Episode Recap: Tangled Web

After inexplicably activating the Ring of Solomon, Calvin is now obsessed with learning more about how it works, and how he can control it. While doing some research at the Cottonmouth, he’s joined by May and Garvey for a little family lunch. Meanwhile, Bea is presiding over a funeral when she notices something weird: spiders crawling out of the deceased’s casket.

All that is interrupted when the Hastings get a visit from Aunt Nancy, AKA Anansi. She’s a friend of the family’s, and she’s got some bad news: the Dredge wants to kill the Hastings family. The good news? She brought sweets. Calvin eats one, and gets knocked out. In order to save the family from destruction, Aunt Nancy had to put a spell on Calvin so that they’ll be able to travel back into his memory. What memories? Specifically those related to the death of Arlo.

Calvin is transported back to that fateful and fatal night at the funeral home when the Hastings family suffered heavy losses at the hands of some mysterious forces. The most revelatory of all is…Isaac killed Arlo with a crossbow. Wh-what? But Calvin isn’t in the vision for long, as Tilly tases him awake. It comes as quite a shock to everyone. Tilly’s been super dubious of Aunt Nancy since she walked in: Tilly was once Anansi’s student, so she knows her tricks.

After some coaxing from Bea and Aunt Nancy, Calvin submits to returning to his memoryland once more. He’s transported to the Alchemy Room, where Arlo has accidentally released an Infernal from its container. The Infernal is ready to kill the young boy, at which point Bea enters. She and the Infernal do battle, but he gets the better of her. It’s not a memory any more: Bea is out cold on the couch. And Aunt Nancy has slipped into a trance, unable to lift the spell. It’s up to Calvin and Tilly to put an end to this.

To interrupt the memory feed, Tilly breaks Aunt Nancy’s mason jars filled with spiders. Aunt Nancy wakes up from the trance, and shortly after Bea recovers her presence of mind.

Tilly, suspecting something is up, snatches Aunt Nancy’s own mason jar from her. It’s got all her memories in it. Tilly demands Nancy tell her what she’s doing here, and she spills: she is trying to get the Hastings in a fight with the Dredge and trick him into thinking he can get the ring. During the fight, they’ll be able to kill the Dredge. At least that’s the idea.

But first Aunt Nancy needs to prepare Bea and Calvin for the fight. How’s she going to do that? By bombarding them with terrible memories over and over again. Calvin enters and finds his brother struggling with the Infernal. He steps in to kick the Infernal’s ass. But then the Infernal steps into Arlo’s body…and possesses him.

Arlo begs his brother to kill him and defeat the Infernal before it can escape and wreak havoc elsewhere. So in the end…Calvin shoots his own brother with the crossbow. Woah. Isaac took up the crossbow to make it seem like he killed his own son, when in reality it was fratricide. Calvin doesn’t know what to think anymore.