02x16 - Nameless

[bunniefuu]

[Crowd chatter, dance music]

[Indistinct chatter]

[Indistinct chatter, cheering]

Testing, testing. Is this thing on?

Okay, Jenna, I think it's time you come up here.

Come on.

[Cheers and applause]

Vicky, Rashid, Brody, come on.

All of you, get up here.

Come on down. Front and center.

All right, this woman right here has made us all very happy.

[Laughter, cheers]

Do you know how much money this game is going to make?

[All cheering]

To Jenna.

All: To Jenna!

Thank you, but it wasn't just me.

It was my team.

[All cheering]

Brody, Vicky, Rashid, you were with me through all the doubt and the long nights.

I couldn't have done it without you guys.

But before we take all the credit, I just have to say...

[Squishing sound]

When most of us were still in diapers.

[Laughter]

You are an awesome boss.

You trusted me... us... with the sequel to your flagship game at this company.

And we thank you for that.

[Cheers and applause]

All right, all right, all right.

This calls for an awesome toast.

To Jenna.

This is an awesome toast!

[Cheers and applause]

[Crowd chanting]

Jenna, Jenna, Jenna, Jenna!

[Dance music playing]

♪

[muffled chanting continues, muffled party sounds]

We're being so bad.

Brody...

We shouldn't be doing this.

Oh, yes, we should.

[Soft sizzling]

Wait, wait. Shh.

Someone's here.

Yeah. Me.

Oh, please, don't do that. Please, don't do that.

No, someone's in here.

So?

We're at work, Brody.

We're not working now. Jenna, come on.

Better not be you, Rashid.

I'm going to kick your ass.

[Grunts]

[Wheezes]

[Thud, groans]

Brody?

Brody? What are you doing?

Brody?

Where are you?

[Gasping] Jenna.

[Gasps]

[Screaming]

[Tense music]

♪

[Cell phone buzzing]

[Speaking french]

If anybody wants to talk, any spirits or whatever, I'm home.

I'm available.

Now is your big chance.

I can't help you unless you contact me.

Okay?

Okay, thanks. Now I'm just talking to myself.

Well, then... oh, look at that. Still doing it.

Victim is Brody Crawford.

26, spinner employee.

Here for a party, along with most of the employees.

The body was found by Jenna Marshall.

She's in the bathroom with an officer.

Cut in two. You don't see that every day.

Looks like he was b*rned, cauterized. With what?

Some kind of chemical. Maybe acid.

And then there's this little postcard from the edge.

Some kind of invitation?

For who?

Maybe for the person he k*lled.

Not going to be much competition now.

Or maybe for somebody in the company.

Could be for a friend or a lover.

Or us.

If this is a game, it's got some badass rules.

Nobody went home after work.

We all stayed for the launch party.

We're going to release the sequel to our black forest game.

What did Brody Crawford do for you?

Software engineer, like most of them.

Brilliant kid.

I snagged him right out of carnegie-mellon, pissed off a lot of people at E.A.

I just can't... who didn't Brody get along with?

Well, there's always friction in a creative business, but not so much you'd k*ll somebody.

I mean, Brody got along with everybody.

Clearly, not everybody.

Look, I don't know what to tell you.

I mean, everybody works in teams.

Brody's team was responsible for the black forest sequel.

And who else was on Brody's team?

Uh, Jenna Marshall is the team leader.

And, uh, Vicky Edwards and Rashid Raju are also on the team. They all worked on the code.

What's the code do?

It's a monster breakthrough.

It allows more players to occupy a single space at the same time.

Right now, online games can only handle so many players in one area before the program slows down or crashes, but Jenna's code allows our game to host hundreds of players in a single location without any of those problems.

So more players can play together at the same time.

That's the idea.

Which means the value of that code goes far beyond any game.

It's a new platform standard.

I mean, it's a game changer.

Then we're talking about some big money.

Yeah, the kind wildest dreams are made of.

And who shares in those dreams?

Me.

Uh, and everyone else on the team.

I mean, the company owns the intellectual property, but they've got some pretty big stock options coming their way.

What was the relationship between Brody and the rest of the team?

There was something going on between Brody and Jenna...

I mean, I warn everybody not to fish from the company docks, but they're young.

And as long as they get the work done, I stay out of the way.

But, uh, anything beyond that, you're going to have to ask Jenna.

We'd been going out three months.

[Sniffles]

And, um, it was a party, we were drinking, and Brody wanted to go someplace more private so we could... celebrate?

I heard something.

I thought somebody was in the room with us, and I didn't want anybody to see us like that, so I left.

And then I heard something fall.

That's why I went back.

And what about this message? "Play my game"?

Does that mean anything to you?

I don't know. I don't know.

"Play my game"?

I don't know what the hell it means.

It's just sick.

Was there any jealousy between your team and the other employees?

We're all competitive.

Everyone wants credit.

At the same time, if one of us does well, we all do well.

[Phone ringing]

Can I get that?

People are wondering how long we're going to be here, when we're going to be able to go home.

Put it on speaker.

Spinner. This is Vicky.

Play my game.

Oh, my God.

What do you want?

Play my game.

It's coming from inside the building.

[Dial tone]

Where's extension 1211?

That's Brody's office, downstairs.

The suspect's in the building.

Clear.

Clear.

Secure perimeter.

Suspect may have left the building.

Copy that. Perimeter secured.

Get the surveillance.

Yeah.

What do you got?

Brody's I.D., cut in half.

And title page to Alice in wonderland.

Someone wrote "what's" on it.

A Connecticut yankee in king Arthur's court.

Let's see what's behind door number three.

Rage. Richard Bachman.

You put it all together, you get "what's my name?"

Surveillance cams run 24-7.

Covering all entrances, exits, hallways, until 9:15 P.M., when they were all remotely shut off, 22 minutes before the 911 call was made.

So our k*ller got in and out without being recorded.

Yeah, looks like he planned it that way.

How'd he tap into security?

Techs are working on that.

Clearly this guy... and I don't mean that in a gender-specific way... is a tech head.

Do we have a m*rder w*apon?

Not sure what it is.

Well, Vic was cut in half.

We'll know more after the M.E.S take a look.

And what about these messages?

"Play my game," "what's my name?"

Don't know.

Could be he's just playing with us.

That's great.

So we've got our very own zodiac k*ller here in Portland.

It looks like he chose three specific books, or maybe their authors.

Fortunately, I've read all three.

And?

They're all fantasy.

Could be a connection between the stories and the black forest game.

I'm all over this.

I've done my fair share of gaming, since my life consists mostly of myself and my cat.

Well, get on it.

Am I the only one who thinks this might be wesen?

Maybe we got lucky this time, and we're just dealing with a normal human psychopath.

One can only hope.

Head to toe, or side to side?

Side to side.

No, I haven't actually heard of a wesen that does that.

Now, drawn and quartered, that's pretty standard when it comes to dispatching wesen.

I mean, it's old school, venerable, but one of the classics.

Is this yours?

Yeah. Where's the other one?

Dude, I am not my sock brother's keeper.

Okay.

So there's no wesen that slices people in half using acid.

You mean he was on acid?

No, he's using acid. Like, to cut with.

Oh. Ooh.

That's kind of nasty, don't you think?

Hey, by the way, have you spoken to Juliette at all lately?

No.

Because, I must say, you appear to be handling it pretty well.

I mean, that's gotta be... well, you are a Grimm, so I guess you're used to a certain amount of pain and suffering.

Look, I miss her. But until she misses me... yeah.

No, you can't b*at the heart on the head, so to speak.

But listen, long as you need a place, you got a place.

Well, I got an early clock fixing, so I gotta hit it.

That's your towel.

[Cell phone buzzing]

Burkhardt.

This is Dominick spinner.

Sorry to be calling so late.

I've just been trying to figure out who'd do this.

You know, maybe it's somehow my fault.

I don't know.

Anyway, the reason I called... there was another guy. Ridley Cooper.

He was going out with Jenna before Brody, and I'm just thinking, maybe their breakup wasn't so good.

Ridley Cooper. Got it.

Where can I find him?

[Distant, eerie noises]

I'm not scared.

[Noise continues]

Okay, I'm a little scared, but I'm not going anywhere.

[Muffled]

Nick?

What's wrong? What are you trying to tell me?

No, don't... no, don't go.

Don't leave, Nick.

Damn it.

Ridley Cooper?

Yep, that's me.

I'm Detective Burkhardt, and this is Detective Griffin.

We need to ask you a few questions.

Um, okay. About what?

Uh, this is my sis, Debra.

Debra, these are Detectives.

Cool. What did you do?

What makes you think I did anything?

Well, I didn't do anything.

We just need to know where you were last night.

Here. Online.

For how long?

Most of the night.

We were testing black forest 2.

That's what we do. We test video games.

Just because you were online doesn't mean you were here.

You could have logged on and left.

If we were completely brain dead.

Logging into the game and then leaving would've made us sitting ducks.

We're level 49 wizard badgers.

They k*ll us, they get our powers, our weapons, our level experience... and we'd have to start all over.

If you want proof, you can call the company.

They have our game audio.

Which is?

Voice recordings.

Us playing. Shows we were online last night.

Why are you even here?

You never said what this was about.

You know Brody Crawford?

Yeah. He was my girlfriend's... ex-girlfriend.

He works with Jenna at spinner.

Sometimes we go on missions together in black forest.

He's a pretty good player. Almost as good as me.

What did he do?

He was found dead last night.

Wait. What, like dead in real life?

Is there another way?

Brody's avatar was k*lled last night.

His character in the game got obliterated.

How?

Another player cut him in half.

What time was this?

Uh, about 6:00 P.M.

I remember it because Debra and I were so happy.

About his death.

Not his real death, game death.

After everything that went down between me and Jenna, it just seemed like... poetic justice.

You have to understand. He took my girlfriend.

But I would never k*ll him for real, only in the game.

But I didn't do that either.

6:00 P.M., that puts it a little over three hours before he was k*lled last night... For real.

Do I need to add that?

Who k*lled Brody in the game?

Only the best player on the planet.

"Nameless."

That's his name?

In the game.

Nobody uses their real names.

I can show you.

But we were just about to ransack Campolongo castle.

More important things right now, Debra.

How do we find out who that is?

Are you kidding?

That's like asking who's God.

Or if there's an end to the universe.

Or why are we here?

All right.

It's impossible to find this guy.

Especially if he doesn't want to be found.

I got a theory. Interested?

Yeah.

What is the common denominator of these three pages?

They're paper.

And?

They're fiction.

Getting warmer.

I have an idea.

Tell us what the hell you're talking about.

Aw, you are taking all the fun out of it.

But all three of the authors aren't using their real names.

Each has a nom de plume... a pen name, pseudonym, whatever you want to call it.

Okay, I know mark twain is Samuel clemens.

And Richard Bachman is Stephen king.

That's right, I took English lit.

Lewis carroll was Charles dodgson.

All right, so this is part of the game of "guess my name."

And we just found out in the black forest game his nom de plume is "nameless."

Oh, guess he put a lot of thought into that one.

All right, so where do we go with this?

The k*ller had access to spinner.

He knew about the party, and he k*lled one of the designers.

All right, we'll start with them.

And we need to get into that game, find "nameless," and put him under surveillance.

We're gonna stake out a character in a video game?

Yeah, we find out when he plays and who he eliminates next... could tell us who he's going to k*ll next.

Virtual stakeout. I like it.

I had it in my attic, part of my great-grandfather's collection, and I just thought, you know, it looked like it belonged here.

It's a Gustav Becker double weight vienna, around 1870.

Case is superb walnut.

You know, Becker got his big breakthrough in 1852, at the Silesian clock fair.

He won the gold medal for best design.

You sure you want to give it to me?

Yeah. I do.

It'll feel right at home here.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

[Shop bell rings]

Whoops.

Oh, hey, hi.

Hi.

Are you okay?

Uh, not really.

But the visions are still happening, but they're getting clearer, and last night, I actually saw Nick.

Wow. What did he look like?

He looked wet.

I mean, as if he'd been standing in the rain.

But he was trying to tell me something.

You know, the night that Nick brought you over to my house... the night you went into the coma... it was raining kind of hard, and you guys were actually both, like, soaked.

Do you think my memory is coming back?

It sounds like.

Yes.

All right, we gotta tell Nick.

No.

There are things he does not want me to know, and I am not going to let him stop me from finding out.

And you know things that you're keeping from me, too.

Uh what can we do?

I was thinking maybe if you come to my house if I see something, I can tell you guys what I see, and then you guys can tell me what it means.

Look, I don't think this is...

Monroe, I need help.

I really do.

But if you don't think you can for whatever reason, just tell me now.

[Cell phone buzzing]

You're here.

Yes.

Is it safe?

I believe so.

I'll text you when and where.

[Foreign word]

Black forest is a vast world with multiple levels.

I mean, at any given moment, there are thousands of people playing.

If "nameless" is playing, I can track him using his log-in.

But, uh, how does this help?

He k*lled Brody in the game three hours before he k*lled him here.

Can you get an I.P. address for his computer if he's playing?

Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can tell you where...

[beeping]

Hold on. I've got him.

Level three, at the castle of the black stag.

There he is.

Whoa. He just cut somebody in half.

Who?

Miller's daughter.

Can you find out who that is?

I know who it is.

"Nameless" just k*lled Vicky Edwards in the game.

I'm dead?

I don't believe this happened.

I don't believe this happened.

How'd I let this happen?

[Cell phone ringing]

Yeah?

This is Detective Burkhardt. Where are you?

At home.

We need officers sent to 612 Northwest Thurston.

Officers are on their way to your house.

I want you to lock your door, close and lock your windows.

Why, what's happened?

You might be in danger.

Just stay calm. We're on our way.

[Cell phone ringing]

Vicky...

Have you guessed my name?

Please. I don't know.

Who is this?

That's the whole point. Keep trying.

Vicky is dying to show you the next clue.

Why are you doing this? Why?

Hey.

Have you seen her?

No, door's locked. We tried front and back.

She may be hiding in the closet, for all I know.

I'm not surprised.

We probably scared the hell out of her.

Burkhardt.

He called me.

He's done something to Vicky.

You have to get over there.

Secure the area.

Send officers to Rashid Raju's and Jenna Marshall's.

Have them picked up, brought to the precinct.

Yeah. We got a 55 Adam. Need an M.E. and CSU. at 612 Northwest Thurston.

Copy that. Will advise.

What the hell is that?

Sudoku puzzle.

I'm beginning to hate this guy.

"Guess my name."

Anyone know what to do with it?

Me.

I haven't had a sleepover since I was a kid.

Thank you guys for doing this.

Hey, how did you meet Nick?

Uh, under not very good circumstances.

My brother was m*rder*d.

I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to... it's okay.

I was up in Seattle.

I had to come down and deal with it all.

Nick was the Detective on the case.

He caught the men who k*lled my brother.

Actually, that's how I met Monroe.

Yeah. She kind of saved my life.

With a brick.

There he is.

He's right there. Do you see him?

Um you're sure it's Nick?

What's he doing?

You really can't see him?

We don't have to. Just tell us what you see.

I think he's looking for something.

Um...

Looks like he's turning a page.

It's... it's a book.

He's looking at a book.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't go.

He's gone.

How's it coming?

Done.

The highlighted numbers are 3-1-2-1-9-1-5.

Not latitude or longitude.

Doesn't work as a phone number, too short for a social security number.

Could be an address.

The numbers could correspond to letters.

Awful lot of possibilities.

What about a date?

3/12, and then we got 1915 on the end.

So someone pissed this guy off 98 years ago?

Or it could be a time.

It would be 7:15 m*llitary time.

So we might have a date and a time.

But not a place.

Maybe we're not supposed to know.

But the k*ller called Jenna.

I don't understand why this is happening.

Does this mean anything to you?

Mm, no. Why?

Jenna, do you remember doing anything on march 12th at 7:15?

Not that I can think of.

Nothing you were scheduled to do?

Maybe a birthday? Deadline?

[Sighs]

I used to be so good at these things.

I think I got something.

What?

Noms de plumes.

The title pages of the books.

All the authors didn't use their real names.

So what does that mean?

It's the place that goes with the date and time.

What place?

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. It was a date.

I think I know who this is.

Who?

The I.T. guy.

The I.T. Guy?

Nom de plumes was the name of a restaurant he asked me to go to.

So we were behind deadline.

Brody, Vicky, and Rashid said we were never going to get it done in time.

And then my computer broke down, so we called our after hours I.T. company, because it was, like, 3:00 in the morning.

They sent someone over. It was him.

And how does the restaurant connect to this?

He agreed to help me if I'd go out with him.

But it didn't happen.

I'm... I'm afraid I stood him up.

So what's his name?

I don't really know.

I didn't pay that much attention to him.

Do you remember his first name?

Last name, anything at all?

Um, it was something weird.

Began with a "t," I think.

Do you remember what he looked like?

I... I don't really remember.

I don't think I looked at him more than once.

We were exhausted.

We'd been up for 48 hours straight.

He kills your friends because you don't go on a date with him?

It just doesn't make any sense.

Unless he helped you write the code.

Did he?

Jenna.

When he fixed my computer, he saw the code, and he said he could fix that, too.

But I didn't really listen to him.

I-I don't know, I think I passed out for a while.

We all did.

And when I woke up, he was gone, and the code was kind of... Done.

So this I.T. guy whose name and face you don't remember actually saved your ass.

No, it wasn't just me.

It was all of us.

At first, everyone was so happy, and... and then there was all this money coming our way.

And the more credit I got, the more I forgot about him.

Well, he didn't forget about you.

We're going to put you in a safe house.

You sure it was a book?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was pages, As if he was reading.

Could you tell what kind of book?

It looked old.

Could you see what was on the pages?

It wasn't printed.

It was writing and a weird, creepy drawing.

The trailer.

He's gotta be in the trailer.

What trailer?

Aunt Marie's trailer?

Uh, well, I'm not really sure whose trailer it might have been under the ownership of... you know about it?

Probably no more than you.

What's aunt Marie's trailer?

Old books, bottles, drawings... that's where I was the night all of this started.

I feel like I'm so close to remembering.

Do you know where it is?

Huh? The trailer?

Yes, the trailer.

If I could get into it, then it might help me remember what I've been seeing.

Why don't you want to tell me?

It has something to do with that night, doesn't it?

I know you're trying to protect Nick, but we have to help her.

Look, there's no guarantee that going to the trailer is going to help.

Can we at least try?

I would have to talk to Nick.

I'm talking to you, Monroe.

I can't live like this.

I can't keep seeing things.

I can't keep hearing voices.

If I can't fully remember Nick, then I am just going to forget him altogether.

Take me to the lotus cafe.

The I.T. guy we're looking for isn't employed by the company Jenna called.

He's an independent contractor, works the late shifts.

Did we get a name?

No.

No address or social security number.

No phone numbers we can track.

He hacked into the system, and somehow, his billing address isn't connected to his phone.

Even though they admit it's a working number.

This guy is totally working the system.

How's he get paid? How's he pay his rent?

He does everything electronically.

Every time we turn a corner, there's another corner, only it never leads to him.

So what does?

"Its stomp can cause the earth to shudder beneath him.

"Its muscles secrete a highly concentrated acid, allowing them to burn and slice through their victims."

Sounds like our guy.

That is one ugly fuchste-whatever.

Fuchsteufelwild.

Great.

So now we know what he is.

How does that help us find him?

Look at all these weird names.

Kismet Pillturns, Merlin Kitspulst.

No wonder she can't remember his name.

Looks like all the names use the same group of letters.

One "n," two "t"s, two "l"s, two "I" s... so the names are riddles.

Seems like they've been playing games long before there were computers.

I'm guessing his name uses the same letters.

Jenna said it started with a "t."

So where'd you get these letters?

It's a compilation of letters of the names of K*llers used in similar cases, dating back a long time.

Huh.

Okay, so what do you think we're going to find?

The k*ller's name.

Should start with a "t."

Okay.

Anagrams, here we come.

Okay, so looks like we have 221 possibilities beginning with a "t," starting with "tinkles mil spurt" and ending with "tike sprint mulls."

We have to match one of these names with a player used in the black forest game.

You're going to need access to the game's servers for that.

Sorry this is taking so long, but 221 names to check against the thousands playing... we have a match.

What name?

Trinket Lipslums.

No wonder he has issues.

How do we draw him out?

We need to get into that game.

I can do that.

Yeah, but not from here.

Hi, Jen. So good to find you.

It's you.

It's me.

Why are you doing this?

Don't you know?

Please don't hurt me.

Have you guessed my name?

Because time is running out.

We had a deal. One you failed to keep.

I know who you are.

Really?

I don't think so.

If you did, you'd say it.

You mean trinket Lipslums?

So game over, ass-wipe.

[Screams]

[Screams]

This game is not over.

Good to see you're still alive.

Good to be that way, too.

I have to catch a plane tonight.

We don't have much time.

I'm supposedly in venice for the weekend, staying at the Cipriani.

Bruening is there in my place.

How is he?

Nervous.

An appropriate response, considering the state of things.

[Chuckles]

So where is my brother expanding his influence to now?

In guangzhou, home in two days.

Why are we here?

[Speaking french]

The situation grows worse.

The governments are full of cabals, and cabals within cabals.

No one knows precisely who is controlling anything anymore.

But we now suspect your brother and the other six families are behind an effort to force the dissolution of the union.

We have secret documents of their plans to take the reins of power by any means necessary, if the legal means fail. Hmm.

So the chess game begins.

The names of those involved are encrypted.

We've identified alliances and backing.

The most important thing for us is to remain strong, and make no compromises that might weaken our relationship with the resistance.

That relationship makes me very uneasy.

Some die under t*rture, others talk.

No one really trusts Meisner and the methods he formulated during his vagabond days in vienna.

What he wants is to strengthen his own position, never mind ours.

We need Meisner.

At least, until we don't.

They're disguising what they really want, which is an end to democracy and a return to the imperialist power with all their old privileges restored.

What?

Get down.

Move!

[expl*si*n]

[Crowd screaming]

Move it! Move, move!

Come on!

Get down.

[g*nshots]

Police. Stay back.

[Sirens approaching]

Jenna.

Did you think you could win?

Police.

No more games. Get down.

He's on the move!

He's going up. I'm on him.

Where's Vicky's room?

He's going up the fire escape.

[Grunts]

[Yells]

Lipslums!

How did you guess my name?

It wasn't a guess.

He has a few books.

[Shouts]

It's not going to work, fuchsteufelwild.

I hope you don't mind my pronunciation.

I can't lose.

I can't lose!

[Shrieking]

[Thud]

Uh, a little help down here?

What's wrong?

Juliette remembers seeing you.

Well, that's a good thing, right?

Not finished.

She remembers seeing you in the trailer, and now she wants me to take her there.

You told her you know about the trailer?

By accident.

She was, like, seeing something, and it turned out to be you in the trailer, okay?

And it just... it got away from me.

I told her I had to talk to you, okay?

That didn't go over so well.

Well, just tell her you can't take her there.

Nick.

She told me if I wouldn't help her remember you, then she was going to forget you, once and for all.

And how does she think she's going to do that?

By leaving Portland. For good.