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The Review Geek
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
The Institute (2025) – Season 1 Episode 2 'Shots for Dots' Recap & Review
Episode 2 Episode 2 of The Institute begins with Iris' graduation to the Back Half. Kalisha wants in on the escape plan as well. Sigsby and Tony are overenthusiastic while Maureen pities Iris. In town, Tim barely evades Hollister. Wendy informs him that two armed robbers may hit the town but he refuses a gun. It is still awkward between them and he tries to joke with her. She isn't amused but she seems to be warming up to him. The Institute's mysterious leader calls Sigsby and Stackhouse regarding the Michelle fiasco. Sigsby and Stackhouse have different priorities but they need more recruiters and kids. Much to Stackhouse's annoyance, Sigsby convinces the leader to put Kate on the recruiting team. Soon, it is time for Luke's first experiment and Tony is absolutely gleeful. Hendricks puts on a superior air as he believes in the righteous mission of the Institute. Onto the test, Luke needs to tell them whenever he sees dots in his vision. He feels sick but after much coercion, is able to move a box and chair. In town, a frantic Annie hounds Mrs. Sloane. Zoe Sloane died in an accident but Annie thinks it was murder. Tim is able to calm her down but he doesn't win any points with Officer Drew who looks down on Annie. Back at the institute, Maureen checks in on Luke as she takes him back to the rec room. But George is in a much worse condition. He is in the 'Dream Box' phase which is the last one before graduating to the Back Half. It pushes a TP to develop TK powers and a TK to develop TP powers. In this test, they need to line up the lights to stop the pain. Tony messes around with Nicky and he has had enough. Nicky and Luke head out on the pretext of playing basketball. They discuss their options and Luke figures their only shot is to turn a staff member to help them escape. He also notices a factory that emits a lot of smoke every week. Meanwhile, Tim and Wendy discuss Zoe's death. The town river has a forbidden area called the Red Steps where the currents are strong. Years ago, a group of kids, including Zoe, got drunk and got swept off. They all showed up dead a few days later. Annie came to town much later and figured it wasn't an accident. Tim is curious about Annie since she knew private things about him but Wendy chalks off her ramblings to preternatural delusions. Is Annie a TP!? We see that George's TK powers have gotten stronger as he is able to move a coin. Luke pushes him to practice moving bigger targets. Most recruits remain in the First Half for 15 days. It isn't enough for them to amplify their powers to hurt the staff. Kalisha wants to turn Maureen who has been kind enough to even tell them the CCTV's blind spots. But Kalisha is not strong enough to mind-read secrets. As they wonder what to do, Luke fills them in that Avery, the latest recruit, is arriving soon. Nicky also teases Kalisha for her kissing precaution and we learn that she just had chicken pox. Later that night, Luke starts timing the night patrols. Before Tim begins his shift, he heads to the gas station. He ends up befriending the owner, Dobira. He then checks on Annie who wants to tell him about the Institute. They are interrupted by gunshots. The two state robbers have arrived with a bang. Tim scares them off by lying that he has a gun. He gets their license plate but Dobira has been shot. When Hendricks turns in for the night, Stackhouse accosts him. As they head to their lodging, we learn that the Institute is not interested in Hendricks' PC track. However, Stackhouse is and he hints that he has some third-party buyers who are interested. They are to keep Sigsby out of it as she is the Institute's man. Stackhouse also knows that Sigsby and Hendricks are hooking up but since she is rude to him, Hendricks has no qualms in lying to her. And the potential candidate for the PC track seems to be Luke. Fortunately or unfortunately, Sigsby overhears them. Elsewhere, Tim thinks on his feet and slows down Dobira's bleeding while Drew is the first one at the scene. He panics and Tim has to walk him through what needs to be done. Once the ambulance arrives, Tim pushes Drew to take the credit. However, the deputy knows that Tim was responsible. At the end of The Institute Episode 2, the First Half kids wake up to a young Avery crying in the hallway. While George takes him to his room, Kalisha learns that Avery is a strong TP. They smile as they realise that he is their ticket to freedom. The Episode Review Book-to-show adaptations can be tricky when the source material is quite sparse. Some are too faithful but are unable to fill the runtime, while others introduce new subplots and flesh out secondary characters. Stephen King's latest adaptation, The Institute, falls in the second category. And with big names like Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Barnes and Julian Richings being cast as the adult characters in a book that primarily focuses on the kids, it is no brainer that the adaptation creates some drama for them to stay busy. But this adult drama is not as clear and entertaining as the main mystery. Hendricks, Stackhouse and Sigsby are involved in some office politics but to retain some suspense, their conflict is too vague. Tim flounders in the dark as he is frustratingly close to unearthing the Institute case but he keeps getting waylaid by townie misdaventures. And amidst this hodgepodge, the main mystery isn't executed well either. Freeman may be playing Luke with a neurodivergent streak but his actions do not line up with what is going around him. Too much screentime is spent on the kids discussing the logistics of their escape plan and half of their progress is conveniently mentioned off-screen like Avery's arrival and Maureen's intel. What's surprising is that the director, Jack Bender, is known for some really great TV shows like Lost and From. So, why does the narrative in The Institute feel so choppy and contrived? Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
How Yorkshire Ripper formed bizarre friendship with Ronnie Kray over haircuts… & why he called dapper gangster a ‘slob'
THE Yorkshire Ripper spent 32 years at Broadmoor – but if it had been down to him it would have been a lot less. Shortly after he arrived at the high security hospital in Berkshire he dreamt up an audacious escape plan, which he tried to pull off with the help of Ronnie Kray. 14 14 Ronnie was doing life for murder after he shot dead George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel in 1966. And just like Sutcliffe, he had been transferred to Broadmoor after a spell in prison when he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The hospital may not have been a prison but there were still bars on Sutcliffe's windows, and during his early years he found himself staring at them as the plan began forming in his mind. If he could acquire a hacksaw blade and spend the night sawing through the bars, then eventually he might be able to make it out into the grounds and scale the perimeter wall. It was an escape plot straight out of a Hollywood movie which had little chance of succeeding in reality, but that didn't put off Sutcliffe - who sought Ronnie's help, even though Broadmoor gossip had it that they didn't get on. People also reckoned that Ronnie had tried to arrange for other inmates to attack Sutcliffe when he was in Parkhurst jail before he was transferred to Broadmoor, which the Ripper dismissed as rubbish. He said: 'I read it in a newspaper, I think it said that Ronnie had put a contract out on me but when I met him I pulled him about it and he totally denied any such thing. 'If it was true he must have been scared to admit it, but I believed him and we got on okay. 'I used to cut his hair and we used to sit and chat. Ronnie couldn't stand his hair being long, he always had to have it short and looking smart. 'He always thought people were talking about him but he trusted me and he trusted me to cut his hair, and we got on alright.' My twin and I were locked up as teens in Broadmoor with Yorkshire Ripper & Krays for choosing to be mute - but I'll never forget sinister encounter with Jimmy Savile 14 14 14 Ronnie had a reputation of being a sharp dresser, appearing in the visiting room in a striking suit with monogrammed handkerchief and cufflinks. But Sutcliffe revealed that it was just for public show and his dress sense on the ward left something to be desired. He said: 'He dressed like a tramp on the ward. Scruffy old jeans and scruffy shirt, not dressed up at all. "He only wore [suits] to show off to impress people, but when he came back on the ward he was a bit of a slob.' Celebrity sightings It was no surprise Ronnie made an effort to look his best for visits, given the list of celebs who went to see him which included Richard Burton, Barbara Windsor and Debbie Harry. Sutcliffe added: 'I seen Roger Daltrey and lots of people come to visit Ron.' The twins have been immortalised in numerous films and television shows over the years, including the 1990 movie The Krays when they were played by the pop star brothers Gary and Martin Kemp, who also visited Broadmoor. Sutcliffe said: 'Them two Kemp brothers came to visit Ronnie and Reggie many times and discussed everything, got to know their personalities so they could portray them as near as possible. 'So Ronnie was happy with that and so was Reggie, they thought they'd done a pretty good job on it. 'He didn't like his mother portrayed as cursing like that. But they were fairly happy with the outcome of the film.' Bid for freedom 14 14 14 Sutcliffe revealed all about his day-to-day life in the secure hospital to Britain's top amateur criminologist, Alfie James. Factory worker Alfie, 49, grew close to him over 16 years when he visited him regularly in Broadmoor and spoke to him every week by phone. He built up a huge library of material from him which he turned into the definitive biography of Sutcliffe, I'm the Yorkshire Ripper, written with Sun reporter Robin Perrie. In the final instalment of our Beast of Broadmoor series to mark 50 years since the Ripper's first known attack, Alfie reveals it was Ronnie Kray who helped him acquire the hacksaw blade which he intended to use to achieve his freedom. Sutcliffe told Alfie: 'It came from a friend of Ronnie Kray's who was a patient in Broadmoor. 'It could have been brought in, as security wasn't that good back then, but inside Broadmoor we had workshops, that's where I think it came from. "I just know Ronnie Kray was involved in getting us the blade.' The blade was snapped in half and a friend of Sutcliffe's, who intended to escape with him, took the other section to get to work on the bars in his own room. The Ripper added: 'I nearly managed to cut through one of the bars in my cell window.' He hid the blade during the day behind a skirting board, but the escape attempt came to an abrupt end when, without warning, he was moved to another room. He said: 'For some reason I was moved to another cell, nothing to do with what I'd been trying to do. 'After a while, that cell was being decorated and it was noticed that the bar on the window had been nearly cut through. "Because it had been a while since I'd done it, it had turned rusty so no connection was made to me.' Real motive 14 14 Alfie also revealed Sutcliffe's own view of the most commonly asked question about the Ripper case – why did he kill? What turned a softly-spoken lorry driver who loved his mum and was devoted to his wife into an evil monster? Detectives, lawyers and doctors all disagreed on what was behind his reign of terror, with many convinced he made up the voices to try and secure an easy life in Broadmoor, rather than a tougher prison regime. But as far as Sutcliffe, who died in 2020 aged 74, was concerned, the answer was simple. He told Alfie: 'I was suffering from an illness which caused hallucinations which were so realistic that I misinterpreted what was happening to me. 'Mental illness can be a deciding factor in a person's actions as they will tend to act out of character. 'I didn't want to do what I did, I was being controlled by my illness, but the tragedy is I didn't think I was ill, I just believed I was caught up in a miracle. So when things happened to thwart the police I simply believed it was divine intervention and thought no more of it. 'It's played down or even ignored by society, they only want to see people as being bad. 'It was only a short, brief period in my life, the events only took a short time, a matter of two or three minutes, and I was gone. 'It took me over 12 years inside before I gained any insight into my illness and even then it was after I'd been put on anti-psychotic injections which at first I strongly opposed. 'The brain is a very complex and fragile thing and no one should sit in judgement unless they are properly qualified in matters relating to mental illness, or if someone in your family has suffered from some such affliction. "Only then can you speak from personal experience.' But he never expressed remorse for his victims and instead spent years whining about how hard done by he was. He moaned that people said of him: ' 'Oh what a bad guy he is and all that' and I'm not, they don't focus on the illness. 'It was a serious mental illness that I had all them years. And I accepted it," he said. "I've come to terms with it, that it wasn't God. And that's the only reason it permitted me to go ahead with it, believing it was a miracle from God, you see. "I don't believe that now. My whole outlook and everything has changed drastically.' I'm The Yorkshire Ripper' by Robin Perrie and Alfie James is published by Mirror Books and is available in paperback and as an ebook. Buy it on Amazon now. 14 14 Who are the UK's worst serial killers? THE UK's most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor. Here's a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK. British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women. After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845. Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain's most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873. Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903. William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies. Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980. Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail. Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it's believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
