (Peter Hayden) into her life. He claims to be happy for her before telling her about Melissa. She says her friends assumed Douglas Middleton’s (James Foster) suicide would traumatize him. In a flashback, young Joe (Jamie Wyeth) finds Douglas dead in his car filled with carbon dioxide fumes. Wearing a face covering, Joe gets in the car for a better look. Back in the present, Joe assures Evelyn that Douglas’ death never messed him up before giving her a puzzle piece. Stunned, she utilizes the piece to complete an apple puzzle. While walking home, Joe believes he would make a better “Joe the Romeo” than the Christchurch Carver when Sally arrives. She tells him that the police questioned her about the parking pass in his flat. She admits to telling the police that someone hurt him. Schroder sees everything from a nearby police cruiser. As the police move in, Joe grabs Sally and holds her at gunpoint.

Melissa arrives at the scene. Seeing her, Joe releases Sally and puts the gun under his chin. With a big smile on his face, he looks at Melissa and pulls the trigger. Sally tries to stop him. Melissa turns and walks away.  A short time later, Joe is alive in an ambulance. Schroder claims to have liked him and says he is lucky Sally was there. Joe agrees, praises Jesus, and flips Schroder the bird. As the ambulance drives away, Melissa says she is coming for Joe.

“Christchurch Carver Caught” and Joe’s photo headlines the Canterburg Daily. Locals rally for Joe’s execution. A pregnant woman’s distended abdomen appears on the screen as the episode ends.

 

Dark City: The Cleaner Finale Review

Joe’s plan to pin Wendy’s murder on Calhoun is foiled when Sally’s fingerprints are detected on a vital piece of evidence. Sally believes she is helping Joe by telling the police that Calhoun was hurting him. Her statement is all Schroder need to identify Joe as the Christchurch Carver.

Joe has never been happy with Melissa at his side. When Schroder shows up to arrest him, he attempts suicide but Sally intervenes. According to the photos in the end, Joe is tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison for his crime. Photos of Melissa and Calhoun and an unidentified pregnant woman are also shown. The finale ties all the pieces of the case together but the photos keeps the story open for another season.

 

While the story is predictable and silly, it is enjoyable but not for everyone. There are times when story progression slows to a crawl. The finale could have been better if more time had been dedicated to explaining the final photos. It would have also been nice if Melissa’s killer instinct had been introduced earlier in the series. Joe and Melissa are the unlikely pair and their relationship felt a bit awkward. Overall, a decent finale that deserves a 6.2 out of 10.

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