In episode 1 of “Slasher: Ripper,” we saw that a woman in a black veil was going around killing men who might have been involved in a murder 12 years earlier. She is ruthless in her killings and has left a subtle note in the first one of her murders to warn the perpetrators of the said murders. A detective named Kenneth is slowly but surely getting on the “widow’s” trail (as she is dubbed by the local journalist). On the other hand, the Botticelli household has a new sister in town, but she is being treated as an intruder and punished for sins she did not commit by her elder sisters. A man named Basil Garvey looks to be at the center of it all, with many enemies. Will this power-hungry man face his enemies soon?

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens In Episode 2 Of ‘Slasher’ Season 5?

Back in the day, a man was falsely accused of the murder of Margaret and hung for his sins. According to the journalist Enid Jenkins, that man was Margaret’s murderer, but if, as he claimed, he was innocent, Enid had published lies and would atone for these lies. Enid became the editor of the newspaper because she was the only one who agreed to tamper with the papers for Garvey. He was the owner of the press, and for him, hiring a female editor would’ve shown progress.

Now, 12 years later, Enid is psychologically affected by this task of lying to Garvey. She wants to be the editor of her newspaper and publish her own stories, not his. She takes pictures of Horatio and Daisy’s bodies positioned almost like art to publish her “truth” in the papers. She and Kenneth have their differences because he thinks her jarring headlines are the cause of such violence, and she believes vigilantes on the rise are good for the society they live in. Enid is unnecessarily overstepping by telling Kenneth that these have to be Garvey’s men. If Kenneth were speaking to the actual people living there, he would’ve known this too.

Kenneth, though, is skeptical about this idea. He thinks this might also be the work of the widow. He interrogates Garvey’s right-hand man to figure out if it was actually them who killed Horatio and Daisy. He realizes that Daisy’s death was an accident and Garvey’s men had nothing to do with Horatio’s death. Before he can find out more, Isaac interrupts their discussion and lets Garvey’s man go. Kenneth is keen on catching the widow and is creating a profile for her. He realizes, with the help of Dr. Melanda, that Horatio, too, was killed by the widow. He also notices that the killer uses the knife with their left hand, giving him another clue as to what kind of person he’s looking for. In the meantime, Enid gets a threat from the widow.

The threat says that she needs to publish the truth and not spread the lies she wrote many years ago. Enid doesn’t pay heed to this letter but shares it with Kenneth anyway. He believes this is, in fact, the widow and interprets the letter as a connection to the murder 12 years ago. Enid is taken aback by Kenneth’s words and doesn’t like the idea that he is distracting her from more pressing points by steering her toward a murder that happened 12 years ago. Enid also received a box of secret images of a dominatrix that Garvey frequents from the transgender woman who had been scarred by him. Enid develops these photos for her newspaper, but before she knows it, something or someone lurks behind her.

Elsewhere, Mrs. Simcoe visits the magician Georges Rondeau to get some answers on Alistair. He can communicate with the dead, and this is the closure Mrs. Simcoe wants as a person who has “the call” herself (basically she’s psychic). Georges tells her he can perform a seance (of course, to exploit the poor, devastated woman), but he would need a witness. Mrs. Simcoe invites the Botticellis to do the same. Of course, Verdi can’t go because she sinned the previous day, and Venetia needs to stay back to receive the coal that is arriving home, which leaves Viviana to go. The Botticellis are slowly running out of money, so they need to find a rich husband for Verdi, who will pay them a large sum for her hand. Verdi profusely apologizes to Viviana for the mistakes she made the previous night (all false), and Viviana makes a show of trying to forgive her in the near future.

Amidst the local politics and power struggles, Garvey always rises victorious. The priest asks him to consider faith again, but Garvey has no interest in God. He is a practical man who reminds the priest that his own father was hung even after believing in God. The priest warns him that the widow will come for him soon enough.

What Does Alistair’s Ghost Imply?

Georges is ready for the seance and uses Viviana’s jewel to converse with her mother in order to prove his work to Mrs. Simcoe. He fakes an answer from Viviana’s mother to give her the false hope that Garvey is definitely going to give her a wonderful life. Hilariously, Garvey is at home proposing to Verdi at around the same time. Georges uses Alistair’s glasses to call upon him, and the table begins to shake and gets thrown off into the distance. Georges and his sister use this distraction to steal a diamond from Viviana’s jewelry. Finally, he says he will use a South African technique to call upon Alistair’s spirit within himself for answers. Of course, we don’t actually believe this is going to happen, and he’s just going to fake some answers until it’s Mrs. Simcoe gets possessed instead.

Alistair’s ghost warns that there will be six more murders after the two that have already been committed by the widow, and then Margaret will be avenged. When Mrs. Simcoe finally wakes up, she tells the group that she is somewhat psychic. Georges and his sister both tell her that they’ve never seen such a clean possession before. She admits that she had known that something strange might happen to Alistair the night he was killed. She had warned him not to go out, but he didn’t listen to her and told her he had important work (surely ruining the faces of beautiful girls). Mrs. Simcoe thinks she’s an abomination, but Georges tells her that she’s quite the opposite—a rare find. Viviana and Venetia return home to find Garvey alone with Verdi. She is whipped by the sisters when he leaves because they believe she is the one who calls on him.

In the printing shop, Enid realizes the widow is with her; she screams about the paper being her own as she is the editor, and she chooses what goes on it. The widow doesn’t really care for what Enid is saying. She didn’t pay heed to her warnings, so now she must die. The widow rips the photo of the dominatrix and Garvey, possibly to protect the dominatrix. We’re pretty sure it’s not Garvey who is behind these murders, or is he? But why, when he already buried the truth all those years ago? This power play between the widow and Garvey is getting more intense by the day. Finally, the widow puts Enid under her own printer, crushing her hands. Enid apologizes and tells the widow that it was all Garvey’s fault and that he was the reason she had to publish lies. As unhinged as she is, the widow crushes Enid under the printer to her death. That makes it three down and three to go. Who can be the next victim on the widow’s list?