Fallout 3.7: Jenny's Agenda

Spoilers for the antepenultimate episode of Fallout (ever!) after I watch my favorite sitcom, starring an assumed killer and his trusty sidekick who faked his own death...
I have to admit that I shed a small tear for Blake (not Blunk), who is perhaps the character I have wanted most to pull away from his darkest tendencies in order to succeed. And just when we discovered that Blake was not Sarah's killer, Blake gives up on himself. Oh, Blake...you hardly knew yourself.

Before jumping into character motivations, I just wanted to point out who rushed to Jenny's aid at prom, since this eliminates several people from suspicion in pulling that particular trigger:

At Jenny's side in death (and heard the shot ring out):

1. Sarah
2. Blake
3. Tim
4. Willy
5. Beth

Unaccounted for at the time of Jenny's death:

1. Zach
2. Melony
3. Brittany
4. Max
5. Brett
6. Vanessa
7. Erin

Weren't at prom, but could have conceivably showed up just to kill Jenny:

1. Kaitlyn (stayed home)
2. Ashley (a junior not asked)
3. Gina (a junior not asked)
4. Chad (didn't go to the same school)
5. Chris (didn't go to the same school)

Oh, and here is a list of all of the prom couples, just so we keep everything straight:

1. Brittany & Brett
2. Beth & Willy
3. Vanessa & Zach
4. Sarah & Blake
5. Tim & Jenny
6. Max & Melony
7. Erin alone (she should have gone with Adam, but Adam was too hung over)

Okay. So like last episode's post, I'm going to wrap up (as best I can) this episode's summary with motivations from the three tiers of existence:

Supernatural:

• Gabriel: Gabriel is guilty! However this season resolves, it seems like Gabriel will not escape without blame. Gabriel's modus operandi seems to be to convince people who want to do the right thing (or think they are the sort of person who does the right thing) that they deserve to be punished for something. Gabriel also seems to be particularly adept at convincing this type of person to kill for zie. Here we saw that Gabriel...
• convinced Jenny (in the form of Sunglasses Tim) that she deserved to be punished.
• indirectly (in the form of flesh-and-blood Chris) encouraged Blake to kill himself, giving him the "justice [he] deserves."
• implanted fake Sarah memories into Laura's head to make Blake look guilty.

It seems like Gabriel might also have had a hand in encouraging Jenny's killer, or perhaps it was Gabriel zieself who did the deed. Yet Gabriel claimed that zie still wanted an end to all of this. Does that mean that Gabriel kills (or encourages killing) to stop further killing? Or is this "end" a scenario in which everyone is dead? Here are some other questions that are still unanswered for me:

1. Why is Gabriel mad at Jenny? What was "the dumbest mistake of [Jenny's] life?" Is it the fact that Jenny was looking into something that she wasn't supposed to? Gabriel talked to Jenny before prom, seemingly to warn her, but yet seemed instrumental in her death. So what is the deal with these two?
2. What is/was Gabriel's master plan? Are the events unfolding exactly as Gabriel wanted them to? Or did something go wrong? Were all of these people supposed to die? Or was Jenny the catalyst for a new plan?
3. Why does Jenny not want Laura involved?

• Azazel: I don't think we saw a whole lot of Azazel in this episode ("Um...I don't know what an Azazel is!"), but what we now know about Gabriel begs a lot of questions about Azazel. What we do know is that Gina's form appeared to Melony to say that Blake had to die, and that Azazel wanted the book that implicated Martha-as-Gabriel hidden. Which begs the following questions:

1. If Gabriel and Azazel are two opposing forces, why would they both want Blake dead? Is this Gina really Azazel? And did Azazel also appear as Gina to Blake earlier in the episode?
2. Why would Azazel not want the gang to find out that Martha = Gabriel (i.e., have Brett hide the book)? And why would Gabriel want people to know?
3. How is Azazel's endgame different from Gabriel's? Does Azazel want to stop Gabriel? Is Azazel racing Gabriel to kill more "deserving" people faster?

It also seems possible that Ghost Jenny could be Azazel in disguise, but at this point, I don't think I have enough evidence to support or refute that claim.


Living

• Tim: Tim learned a lot in this episode. He found out that Zach wasn't dead, and he found out that Chad is Jenny's brother. Tim is now brought into the Circle of Trust that seems to include Laura, Vanessa, Tim, Chad, Zach, and possibly Chris...so really, it isn't really a Circle of Trust at all anymore, since I don't trust several of those characters. But anyway, Tim allows Ghost Jenny to speak to him again, and Ghost Jenny somehow reveals to Tim that Martha = Gabriel. However, Tim didn't seem to accomplish very much with regard to Jenny's agenda, but if the characters are choosing sides, Tim seems to be anti-Gabriel, which might mean pro-Azazel. He did rush to Jenny's aid at prom, however, so we can reasonably conclude that he didn't kill Jenny. He also is probably not the person Jenny had information on, given Kaitlyn's tone when she asked Jenny about her prom plans with him.
• Zach: Zach is convinced of Blake's guilt, and that might be Gabriel's plan all along (and who knows if it's also Azazel's plan). Zach seems to have unwittingly joined sides with Gabriel, but may change his mind once he has more information. He did initially suspect Martha (and researched her pre-Gunderson whereabouts). However, he does seem resistant to the idea that Martha = Gabriel, which could be because Blake is proposing the idea, but who knows if that will change. One driving factor against such change seems to be that Zach is currently working very closely with Chris, who seems much more firmly in Camp Gabriel. Speaking of Chris...
• Chris: Chris has gone over to the Dark Side, I'm afraid, and if this episode hadn't featured Blake's death, the scene with Chris in the car post-suicide-encouragement might have been the saddest one of the whole episode. I know Chris thinks he is working with the side of Good and he is being horribly manipulated, but we just don't know what Chris is capable of anymore. That said, was convincing Blake that he deserved to die the "decision Chris will make that will ruin his life...assuming he lives long enough to make it" foretold by Erin? If that is so, then Chris is just the latest indirect killer in a long line of indirect killers manipulated by a supernatural force (or perhaps all of the deaths are directly Gabriel's doing?). But if that's true, then who gave Beth the pills? Chris seemed to know a lot about them...
• Vanessa: The latest incriminating piece of information we have on Vanessa came from a conversation between Ghost Jenny (or Azazel?) and Tim, which was that Tim can't trust Vanessa, and that Tim doesn't know the truth about her. This seems somewhat strange, since Vanessa wanted Tim to talk to Ghost Jenny in the first place. Vanessa also seemed to want to comfort Melony, who is understandably distraught after breaking up with Chad the same night Gina was murdered. Vanessa hasn't been on my radar for a while, and occasionally I will name her as The Character Least Likely to Have Done It, but Ghost Jenny seems to say the opposite. But this might just be more evidence that Ghost Jenny could be Azazel.
• Brittany: Brittany seems to still be up to something, but as of yet, we don't know how benign that something is. It seems like something bad enough to make Ashley leave town once Gina found out, but for all we know, Ashley might be mentally unstable anyway. I want to trust Brittany...I really do. She seems like she really, truly cares about Chris...and not just because Gabriel or anyone else wants her to. But we still don't know everything about her, and there are only two episodes left, which seems incriminating in and of itself. Brittany seems to be counting herself in Gabriel's camp, which juxtaposes with Erin as the two of them searched for the Azazel book in the library. So how much of Brittany's scheming is Gabriel really responsible for? And why did Gabriel want Brittany to know the truth about zie identity? And does learning that Brittany went with Brett (Tool!) to the prom tell us anything about her? About Brett? And what file was it that Ashley took from Gina that Brett returned to Gina that Brittany knows about? (Does that last sentence even make sense?)
• Erin: Erin is still Azazel's favorite...at least I think so. Azazel has threatened her in the past, but Erin seems like she has nowhere else to turn if she doesn't have Azazel. She doesn't seem terribly guilty, but she also doesn't have as many connections to the other characters as anyone else. This might make her a good suspect, now that I think about it. We don't know if getting the book back was Azazel's idea (to stop Brittany from getting it, possibly), or her own. Erin seems pretty resigned to her fate, which either makes her very guilty (lots of opportunity, not a lot of caring) or totally innocent (not a lot of motivation).
• Melony: So it turned out that Melony did care about Blake...she might have even loved him. Melony is really having a rough month or so, which seems to make her unlikely in the guilt department. If one supernatural being or another has more sway over her than the other, I couldn't say which is which. But if she cares about Chad and Blake, she should steer clear of Gabriel.
• Ashley: Ashley is MIA, which is conspicuous. However, she seemed to have gotten scared, and is abandoning whatever scheme Brittany had in mind.
• Brett (Tool!): I can't forgive Brett for his turddom, but I'm glad he decided to uncover the location of the book. Brett also seems to be the first person (if not the only person) who recognizes that both Azazel and Gabriel are not to be trusted, and that the two supernatural powers are using all of our mortal friends for their own devices. This means that Brett might not be on Gabriel's side anymore, both because of this awareness and because he and Ashley are kaput.
• Chad: Chad seems pretty confused at this point, and who can blame him? I'm not entirely convinced that it's Ghost Jenny who has been haunting Chad for all these months (or is it years?). If that's the case, then Chad might have been doing the bulk of Azazel's handiwork these past months. And if that's true, then who knows what crimes he might have committed for the being pretending to be his sister? As one commenter pointed out last time, the fact that Chad didn't go to the same high school as the rest of the gang might be important plot-wise (e.g., was he away at disciplinary school? If so, does that mean supercute Ben is bad too?). The question hasn't been addressed yet, and I wonder if it will become important in the next few episodes.
• Ben: Where are you? And what files did you take? And whose side are you on? I have a lot of questions about Ben, but with him not being in the episode, I haven't learned a whole lot.
• Laura: Laura is still a big question mark in my book, and her sudden interest in this case looks either incriminating or incredibly selfless. Probably the most bizarre aspect to Laura is Gabriel's hesitance to include Laura into the group. Is this because Laura is the only true innocent? Or is it because Laura knows something that we don't? And does Laura really want to help Blake? Is this because she cared about him, or because Azazel convinced her to do so?

Dead:

• Jenny: As I've mentioned several times now, I'm not convinced that this Ghost Jenny is the real spirit of Jenny. If we assume that she is, then she seems to be very decidedly against Gabriel, who was the main player in her murder 5 years ago. Jenny (or Azazel) seems pretty selfish and not to be trusted to me, as she has been manipulating Chad for a very long time, and she's now trying to get Tim to do what she wants, too. All of this points to Azazel masquerading as Jenny for me, but maybe I'm overlooking something. We now know a lot more about Alive Jenny from 5 years ago thanks to the prom flashbacks. Apparently, Jenny suspected something about someone who was currently or formerly a student at her high school, and this was enough to incite Gabriel's ire or pique Gabriel's interest (depending on what we think about Gabriel's involvement). But who could it have been? We know that Jenny was questioning Blake, but it seems unlikely that this was the only person she was looking into, especially since Blake has been cleared of most charges and is now dead by Gabriel and Chris's combined hands. The remaining information certainly couldn't have been about Kaitlyn, who copied the files for Jenny (which probably led to Kaitlyn's interest in the matter, as well as to Kaitlyn's death), and it doesn't seem to be Max, who really didn't want to know. It also doesn't seem likely that the files were on Tim, since Kaitlyn quickly transitions from talk of the files to the more upbeat topic of Jenny going to prom with him. And it also doesn't seem likely that the files are on Brittany or Vanessa, since they are more Kaitlyn's friends than Jenny's (and Kaitlyn is warning Jenny about Jenny's friends, not her own). And Jenny told Willy that the files weren't on Willy, although she could have been lying, but she did tell Beth that she wanted to talk to her about someone who she thought was up to something and specifically said it wasn't Willy. This is interesting, since Willy is the only person we have any confidence is actually guilty of any particular murder. So who (else) is guilty? And what does Jenny mean by saying that Gabriel has blown her death way out of proportion?
• Gina: Well, a Gina made it clear that she wanted Blake dead, and another Gina tried to talk to a resistant Blake, but again, both of these appearances seem likely to be Azazel. We haven't seen too much of Ghost Gina yet, and now I'm starting to question just about every ghost (i.e., any ghost could be Azazel in disguise!), so I can't say for sure what Ghost Gina really wants.
• Max: Max is the one ghost that I feel more than 50% confident about when I identify the ghost form over an Azazel look-alike. I love Max, and I was on the edge of my seat as Max pleaded with Blake to not take the pills. I think Max wants to end this cycle of turmoil with as many of his friends alive as possible, which is a worthwhile, but probably futile goal. But how is Max's death related to all of this? That is the big question I keep returning to, since I've been led to believe that Willy killed Max to protect Beth...which doesn't include the involvement of any supernatural forces at all.
• Blake: :( We don't know a lot about Ghost Blake, but we do know that Blake (and even Blunk) is innocent both of Gina's murder (he was in rehab!) and Sarah's (Gabriel's fake memory implants!). And yet we also know that at least some of the information Jenny gathered concerned Blake (as she told Max). So what was Blake hiding?
• Willy: Back in high school, he really liked Beth. And he thought Jenny thought she was too good for the rest of them. Not a whole lot learned here.
• Adam: The information contained in Adam's files pointed toward Blake, at least according to Erin, which might mean that Blake looking guilty was part of Azazel's agenda. Blake was most likely not Gina's or Sarah's killer (based on what we heard), but he could have killed Adam, still, right?
• Sarah: My big question regarding Ghost Sarah right now is if she lied to Laura and told her she was going to give her those memories that turned out to be faked by Azazel. Or is it just the one memory that was faked? And does Sarah know this? If Sarah has any inkling that Gabriel implanted that fake memory of Blake killing Sarah into Laura's head, she's probably out to get Gabriel, which might mean she would be willing to team up with Azazel. Or it might not. 
• Beth: Ghost Beth seemed to be teamed up with Ghost Sarah last episode, which suggests the two of them are on the same side.
• Kaitlyn: We didn't see Ghost Kaitlyn (or even Azazel posing as Kaitlyn) in this episode, but we did see Kaitlyn back in high school. We know that she and Jenny were good friends, and that Kaitlyn probably suspected the same person/people that Jenny suspected, since Kaitlyn got her the files. What Ghost Kaitlyn wants is something I just don't think we can answer yet.

So to end, here is some wild speculation and some non-sequitors:


Wild Speculation:

• I know a lot of fellow Fallout viewers don't like the idea of multiple killers, but don't you think there must be multiple killers at this point? I mean, Blake was, in effect, killed by Chris through Gabriel, which suggests some of the other characters were killed by someone else through Gabriel (or maybe through Azazel?). Is it possible Willy was convinced by Gabriel to kill Max to save Beth? That's a conversation I can picture happening between Martha = Gabriel and Willy.
• Also, the supernatural angle seems less "eleventh-houry" to me now, since Martha was a season 2 character. And Willy could have been influenced by Azazel or Gabriel.
• In fact, I'm now wondering if this Max appearance from Season 1, Episode 2 could be Azazel. And possibly some other Maxes from earlier.
• The multiple killer angle could account for the different methods of killing as well. So far we have forced alcohol poisoning, gunshots (2x), hanging, stabbing, overdosing (2x), drowning, and however it was that Gina died (bashed in the head?).
• We now know with almost 100% certainty that Gabriel is to blame for at least one of the murders. If so, how many is Azazel responsible for? There are a total of 9 deaths so far (I believe): Jenny, Max, Sarah, Kaitlyn, Willy, Beth, Adam, Gina, and Blake. Blake was (seemingly) killed by Chris, who was encouraged to do so by Gabriel. Max was killed by Willy, but we can probably assume that he had some encouragement from some supernatural being. But which?
• Is it fair to say Chris "killed" Blake? I think so.
• Why did Martha = Gabriel decide to date Tim? This suggests to me that Tim is somehow special. Could this mean that Tim is responsible for some of the deaths, as he has (arguably) had the most influence from Martha = Gabriel? Or was Gabriel trying to protect Tim for some reason?
• I want to return to two of Jenny's lines: 1) "[Gabriel] has blown my death way out of proportion," and 2) "You can't trust Vanessa...you don't know the truth about her."
• What do these lines mean?
• Brad Norman? I still don't know who you are.

Non-Sequitors

• If I were Beth, I would be haunting my freakin' sister Lacy. What a bitch!
• It was nice to see some offed characters again. It was really sad, though, to see a young Beth looking forward to her future relationship with Willy with an open mind when we know what we know.
• Dancing! My faves were definitely Max and Zach. Blunk was also amusing.
• I don't know how the effect was done, but the shot of the drawing of Gabriel's mortal form integrated into the book was pretty awesome for college TV.
• Possible my favorite exchange of the season
• Erin: Why did you give her the book first?
• Brett: She asked nicer.
• Brittany: It's the boobs.
• Erin (looks down her own shirt)
• Blake's disguise when he's on the bench. I think I won some sunglasses just like those when I was in 4th grade, and I didn't even wear them then.

Whew! Now I need to hear from everyone else! (And I love your comments, so I encourage anyone reading to post!)