Chpt10 Ep9: "Paint It Red"

Chpt10 Ep8: "The Executioner's Song" is an episode in the series Power Rangers: Omniverse

Plot
In a church in Worcester MA, a man, Terry Sloan, is absolved of his sins by Father Delaney. From a distance, an invisible force watches Terry as he walks out of the confessional then feels the presence of the spirit. As he heads out, he takes a candlestick with him and outside the church, he proceeds to disembowel himself with the sharp end of the candlestick, killing him.

Meanwhile in Hell's throne room, a demon complains to Crowley that Rita Repulsa is fooling around in Hell. He reveals that she's given the demon a second face on the back of his head. His face on the back says he can't take it anymore. Crowley then calls for Rita. Crowley tells her enough is enough with her games. Though she tells him that she is completely disappointed in him. He doesn't get it; she's acting upjust because he didn't go begging to a bunch of witches on her behalf? She informs him that the Grand Coven is the sanctioning body for witchcraft and she cannot practice her real magic ever since her defeat from the original Rangers from the past. Crowley says he didn't realize she'd stopped performing any major witchcraft. She says she misses "making monsters grow" and has only been doing "parlor tricks" ever since. If she'd be able to vanquish them, her real magic would be brought back to her then she'd be unstoppable. She's still bent out of shape because he went against her wishes and delivered the First Blade to Kurt, instead of helping her in taking down the Grand Coven and another witch in particular; Olivette. She reminds him that she gave him life, then leaves in a flourish, shattering nearby glasses with a wave of her finger as she exits.

Back in the church, Frank and Lisa McCarthy are watched by the spirit, as Frank leaves the confessional. Later in their home, Frank sighs about having to work such long hours. Lisa calls him a liar and stabs him with a pair of scissors. After he dies, a cloud of smoke leaves Lisa’s body and she starts screaming in horror. Inside the church's basement, a nun, Sister Mathias is talking to another, Sister Isabella, about the man she loved before she became a nun, telling her his name was Piero and he was a painter and that Isabella was his muse and posed for him.

The following day, the recent killings have now brought the attention of Hunter and Kurt as they pose as FBI agents to investigate the case of Terry Sloan and the two other suicides, all Catholics. They visit Father Delaney in the church to discuss the McCarthy murder, asking about Frank’s confession, but Father Delaney won’t reveal anything he said. He does confirm, however, that all the victims (all men) had recently been to confession. Father Delaney introduces Sister Mathias, Kurt checks her out and they introduce themselves as agents Allman (Kurt) and Betts (Hunter). Hunter goes to snoop around, leaving Kurt with Sister Mathias. During their talk. she hints that Frank as well as an earlier victim were possibly cheating on their partners. Kurt then questions Sister Mathias about her choice to become a nun, and why someone would choose to quit one life for something so different, to which Sister Mathias says she needed to find something larger than herself to focus on.

Leaving the church, Kurt points out that the theme of the case seems to be guys doing their women wrong. Lisa had no idea Frank was cheating on her, however, so maybe she was controlled by someone who did. All the victims did go to confession, so Kurt asks: ”How long has it been since my last confession?”

Later, in the church basement, Isabella tells Sister Mathias about her love and obsession for Piero once more. She posed for the painting that turned out to be his masterpiece – in 1520 of Florence, Italy. But when Isabella confessed her love to Piero, he said he loved another more – his art. Isabella fell into despair and was forced into the convent by her father. The things from her father’s estate are spread out in the church basement, including Isabella’s journal.

Back in hell, Rita gives Crowley an exaggerated but sarcastic curtsey. Crowley says he's been thinking about how bad he'd feel if his reason for living (wreaking pain and havoc on earth) were taken away from him.He sympathizes with Rita. She asks if he's going to go to the Grand Coven on her behalf? He says, instead, he brought the Coven to her. He has found Olivette and has her chained to a chair so Rita can do with her what she wants. Olivette says she won't grovel in front of a witch who's not worthy of wielding magic. Rita says she could have been a superstar for many years thanks to it. Olivette says that if they let Rita loose of her real magic, they hoped she'd grow out of her reckless and selfish ways, but she'd only get worse. And now she's consorting with demons. Rita informs her that this is her son's palace now and that he's the King of Hell. She informs Olivette that she is now a prisoner of "the baddest of the bad and his devoted mummy". Rita begins beating on Olivette. Olivette says that banishment was too good for Rita. Rita accuses her of being jealous of her talents; that she was only a threat to the Coven insofar as she was smarter and more gifted than Olivette. Olivette says it was just blind ambition. Rita says she'll get what she wants from Olivette, but Olivette says she can't get what she wants. The Coven is a shadow of its former self. It's been weakened by witch hunts and burnings at the stake. She says that there was a group who whipped the church and public into a panic against witches. Drove the practice underground. Took all of their most powerful relics and stored them away in bunkers. They tried to destroy the witches' world. This group?...The Men of Letters.

In the church, Kurt enters the confessional with Father Delaney, and talks about how he was dishonest to a girl named ”Gina” and sometimes seeing two or three girls at the same time, rolling his eyes at his feigned remorse. Father Delaney gives him a standard penance and advises him to do some real soul-searching of his own. Kurt turns serious and starts to talk about how he doesn’t feel ready to die. He always expected to go out fighting, but now that the end seems closer than he thought, he confesses he wishes he could experience life in a different way from what he is used to. When Father Delaney asks Kurt if he believes in God, Kurt reply's with, "I believe there is a God. But I’m not sure he still believes in us."

Then, the ghost of Isabella watches Kurt exit the confessional as he meets up with Hunter, waiting for him in one of the pews. Hunter asks if Kurt thought anyone was eavesdropping on his confession. He was obviously trying to bait the ghost by confessing to being a womanizer. Sister Matthias sees Hunter and Kurt leave and goes looking for Isabella in the storage room full of her family's estate items. Out in the sanctuary, the priest leaves the confessional. He is then immediately possessed by Isabella's ghost. In the church basement, Sister Mathias starts reading Isabella’s journal, where she reveals that her love for Piero had become hatred, and she snuck into his studio one night. She was about to smear red paint on his portrait of her, when she discovered him making love to another woman. Isabella stabbed Piero to death with a knife. Sister Matthias then slams the journal shut in shock.

After a bit of torture in Crowley's dungeon Olivette tells Rita about the Men of Letters, their bunkers around the world and that the only known surviving Men of Letters in the U.S., who are none other than Kurt and Hunter Winchester. Gotten all the information she cared to learned from Olivette, Rita begins casting a spell to kill the high priestess. As Olivette begins to violently convulse, Rita quickly puts a stop to the spell, realizing that death is an easy way out for Olivette, instead she turns her into a hamster and starts asking Crowley about Hunter and Kurt. But he quickly shoots her down: ”My relationship with the Rangers is my business. I’ll handle them. I’m not killing them.”

Sister Mathias then goes up to the duo and reveals to them all about the ghost of Isabella, who started appearing when her family’s treasures arrived in the church three weeks earlier. Sister Mathias gives Isabella’s journal to Hunter and tells them she was convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake. Kurt assumes her ghost is tied to the journal and tells Hunter to burn it. But Hunter thinks the journal might hold more clues or information for them. He insists Kurt and Sister Mathias to go after the ghost while he digs in more about the ghost's past.

Kurt and Sister Mathias begin searching the church, discussing how Isabella could have gotten around by possessing people, even though she was tethered to an object in the church. In the basement, Hunter is reading Isabella’s journal, about the time when Piero was painting her portrait. He asked for some of her blood to mix into the pigment, but she cut off a piece of her own finger and offered it to him, asking him to grind it up and mix it all into the paint. ”I had completely become one with the painting and with Piero.” Hunter closes the journal and starts looking for the painting in the basement. Up in the church, Kurt finds Father Delaney now gutted, and quickly tries to lead Sister Mathias to safety but, she slaps him sending him hitting head first against the wall. Sister Matthias is now possessed by Isabella. Sister Matthias goes up to Kurt, picking him up and holding him against the wall, choking him with a hand around his throat. She pulls out a long knife. Kurt sees it and struggles to prevent her from stabbing him. Isabella/Sister Matthias tells Kurt that the priest had to die because he made it his business to forgive all of the womanizing pigs who went to confession. Kurt struggles to yell out, "Hunter, burn the journal!" As Hunter goes through the estate belongings of Isabella, he manages to find the painting of her and proceeds to burn it.

The ghost of Isabella finally ejects out of Sister Matthias and begs her not to let Hunter and Kurt do this; that she was her friend. But it's too late as she is consumed by flames, finally banishing her spirit away.

Later that evening on the road in the Impala, Hunter's driving, looking over at Kurt who is wincing after being nearly choked to death. Hunter is trying to drag a thank-you out of Kurt for NOT burning the journal since that is what held the key to figuring out where Isabella's spirit was attached to this world. Kurt does't really thank him, but smirks in agreement that Hunter was right. Hunter then brings up the fact that Kurt was in the confessional long enough than what he was normally doing to bait the ghost out. He seems rather jealous that Kurt would talk to a priest instead of him. Hunter tells Kurt that he's got someone right there next to him to talk to. Kurt doesn't reply. Hunter says he heard what Sister Matthias told Kurt about taking on a mission in order to hide or overcome pain and Hunter knows that's kind of what Kurt's doing here; hunting to deal with the Mark. Kurt rolls his eyes. Hunter tells Kurt that he does not accept that the Mark is some sort of terminal diagnosis and Kurt had better not be making peace with that idea. Hunter says they'll find a way to save Kurt, since it's what he always do. He tells Kurt to believe that. Kurt reluctantly agrees. Hunter asks him if maybe he can say it like he means it. Kurt repeats, "Okay," but doesn't have much conviction the second time either. Hunt doesn't believe it and just gives Kurt a confused look as he drives on.