’666 Park Avenue’ Episode 1.02 “Murmurations” Recap/Review

Last week, Jane and Henry moved into The Drake and became the Duran’s new project, Nona steals Jane’s necklace, Brian watches his neighbor Alexis, Louise is involved in an elevator accident, and a man settles his contract by being sucked into a wall.

Mr. Barlow, the man who tried to bring back his wife last week “suddenly moved away” so Jane is set onto the task of renovating his apartment. She quickly notices something weird on the opposite wall that leads her to open a hole and let out hundreds of birds into the room. How lucky that when they burst out of the windows Gavin was at the window to observe them purposefully flutter past. I don’t know why the concierge acts so friendly one second and really icy the next, she didn’t try to steal the job from him. Nona warns everybody against getting rid of the birds but to no avail. Later, the exterminator discovers hundreds more birds in a ventilation duct on none of the blueprints and starts demolishing the cement wall in the basement. Nona again tries to warn him against getting rid of the birds, but nobody cares about a 14 year olds opinion. Nona’s witchy-voodoo trick has her see his death before it occurs by birds attacking him and then getting struck by a taxi. Did she only see this happen, or make it happen?

While at the Doran’s party, Gavin tells Henry about a $100 million deal that he’s working on for a property. Henry later discovers that the plot next to Gavin’s is a toxic wasteland, but he doesn’t tell Gavin to not ruin his career. While at the party, Henry invited the Doran’s over for dinner causing added stress for Jane to make a delicious meal. While they’re over they discuss marriage plans and Jane’s murder discovery but Henry abstains from telling Gavin about what he learned of the deal. Later, Gavin and Henry discuss it and Gavin appears pleased that Henry passed his integrity test. Gavin tells Olivia that he expects Henry will become a hero throughout whatever he has planned. Oh how concerned I am for my sweet, sweet Henry.

Jane and Henry’s relationship is so lighthearted and fun.+5 points to Jane for the Tippy Hedren/Birds reference when describing the experience to Henry. It’s refreshing to have such comedy mixed in with all the dark, tense moments. Jane’s dreams were very informative this week. The first time, she got into the closed off door but woke up immediately after seeing the body of a murdered man in a Drake hotel room. She later finds a newspaper article under her door about the murdered man from 1956 and it spurs on another dream that night. This time, she discovered a woman from the hotel, Danielle, was the murderer in the 50s, but is still around now.

At the Doran’s party, Jane and Henry meet Danielle (Mili Avital) another tenant at the Drake. She’s a desperately lonely woman who will do anything for a man to want her. When she’s stood up on a date, Gavin has her meet Frank Alpern who takes her out the next night. Frank feigns interest in her for enough time to get back to her place before deciding to get back to his wife. Danielle’s rage comes into play and she quickly falls into Gavin’s trap. She kills Frank and upon realizing what has happened Gavin shows up and tells her that Frank cheated Gavin over in a business deal so Gavin used Danielle’s track record of 60 years of murdering men who hurt her to kill Frank off. As she’s sobbing from the memories and seeing herself as she truly is (an old woman) he promises that when she wakes she will be “a brand new woman” once again.

When Brian visits Louise after she was crushed by an elevator, he gets flustered by Alexis’ arrival. He’s really way too tempted by her. Louise is doing way too well to have received a crushed lung and concussion. I’m disappointed that she was fired because of it though, is that even legal? While trying to write his play a few days later he gets distracted by seeing Alexis across the way, but I guess her sultry waves aren’t helping at all. Why is there such a plan to seduce him? Has Gavin put her up to it? She doesn’t live in the Drake though… When he gets out of the shower later he finds Alexis in his apartment waiting for him. He tries to resist her advances but can’t contain himself. At least he looks guilty later when seeing Louise. As Louise returns home she finds a $300,000 cheque from Gavin, settling before she can even sue — smart man, but why? I expect it’s because of Gavin succumbing to temptation, but we shall see!

Right at the end of the episode, Jane goes down to the basement to check out how much cement had been demolished so far, and she finds herself able to open the door. After walking in slightly the door slam shuts leaving her screaming as it fades to black. What do you think will happen in the next episode? As Gavin had just been saying that he expects Henry to become a hero, maybe Henry will get involved trying to search for his girlfriend.

The next episode of 666 Park Avenue, ‘The Dead Don’t Stay Dead” airs Sunday at 10/9c on ABC.