666 Park Avenue – “The Hero Complex” Review/Recap [Spoilers]

Christopher John Falcioni ’16 & Kristina Carroll ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff

In the most recent episode of 666 Park Avenue the residents of the hotel experience even more violence and danger than usual.  We left off with Kaminski (Enrique Murciano) getting ready to torture the innocent journalist Annie, Jane bringing the mysterious shaking suitcase into her and Henry’s apartment, and the creepy little girl who enjoys hiding under Jane’s bed. This week’s episode brought back all of these elements and more, making them even more terrifying.
The episode starts off with Annie (Aubrey Dollar) tied up in a chair, waiting for Kaminski to kill her with his wrench, just as she wrote in his “obituary”. Although, audience’s assumed the worst in last week’s episode, a sliver of hope for Annie’s survival was planted in their heads.  Kaminski orders her to reveal who told her about him, and does not believe her when she swears that she completely made him up in her writing.  Just as he is about to tear out her eyeballs, she blurts out the name of her boss, Ned.  Kaminski then leaves to go track down Ned, and Annie escapes.  I bet you’re thinking that she’s safe, right?  Just remember that nobody living in 666 is EVER safe…  When Annie races to find Ned before Kaminski gets to him, she discover that he beat her to it, and finds Ned surrounded by a pool of blood outside of his home.  Immediately after this shocking encounter, Annie receives a horrifying phone call from none other than Kaminski himself, saying “You’re next.”  Clueless about what to do, she turns to Gavin for help, who promises that he can make Kaminski go away if she writes about the corrupt city planning commission, which Henry is a part of.
Nona’s character is also developed further in this episode, as we learn that she is seeing a therapist named Ingrid.  Ingrid (Wendy Moniz) seems to be aware of the fact that Nona’s grandmother (her legal guardian) is never around.  Nona tries to assure Ingrid that she no longer needs her help, but Ingrid tells her that she would like to schedule a final meeting when her grandmother is home.  Nona agrees, but not before eyeing a pair of sunglasses that is attached to Ingrid’s pocketbook.  As Ingrid leaves, Nona does what she does best, and snatches the sunglasses while giving her a hug.
Jane, who has been asked to keep an eye out for the thief by Olivia, sees Nona in the elevator and compliments her new sunglasses.  Then, as they are both exiting, they bump into Ingrid, who asks Nona if she left her glasses in her room.  Nona tries to play it off as if she has no idea where the glasses are, but Jane clearly makes the connection.  Later, Jane goes to visit Nona in her apartment and asks about her grandmother’s whereabouts.  When Nona tells her that she is in Atlantic City, Jane shows Nona the missing items flyers and tells her that she know that something is up.  Nona confesses that she has some of the items, but asserts that she doesn’t have Jane’s missing necklace.  When Jane goes to personally return the sunglasses to Ingrid, Ingrid tells her that Nona needs somebody that she can trust, and encourages Jane to bond with her, since they both had parents who died when they were young.
Henry takes a major focus of this episode and is accused by his boss, Commissioner Pike (Jose Zuniga), of sharing confidential information with Gavin about their business.  Henry denies this, but Pike has suspicious pictures of the two of them together.  He meets up with Gavin and tells him that he thinks that they should stop seeing each other until the investigation is over.  Olivia tries to persuade Gavin to give up on Henry, but there is something about him that Gavin does not want to let go of.  Eventually, Pike blackmails Henry into obtaining secret documents from Gavin’s office, and threatens to “ruin” him if he does not comply.  Therefore, Henry goes to Gavin’s penthouse and copies the information for the Greenpoint Towers, as well as a document about him and Jane, onto a USB.
And now comes the mysterious suitcase.  Jane spends the entire episode dying to find out what is inside, and the numbers on the lock continue to change.  Eventually, there is one point when Jane is alone in her room, and encounters the creepy girl (Ursula Parker) again.  This time, Jane hides the slowly opening suitcase in her closet.  Then, Tony the bellboy (Erik Palladino) hears a mysterious ringing noise coming out of Jane’s room, and decides to go in and investigate.  When he sees that it’s coming from the suitcase, he opens it and unleashes a thick cloud of black smoke. It seems like the smoke monster from LOST needed to make a few bucks… Tony is about to be consumed by the smoke when, all of a sudden, he is back out in the hallway, almost as if it never happened.  Was it just a dream? Probably just as much of a dream as Jane’s mostly-true nightmares.
The last ten minutes of the episode are definitely the most eventful…but not in a good way for our characters.  Jane and Henry head to a party at the mayor’s house, and run into Nona in the elevator.  Nona has a vision of Henry being shot at the party, and warns Jane to keep him away from a man with a compass tattoo.  At the party, Henry experiences a lot of trouble with Gavin and his company, and is ultimately fired by Pike.  Then, Jane sees a waiter with the tattoo that Nona described, and yells Henry’s name from across the room.  Immediately after, shots were fired in Henry’s direction, and we see that Kaminksy is actually the shooter.  However, Henry, his intended victim, dives out of the way just in time.  So, who took the bullet?  We were shocked to find out that it was Annie, who went to the party in order to save Henry, after realizing that her article had put him in danger; thus the title of the episode, “The Hero Complex”.
The episode ends with Annie dead (for sure this time), Nona’s grandmother being revealed in what seems to be a “frozen” state, Henry being deemed a hero, Jane’s pendant being returned to her, and finally, the giant smoke cloud turning into the face of a man.  Next week’s episode will be especially interesting, as it is masquerade-themed for Halloween.  We’re a little scared (but excited) to see what they have planned for this episode, because it seems almost impossible for the show to get any creepier than it already is. Then again, this is the devil we’re taking about…