Ill-Gotten Gains

**"Ill-Gotten Gains"** is the fifth episode of the first season of *Slasher*. It aired on March 15th 2016.

## Synopsis

In the wake of the latest murder, Sarah shifts her attention to another potential suspect, while Dylan and Alison go to extreme lengths for the sake of their news coverage.

## Plot

A female couple walks together in a field. They start to get a little frisky when their dog starts barking. They follow the sounds into the field where they discover what he found. June’s half-eaten dead body, now filled with maggots and other vermin. Dylan and Sarah arrive at Cam’s house, which has turned into a search headquarters. They speak with Alan, who reassures Sarah that Cam didn’t mean the hurtful things he said last night. Vaughn arrives and asks to speak to Cam outside. He reveals that they found June’s body.

At the morgue, the pathologist reveals that June was administered a paralytic and died of respiratory failure. Cam asks to see the body, despite Alan’s protests. Sarah and Robin watch Lisa Ann Follows’ report on the Waterbury murders. Dylan speaks with confidence about the murders, while Alison freezes up. Robin says Dylan’s a natural, though Sarah doesn’t seem super thrilled about that.

At the prison, Tom asks Alan if he was able to get the item for him. Alan hands him an envelope, replying that it changes nothing. Tom opens the envelope and appears displeased, before asking to go back to his cell. Sarah and Robin discuss whether Alan might have any motives for the murders. They decide to investigate the church for clues. They sneak in, and while in a back office, Sarah discovers a bag with a hammer and nails.

Dylan returns to the Bulletin office, where Alison resents him for doing so well in the interview while she bombed. He discovers that Alison is trying to hack into June’s text messages. Dylan says this is incredibly illegal, but Alison says it might get them the details on June and Trent’s relationship. Dylan relents and they get to work.

Sarah visits Cam and asks how well his father knows Tom Winston. She suggests that Tom is having someone commit his murders for him. She reveals that they found a murder kit in Alan’s office. Cam gets defensive and suggests Dylan might be the killer, since the murders only started once he arrived, to which Sarah responds that maybe Cam’s the killer since June was cheating on him all this time. All that is certain is that Alan and Dylan both seem to have secrets they’re not telling anybody. Alan arrives at Sarah’s gallery and tells a moderately threatening story involving a plucked chicken and rumors. Alan says he knows what Sarah told Cam, and that she should be careful.

Lisa is at the Bulletin office reading some of Trent and June’s text messages from the newspaper. She asks how Alison and Dylan possibly got those messages, but Alison says they can’t reveal their source. Lisa says the texts will be the top story on the show tonight and that Dylan should be there to report. Sarah arrives and confronts Dylan about revealing the text messages and how they’ll affect Cam. She storms out in anger. That night, Cam, Sarah and the rest of the town watch Lisa read June’s hurtful text messages. While on air, Alison makes a plea to the Executioner for an interview to reveal his/her motives and why he/she is killing. Lisa and Dylan are shocked by her bravado. Alison walks out to her car, and a voice calls out her name. She keeps walking and discovers an envelope on her car with a time and place to meet the Executioner.

At the Foundry, Alison sets up her cameras and chairs for her interview with the Executioner. While she checks to make sure her taser has batteries, the Executioner appears right on time. Alison asks how she knows he/she is telling the truth, and the Executioner reveals the paralytic found in June’s body as proof. The Executioner says that while everyone is a sinner, he/she only murders those who deserve to die. Alison asks how he/she can kill knowing that God commands “Thou shall not kill.” He/she replies that God only says not to kill the innocent, and his victims are not innocent. The Executioner tells Alison that they have much in common, and that Alison’s paper is just as much of a judge and jury as he/she is. The Executioner asks if Alison has any sins that weigh heavily on her conscience, and she says she does not. The Executioner stares at her a moment before leaving and Alison exhales in relief knowing she’s got the story. Alison shows the footage to Dylan and Lisa. They’re impressed. Lisa wants to build an entire special around the interview and fly Alison out to New York for a taping. Dylan asks if they should send the footage to the police, but Lisa says they can watch the footage on TV like everyone else.

Sarah goes to meet with Ronald. As he’s the mayor of the town, she asks if he can pull a favor with the police department and get her copies of the sex tapes that her parents made. He says he doesn’t think he can help, but then Sarah threatens to reveal his affair with her grandmother to the Bulletin.

Alison, Lisa and Dylan meet at the bar, and for once Lisa is way more interested in Alison than Dylan. Alison asks Lisa how she can translate the success of the story into something bigger. Lisa replies you can’t have morals to be successful in this business, and Alison reveals the depths of how far she’ll go to keep a story alive. Alison recalls that she fabricated evidence in the case of Ariel Peterson’s disappearance, placing suspicion on Bennie Peterson, who seemed to be the most likely suspect. Bennie eventually committed suicide. Alison expresses her feelings that she may have been wrong about Bennie, but Lisa asks if she would have done anything differently. Alison says that story kept her paper alive, so of course not. What neither Lisa or Alison realizes is that Dylan is listening in on every word.

Sarah is drawing a sketch of Robin at the gallery, when they notice Alan loading up his murder kit into his car across the street. They hop in the car and drive after him. They follow him down an alleyway into a dark building. They hear yelling and burst through a door where they discover Alan being nailed to a cross by a woman wearing leather.

The next day, Alison is picked by a car for her trip to New York. Alison wakes up in the Foundry with the Executioner standing over her. He approaches her with his knife. She begs and pleads for her life, saying that she admits to being a sinner, but he/she takes the knife and slashes her throat. Later, at a nearby burger place, a young man bites into a chicken nugget to discover that there's an an ear inside.  Officer Vaughn arrives just as an officer discovers Alison’s head in the deep fryer. Dylan arrives and questions Vaughn about who they found. He says Alison never made it to New York, and the biblical punishment for greed is burning in hot oil.

Sarah opens her door to a delivery from a police officer. It’s the digital files of the tapes. She proceeds to watch dozens of videos of her mother having sex with a variety of different men. After a few hours, she notices that one of the men in the videos looks like a young Tom Winston.

Vaughn drives home and goes downstairs to his basement. He opens a locked door where a young woman is singing inside to a boy. She stops when Vaughn walks in, to which he says, “Don’t stop singing, Ariel.” She continues to sing her song as Vaughn looks on with a smile.

## 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/ill-gotten-gains-3/recap
* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4667888/episodes?season=1&ref\_=tt\_eps\_sn\_1