Freud – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Ritual

After a nightmare, episode 5 of Freud sees Fleur suddenly bolt upright, with Freud himself sitting in the corner of the room. As she looks over at him, Freud asks just who Taltos is. He gives her some cocaine for clarity and as she ingests it, she starts to see fragments of the past come to fruition again. Kiss meanwhile sits with the opera singer all night.

Sensing that something unnatural is currently festering inside Fleur, Freud decides to hypnotize her. As he counts down from 3, we see fragments of her night as Taltos appears to come to the forefront of her mind. She tries to seduce him with her body again but Freud puts her to sleep.

Meanwhile, Lenore arrives with Eli and they see Freud and Fleur together. Dressing himself in a gown, Freud confronts Eli while Fleur snatches up the cocaine and takes her leave. Stumbling out the front door, Fleur takes the cocaine and starts to feel its effects.

The lieutenant tries to assassinate Kiss but the Inspector manages to thwart the attack, killing the man in cold blood. As we see a little more of Kiss’ past, we cut to the council as we see Rudolf falling asleep at the table. When he awakens, he tells the group he thinks the Szaparys can be an ally but when he gets up to walk away, he passes out again.

Back home, Taltos takes over Fleur as Sophia and Viktor kneel before her. Taltos tells her she can feel Fleur’s hatred and proceeds to tell Sophia she’s hungry, jumping on her back and humping her. After throwing them both out, Sophia and Viktor try to work out what to do with Fleur.

Freud heads back to his laboratory and manages to get more cocaine to fuel his addiction. He relays the details on to his colleague who implores him to help his patients without becoming one himself. Handing over some money, Freud takes his leave.

Poschacher arrives at Kiss’ house and admits he’s worried about the Inspector. Together, they cover up the murder and decide not to speak of it as they dump the body into the canal.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prince sees visions of his Mother while Freud grapples with demons of his own, poring over different texts in a bid to try and work out what’s happened to Fleur. Hearing the haunting melody from the room next door, Lenore stumbles home and tells Freud no one lives next door. As she opens the flat up, he sees first-hand that no one is playing the piano and the place is abandoned. He does, however, find information relating to a fire that may hold some clues.

Meanwhile at the Count and Countess’ house, a group of naked men arrive and begin dousing themselves in blood and humming the same haunting melody from before. Fleur, still taking on Taltos’ form, oversees this ritual being performed and the men eventually turn on Sophia and Viktor, telling them that Taltos will come over them too.

Freud arrives at the estate on horseback and sneaks in the front to figure out what’s going on, Fleur meanwhile heads out the back and takes his horse, as Freud is left with a painted symbol in the bathroom and not much else to go on.

With Kiss remaining the more interesting character and a lot more blood, sex and graphic nudity in this episode than we’ve seen before, Freud almost feels like a different show now. In the right context, nudity can help enhance a scene or character trait but here it all feels unnecessarily pornographic. Alongside that, the show seems to be setting itself up for an angle where Freud saves Fleur from Taltos and goes toe to toe with this demon, potentially through hypnosis.

It all feels very contrived and it’s a shame too because the early episodes showed some real promise but here, it all feels bloated and unnecessary. With three episodes left, who knows what direction this one will go next but for now, this is one ritual that feels far more disappointing than it perhaps should be.