The Alienist 1×7 Review: Many Sainted Men

While last week’s episode of The Alienist was action-driven, ‘Many Sainted Men’ took a more personal approach and showed that Team Alienist has a lot of issues to deal with, especially the ones involving Laszlo Kriezler.

I was provided a screener of ‘Many Sainted Men’ for review. The opinions are my own.

A lot happened this week. We got a new suspect to worry about as well as deeper looks into the main characters (which I’m always a fan of). I’m going to start with Dr. Laszlo Kriezler first. The current murder case is clearly messing with his head. The investigation is bringing forth his rude nature. I hope he reels it in soon because right now Team Alienist doesn’t want to work together, or more specifically, doesn’t want to work with Kriezler.

I really enjoyed the conversation he had with Cyrus’ niece. The scene will probably serve as a wakeup call for certain people to reanalyze their relationships with others that are less privileged. In a sense, Kriezler has been asking too much from both Cyrus and Stevie, putting them in danger because of the investigation. Also, the fact they both work for him and can’t really say no to his requests raises another issue. I’m not sure our resident alienist has realized the real problem, but it was still fun to see him try and apologize.

Kreizler also shared an important scene with Mary. After trying to make her strike out on her own (his suggestion backfires), the two finally kissed. Again, I understand the master-servant trope has its own set of problems. However, as far as I can tell, The Alienist seems to have done a good job of handling the situation. There’s yearning from both sides and the kiss doesn’t appear to be a power move on Kriezler’s part. Now, all I want is for Mary to find a better sense of independence (even if she chooses to be with Laszlo) to make their relationship healthier.

While we saw Kriezler’s sensitive side toward Mary, Cyrus, and Stevie, we also saw his stubborn side when dealing with John and Sara in ‘Many Sainted Men.’ Slapping Sara was wrong, and I was glad to see Sara standing her ground. She’s fine with working on the current case. What she, understandably, isn’t fine with is interacting with Kriezler. I hope the two mend things soon and Laszlo apologizes to her.

Laszlo verbally attacked John when he confronted his friend about hitting Sara. I get that John isn’t the kind of person to start a slapping contest with Kriezler, but I was expecting more from the sketch artist instead of starting drinking again.

Right now, Team Alienist is divided because of Kriezler and the doctor needs to patch things up because I don’t think a broken team is going to capture the murderer.

Talking about the murderer, new clues suggested a Native American link. I was so glad ‘Many Sainted Men’ didn’t reveal an actual Native American to be the killer, because that would’ve been wrong on many levels, especially from a show that has characters exhibiting far progressive thinking considering the era they’re in. From the information shared onscreen, the murderer is likely a soldier. With only three more episodes to go, let’s see how The Alienist will bring the current investigation to a close.

Some thoughts and questions:

• The scene where Kriezler inserted a scalpel into a dead boy’s body to see if he too could experience the rush the murderer does was creepy and so good!
• I wonder if the show will deal with PTSD due to the suspect being a soldier. Also, if PTSD is something The Alienist will talk about, I hope they address John’s PTSD (after being sexually assaulted), too.
• Stop knocking John out! Enough is enough!
• Dakota Fanning as Sara is everything. It’s wonderful to see her character try whatever she can to prove herself while being constantly constricted by to the society she’s in.
• Kudos to Kriezler for not accepting J.P. Morgan’s offer to help. Not willingly owing someone so powerful a favor was the right move to make.

What did you think of The Alienist this week? Did you enjoy ‘Many Sainted Men’? Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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