TV Recap: RJ Decker Episode 2 Takes on Carnivorous Plants and Fraud

Last week on RJ Decker, we got our first taste of ABC and 20th Century Television’s newest drama procedural. RJ Decker, an ex-con and former photo journalist, has set up a new life as a private investigator. His first huge case was solving the murder that caused his incarceration in the first place. After taking photos of a coworker's dead body, he set out to solve her murder. When a young man broke into his car, he beat him up to protect the evidence he had collected. After a similar murder leads him down a rabbit hole, RJ is able to finally incarcerate his coworker's former husband. While the first episode embraced some of Florida’s quirks, the second episode gives us even more strange crime to solve.

Episode 2, titled “Twenty Pounds of Clem in a Ten-Pound Bag,” kicks off in a warehouse. We see a young man with headphones on walking into a huge room full of plants. While initially, it looks like a marijuana farm, the man can be seen weighing out a bag of meat, measuring it out to feed to venus flytraps. As he is going about his business feeding the plants, a police raid puts him in a tricky position. While, initially it looks like nothing illegal is happening, police find the body of a chopped up man in a freezer, leading to his arrest.

We cut to RJ Decker who’s hanging out with Darius from episode one. The young car thief is teaching him how to pick a lock. Catherine approaches the pair, asking them what they are doing and why Darius isn’t in school. Darius makes up a quick excuse and then heads out. Catherine also finds the locks to the file cabinet in the pool house, teasing RJ about picking the lock. RJ puts his very small case file folder in the cabinet.

We cut to Wish and RJ, with Wish propositioning RJ for a new PI gig. RJ is quick to say he isn’t offering charity work and needs to be paid, but Wish is willing. Marcus Abernathy, the son of Wish’s former cellmate Waylon, is the young man arrested for the John Doe found in the freezer in the warehouse. Waylon, who taught Wish how to stay under the radar, asked him to watch his son after he passed away. Wish believes that Marcus is innocent, putting RJ on the case to prove it.

Starting his investigation, RJ heads to the jailhouse to meet with Marcus. Marcus shares new information about why he was feeding thousands of venus fly traps. Hired by a man named Clem Crayshaw, Marcus believes he could potentially have been the killer, as Clem kept his distance. He also shares that he took the job after finding out that his girlfriend was pregnant after he was hand-picked at his florist job. Clem communicated with Marcus exclusively over Snapchat, preventing a proper paper trail for an investigation. He also shared that Clem usually had him feed the plants mealworms, but that he had forgotten to order them leading to Marcus unknowingly feeding the plants human meat. He also learns that the head of the body was missing, and that both his buttchecks had been carved out.

RJ heads to visit Mel at the police office, looking for more information on the case. Mel, who is not in charge of the case, teases RJ about showing him the case files anyway, but eventually leaves him to fend for himself.

We cut to Wish, who brings groceries to Marcus’ girlfriend Kelly Lynn. She is rather cold with him, being ungrateful for the kind gesture.

RJ heads to a nail salon to question Clem’s ex-wife. While completely empty, she refuses to speak with him until after business hours. In a pinch of time, RJ ends up getting a pedicure to move the conversation up. Clem’s ex-wife reveals that he used to travel to North Carolina to smuggle the plants with his accomplice Gary who works at a florist nearby. RJ has a new lead but still isn’t ready to head out. Further pushing his ex-wife, RJ asks when the last time she spoke to Clem. About a year prior, she had reached out about a late alimony payment, which was responded to with a mooning picture. RJ notices that Clem has two tattoos on his butt, leading him to the realization that the body in the freezer was, in fact, Clem.

RJ returns to talk to Wish, believing that there is potential that Marcus killed Clem. Wish is adamant that Marcus was not a killer and that he was a good kid, demanding that RJ continue his investigation.

RJ, looking for further information from the DA, waits for Emi at her work to ask for her help in getting new information. She is reluctant, frustrated with his continued effort to ask for her help, but obliges.

We cut back to Wish in his office, Kelly Lynn shows up in a sundress, heels, and a plate of brownies for Wish. With a new found appreciation for his favor, Kelly Lynn brings up his lottery win. While looking at his framed newspaper article about his lucky payout, Kelly Lynn undresses. As he turns around, she tries to seduce him as a way to get financial help from Wish. She also reveals that she wasn’t pregnant and told Marcus to get him to work harder. While clearly flustered, Wish stands his ground, refusing to offer financial help and kicking her out of his office. She shares how Marcus hasn’t been a good provider to her, leaving her car impounded and her dreams of living in Nashville squashed.

RJ’s next step is to find Gary, Clem’s venus fly trap collecting accomplice, approaching him in his floral shop, Gary is quick to share information about him and Clem’s trips to North Caroline. Gary also sold venus fly traps in his shop, which Clem gifted to him. They are expensive, but they aren’t popular. Gary is unsure as to why Clem collected so many of the plants, but was clearly not the one who killed him. RJ hits a bit of a dead end.

While looking at potential killers who have been involved with illegal fly trap poaching, RJ receives a call from Emi. She confirms that the DA knew that the body was Clem’s, making Marcus look even more suspicious. She also reveals that Clem got into a physical altercation with his brother-in-law a while back, leading RJ to a new person of interest.

In his search for Brody Weller, RJ visits the strip club where he works. After some inappropriate advances from the club’s owner, RJ identifies Brody before heading out to search his car. Speaking to Wish on the phone, Wish is quick to warn him that he’s breaking the law and could end up back in prison for breaking his provisional release. RJ doesn’t care and is able to get into the car. Verbally saying “I did it,” he hears someone echo “yeah you did” before being punched in the face by Brody.

Brody, the strippers, and the club owner decide not to call the cops in fear they will find things that will get them in trouble. RJ explains why he broke into Brody’s car, sharing that Clem had been murdered. Brody is visibly taken aback, revealing that Clem’s sister and his wife had passed away just two months earlier after a battle with cancer. Clem, prior to his death, had left Brody a voice message apologizing for putting faith into Venusian Health, a holistic medicine company that gave hope to both Clem and Brody that she would survive her diagnosis. He also shared that he would do everything to take them down. The voice message was timed just before the last time he was seen alive, leaving RJ to pivot focus on the medicine company.

Asking Catherine for help, RJ proposes a story about the health company where he tags along as a photographer. Catherine agrees and the pair are seen walking through Venusian Health interviewing company head Remington Aubrey. While the interview is going smoothly, RJ sneaks into a lab, taking pictures around the area, including the sink, and huge vats of hydrogen peroxide. Remington suspiciously shoes RJ out of the room, which leads the pair drilling the health care head about the hydrogen peroxide, the classification of their products as cancer treatments in other countries, and a suspicious break in. Remington claims the hydrogen peroxide is for cleaning, but the pair aren’t convinced. RJ doesn’t hesitate bringing up Clem, who is their largest supplier of venus fly traps. When pushed about a recent break in, RJ notes that Remington’s computer was stolen, accusing him of bribing foreign regulators to sell more of their products. He also notes that someone was still messaging Marcus after Clem’s murder, accusing Remington of stealing Clem’s phone. Remington is quick to end the interview, warning the pair that the company has incredible lawyers.

While all the pieces are lining up, Mel and RJ share the newfound information with someone involved in Marcus’ case, she reveals that Marcus confessed and took a plea deal and that their investigation was pointless. RJ is determined to make sure Marcus doesn’t go down for a crime he didn’t commit.

RJ and Wish visit Marcus, who is content with his plea deal. With “a baby on the way,” Marcus wanted the death penalty removed from a possible punishment, taking a 30 year sentence in hopes he could be out in 20. Wish and RJ are visibly distraught, knowing that Kelly Lynn isn’t pregnant and that Marcus is innocent. Marcus inquires about who is taking care of the plants, revealing the need to eat 10.2 pounds of food a week. He also said that he had messaged Clem about making sure the mealworm substitute he was bringing had to be the correct weight, which was exactly what was delivered. RJ has an epiphany. With his head and buttcheeks missing, the weight of the carved out parts of Clem’s body had to have weighed more than 10.2 pounds.

Going through his photos, RJ convinces Mel to get a search warrant for the lab, and requests Remington in for questioning. In his photographs, he also notices a tub of sulfuric acid, which combined with hydrogen peroxide creates a human dissolving solution called piranha solution.

In the questioning room, Remington is upset with how late Mel and RJ are. But RJ is quick to announce that their search provided the full story of what happened to Clem. Clem had broken into Venusian Health to expose their bribes, but Remington found him and shot him. In an attempt to get rid of the body, Remington used Snapchat to manipulate Marcus into slowly feeding his remains to the plants. However, with his head and buttcheeks weighing more than the correct weight for feeding, Remington had to get rid of some of his remains. Using the piranha solution, Remington tried to dissolve the remaining pieces of Clem, but the solution reacted with the metal of the sink, giving RJ evidence that the drain may hold answers for what happened. In the drain, investigators found partially dissolved teeth and a bullet registered to a gun owned by Remington. He has been caught, and Marcus is proven innocent.

After the truth had been exposed, Wish decides to throw Marcus a little party to celebrate his freedom. When Kelly Lynn shows up, Wish requests that she doesn’t come to the party. She is upset, claiming she can go wherever she wants, but Wish has a surprise for her. He takes her out to the parking lot where he reveals he got her car out of impound. She begins to cry asking him why he’s being so nice to her, and he explains he wants her to go to Nashville so that both she and Marcus can find something better.

At the beach bonfire celebration, Emi shows up briefly. She, once again asks if they are even now, but RJ is quick to point out that providing him with a name doesn’t make up for a year and a half in prison. It is clearly flirty, but Emi makes it clear that it’s dangerous to get close to her family and asks RJ what she wants from him. With a cheeky smile, he says he doesn’t know before she quickly heads out to an 8PM dinner reservation.

Tune in next week to see what happens in Episode 3, and catch new episodes of RJ Decker Wednesdays on ABC and streaming on Hulu next day.

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TV Recap: RJ Decker Takes on Carnivorous Plants and Pharma Fraud in Episode 2

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