Mr. Mercedes Season 2, Episode 1: Missed You is a fresh start for Hodges

Mr. Mercedes returns for season 2, with Hodges and Holly opening a private investigator business. How will they manage without Mr. Mercedes consuming their lives?

What will Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) do without Mr. Mercedes to hunt? Along with Holly (DKDK), he’s opening up a P.I. firm and calling it “Finders Keepers.” They’re also on their relationship. Expect issues since business and pleasure don’t typically mix well.

Meanwhile, Brady is hospitalized, a vegetable. Fortunately for him – unfortunate for humanity – there is a neurosurgeon with a brilliant wife working his case. Can they help Brady recover? Should they?

Mr. Mercedes season 1 refresher

Season 1 of Mr. Mercedes left off with Bill Hodges questioning whether a corpse is really the killer, while Pete is ready to end the investigation. After a visit to Frobisher’s apartment and a scan for blood SCI-style, it’s determined the height differential caused blood spray at an angle.
Bill tracks down Brady at the Edmund Mills Art Center (Lou and Jerome are also in attendance). Holly rushes in to save the day, caving in Brady’s skull with a figurine.

During the harrowing encounter, Bill had a heart attack and ended up just a few doors down from Brady at the hospital. Before Bill can leave, he visits Brady and tells him he’ll be waiting. The first season of Mr. Mercedes ends with Brady presumably alive, and potentially on his way to recovery.

In the hospital

More from Entertainment

• 10 Thanksgiving movies on Disney+ for your holiday watch list
• Strictly spoilers and results 2023: Who is leaving on Strictly Come Dancing Week 9?
• CMT Smashing Glass performers honoring groundbreaking women in music
• Jamie Lynn Spears joins I’m A Celebrity season 23: Who else is set to appear in the British reality series?
• Strictly spoilers and results 2023: Who is leaving on Strictly Come Dancing Week 8?

Season 2 starts in the hospital, Bill with the heart attack and Brady with brain surgery. Both live, but Brady is comatose. Thank goodness. Brady’s doctor, however, is a talented surgeon named Felix Babineau (Jack Huston) jigsaw puzzles Brady’s skull together.

His wife Cora (Tessa Ferrer) has access to an experimental stroke drug called Zetacortex, and she wants her husband to test the drug. He thinks primates, but she has bigger plans. Their combined egos and desire for status restrict their perspective, and she doesn’t consider the repercussions of resurrecting a guy like Brady. A legitimately insane serial killer. Felix puts up a minor fight until Cora uses sex and the threat of an abortion as bargaining chips.

Once Bill recuperates, he spends an ample amount of his time visiting Brady in a vegetative state. Long enough for Brady to go from post-surgery bald to a full head of hair. Bill takes small joys in taunting Brady with from time to time.

New Detective Agency

Holly (Justine Lupe) is now working with/for Bill in “Finders Keepers.” Their current case is helping a man find a stolen plane. Bill’s onsite at the airfield. A moron airfield cop stops Bill from apprehending his perp, but it’s unlikely their business is doing very well. Holly is still a space-case and can barely deal with a box of pens without becoming flummoxed.

Relationship ups and downs

Bill is still hanging out with Ida (Holland Taylor) from time to time. A tree falls in her yard and Bill volunteers to clean up the mess. To make things easier he brings his old buddy Pete (Scott Lawrence), who mentioned retiring, in to help. They drink beers and laugh about Ida while doing the chores until the beer runs out. Pete goes in for more beer and doesn’t come back. He wasn’t as lucky as Bill in the heart attack department. So much for retirement.

While mourning the loss of Pete, it becomes clear Bill’s other relationships are growing stronger. He calls his daughter regularly, dropped her off at the airport, talks to his ex-wife Donna (Nancy Travis) amicably, and has regular tea with Ida. Nevertheless, Holly moves in with Bill to keep a watchful eye on him.

Pete’s funeral

During a brilliant eulogy, in which Bill mentions Pete’s strength, dedication, humor, and private nature. He even talks about Pete’s first case when he had to read Miranda Rights to a mime. Hilarious stuff.

Bill eventually visits Pete’s grave to pay respects and is approached by Brady in a white suit. Obviously a vision. Brady says, “I’m what keeps you alive,” and it’s true to an extent. It’s not Bill’s family, or a love interest, or the mediocre business, or even his former police colleagues. The vision transfers to a periwinkle-hued hospital, with Brady fully recovered and walking around. Then back to the graveyard, where Brady plays a ukulele, moon-walks on top of his ice cream truck, and jams on the harmonica like Blues Traveler.

It’s ridiculous enough to evoke the classically ridiculous scene from Happy Gilmore.

Like all serial killers, mask or not, there comes a moment of revival. In the case of Mr. Mercedes, it’s a matter of Cora’s convincing causing Felix to ignore all his medical oaths, up the dosage, and save Brady. Before he can kill again, however, Brady flirts with death once more when Bill squeezes a few ventilator tubes in a moment of weakness. He relents, and he may regret doing so.

So

Freddy

Brady is no longer only haunting Bill in his dreams; it’s back to real life.

Mr. Mercedes airs Wednesdays at 10 PM on Audience.