In the Pride of His Face

**"In the Pride of His Face"** is the seventh episode of the first season of *Slasher*. It aired on April 8th 2016.

## Synopsis

The police make a discovery in relation to the killings, while Tom Winston takes drastic action.

## Plot

Sarah asks Tom to tell him every detail from the night her parents died. He obliges. Flashback to Halloween all those years ago; the night of Sarah's birth. The Executioner enters Sarah’s parents’ house and stabs her mother’s husband, Bryan, before slicing Alan’s face. Sarah's mom, Rachel, slips and falls in the blood and attempts to crawl away. The Executioner rips off his mask to reveal a young Tom Winston. Rachel pleads with him not to kill their baby, claiming that Bryan threatened to kill her if she ever left him. She tells Tom that she loves him, before he slices open her stomach and stabs her in the throat. Back in the present, Tom says that the only way he could save Sarah from her parents was to murder them. Sarah asks why he couldn’t have just called child protective services before leaving in anger.

Sarah meets with Robin and he consoles her to say that Tom is her father by blood only. He doesn’t have to be more than that. Sarah then goes to meet Dylan, who has set up a nice dinner for them at home. Dylan apologizes for his behavior and spending so much time away. Sarah gives him an ultimatum: Dylan’s career or their marriage, since they can’t seem to make them both work.

Elsewhere, Officer Sharma is investigating an abandoned building. He notices multiple sketches of people being punished and tortured before hearing a noise behind him. It’s just Cam. They stare at the drawings together and notice there are only six sketches on the wall. Pride is still missing. Sharma mentions that this house is where the Vickers family suffocated a few years back. Cam opens a journal on the table. Each page features one of the seven deadly sins, and beneath it, a list of names. The names of the murder victims are all circled in red beneath the sin attributed to them. Cam flips to the back page. Pride is written on top with Tom Winston and Sarah Bennett written beneath it.

At home, Sarah looks up a website dedicated to her parents’ murders and sends a message to the site administrator asking for information. At that very moment, Dylan’s phone pings with a notification. Curious, Sarah sends another message on the website, and Dylan’s phone beeps again. She asks for Dylan’s password and unlocks the phone and sees that the two emails went directly to his inbox. She confronts Dylan and he admits he’s been following the Executioner story for a long time, but that he didn’t fall in love with her because of her connection to the murders. Sarah is disturbed that their relationship has been built upon this foundation of lies, and she pushes Dylan away and screams at him. At that moment, Cam bursts through the front door and announces that the Executioner is coming for her. Sarah sits with Cam in their living room. She asks how she could have been so foolish, but Cam tells her not to be too hard on herself.

Lisa has Dylan on her show that night. She surprises him by mentioning that she knows Tom and Sarah are on the kill list, a fact he kept from her, but Dylan says he can’t comment. Elsewhere, Tom overpowers Officer Sharma and escapes from the ambulance transporting him. Later, Lisa approaches Dylan and says the next time he gets a big scoop, he should share it and then he won’t get ambushed again. Dylan’s still upset with her, but Lisa also lets him know that she got his book deal approved.

Sharma radios Cam at Sarah’s house and lets him know that Tom Winston has escaped. Sarah comes downstairs to find out the news when Tom himself appears with a gun. Tom disarms Cam and tells Sarah to come with him so he can protect her. She tells Cam that Tom is her father and that she trusts him. Tom handcuffs Cam to the radiator before taking Sarah and leaving. Tom and Sarah set up camp in the woods. Sarah says this is crazy, but Tom tells her he’d rather die than lose her. Back at the house, Sharma arrives and unlocks Cam.

Lisa and Dylan are two sheets to the wind and revealing their dirty laundry to each other when the restaurant begins to close up. Lisa stumbles into Dylan’s arms and they share a kiss. She tells him that Sarah’s dragging him down, when Dylan gets a phone call from Cam telling him to meet at the police station. Sarah and Tom are back at their camp sharing what actually would be a sweet father-daughter moment if Tom weren’t a murderer. Sarah asks again why Tom killed Bryan and Rachel, but he won’t budge. At that moment, Tom begins to convulse and Sarah says she needs to get him help. Back at the station, Dylan is pissed at Cam for losing Sarah. Sharma runs in to reveal they found Sarah’s location based on her cell phone, and they send a team out to find her.

Sarah’s walking back through the woods when she sees a police car passing by. She yells out for help when the Executioner grabs her from behind. Later, Tom wakes up next to Sarah. They’re both tied up. The Executioner stands nearby with a buzzsaw. The punishment for pride: being broken on a wheel. Tom asks what Sarah could have done to deserve this and she reveals she tried to attempt suicide. Tom tries to reason with the Executioner, but he grabs Sarah anyway. He offers himself up instead, claiming he’s the one who deserves to die. Flashback to 1988. Tom is preaching to his congregation when Rachel walks in. She wants to help clean up the town of its sins, and Tom is struck by her beauty. Sometime later, they’ve begun sleeping together. Tom feels guilty having slept with a married woman, but Rachel says it’s okay. Tom admits that he’s in love with Rachel and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. She asks Rachel to leave Bryan, but she says she can’t. Then Bryan walks out from the other room, freaking Tom out. Bryan reveals that he’s been recording them having sex and that Tom’s a natural. Alan Henry distributes the videos for them. Bryan tells Tom that they’ll keep it between the three of them, and he asks if Tom’s really in love with Rachel. He is. Tom is angry and heartbroken and he formulates his plan to murder Rachel and Bryan.

Back in the present, Tom admits that his ego and pride were what caused him to murder Rachel and Bryan, not a higher purpose. Tom tells the Executioner he doesn’t have to do this. The Executioner flips on the buzzsaw anyway. Tom attacks the Executioner, but is thrown back. He asks the Executioner to kill him so he can die for Sarah. The Executioner pulls Sarah away from the buzzsaw and unties her. She tells Tom he doesn’t have to sacrifice himself, but he won’t hear it. He tells Sarah he loves her, and makes the Executioner promise not to hurt her. The Executioner flips the switch and Tom throws himself onto the saw.

Sarah is brought to the hospital where Dylan is waiting, but she tells him to stay away. She leaves the next morning, and she sees the Executioner standing in the middle of a park. She walks up to him and rips off his mask to discover it’s only a mannequin. There’s an envelope with her name on it. Inside is another biblical passage, but Sarah’s not having it.

Cam arrives at home, where Alan greets him. Alan tells him the town has finally been cleansed. Cam enters his bedroom and opens the closet, pulling out a small box. Inside of the box are an ear, a tooth, a badge and other murder mementos. Cam pulls out a piece of bloody cloth: a piece of Tom’s prison uniform. He places it into the box and smiles.

## Trivia

* Sarah mentions going to Camp Montega, the location of Season 2.

## References

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher\_(TV\_series)
* http://horror.wikia.com/wiki/List\_of\_deaths\_in\_Slasher\_(Netflix\_series)
* http://www.chillertv.com/shows/slasher/episodes/1/pride-his-face-3/recap
* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4667888/episodes?season=1&ref\_=tt\_eps\_sn\_1