Mr. Mercedes Season 2 Episode 10: Fade to Blue

Bill Hodges finally gets to confront Brady “Mr. Mercedes” Hartsfield, but someone else has a much more satisfying encounter with killer.

Mr. Mercedes is treading in the rehabilitative waters of A Clockwork Orange. Is the killer still inside Brady (Harry Treadaway)? If so, can Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) prove it and deliver the sociopath to justice?

When the previous episode of Mr. Mercedes ended, Bill was being arrested for pinching a coma patient’s oxygen tube and assaulting a doctor. Wouldn’t you know it, he ends up in a holding cell near his mortal enemy.

Face to face

Placed in adjacent cells, Brady uses it as an opportunity to taunt Bill. Convinced it’s the same sociopath, Bill convinces Brady to have a face to face. A brief discussion ensues, but the manipulation is thick. Reaching through the bars, Bill latches onto Brady’s trachea Roadhouse style. Before murder is committed, the grip is loosened.

People of Ohio vs. Brady Hartsfield

Brady pleads innocent, and his lawyer goes on to manipulate the legal process. Via chicanery, he says Brady is now cured of that mental disability, which causes multiple courtroom outbursts. The defense claims there are two different people, Brady is mentally incompetent, and Mr. Mercedes is no longer among us.

Brady did not consent to be drugged or experimented on, turning him into an allegedly different person mentally. If only there were a person, other than Bill, who could prove it’s all a show.

Enter empowered Lou (Breeda Wool). Bill and Montez (Maximiliano Hernández) want Lou to be the character witness. The person who can prove Brady’s the same.

Meanwhile, Babineau (Jack Huston) and Cora (Tessa Ferrer) have the financial and media support of bleeding hearts everywhere, making it more difficult to convict Brady. Deep pharmaceutical pockets fund expert after expert, lawyer after lawyer, none of whom stand to profit from the potential impacts of a groundbreaking drug they might be able to exploit (wink wink).

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Face to face again

Despite defense’s objections, Montez manages to convince the judge to make Brady see Lou. When they meet, Brady is soft-spoken, apologetic. A simple smirk from Lou and she thinks he’s scamming the entire thing (like the rest of the sane world).

Ever the master manipulator, Brady reminisces with her about the old computer days. He lays it on thick. Real emotional. Saying he only felt emotion when his mother died, and when he tried to murder Lou.

After some subsequent legal mumbo-jumbo being used to hinder the prosecution, Lou takes the stand. She confirms every question and statement Montez has, then performs a small amount of verbal jiu-jitsu to ward off the defense’s claims of a changed, new Brady. And then Lou walks off the stand, by Brady, tells him she doesn’t accept his apology.

Season 2 finishes with a literal bang. Not only does Lou reject the apology, but she also pulls out a plastic gun loaded with ceramic bullets and shoots Brady through the right eye. The courtroom erupts in shock, she’s apprehended, and Brady bleeds out on the table.

Mr. Mercedes airs Wednesdays at 10 PM ET on Audience.